He rewrote South Dakota State and Missouri Valley Football Conference record books as part of a juggernaut offense that vaulted the Jackrabbits into FCS national championship contention for the first time.

Then, he had brief brushes with NFL royalty — Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, Mike Tomlin — before coming back to start his new life and family back in his hometown.

Before all that, he lit up South Dakota's largest class of high school football while developing under the state's all-time prep wins leader Kim Nelson.

Through it all, there were legendary games — like the breakthrough win over No. 1 North Dakota State in the Fargodome his sophomore year — and deflating setbacks, including a devastating injury that ripped away his high school senior season and a turnover-heavy nightmare in the 2017 FCS semifinals.

Taryn Christion sits down to tell all about it for over an hour with Happy Hour host John Gaskins at The Orion Pub in downtown Sioux Falls. 

While he is forever a warm spot in Jackrabbit hearts, the heartbreaks along the way make his story as human as it gets. 

A connective tissue to this day — the other SDSU quarterback legend Christion will be forever interwined, Zach Lujan, who Christion is more than willing to talk about. And, of course, there are stories about SDSU icons John Stiegelmeier, Dallas Goedert, Eric Eidsness, Jake Weineke, and more.

And there is no way we could end the conversation without Christion's observations of the program's shakeup this past winter, what new head coach Dan Jackson will bring, and how the Jackrabbit Former Players Association is helping to keep SDSU on the forefront of the ever-changing FCS landscape.