Watch A Notre Dame Football Player Get Surprised With A Scholarship

There are plenty of different types of sports videos that easily turn us into slobbering messes in front of our computer screens. For instance, good luck getting through any video of a soldier returning home from the Middle East to surprise their kid without turning on the waterworks. But another type of video that never fails to create a similar effect is when a beloved walk-on college-football player is announced in front of the whole team that he’s been given a scholarship. Such was the case on Thursday for Notre Dame’s Josh Anderson.

Anderson is a fifth-year senior running back. He seemed excited when he was asked to model Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series uniforms in front of his entire team.

What he did not know, however, was that there was a reason he was being asked to model the uniforms: So that he could be surprised with some free schooling. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly explained the moment after practice.

“[Anderson is] a senior for us that has done everything we’ve asked over the last five years. He’s taken more hits than any one of our backs. He’s a scout-team player. He’s done everything. He’s a great student. Well-respected by all of his teammates and we had an available scholarship and as a senior he deserved it so I brought him out to announce the Under Armour uniforms and I had him instead of the big mannequin, I had him dressed in the Under Armour uniform. He didn’t know he was getting a scholarship. So the guys were pretty charged up. He had the Under Armour — I said: You know, this is a great model. Matter of fact, he’s such a great model — I said, Josh, take your helmet off — he models everything that I think is right about a Notre Dame football player. At that time I announced he was gonna get a scholarship, and the guys were excited. It was a good moment.”

The uniforms Anderson was modeling will be on full display for the Irish’s game against Boston College Nov. 21. The game will be played at Fenway Park.

(Via ESPN; video via Beyond Sports)

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