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SALT LAKE CITY — Savon Scarver spent the offseason traveling to award ceremony after award ceremony for his performance with the Utah State Aggies last year as a kick returner.
He received the Johnny “The Jet” award, Walter Camp First-Team All-American accolades and just about every other All-American honor possible. To any other college football player, those could easily be career-defining things. But for Scarver, the defining moments came earlier in his college career.
He was a freshman gearing up for the preseason scrimmage game, excited to show his team, coaches and community what he brought to the field. But a hamstring injury stopped him in his tracks and kept him off the field and the training room.
“As soon as that happened to my hamstring, I automatically got down on myself like, 'dang, I’m not going to get the chance to show myself in my very first college scrimmage and show the coaches I can play,'" he said.
On top of working through the injury with trainers, Scarver said praying was the only thing he knew to do to help the situation.
“Praying about it ... made my situation better because it helped me to not worry as much about what I could not control,” he said. “Praying to God took my mind off of that and it made me realize that I just had to control what I could control.
Scarver said that about three days later his hamstring "felt good" and by Saturday he was able to play in the team's scrimmage. "I’ve got a lot of faith in Him because of that,” he said.
That healing isn’t the only thing he attributes to God.
For Scarver, it’s really simple: “God is my everything; I put God first before everything. As long as I’m close with God and I’ve got my mind right, it fuels me to keep doing the right thing every day — you know, getting up and trusting in God that He’ll lead me on the right path,” he said.
Those awards he’s received are motivation for him to keep working hard and improving going into this season. But as far as defining moments go, his faith in God is what he always goes back to.
“I believe God has played a big role in everything because when I was in a dark place, I used God as my Savior to get my mind back right and I started playing better,” he said. “That’s our Creator and we design ourselves while we’re living, so that’s why I give Him all the credit.”
