For Washington Husky Football fans the sight of the game clock in the 2024 Sugar Bowl strike 0:00.  But the moment was short-lived as the game officials added added a second to the clock.  Trailing 37-31, the Longhorns would get one more shot.  A touchdown would tie the game, and an extra point would end UW’s national championship hopes.

Washington’s best defensive back Jabbar Mohammad had left the field to an apparent shoulder injury and was not on the field for the final play further upping the ante.

The game would come down to the right hand of Husky defensive back Elijah Jackson.  He’s been tested on a regular basis this season, often by the opponent’s best receiver.

It was all being set up for a Disney moment.

As the defensive backs went through some pre-snap shuffles Jackson was matched up with 6-4, 196-pound Georgia-transfer Adonai Mitchell.  The Texas wideout entered the game with 10 touchdowns and had picked up another one earlier in the 4th quarter.  On Texas’ final drive he was targeted three times with 6 total targets in the final stanza, two that went for first downs and one that went for a TD.

Backpedaling with Mitchell, Jackson broke on the pass from Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, leaping over top of the Texas receiver and swatted the ball away with his right hand.

Jackson says that he feels the hand of God in everything that he does, including overcoming some injuries and slipping behind others as he struggled to recover from those injuries.

Amid the physical setbacks, the increased competition from the Transfer Portal, and what some thought was on field struggles, his belief in a higher power and the recovery mechanisms that Washington has had in place would get him to where he was supposed to be.

“It was frustrating,” he recalled of those moments where self-doubt could have crept in when he was injured.  “It takes away your momentum when you get hurt.  Keeping a good mentally.  Trust the process.”

And trust the hand of God.

“Trusting God,” he said.  “When you believe in God, anything is possible.  I feel like a lot of people stray away and get in their own heads.”

In the times when it would have been easy to get into his own head he could hear Kalen DeBoer’s voice telling him, “never let a negative thought complete itself.”

Before the negative thought has been able take hold he would “flush it” and move onto the next play.

That play just happened to be an iconic image that will be replayed in every Washington Football hype video between now and eternity.

But it might not have been possible if not for Jackson also taking ownership of his physical well being.

“Trust in God.  I fell that’s very important. He has a plan,” he said how he could feel the hand of God involved in his life.  “I just stuck with that.”

The extra time spent on the sideline also helped him realign himself with his responsibility of taking care of his body.

“It helped.  It was a curse and a blessing at the same time,” he said.  “It taught me to take care of my body.  You only have one.”

Being burned on a few plays early in the season also helped but it never tested his faith—either in God or in his own abilities.

“It all happens for a reason,” he said.  “We’re all going to have our ups and downs.

Some of Jackson’s downs have been noted but it could be his ups, notably his 40-inch vertical leaping ability he put on display in the final second of Washington’s 37-31 victory over Texas in the College Football Playoffs Semi Final Game that is 

It was a play that had been rehearsed dozens of times.

“’Practice execution becomes game reality’,” he said obviously quoting defensive back coach Julius Brown.  “Winning is addicting so once you get it you don’t want to stop,” he said.

As with winning, losing can also become a habit.  In the 2021 season, just as the Huskies are finding ways to win close games this season, they were finding ways to lose games.

With an emphatic swat from Jackson’s right hand the Huskies found another way to win a game, one of 21-consecutive.

It will be one of the most iconic moments in a season filled with iconic moments, but his as fellow defender Zion Tupuola-Fetui noted “we just have to go 1-0 one more time.”

The unbeaten Washington play the unbeaten Michigan Wolverines next January 8 and 4:30 pm Pacific time in the National Championship Game.