UB has a fitting change of fortunes
DETROIT — Ball State quarterback Nate Davis was off and running, the goal line in his sights, command of the game drawing closer with each long and elegant stride. This was going to be UB’s demise, the touchdown that pushed Bulls an arm’s length away with just over a quarter to play in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game.
Davis’ eyes saw nothing but the Ford Field end zone. The Cardinals had backtracked from second- and-goal from the 1 to third-and- goal from the 8, a retreat unbefitting the offensive juggernaut that fuels the nation’s 12th-ranked team. It was time to take care of business.
Davis went airborne as he
reached the 2, an overzealous flight as it turned out. Free safety Mike Newton got a hand on the quarterback’s right shoulder and spun him, his back now facing the end zone. Cornerback Josh Thomas delivered a shoulder blow to Davis’ back, jarring the ball out of his grasp. Newton pounced, gaining possession at the 8, tight-roping the sideline at first, the end result of this dramatic turnaround vividly apparent if he could just keep his feet from touching white. Which he did, cruising 92 yards to the opposite end zone.
“That play was the turning point of the game,” Newton said. “I saw it, scooped it up and just kept running.”
“I knew he was going to jump,” Thomas said of Davis. “Big players make big-time plays in big-time games, and I’m a big-time player, too. I just knew he was going to try to make the big play, so I went ahead and made a big play. But I just knew he was going to jump because that’s what a big-time player would do in that situation.”
Just like that unbeaten Ball State, a 14z-point favorite, went from a looming 10-point lead to a unfathomable 21-17 deficit. And from that point on the Blue and White avalanche rolled downhill with unrelenting fury, producing another touchdown via fumble return, scoring twice more on offense, blistering the Cardinals, 42-24, in yet another remarkable show of iron will in the season that had gone storybook a long time ago.
The UB sideline bubbled with giddiness during the game’s final couple of minutes. There was university President John Simpson, decked out in blue jeans and a UB varsity jacket, whooping it up when James Starks tacked on a final touchdown. There was Willie Evans coming down to the field from the stands, finally feeling what it’s like to be part of a program no longer ostracized because of its racial diversity. Evans was one of two African-American players on the 1958 UB team that turned down a bid to the Tangerine Bowl when the host facility said blacks and whites couldn’t compete together on their field.
A championship? In Buffalo? Can you believe it?
An honest-to-goodness championship, and by UB football, a program that wandered aimlessly for almost a decade until Athletic Director Warde Manuel came in the door and hired Turner Gill, who changed the culture of the team with seemingly no more than a snap of the fingers, although it was far more complex than that.
Chalk this victory up to the Bulls’ young, underestimated “D”. Ball State lost four fumbles all season. The Bulls took four from the Cards in this game alone, winning the turnover battle that was so vital to their chances of springing an upset, let alone one of resounding magnitude.
“Our defense, we knew that they were going to be a physical team, and we’ve been preparing on just coming out and being physical and outworking them,” linebacker Mike Thompson said. “And that’s what our defense did. We just worked hard and got our turnovers. We’ve been averaging two a game all season long and that puts your offense in great position to score.”
Given the way this season had gone, you wondered how the Bulls could possibly paint a suitable ending to their season. They did it by becoming the first team since USC against UCLA in 2003 to return two fumbles for touchdowns in the same game. They did it by unnerving a Ball State team that all season had been the epitome of composure. They did it by playing UB football, a term that’s rife with meaning now that they’re — pinch yourself — champions of the MAC.
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