Ohio State players bond over football and faith

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — There is always talk about a jump from freshman to sophomore year for college football players.

At Ohio State, second-year wide receiver Carnell Tate will tell you he’s already felt that jump – off the field.

“After everything with my situation that happened back home and my stuff like that I had to look to something deeper than what was going on so that’s when I looked to my faith,” he explained.

In July 2023, about a month before Tate’s first college football game with the Buckeyes, his mother died in a shooting in Chicago. As a freshman, Tate leaned on his teammates at Ohio State for support and through them he found faith.

“It’s helped me a lot,” he said. “It’s been my backbone now. When something’s not going right I look to my faith to help guide me through my day.”

It’s something that senior Gee Scott Jr. says is guiding this team daily as well.

“Being able to share our vulnerability and our faith has been you know very strong in making us closer,” Scott Jr. said. “To be able to share insecurities or things that you wouldn’t even think to share just to a football guy, I think that’s continued to bring us closer as well.”

Like Tate, Scott Jr. did not arrive at Ohio State with a strong faith background.

“I’ve heard Jesus and God my whole life, but I’ve always, I called it a third-party relationship. I’ve known who He is through what everyone else has to say about Him,” Scott Jr. explained.

In 2021, his sophomore year, Scott Jr. said everything changed.

“I lost my mother in 2021. I lost my aunt at the same time, and then me and my dad lost a relationship — this was all in the same couple of months,” Scott Jr. said. “I got to a point where I was so broken and lost … and football — I had just switched to tight end so I’m on like the bottom of the depth chart — and life is just at its bottom.”

Scott Jr. said he tried to be like other college kids: go out, be social, even tried alcohol for the first time. But he said he would come home, look in the mirror and not like what he saw looking back at him.

“It just led me on this quest to find happiness. I wasn’t doing it consciously, it was subconsciously,” he said.

That’s when he decided to pick up his bible and start simply reading a verse a day.

“I started to receive this peace and joy that surpasses words,” Scott Jr. said.

Now, Scott Jr. and his teammates are using their words to share their message. It started during fall camp by wearing t-shirts that had two words on them: “Jesus Won.”

“We just thought it would be a great idea to represent our faith and show where our foundation lies,” Scott Jr. said.

Then, it expanded to the student body. Former Ohio State football team captain Kamryn Babb, who had been one of the team leaders in faith while a Buckeye, helped organize a prayer event the first weekend students returned to campus. It ended up bringing together thousands to the Oval who share a common ground: a love of faith and football.

“You just see they’re no different than the students walking around on campus they just happen to have a skillset of playing football,” Babb said of the Buckeye football players who led the group by sharing their faith journeys and reading scripture. “Those guys are just like them. Just trying to figure out life but in going through life they have truly found Jesus. It was so beautiful to see the unity of God’s people coming together.”

Tate’s football career is already coming together. One game into the 2024 season he’s already caught a touchdown, so he’s on his way to making that sophomore step forward.

He says a big reason why is how he’s taken a step in his faith. This summer, he got baptized.

“It symbolizes my journey of faith and it meant a lot to have my teammate Gee do it,” he said. “We just push everyone to believe in something. We don’t care what it is or who it is or stuff like that, we just encourage people to believe in something.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.