MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Master Teague III had just rushed for 163 yards and two touchdowns, but the teenager who added another episode to his already-impressive highlight tape wasn’t in the mood for celebrating.

He saw a moment that was bigger than him, bigger than football.

So Teague sought out his teammate, linebacker Dontavious Claybrooks, who had just had a baby with a high school classmate.

“Are you thinking abut marrying her?” Teague asked on the field.

“I don’t know right now, we’re young,” Claybrooks responded.

“I know it’s pretty tough and people make mistakes, but I just want you to know I’m praying for you,” Teague said.

Meet one of Ohio State’s future running backs. Teague, a four-star recruit of Murfreesboro (Tennessee) Blackman, is committed in Urban Meyer’s 2018 recruiting class and he’s enrolling early in January.

You’d think a player in Teague’s position would want to dance around with his teammates, maybe check Twitter for all the attention he was getting, then hit the team bus for a joyous ride home from Rhea County. Not Teague, a devout nondenominational Christian who views his spirituality and connection with God as his reason for being on Earth, not for touchdowns or to get famous — or rich — from playing football.

He took a moment, even as he was still soaked in sweat and wearing his shoulder pads, to go up to a teammate and remind him that he’s praying for him.

“And when Master says he’s praying for you, he’s not like everyone else who says they’re going to pray for you,” Blackman coach David Watson said. “He’s actually going to go and pray for you.”

Teague had no idea that anyone was ever going to hear about his conversation with Claybrooks. When asked about it, he was confused by how it ever got repeated, taken back by the impact those words could have, even in a minute-long conversation.

Claybrooks’ mom had cried on the field.

“Really?” Teague asked, unaware. “Wow.”

Teague is still learning the weight of his words are heavier than they used to be. Not only is he a friend to people, but now he’s the future Ohio State running back who could be standing on the NFL Draft stage in four years. When he says something to people, it lands. They listen. They feel it.

“When my girlfriend was pregnant, not a lot of people were there for me, and they were bringing me down and all that. So when he told me when he was going to keep me and everyone in my family in his prayers, that made me feel like someone was there,” Claybrooks said. “He doesn’t understand the impact he can have on people. He’s a good leader and shows people how to do the right thing and that leads them in the right direction.”

That’s why Ohio State was such a valuable place to Teague. It’s a national college football program where he can pursue his football career to the full extent, but it’s also a major brand for him to use his talents to lead by example. Ohio State is a place where his faith could potentially have a positive impact on others.

That’s a major draw for a kid who wears a cross around his neck, carries a Bible in his backpack and goes to a high school where there’s a coffee mug that reads “Jesus Is Lord” next to the dusty desktop computer used to watch game film.

This isn’t a story about how Master Teague is a Christian. It’s a look into how Urban Meyer recruited a religious player, the resources Ohio State offered Teague to ensure he felt faith would still be a priority in his life and how coaches and players view spirituality in the locker room.

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Ohio State recruit Master Teague III will enroll at Ohio State in January. (Photo courtesy Master Teague)

Six years ago, Tony Alford was an assistant at Notre Dame driving down U.S. 41 in Sarasota, Fla, telling his son goodnight on the phone when he noticed the cars in front of him stopping. Alford looked closer and saw an 8-year-old girl on the ground who had just been hit by a car. Alford slammed on his brakes just short of an exit, jumped out of his car and scooped Edith Pacheco into his arms.

Alford gave her CPR until she coughed, which gave him hope that she would live. But soon after, she stopped breathing.

She died in his arms.

He handed her over to the paramedics, who made a final attempt to revive her. He was the first responder.

A few years later, Alford lost his perfectly healthy brother, Aaron, who died suddenly at 39 from a blood clot in his lungs. Years removed from the tragedies, Alford’s pupils still swell while discussing them.

Getting that close to death changes a man.

Alford, now the running backs coach at Ohio State, has a naturally warm spirit. Spend 10 minutes with him talking about topics that don’t relate to football and you already feel like you’ve known him for years. So it’s no wonder that when he was recruiting Teague, he drew close to the running back and his parents, who both happen to be psychologists. Alford discussed both of those tragedies with Teague’s father, Corey, who teaches psychology at Middle Tennessee State.

