Sweet Sweet Sweet Sweet Sweet Sweet Victory
Always a GREAT day to sing AY ZIGGY ZOOMBA 🟠🟤#ToTheMoon 📈 pic.twitter.com/EBH1gx68Il
— BG Football (@BG_Football) September 25, 2021
Oh, man. That's one for the ages.
31 point underdog. No FBS wins since that Akron game in 2019. Coming off our worst season in 85 years. On the road, homecoming, Big 10 opponent.
And the Falcons get the win. So improbable. So unlikely. And yet it happened. Say what you like about Scot Loeffler, but he now owns two of the 20 biggest point spread upsets in college football history.
According to ESPN, it was the second-biggest point spread win in FBS on FBS action in the last 10 years and the other one (Texas State over Houston) was Texas State's first FBS game.
So happy for our players, who have suffered through a lot of rough days in the past few years. They were outscored 225-57 last year, for heaven's sake. And, frankly, it wasn't looking like there were going to be too many good moments this year, either.
Those who stuck it out got rewarded with the thrill of a lifetime today. Those who didn't....didn't. Hopefully not the last one, but this is a day they will always remember. So happy for them to get that victory.
And how about Sam Nemerov leading Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba?
Does that get your heart racing? Sure did for me.
As a fan...this is why we love sports.
Say what you like about Minnesota...but every MAC win over a Big 10 is meaningful. And that is #9 for the Falcons. (I originally said 8 but I forgot Maryland).
It's highly satisfying. Get paid $1.5M to come in and win on the Gopher homecoming. It cannot be a good feeling up in Minneapolis. In fact, I peeked in on Twitter and it isn't.
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Fleck's dinner restaurant |
The Star-Tribune isn't much better.
How's this headline work?
Saturday shocker: Lowly Bowling Green beats Gophers 14-10 in historic upset
Lowly? What's lower than low?
Or this one:
Worst Gophers upset ever? Among the worst in recent decades, at least
From their columnist Chip Scroggins
...one of the most inexcusable losses in program history
This latest embarrassment belongs entirely to Fleck. All of it. The stain of a 14-10 loss to Bowling Green can't be scrubbed away with catchphrases.
They [BG] were the better team in every facet. Coaching. Offense. Defense. Special teams.
Pretty good, though Scroggins took an unnecessary shot at hot dish.
More to come as we savor this moment. For tonight, and every minute of the 24 hour rule....laissez les bon temps rouler.
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4 comments :
Well said! Gotta be happy for these guys. Plenty of work to do but you can tell by the energy of this group they've bought in to the plan. I was at BG in the height of the Clawson/Babers era which feels like ages ago given everything that's happened since. I'm getting a similar feeling watching these younger guys that I did when I came in over a decade ago.
Roll Along!
In thinking about this a day later, it reminds me a bit of Urban Meyer's 2001 trip to Missouri, where the Falcons beat the Tigers after six straight losing seasons. No one saw that coming, either. I'm not predicting a 7-win season here -- there will be bumps on the road -- but we are clearly turning a corner here. What a statement win this was!
Schad, I agree. There will be ups and downs, I suspect. But there's some progress.
In the 30 plus years I've been watching BG football, off hand I believe I can only recall 3 games that BG won for which going in I truly thought there was zero chance of a victory:
1998 vs Marshall
2019 vs Toledo
2021 @ Minnesota
Those certainly are not BG's best wins, or best opponents beaten (though that '98 Marshall team might be close), or most impressive performances. But those are 3 wins that based on where the program was at the time seemed impossible to me going in. The aforementioned 2001 Missouri game perhaps could be added, but I recall not being as shocked by that one.
I don't think BG wins many more this year, lots of work still needs done, o-line will continue to struggle, and so on. But I do find it encouraging that the current staff has managed to deliver 2 of the 3 most "where the heck did that come from" performances as I see things in my 3 plus decades of watching the Falcons. Part of Saturday's story is certainly that Minnesota's offense played poorly and Fleck made some questionable decisions. But for BG to get to the point where that kind of stuff even matters toward the outcome of a game vs a Power conference team is a giant leap forward from where things looked last fall. Patience is still called for, but I'm now adding a dash of optimism to mine.
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