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It's awesome, because kids have come up to me or texted
me that they do notice something different about me,
whether it's just how I'm always smiling, always happy.
Even coaches have wondered, what's unique about you?
And when you get asked that, or what is it, it can be a
little intimidating at first. And all these things that have
been happening in my circumstance with the
University of Southern California, with our
sanctions, not being able to play at a bowl game, our head
coach leaving, and all these things that have happened,
people have wondered, why haven't you freaked out?
Why haven't you left?
Why haven't you transferred?
But as much as football defines me by this world, it
doesn't define who I am as a person.
I love playing football, but I'm definitely not the best
athlete on the field.
Since I was little, I had a John Elway
poster up in my room.
I always wanted to play quarterback.
I think God gives talents differently
to different people.
And He'll use those talents in different ways.
God has really given me a mind to
comprehend different things.
And it has helped me on the football field of setting
angles, seeing the ways that plays develop, seeing
defenders move in a certain manner, where I know where
they're going to be.
But it's 11 men, every snap doing the exact right thing to
make a play work.
I know I'm not in control.
God's working a huge plan right here.
And I think if you stay true to yourself, and you work
hard, and put that work in, then it's going to pay off.
I have definitely seen the power of prayer in my life in
a lot of areas.
In our crazy life in this society, when there are so
many things going on, so many different areas that could
pull you to different things, just finding peace and quiet
to be able to talk to God is something I found that can be
very rewarding.
And it's just like any relationship that you have
with a friend.
If you want to get to know them, if you want to grow
closer to them, you have to spend time with them.
And I think by getting closer to Christ, you just have to
talk to Him.
And that's through prayer.
Being a Christian at my school is special, because there
aren't too many.
USC has the most international students of any
school in the world.
And so there's people from every walk of life that you
could imagine from all over the world.
And it has been neat to see, over the last couple years
since I've been there, a movement of college students
grow to love God, and to follow Him more closely.
And we know that God is in control.
I absolutely think God has placed me where I am and made
me the person who I am to be in the position where I am.
And the platform that I have as the USC starting
quarterback is something that I've always dreamed about
playing, playing football and being that guy.
But only recently have I realized the
power of that position.
And to see the USC quarterbacks of the past, and
how they've grown up, and the influence that
they have had on people.
And now that I'm in that same position, how could I use that
for God's kingdom?
I think leaving my mark at USC, not only as a football
player, but as a man of God who brought USC through
troubled times and relied on God and trusted in Him to make
things happen, I think, will be better than any game we
could ever win.
My name is Matt Barkley.
And I am second.