After Auburn football won its season opener 41-7 over Georgia Southern on Saturday, most of the postgame talk centered around the team’s performance and its upcoming matchup with defending champion Clemson.
But quarterback Jarrett Stidham used a portion of his postgame press conference to remind everyone that there is more to life than just football.
“It’s cool that we won and everything. It’s cool that we ran the ball great, defense played their butts off. But I do want to say that my heart is going out to the people of Texas right now,” Stidham said. “I’ve had to kind of deal with some stuff all week with that, with some family and friends down in that area. So I want to say that just publicly that we’re praying for the people down there.”
Stidham said that the devastation hit home for him and some of his teammates, most notably Texas natives Darius James, Kam Martin, and Spencer Nigh.
“I have people directly affected from it. I know here in Auburn, Alabama it’s hard to kind of understand what’s really happening back there, back home,” Stidham said. “So our thoughts and prayers are with everybody in Texas and Louisiana. Anything will help those people get better. So that’s where a big part of my heart has been all week.”
While he said he wishes he could do more to help, he and his teammates are doing everything they can.
“Yeah, I have some family and friends that actually haven’t been to their homes since I believe Monday. There’s been a lot of flooding and everything,” Stidham said. “Like I said our thoughts and prayers are with everyone out there. I wish I could go and do something to help physically, but I can’t. So as a team we’ve been praying about it every day this week and it’s been heavy on our hearts.”
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