History breathes so deeply in college football, this realm in which schools carry the memories of past glories and slights with a passion the pros can’t match.
History acquires a larger shadow and a longer life than in professional sports. Ancient feuds, special seasons, crushing heartbreaks — they’re all harbored with more concern and care. Being an alumnus of a school is a more powerful social and historical connector than merely being a fan of a professional team. This is hardly the only reason college sports captured many of us as little kids, and still fascinates us today… but it’s a rather important one, to be sure.
Saturday — the final day of the 2015 college football regular season — two schools had reason to give thanks for a major plot twist relative to the recent past. One school still enjoyed a wonderful campaign, but the 13th and final regular season game did not provide the ending it hoped for.
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Go back to the final day of the 2011 college football regular season.
Larry Fedora coached on that day — just as he’s coaching in the 2015 finale — but not in a power conference. He guided the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles into the Conference USA Championship Game. Fedora went up against a powerful offense led by a man considered to be a rising star in the coaching profession.
For the Houston Cougars, it became apparent that Kevin Sumlin was going to leave for a bigger job. They simply hoped that Sumlin could lead them to the Sugar Bowl, the school’s first signature bowl appearance since the 1985 Cotton Bowl against Doug Flutie and Boston College.
Instead, Houston crumbled under the weight of the moment, unable to handle the distractions of the past week and the realization that its star coach was about to head off to Texas A&M. The Cougars’ dreams were dashed, but in the process, Fedora won a conference title and used that achievement to join the big boys. Fedora’s win in the 2011 regular season finale helped him get the North Carolina job. Four years later, Fedora is coaching for an ACC title (this article was written four hours before the start of the UNC-Clemson game), his career at an even more elevated level.
How fitting it is, then, that Fedora’s old school, Southern Mississippi, resurrected itself in 2015. The Golden Eagles returned to the same spotlight they occupied in 2011.
Southern Miss could not replicate its 2011 magic, however. This time, the opponent in the Conference USA Championship Game and its rising coach were too good. Jeff Brohm and Western Kentucky found the answers for USM’s defense. The Golden Eagles didn’t get their fairytale ending this time. This is the first of the three 2011 inversions offered by Saturday’s early games.
The second inversion is Houston’s moment of triumph. Staff writer Ryan Palencer documented the Cougars’ win over Temple here. Very simply, it helped that unlike the 2011 Cougars, this year’s version had its head coach secured for another season. Tom Herman’s decision to stay at UH for at least another year offered the best form of preparation for the first-ever American Athletic Conference Championship Game. The Cougars did tuck away the New Year’s Six bowl berth which eluded them four years ago under the BCS umbrella.
This leaves us with one more 2011 inversion to mention: Oklahoma State’s January destination.
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Four years ago, Oklahoma State was viewed by many to be the most deserving recipient of the second slot in the BCS National Championship Game against LSU. The Cowboys hoped to go to New Orleans and play in the Louisiana Superdome, but the BCS elevated Alabama to the No. 2 spot, bumping the Pokes to the Fiesta Bowl.
What a lovely little gift basket Mike Gundy gained on Saturday, four years later. Turnabout is fair play… and the source of much happiness in Stillwater.
Texas’s 23-17 upset of Baylor (helped by yet another injury to yet another Baylor quarterback, Chris Johnson… but who cares in CowboyLand, right?) pushed the Bears out of the Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma State will fill that slot, giving the program the stage and spotlight it didn’t receive at the end of the 2011 regular season. There’s a certain satisfaction to be found in seeing the fickle finger of history turn fortunes in the opposite direction… when it’s yours.
Oklahoma State and Houston know that feeling today, after coming up short (in a vote for the Cowboys, on the field for the Cougars) on the final Saturday of the 2011 season.
For Southern Mississippi, the Golden (Eagle) ending of the 2011 campaign was not replicated in 2015. Yet, coach Todd Monken knows that he has his program on the right track after a tremendous season in Hattiesburg.
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The 2011 college football season and the 2015 college football season ended in diametrically opposed ways for three programs. As LeBron James said, “Not one, not two…”
This is a funny sport. May it ever remain thus.
