Game Nine Billboard Slogan of the Week: "Three-peat"

BY TIM SCANDURRO

Our football team had three games on the schedule circled back in August.  There was a strong desire to beat Duke and Darian Mensah, and a strong desire to avenge the loss to Army in last year’s title game.  Check, and check.

The third game on that list is the one we’re getting ready to play in Memphis, tomorrow night.  When we played them last Thanksgiving night in New Orleans both teams came in at 9-2.  We were already assured of appearing in the title game the following week, but we were in line for a playoff position if Boise faltered. The pregame buildup was electric.

Memphis had already been eliminated and was playing for pride. Vegas made them a two touchdown underdog.  They came into Yulman Stadium that night and had their way with us for four quarters.  We had a couple of costly turnovers and could have made it interesting, but by and large they simply dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides and whipped us.

Afterwards, their head coach Ryan Silverfield let everyone know about it.  He pointed out that Memphis hadn’t been that big an underdog in 11 years, and mentioned the point spread a couple of other times in his gloating press conference.  A couple weeks later on his radio show, he had this to say about Tulane:  “I have zero care for them.  I hope they lose every game from here on out.”  Well now.  I guess he got his wish.

Fast forward a year later, and the shoe is on the other foot.  Memphis is in the playoff driver’s seat now, and they are the home favorite on national TV.  But unlike Memphis last year, Tulane is not yet eliminated from the title game or from the playoff hunt. 

The loser of this game will almost certainly be eliminated from both.  A victory that dashes the other team’s dreams at the same time it propels the winner forward is something both programs would desperately love to accomplish Friday night.  For us, it would mean hitting the trifecta alongside the Duke and Army results and that prospect gives us our Billboard Slogan of the Week:  THREEPEAT.

We owe these guys.  “They ruined our season last year,” Sam Howard said this week.  “After that game, it seemed like we never bounced back.  We definitely have a chip on our shoulder.”  Our spiritual and physical leader on defense then added: “Obviously, our season is on the line.  That’s the main thing right now.  We have to play with an edge.  We’ve got to go out there and lay it on the line.”

Considering Number 15 will be out there ahead of schedule playing on a recently fractured leg, those words should resonate with his team.  But no words should be necessary, in either locker room.  This is an elimination game, a no-tomorrow game, and everyone knows it.  It’s bigger than last year’s game for that reason.

If you can’t get excited for this one, whether you’re a player or a fan, there’s something wrong with you.  This is what all those long hot days training and practicing in the heat were about, right here.

John Facenda, the legendary NFL Films narrator (close your eyes and you’ll hear his voice) used to say: “Hopes that were high in the heat of September, can wilt and die in the chill of November.”  Both of these teams started with high hopes.  Only one will leave the Liberty Bowl with those hopes intact Friday night.

Game on.