Appalachian State!

Yesterday saw one of the biggest upsets of all time in college football, when little Appalachian State beat mighty Michigan in Ann Arbor. As noted on KUGN (Ducks radio in Eugene) after our game, that’s like Portland State beating the University of Southern California in the Coliseum – a 1-AA team traveling to a top 5 Division 1 team, and winning. Amazing. Appalachian State is a college with about 15,000 students located in Boone, South North Carolina. The front page of their web site notes a recent change to require students to have tickets to sporting events, rather than just showing their ID. They’ve been playing very well in their league, but their previous record in games against Division 1 teams since 1978 was 6 wins (all against Wake Forest), 36 losses, one draw. In contrast, Michigan’s stadium, known as the Big House, regularly fills to its capacity at 110,000 fans. The University of Michigan has over 13,000 students in its 2007 freshman class, with close to 40,000 students altogether. Its football team has been reknowned as one of the best in college football for decades. The team was favored to compete for the National Championship this year. No more.

The details of the game yesterday are wonderful. Michigan had taken the lead with a little over four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, then Appalachian State’s quarterback threw an interception the very next play. The Michigan crowd must have been breathing a huge sigh of relief (Hey, I’m a Duck fan, I know that feeling of getting beaten by a lesser-ranked team). Appalachian State blocked a field goal, then scored one to go ahead by two points. Michigan still looked in good shape to win the game after their quarterback completed a 46-yard pass (for readers who aren’t football fans, that’s long – aka a “Hail Mary” because the ball goes up and everyone prays), giving Michigan the ball at Appalachian State’s 20 with 6 seconds left. An easy field goal, 37 yards. But the Michigan field goal team made a crucial mistake, with their line letting through an Appalachian State player who blocked the attempt then ran down the field with the ball so time expired. What a finish!

I remember like it was yesterday, when the Ducks beat Michigan at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. My 6′ 5″ son picked me up off the ground and hugged me so tightly I could hardly continue yelling my delight, along with 60,000 other delirious Duck fans. And I can still run the replay in my mind, when the Ducks blocked Oklahoma’s field goal on the last play in our game last year. There was a lot of fuss about a refereeing call earlier, but it was that blocked field goal that won the game against Oklahoma for the Ducks. Big plays win games. So does playing hard for 60 minutes, with 100% focus and effort. And this win illustrates why college football can be such fun. Sometimes the underdog wins – more often than in real life, perhaps.

My older son played starting center for Wilson High School’s team that won the Portland Interscholastic League in 2003, and my younger played basketball from kindergarten through 11th grade, and lettered in tennis for four years in high school. When the announcer at Autzen gave the final score from Michigan, they laughed, looked at each other and said – almost in unison,

“You know exactly what the Appalachian State coach said to his players before the game, right? That if everyone plays at the top of their game, and the team works together, and all the plays go as planned and everyone gives 110% effort, that they can win this game. All the players had heard that speech dozens of times before. And probably nobody on the team really believed it, including the coach. And they did it.”

Listening to Duck talk radio on our drive home after the Ducks’ win against Houston, one of the callers was apoplectic that 95% of the crowd at Autzen applauded when hearing the final score. He pointed out that Michigan will have so much more to prove when Oregon travels to their stadium next Saturday; that if we beat them now, everyone will say that it’s because the Wolverines are a bad team this year, rather than the Ducks being good; and that even if we beat them, Michigan’s ranking will never recover from the loss to a 1-AA team so our strength of schedule grade won’t benefit as much. All true. But “It’s college football!”, as Maxwell muttered in response to the caller. I and most of the other 66,600 fans at Autzen yesterday applauded because we love the game, we love its surprise victories and glorious passions. It’s like life. And whether it gives personal benefits or not, sometimes you have to applaud a job well done, and an achievement against the odds.