Oklahoma Sooner senior linebacker Corey Nelson knows things can change faster than his 40-yard dash time.
One minute, the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Nelson was riding high, returning an interception for a touchdown at Notre Dame on national television. The next moment, the Dallas, TX, native learned that a pectoral muscle injury had cut his final season as a Sooner short.
But that’s OK now.
Heading into Thursday night’s NFL Draft – where the former high school all-American Nelson hopes to be selected between the fourth and seventh round – he has learned where to place his trust.
“I’m going to be honest with you. My mind is on God,” said Nelson, who is trying to lean into God whether than worry about all the scenarios that could transpire this week. “If I just lean on God, I don’t have to worry about that. I know that God is going to direct my path. That’s the type of mindset that I have.”
That wasn’t always the case.
Nelson grew up playing football with his two brothers in Oak Cliff’s youth football league and quickly fell in love with the sport. Soon after falling in love with the sport, he fell in love with a position. That position was linebacker.
It wasn’t until his sophomore year in college that the all-Big 12 Academic team selection really embraced God’s love for him.
“As a freshman, I was a knucklehead, I’m not going to lie,” said Nelson, who was denied a medical redshirt by the NCAA after his injury. “I was partying. I was ‘wylin.’ I was doing everything you could think of. It just got to a point where I hit rock bottom. It got to the point where everything I was doing wasn’t right and football wasn’t working out at that time. Everything felt like it was closing in on me.”
That’s precisely the time when a campus pastor and a Fellowship of Christian Athletes staff member checked in on Nelson and invited him to a Bible study.
“I went that one Wednesday night,” Nelson said. “It felt like God was speaking through them right to me. They prayed with me. It was just an emotional night. Ever since then, I’ve been like ‘I want to learn more about God, who He is and learn more about His love… I want to let His light shine through me.”
Nelson’s new relationship with God would help him when his senior season was cut short just five games into the season. He suffered a partially torn pectoral muscle against Texas Christian University on Oct. 5.
Admittedly, God isn’t whom Nelson ran to first. However, God was whom Nelson ran to ultimately.
“I tried everything besides God to get me through it, and it did not work,” Nelson said. “It was a temporary fix. Once I decided to lean on God and just say, ‘You know what? It’s in Your hands. I can’t do anything about this. I need You to heal me from the hurt, heal me from the injury.’ When I gave it all to God – once I did that – it’s like my whole life changed. I had so many epiphanies about life and how to live and how God cares for us. Trusting in God allowed me to weather my storms.”
After being cleared to resume workouts in the spring, Nelson focused on pursuing his football career at the next level. His mornings are filled with healthy meals, weightlifting, and cardio conditioning. His afternoons are typically reserved for film studying.
In his free time, he’s been known to take in a Lecrae concert. Nelson stumbled across Lecrae and other artists in the 116 Movement on Pandora, and he’s been a huge fan ever since. Recently, Nelson’s agent Kelli Masters set up a surprise meeting between Nelson and Lecrae.
“She got us tickets to the concert and asked me and one of her other players if we wanted to go,” Nelson recalled. “We were like, ‘Yeah, we want to go! Who doesn’t want to go to a Lecrae concert?’ Then the most amazing thing happened. She (Masters) said, ‘I got us to be able to go backstage and meet Lecrae.’ My mouth dropped. I couldn’t believe it.”
Actually, Lecrae and Nelson have a lot in common.
They both want to make hits. And they both want to glorify God while doing it.
“What I took away was that no matter who you are, God will use whoever it is on any type of platform to glorify Him and praise Him by doing what you love,” Nelson said. “I learned that no matter how big the platform is, God can use you to touch many lives.”
Awesome!