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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Everything football
is supposed to be
THIS one had everything. Rain. Guys getting carried off the field. Guys pushing each other heatedly. Guys from the same team pushing each other heatedly.It had a "studlier Barry Sanders" playing almost the entire game in pain (which would probably make him a studlier Emmitt Smith). An NCAA all-time record. A tear-jerking chicken-skin ceremony in which said record breaker ran over and gave the football to his dad in a moment fit for "Friday Night Lights."
It had wild swings of momentum. Awesome long runs. Clutch catches, a diving interception, an out-and-up pass, a daring fourth-down play that left two tough guys crumpled on the turf.
A defensive touchdown, a fumbled punt, a blocked one, a 2-point conversion, an upright clunked.
Everything.
Ti leaves (they were there, in the stadium, I saw them with my own eyes).
Ty Detmer.
Ty Detmer! It was good to see Ty again, even if it was only for a minute, up on the big video screen. (Was it really necessary that he was introduced by a montage of him fumbling against the old 'Bows? OK, yes, it was.) What a classy gesture it was, the old BYU quarterback's congratulation of Tim Chang.
Chang. He did it. "It was awesome," June Jones said. It was.
Louisiana Tech's Ryan Moats, who proved studly, yes, and sturdy was also part of the story. He ran for 228 yards and two scores. Imagine what he could have done on two legs.
"I don't know if he was really that hurt," Tech coach Jack Bicknell would say. "Did he say he was hurt?"
Yes he was hurt. Between plays, the man could hardly walk.
"Sometimes," he would say, describing one of his many nagging injuries, "I have to just come off the field and let the pain die down."
This game had everything.
It was a defense that got run over, around, through, but picked its spots, coming up big at the right times. It was Moats, who played with heart, who kept going forward, even if he was never the same guy who picked up 28 yards on his very first carry of the night.
"That's all we talk about," Jones said, "just suck it up and keep going."
This game had that.
In the end there was a daring fourth-down try and a daring last stand. And 27,948 people (I think they counted me twice) made about as much noise as 27,948 people can make.
Feel good. UH is .500 again. It was a hell of a game.