Milestones In The Dark

Last week was the final week in the regular season for NAIA football. Division II had already started their playoff run, and every other group that has a playoff is close to gearing up for those themselves.

Are you listening Division I...?

Oh, that's right... I forgot...

There was a lot of radio stalking the day of the game in McKenzie, Tennessee. The Shorter Hawks, the adopted birds of OSG HQ, had found out earlier in the day from their hotel rooms in Jackson, Tennessee- when there actually was warmth in the air- that the team that needed to lose for the Hawks to get a shot at a division title actually did.

Cumberland University actually beat Lambuth University... there was a shot... a shot for another first in a year of firsts- a division title. That would mean that another record would be set for wins in a season if they pulled off a win against Bethel University ((pictured above right, thanks to me)). All that, in turn, would mean another distinct possibility...

The school's first ever playoff birth...

A little about McKenzie, Tennessee... it's officially in the middle-of-nowhere-northwest Tennessee. And it's not even northwest enough to be the town of Martin. They house the Skyhawks and play on SprinTurf. They're in the polls as well you see, but in a different division that also has playoffs. But they were playing Southeast Missouri State and couldn't be reached for comment in this column ((pictured above left, thanks again to me))...

McKenzie is part of Tennessee 22 that runs from, roughly, 20 miles east of Jackson on Interstate 40 to the four corners area of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas.

It's Cardinals country. It's farm country and it's speed traps. You get a sandwich in Parker's Crossroads and head north about 20 miles- that's McKenzie. But not before you get lost in Huntingdon on the by-pass.

You can't tell where the Bethel campus is in broad daylight. But an 8PM kick-off is easy.

The football lights act as your beacon. Another pretty stadium that lights your way.

It looked like neither team liked the idea of playing in the cold... a lot of running. If you want to call it an idea of running to run back inside on one side- go for it. I certainly was- or would have liked to since it felt like 12 degrees outside with a nice breeze in your grill to remind you it's winter time.

Shorter runs and dares you to stop them...they don't care about the conditions.

The defense came up big on a tip drill-interception to preserve the shutout, and came up a few more times to keep the score on the positive. But there were a few instances where I couldn't help but laugh at the proceedings... an example...

Fourth quarter, good guys still up 7-nothing... Running back Chris Chapman was a moving target in motion in the wing-T formation. He got the pitch from QB Ben Williams, found the corner, got some great blocks, and ended up in the endzone.

About 45 minutes later, someone threw a flag and called the touchdown back.

So much for being up 14-nothing.

There were horsecollars, which I thought were universally-bad, that weren't flagged. There were flags that shouldn't have been flagged that were flagged.

It got flaggin' ridiculous... but the final was 7-nothing over Bethel.

Division title... playoff berth... all that...

And when you looked over at Head Coach and All-Around-Good-Guy Phil Jones he was overcome on the sidelines. You see, he's the architect of this whole thing. He started coaching when there wasn't anything or anyone to coach. In four years, he's taken the team from being a bunch of freshmen to a bunch of seniors who've played every down and made a program out of thin air.

Don't get me wrong... it takes a lot of people to make this work- from administration to coaches to trainers, players, families, and fans. And he'll be the first one to tell you all about that...

It's not about him... never has...

So, what has all that work gotten the program...?

A Top-12 ranking in the final regular season coaches poll, a division title, and another road game eleven miles north of the Tennessee-Kentucky border this Saturday at the University of the Cumberlands for the Mid-South Conference Heavyweight Belt...

Your playoffs pairings for the rest of the NAIA are in black...

See you from the road...