“That’s pretty personal,” Corey said. “They preach family, family, family at Ohio State, and not that they have to share personal things, but we share things with him. It’s all about trust. It’s good. It’s everything.”

Recruiting is about relationships. You hear that a lot. How about that for a relationship? You can’t fake that, which is why even after earning a commitment from Teague, Alford was on the phone Wednesday morning wishing the family luck before Teague’s ankle surgery that could keep him out the rest of his high school season.

Alford isn’t an outwardly religious man himself, but he’s spiritual and feels a higher being. When he first started recruiting Teague, he discovered early that this recruitment was going to take a different path. When Teague visited Ohio State in the spring, Alford invited him back to the offices at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and asked him if he wanted to play in the NFL or win a Heisman Trophy. Teague deadpanned, “Whatever is in God’s plan will be.”

Make a few phone calls about Teague and the first thing everyone mentions is his spirituality, so Alford learned that quickly. You can’t possibly recruit a kid like Teague, who comes from a spiritual family like his, and not address his biggest need: An outlet to continue his faith in college.

Recruiting is all about sales. You get to know families intimately, you build real relationships and you pitch what your program offers to best suit an athlete’s needs. You make the parents feel like they can trust you to further develop their child as if you’re an extension of their family. Alford did that with Teague.

Alford is more familiar with how to do that than anyone. His brother, Aaron, a former assistant coach at Utah, left behind three sons and Alford has become like a surrogate father to them. Alford has spent countless hours on the phone this week with his nephew, Elijah, who is a freshman on Air Force’s prep football team. Alford has three sons of his own, so counting his nephews makes it six total.

Teague’s recruitment wasn’t about football for Alford.

It was about family.

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Master Teague with his mother, Emily, left, and father Corey, right. (Photo courtesy of Master Teague)

The separation of church and Ohio State.

‌‌‌This exists at the college level, and it’s extremely delicate. Ohio State is a public university, and it welcomes everyone from every faith, so don’t take this as Meyer or Alford using religion to sway a prospect to come play for them. That’s not it at all. Ohio State simply offers optional outlets for religious players like Teague, and the coaches would be negligent not to make that a prevalent part of his recruitment.

“That’s a very important part of my life, and I’m very proud to share that with our players,” Meyer said of his spirituality. “Certainly there’s no obligation or mandate for any of that. But we certainly make it user-friendly around here. … Our players, look at their schedules. We want everything to be user-friendly, whether it be nutrition, whether it be Real Life Wednesdays and also in your spiritual life. We have everything available to them. And I’m proud to say we have multi-religious players, denominational people in our program.”

Teague found out his views aligned with the Ohio State coaches in another way, a non-spiritual way through his tumultuous recruitment. He could have bailed on Ohio State given the circumstances. Some would have.

Teague took an unofficial visit to Ohio State last season for the Northwestern game with his teammate, four-star receiver Trey Knox. At that game, Ohio State offered Knox a scholarship, and Teague went home without one. That was an ego blow, even if it was because Ohio State offers and takes more receivers than running backs.

“He was happy for me,” Knox said, “but you could tell it made him work harder to get his.”

When Meyer and Alford got deeply involved, the Buckeyes already had commitments from four-star running back Brian Snead of Seffner (Florida) Armwood and Jaelen Gill of Westerville (Ohio) South. Ohio State was also heavily involved with five-star running back Zamir White of Laurinburg (N.C.) Scotland County, who is widely regarded as the top running back recruit in the country. White had an offer, Teague still didn’t. And though Alford was building his relationship with Teague and his parents, there was an overwhelming fact that couldn’t be ignored by either side: Ohio State wanted White more. Alford bluntly said that to the them.

That could have been the end of Teague’s Ohio State recruitment. He had offers from many other major programs and interest coming in from Clemson, Alabama and others. He could have jumped and ended up at Georgia or somewhere else in the South. Instead, Teague waited.

Here’s why Ohio State hesitated initially: When Teague sits across from you at a table, he’s a quiet, shy kid who only makes eye contact sparingly. The only way you can tell he’s a football player are from his biceps bulging out of his Blackman Football T-shirt. Ohio State had seen him run through drills, witnessed his speed and approved of his still-growing body.

