Highs and Lows

Kid Cudi wrote a whole song detailing a series of highs and lows. The Bobcats football team wrote a whole season's worth of them, punctuated with Saturday's highest moment.


I said recently it would be difficult to get excited about the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, called it a forgettable exhibition.


I was wrong- and I could not be more glad. 


Maybe the bowl game in Boise didn't mean anything in the grander scheme of college football but it certainly did in the faces of the seniors and coach Frank Solich, through the tweets and texts from Bobcats around the great states. 


And heck, there's nothing forgettable about Tyler Tettleton's game-winning dash to the corner of the end zone with 13 seconds left. 


The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is anything but grandiose. It's played on blue turf, has a mascot called Spuddy Buddy and literally gives its winner a bowl of potatoes. It's way more after school special than Allstate BCS Championship. 


But none of that matters in the microcosm of what the Bobcats accomplished on the field Saturday night. It was the highest high in a season full of ups and downs. 


There was the high of the Marshall game, jacked up in all black and trouncing the Herd to reclaim the Bell.


There was the low of the two-game losing streak in winnable games that dropped the Bobcats to 4-3 and made you really wonder if they were for real or just setting up another disappointment. 


There was the high of the Temple win, a final minutes game-winning drive led by Tettleton, on ESPN in a blacked out Peden, and then the MAC East clinching win at Bowling Green.


It was so good that 'MAC East Champs' was trending worldwide on Twitter. 


Except that string of highs again all crashed down three Friday nights ago in Detroit. In fact, high and low were both encapsulated in the string of those 60 minutes of the MAC Championship, all the way from a 20-0 halftime lead to second half meltdown and 23-20 loss. 


A disappointment is an understatement in describing that loss. Debilitating, disheartening, debacle are better adjectives. Again, the Bobcats fell short in the MAC Championship game, which meant a not-so-anticipated trip to Boise. 


But that cold smurf turf was the spot of the season's greatest high, redemption for the Motor City Meltdown. More importantly it was a high that capped off a season framed by a low transcending the on field action.

It was last spring that the Bobcat family was shaken by the loss of defensive lineman Marcellis Williamson. A different defensive player donned Williamson's #62 in his honor each game. Saturday no one wore it but the #62 jersey was on the sideline as the 12th man.


'Forever relentless' became the slogan inspired by Williamson. The Bobcats were all that and more in beating Utah State, this time surmounting a fourth quarter deficit rather than blowing a lead. Ohio channeled Williamson, brought his spirit to the field in pulling out victory. 


Shortly before his death Marcellis posted on his Facebook, "enjoy today because tomorrow isn't guaranteed." That's perspective enough and advice Bobcat nation should surely heed following the bowl win.