(Photo Courtesy of the Orange Bowl)

In 2018, Jack Kiser led Pioneer High School to a state championship as an option style quarterback and was named Mr. Football in Indiana as a senior.

Pioneer High School is a 1A school in the small town of Royal Center, 72 miles south of Notre Dame. The town is so small it doesn’t even have a stoplight, just a yellow blinking light. While Kiser was a spectacular high school player, many questioned whether he could succeed going from a small school to Notre Dame.

Turns out, Kiser would go on to play more games in a Notre Dame football uniform than anyone in the program’s history. And now he’s guaranteed one more.

The Irish captain returned to Notre Dame for a 6th season to make even bigger history and now he will get his chance after Notre Dame defeated Penn State Thursday in the Orange Bowl to advance to the CFP national championship game on January 20th in Atlanta.

“It’s funny, when a lot of people ask why you come back (it was because) I want to play for a national championship,” Kiser said after the 27-24 last second victory in Miami Gardens, Florida. “I want to do something special here at Notre Dame. I want to do my part for this team to reach this ultimate goal. A lot of people brush that off or assume that (is just talk). But it wasn’t like that. It was truly the biggest reason I came back here was because I knew that this locker room was special. I knew this coaching staff was special. Now we get a chance to go do it and get it done.”

Kiser is once again backing things up. The veteran linebacker almost had one of the biggest plays of the night making a critical interception late in the game–only to see it negated by a pass interference call against one of his teammates.

It didn’t phase the Irish in the end. Another teammate Christian Gray would make an interception in the final minute and Mitch Jeter would kick the game winning field goal with seven seconds left as the Irish won in one of the most nail biting playoff semifinal games ever.

“Something that Coach Freeman harps on is this one play, one life, right,” Kiser explained. “So no matter the outcome of a play, don’t let that affect the next one. And certainly seeing Christian (Gray) come up with a big play at the end of the game – he’s a gamer. That’s what you want. I am so happy for him, so proud of him, and just proud of the defense and how we were able to make a stop when we needed it.”

Notre Dame was left for dead when it lost 16-14 to Northern Illinois in the 2nd game of the season back on September 7th at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish haven’t lost since and four months and two days later, they have booked their ticket to Atlanta for the national title game.

“This is a special group of guys,” Kiser said. “Being in Indiana, knowing Notre Dame football, knowing the program, seeing how far we’ve come this year, especially after the hiccup early on (against NIU). A lot of people wrote us off and just to know that we got one last one guaranteed (game) is so exciting.”

Now Kiser and his teammates are just one more win away from bringing college football’s most historic program its first national championship since 1988. For Kiser, that would meaning the highest championship possible to close out both his high school and college careers.