“But they wanted to see if he could flip the switch on the field,” Blackman assistant Kit Hartsfield said. “They wanted to see him run the ball with the will to rip someone’s face off.”

So Alford went down in the spring, watched Teague in full pads and was convinced. He told Meyer for weeks to offer the running back a scholarship, but Meyer wanted to see him in person. Teague came up to a summer instructional camp in June to work out for the coaching staff and finally prove he was an Ohio State player. Ironically, Alford, who had been leading the campaign to offer him, was out of town at a graduation and missed the camp.

It didn’t matter. Meyer saw what he needed to see, offered him a scholarship before White made his decision and Teague silently committed on the spot. Three days later, it was public. Master Teague was a Buckeye. Zamir White committed to Georgia.

“But throughout the entire time, Ohio State was completely up front with him and honest,” Hartsfield said. “They said some tough things that would be hard for any kid to hear, but he appreciated the honesty and that’s why he stuck through the recruitment. And in the end, Ohio State proved it wanted him just as bad, if not more, than Zamir White. It all came together just like the coaches said it would.”

Meyer didn’t quote Bible verses. Alford didn’t talk about Jesus Christ. They showed it through their actions.

“The way they handled my recruitment, that’s how I knew our views were aligned and how I felt the most comfortable,” Teague said. “That’s all I needed to see. They were honest. They are good men.”

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One of the multiple sanctuaries can be seen inside the World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Ari Wasserman/The Athletic)

Teague and his family have been members of the World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro since before he was in middle school, and the place is larger than the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. It has a congregation that’s growing and the building undergoes seemingly never-ending expansion to meet their needs.

Depending on his schedule, Teague goes to services or small group meetings with other youths there multiple times a week. He’s a star football player who everyone in Columbus is awaiting, but when he’s there, he’s just the small boy who has undergone a body transformation that can only be compared to the physical structure of the church.

“Master is not simply someone who has simply connected to church, but he’s someone who has been raised with a respect and a value for God,” said Timothy Posh, Teague’s youth pastor at World Outreach. “Football is his gift. Ohio State is going to be a platform for his character and his integrity to shine. That’s a place where the things that are innate within him, the things that make him who he is, are going to shine. He’ll have an impact on that locker room and the people who he runs with and through.”

Going to Ohio State may be a culture shock. It’s not the small, Christian town outside of Nashville in which he grew up.

Columbus is a booming metropolis with more than 850,000 residents, many of whom worship the football team. To them, football is God.

So in order for him to feel like he’s at home, Ohio State had to show him that the regular fixtures of his current life — church, small group, spiritual discussions — will continue in a different place far from home. Teague needed an environment that offered an optional spiritual outlet.

Ohio State has multiple. The program offers a weekly reflection, which takes place on Friday nights before games and Sundays in the Woody Hayes Center, when speakers are invited in to discuss spiritual and motivational topics. Roy Hall, a former Ohio State wide receiver who found and dedicated his life to God while on the team in the mid-2000s, is often the speaker. As many as 90 players and coaches, including Meyer, participate.

There is also Athletes In Action, an on-campus ministry that “help sports-minded people think and live biblically at the intersection of sport and Christianity.” There are religious discussions, missionary trips and other spiritual activities for which student athletes can be involved.

When Teague was on campus, he met with representatives from Athletes In Action and was made aware of the reflection times. All of these things are optional, of course, but they’re tools outside of football that can keep Teague and other religious athletes spiritually engaged.

“We aren’t used for recruiting or dangling fruit, but we are a resource for those who want it,” Hall said. “If we have a Friday or Sunday reflection time, which is 1,000 percent optional, and a recruit is there, they can partake in everything the team does and they can choose to go into the room during reflection moments, they can be exposed to what we do and how we do it. It really gives the guys an opportunity to step away from football, reflect on life, what living is really about and to put football in perspective.”

The Block “O” Of Life mural that’s inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. (Ari Wasserman/The Athletic)

When Jim Tressel was the head coach from 2001-11, spirituality seemed to be a more openly discussed topic, at least on the surface. Inside the Woody Hayes Center, there is a mural called the Block “O” Of Life, and the six points are competitive excellence, power of the unit, community outreach, career, academics and family. One of those points used to be spirituality.

