Doug Ireland?€™s Demon Dust column ?€˜How About your Personal NSU Highlight
Library??€™ made us reflect on our own highlight libraries from the first year
we spent as Demon teammates - the 1998 season in which we finished 11-3, won
a Southland Conference title outright, and made it to the Division I-AA
semifinals (losing to eventual champ, the University of Massachusetts
Minutemen).

Of course, compared to the Library of Congress-esque catalog of
Demon and Lady Demon highlights that Doug compiled in his earlier column,
ours may seem more like what?€™s available at the local public library. But,
consider the fact that we spent a combined 6 years at NSU. Compare that to
Doug?€™s; well, we don?€™t want to date him like that.

It seems like yesterday that we (Will in ?€˜96, Brian later, in ?€˜98)
first came to NSU to play football. But as the years passed, we began to
realize that football was just a vessel to connect us with others in the
university and the community, and an opportunity to bleed, sweat, cry, and
triumph with a bunch of guys so diverse and so varied in personality, you?€™d
think it was tryouts for ?€˜The Real World.?€™ Through it all, it's funny how
all the 5:30 a.m. tortuous workouts (mat drills!), endless hours of watching
film, and the W-L records and scores fade to the back of our memories and
all that remains are moments that seemed so trivial and insignificant at the
time, but now comprise the warmest, most awesome, and most hilarious moments
from our brief tenures as Demon athletes -- and we use the term ?€˜athlete?€™
here liberally.

So here goes, from the home offices in Tucson, Arizona and
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two former Demons?€™ personal highlight libraries from
the 1998 Demon football season.

.


THE GAMES

The first game that stands out is against Southern University
in front of a packed Turpin Stadium. There was as much gold and baby blue
in the stands as there was purple and orange. Former Demon great Randy
Hilliard gave a pre-game talk and showed off his Super Bowl ring that he won
while playing with the Denver Broncos. It must have lit a fire under the
team -- we beat Southern 28-7. We still remember Jermaine Jones taking an
interception back for a touchdown (a familiar feat that year) and
celebrating with whom else but Randy Hilliard in the end zone as we notched
a decisive win over the eventual SWAC and Heritage Bowl champions.

Another favorite memory came against another in-state rival, the University of
Louisiana-Lafayette. I?€™ll never forget Coach Blake Miller (whose little
brother Ben Archer played for the Ragin?€™ Cajuns at the time) giving all of
his brother?€™s secrets to our nose tackle, Clint Loggins -- like Clint needed
them! In the final seconds of the game, we move into field goal range while
down by two points as the clock winds down. The kick is up and good. We
stun the Ragin?€™ Cajuns as time runs out and the crowd of 3,000 fans erupts
(all Demons ?€¦ the Cajun fans all left when it started raining a bit at
halftime).

Then there was the four-week stretch in which we made three road trips
-- to San Marcos, Texas for SWT, Anniston, Alabama for Jax State, and Columbia,
Missouri for Mizzou. We spent about 3 days just getting to and from these
arenas to play, but we had a lot of time on the buses and in hotels to bond
(and commiserate!). Two wins and a tough loss (to then nationally-ranked
Mizzou) later, and we began getting the feeling that we were a part of a
special team.

And what about that run that Tony Taylor had against Nicholls State?
The offensive line was so dizzy from watching him make cuts that we
neglected to block anyone. Evidently, we didn't need to ... Tony gained 15
yards on his own and was spotlighted on ESPN later the next week.

Our next memory is from Nacogdoches, Texas at Stephen F. Austin. Late in the game we were up, only by a TD, and a failure to convert on third down would mean that
the Lumberjacks would get one final shot to steal the game from us. We had
the ball at around midfield and ran what seemed like a normal sweep play to
Brian Jacquet, who then pulled up and threw it to a wide-open Nathan Black
inside the 10 yard line. This play set us up to seal the deal, which we did, 35-21. NSU got a thrilling win, Chief Caddo, an outright Southland Conference Championship,
and a second seed in the 1-AA playoffs. What no one noticed, thankfully, is
that Broussard, a normally cerebral and dependable player, went the wrong
way on this halfback pass, nearly blowing it all for the Demons (we share
this now only because Coach Miller is out of arm?€™s reach).

