They’ll be playing highlights from last night’s Sugar Bowl game for years to come. Long runs, completed passes, circus throws, and impressive catches. The whole game became an instant classic, even before its mind-boggling conclusion.

Georgia dominated the first half, taking a 14-0 lead into the locker room for the mid-game break. Then, Ole Miss stormed back to take the lead with a 17-0 run.

A key possession during that run witnessed Ole Miss’s quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, seemingly transform on the field, triggering Ole Miss to seize momentum and make a decisive drive. Chambliss, a 6’-1” transfer from D-II Ferris State, had been functional but not impressive prior to that point. On this particular drive, he made three consecutive Mahomes-esque plays that led to a Rebels touchdown.

The first saw him nearly tackled but at the last second making a backarm, sideways flip that was caught for a first down. It looked like absolute desperation redeemed solely by the fact that there was a receiver in just the right spot who saw the play coming. Next was a long sweeping backwards run that had Chambliss scrambling from near the thirty-yard line to less than a step from his own end zone but then sprinting forward and finally finding an open receiver for another first down. The spunky transfer then pulled off one more dazzling play to complete the trifecta.

On this one, he scrambled out to his right with a few Bulldogs intent on ending Chambliss’s rally, if not his future in football. Just before the nearest one tore into him, the QB saw a receiver come open behind his defender. Still running, Chambliss launched a perfect arc that brought the ball down just above the cornerback’s outstretched hand and right into the hands of his receiver. A net of around twenty or twenty-five yards. The touchdown came soon after. From then on, Chambliss seemed a changed man. No more tentative play, no more holding back. All in and all out for the rest of the game.

I don’t know what took place in that young man’s mind. Maybe it was just a change in my perception. But I do know this: when someone reaches a point of absolute commitment and determination, they become a different person. Whether by faith, conviction, or sheer frustration, it’s a truly wonderful transformation. It’s not a matter of eliminating all fear; it’s a matter of deciding to no longer be controlled by fear.

It may not change the outcome of the game, the battle, the fight, the pursuit, the race, the confrontation. But it changes that person. Whether it’s fear of losing, fear of being rejected, fear of being hurt, fear of being ridiculed, fear of being seen, fear of being invisible, or fear of any or all of a thousand other things, it doesn’t matter. It’s the change that makes an abused woman pack up her children and walk out of the house, an intimidated middle schooler suddenly make a stand by the lockers, a terrified peasant grab a pitchfork and face the wolves. Or a frustrated middle-aged drudge change careers.

It doesn’t always change the big picture or the overall outcome but it never fails to change personal history. Even if only for one ball game.