Maybe that was removed because compliance is cautious about breaching the church and state boundary, but Tressel used to hand out a worksheet to all of his freshmen players that had career goals, athletic goals and spiritual goals. That didn’t mean Christianity specifically, but was used as an outlet to open to door for players to think in a more spiritual sense. Freshmen filled it out, then reviewed the sheet with Tressel when they were juniors.

Meyer seems like he’s all about business and football, at least from what you see on TV. But inside the walls of that building, optional spirituality has become an essence of this program for a good portion of the players.

“It may be a little bit more prevalent now than it was when Coach Tressel was there to be honest with you,” said Hall, an NFL veteran who co-founded The Driven Foundation with fellow former Buckeye Antonio Smith. “Guys talk about it more now. I think the players do a better job at really taking an opportunity to really exercise and speak on their faith and attend these reflections times. It’s optional, but so many of them make it a priority to attend.”

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Urban Meyer has coached an outwardly spiritual player before and you might have heard of him: Tim Tebow. (Dave Martin/Associated Press)

Sept. 27, 2008, “The Promise” was made.

After Meyer’s Florida team lost to Mississippi, Tim Tebow climbed onto a media podium holding back tears and promised the world no player will ever work harder or play harder for the rest of the season, ending his promise with “God Bless.” Florida went on to win the national title, and that speech is now on a plaque outside of the football facility at Florida Field.

“When Tim Tebow gave that speech after Ole Miss, I remember I didn’t hear it until I was driving home,” Meyer said Monday. “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, here’s a young man who is going to put his heart on the floor.’ And we’re in a society, really it’s always been that way, people are going to look at that and try and step on it.”

Meyer refers to Tebow as one of the greatest players and the most gifted leader he’s ever been around, but Tebow was also outwardly spiritual. He had Bible verses on his eye black, he kneeled down and thanked God every time he scored and he became the product of public ridicule for admitting he was a virgin well into his adult life despite the fact he did it for spiritual reasons.

Perhaps some of you are concerned. Ohio State has a diverse locker room. There are white kids, African-American kids, rich kids, poor kids and everyone in between in that locker room and not everyone might want to sit down and listen to what Teague has to say about Jesus Christ.

“Listen,” Corey said. “He’s not going to Ohio State to start a revolution or be a sidewalk preacher.”

Teague wholeheartedly believes that Ohio State is a place that will give him a platform for his religion, that football is merely a tool for him to shine and give the glory back to God. But he understands there are times for his religious conversation and times when it might not be as appropriate.

“I’m not going to be throwing bible verses in people’s faces,” he said.

Teague’s plan is more about action. He said he hopes he can lead in Ohio State’s locker room by example, that people will know he’s religious because that’s part of who he is, but that his actions will be the reason some might want to follow down the spiritual path. Just like there are no obligations for players to participate in Ohio State’s spiritual outlets, Teague isn’t going to shove his beliefs down other people’s throats.

Meyer dealt with perhaps the most famous college football player in the history of the game in Tebow, who also outwardly and openly discussed his faith. Meyer doesn’t concern himself with locker-room dynamics.

“The big ‘R’ word here is the keyword here: Respect,” Meyer said. “Respect and make it available to them.”

Teague’s commitment isn’t anything particularly new at Ohio State.

James Laurinaitis, a former Butkus Award winner at Ohio State in 2007 and seven-year NFL veteran who is now a personality on the Big Ten Network, was also religious in college. He shared a spiritual connection with Tressel, went to Bible study with friends like Malcolm Jenkins and he, like Teague, strived to lead with his actions. There were never any issues with locker-room chemistry as a result of Laurinaitis’ faith.

“The beautiful thing about football is that it’s a glimpse of what society is going to be like because you have people from all backgrounds and you’re all there for one cause,” Laurinaitis said. “You respectfully disagree, whether it be religion or politics, but you still love each other. I never felt the need to go in there and convert anyone. You just go in there and love your brothers you go to battle with.

“This kid is going to have the opportunity to be who he is and so is everyone else in the locker room, and that’s the beauty of Ohio State. He’ll face people who will be interested in the locker room and some people don’t want to hear it, but the beautiful thing is that Coach allows both to be there. That’s a good thing.”

Top photo credit: Courtesy of Kit Hartsfield