The next memorable game for us was the quarterfinals game against
Appalachian State, which had to be on one of the hottest days in early December in the history of the world. This was probably the most physical game we?€™d played all year. We?€™d never felt so beat up after a win. Of course, who can forget George
Etheridge?€™s big smacker that he put on Coach Goodwin -- that was just
classic George. We came out on top and had our sights set on Chattanooga,
perhaps a little too soon.

Probably the lowlight of 1998 was the semifinal game with U-Mass. The
Minutemen had already traveled to McNeese and defeated the Cowboys in the
first round. As the 11th seed, U-Mass didn?€™t seem to have a chance coming to
Turpin Stadium and winning a second game in Louisiana, but they defied all
odds and defeated the us on their way to defeating the top seed, Georgia
Southern, and earning the I-AA national championship. It was a bittersweet time
for Demon football to say the least. We were all proud of how far we had
come, but we all knew how close we were to winning it all.

Looking back, it
was a great season, and a great run at the championship, but at the same
time it was the longest, most physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing
football season any of us had ever experienced.

.


THE PEOPLE

There are other highlights from our two years together (?€™98 and ?€™99)
that go unmentioned here, and many of them come off like inside jokes
anyway. Such as the mysterious phone calls Al Traylor and Zach Rogers kept
on getting from the Cloutierville Cockroaches, a regional arena football
team of some sort. The look in Gene Tennison's eyes after a
bench press bar slammed into his face and broke his nose, threatening to
ruin his Dolph Lundgren-like good looks. And the dance Mario Sanchez used
to do after practice.

What about the time Ryan Sweezy accidentally
knocked over the bust of Coach Jack Clayton?€™s head as we ran out onto the
field -- the very day that the Jack Clayton Plaza was dedicated! Or how
Whaley mysteriously gained 20 pounds during the ?€™98 season and attested it
to, of all things, his love of pistachios.

Or when Eric Granger reminded
Broussard that Will was the FCA president after he cursed at the scout defense
one night at practice. Or why if you wanted the scoop on an opposing team,
you bypassed the coaches, AD?€™s, and the SID and went straight to Tom Foster and Coach Black. And the thousands of
other incidents we?€™d like to mention but won't, for fear of incriminating our
former teammates!

It?€™s funny how when we get together (every year we come back to old
Demonland to catch a game, we were in each other's weddings, heck, even our
wives were good friends at NSU) we don?€™t ever seem to talk very much about
the games we played in. We couldn?€™t, when we spoke recently, remember the
score of the McNeese game from ?€˜98, when we beat the No. 1-ranked team in the country
(sorry to bring it up, Coach Stoker, but it was the only time we got to beat
you back when you were a Cowboy!). We couldn?€™t remember the score of the
U-Mass game, or how well we played for the most part. We don?€™t remember the
injuries, either.

What we do remember is waking up at 5 a.m. to eat pancakes the morning
we played U-Mass (11 a.m. kickoff). And the chorus of angels that
we used to hear singing when we walked into Prather Coliseum and smelled
those steaks that the boosters prepared for us occasionally on Friday
nights. And Nigel Traylor?€™s spot-on impression of Michael McDonald singing
?€˜I Keep Forgetting?€™ that used to get us through long practices. And how Roy
Locks, Mike Funches, and Joe Johnson used to snap on one another from the
beginning of the bus trip until our arrival.

We also remember sitting
at volleyball games with Matt Slate. And fishing with Gerald and Rose Long
(we don?€™t know if there are bigger fans and supporters of NSU Football than
these two folks. If so, perhaps we haven?€™t met them, yet!) at their lovely
house on a summer afternoon. And how Coach Black could tell you the height,
weight, shoe size, and social security number of any current or former NSU
football player (although, we?€™d be hard pressed to guess his weight now,
given the recent pictures we?€™ve seen! Just kidding, Black. You look
?€œhealthy.?€ť).

We remember meat pies, funnel cakes, and cold beers -- ahem -- sodas at
"Boogie on the Bricks." We remember an amazing athletics director and a
supportive president in Greg Burke and Dr. Randall Webb, who were at every
single game, win, lose, or draw, and who always had encouraging words for
all of us.

A million memories. About thousands of fans. Seventy-something guys.
About a dozen coaches. Fourteen opponents. Eleven wins. Two playoff
victories. A Southland Conference Championship. One great year in both of
our lives that we?€™ll never forget.

And as the saying goes "The older we get, the better we were." That
much can certainly be said about our memories of the 1998 "Dream Season." We
hope that the accomplishments of the 2003 team can make ours a distant
memory.