"In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it." — Paul "Bear" Bryant
NEW ORLEANS — As a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, my life — especially the past few years — has been filled with disappointing sports moments, but there has also been something to bring me back up ... the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
No, these Eagles aren't world-beaters, and the New Orleans Bowl was far from the desired destination of the Southern Miss faithful, but this has been one of the best seasons in recent memory.
How can a year that includes a five-game losing streak be one of the best? Well, it's what happened the next five weeks.
This team showed more heart than a Hallmark store on Valentine's Day. With four games left on the schedule, they would have to win them all to become bowl eligible and continue the streak of 14-straight winning seasons.
Mission Impossible. Or so you might think. After all, we're talking about a team stringing together four wins to get to a bowl and five to end with a winning record after this stretch:
•Losing to Marshall. This was a team that had never beaten the Golden Eagles and then finished the year at 4-8.
•Losing a heartbreaker in double overtime to UTEP, which also had a losing record. USM missed three field goals in the game. How fitting was it that Britt Barefoot would be one of the heroes in the bowl game?
•Losing to Boise State. Hey, at least we didn't have to see the blue turf.
•Losing to Rice. Don't get me wrong, the Owls won nine games this year, but really, we lost to Rice.
•Losing to Memphis. This one hurts the most ... rivalry games always do. Add to the fact that the Tigers were down to their third- and fourth-string quarterbacks, who picked the Southern Miss defense apart to the tune of 232 yards and a pair of TDs.
So, how does a team overcome all of this and end up above .500? It all goes back to Dec. 12, 2007. That's when Larry Fedora was introduced as the 18th head coach of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Ask any player on the 2008 USM roster and they'll tell you that Fedora is a great motivator that never let the team get down during the losing skid.
While some fans, myself not included, were questioning whether or not the university had made the right decision to get rid of Jeff Bower after 17 seasons, Fedora was quietly getting his team ready for one of the best stretches of football the Eagles have seen in a while.
Fedora has said many times over the last few weeks and again after the bowl win that very few people outside of the locker room believed that the Eagles could go bowling as they were staring at a 2-6 record. And as a reader — and poster — of Southern Miss message boards, I can tell you that he is right.
Not only did Fedora extend the consecutive winning seasons streak, he also got a leg up on his predecessor. Since 1937, every incoming Southern Miss coach except Jeff Bower has finished with at least a .500 record.
The legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant once said "In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it." The 2008 Golden Eagles were certainly used to being backed into a corner, and they proved they could fight their way out.
It was fitting that the New Orleans Bowl ended up just about a mirror image of the entire season. The Eagles went neck-and-neck to the end of the first half with Troy, using a field goal with no time on the clock to tie it at 17.
Then after a long stretch of very little going right, Southern Miss was forced to pull off an amazing comeback.
Football doesn't really get much better than what I saw Sunday night in the Superdome. That being said, I'm ready for next year's Liberty Bowl.
Southern Miss ... To The Top!
Sports Columns
December 22, 2008
A perfect ending to the beginning of the Fedora Era
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