This is the second installment in a series of weekly updates about USD Toreros football as related by myself, a six year veteran of the team, J.T. Rogan.
Rocky Road
In college football, the determinant of which team wins the game is rarely the amount of talent that is possessed by a team. However, there are instances where FBS schools play FCS schools or instances where FCS scholarship schools play non-scholarship schools and there is a significant disparity in talent. Last week, San Diego State University beat a Southern Utah team that has twenty two fewer scholarships. In 2007, our non-scholarship football team played the fully-funded, sixty three scholarship program of Northern Colorado. We beat Northern Colorado handily by a score of 49-16. No scholarships, no problem. Fast forward to last Saturday where we traveled to Greely, Colorado to face off with the University of Northern Colorado Bears. This was the same program that lost more games than it won year after year and continued to suffer more from poor discipline than from a lack of skill. Against them, they would likely let you back into any game and they would throw in the towel if defeat was imminent.
In the first half, our defense gave up a couple of big plays and our offense repeatedly moved the ball. The big plays that the defense gave up resulted in points while the offense’s ability to move the ball augmented field position without sending electricity to the light bulbs on the guest side of the scoreboard. We dug ourselves a 17-0 hole out of which we would have to work to start the second half.We received the opening kickoff for the second half and our offense played the way we knew it could. We ran the ball continually and effectively on the entire drive while capping the first prolonged offensive series of the day with a touchdown pass to our receiver John Mcgough. We followed that score with a stop by our defense. This meant another opportunity to operate on offense. Again, our offense ran the ball with attitude and conviction which led to a two yard touchdown run by one of our running backs, Brendan Feliczak. We had missed the extra point after our first touchdown and we were unsuccessful in our two point attempt after our second touchdown so we trailed Northern Colorado by five points, 17-12. They had let us back into the game just as they done so many times before to other opponents.
Our defense continued their stellar play at the beginning of their next sequence and Northern Colorado faced 3rd and long in their own territory. They obtained more than enough yardage for the first down with a short pass play that saw their receiver get knocked out of bounds inside our ten yard line. With that, they commandeered much of the momentum that we had acquired throughout the majority of the third quarter. Northern Colorado proceeded to score a touchdown, then pin us deep in our own territory to start our next drive and then force our offense to revert to its ineffective ways of the first half. With momentum on their side, Northern Colorado held our offense to zero points for the duration of the game while adding another touchdown of their own to make the game a final of 31-12 in favor of the home team.
Talent was not the deciding factor in this game. It seemed as if Northern Colorado wanted to win more than we did. That might be most evidenced in the fact that they showered their coach with a cooler full of Gatorade after the game. The New York Giants started the postgame tradition by dousing head coach Bill Parcells after winning a Super Bowl, and Northern Colorado emulated this celebration after defeating us.
After watching the film of the game, we did not play with the passion necessary to win nor did we execute with the precision necessary to emerge victorious. We can work on execution, but the lust for victory is not something that can be easily impacted. We play our home opener this Saturday against Marist College from New York. We have beaten them each of the last four times that we have played them, but as witnessed by the Northern Colorado result, pass successes do not guarantee future rewards.
Offense: D+ Defense: C Special Teams Grade: C- Personal Grade: C+
Worth mentioning: Our punter Kyle Negrete had a 71 yard punt.
