"I could have missed the pain, but I would've had to miss the dance" - Garth Brooks
These were the words that kept coming back to me late in the game against McCallie. It was very painful. We had played so well coming into this game only to play very poorly that night. Some of our poor play was our fault as coaches and players but much of it was the result of excellent playing and coaching by McCallie. Congrats to them on their championship. We make no excuses for our performance on that night but congratulate our opponent for a job well done. Our loss was not for lack of effort but was caused by poor execution and planning. And if you do this long enough against the type quality teams we play, you will experience nights like that. Very painful nights. But if we had known that pain was coming it was still worth it to experience the dance of the 2020 season!!
And what a dance it was. This team has represented themselves, their families, and MUS so well. They kept fighting and overcoming obstacles and by the end were a championship quality team. That is all a coach can ask for from his men. We shed tears over the way it ended but not with our heads down for long. We are MUS and "Whether we win or lose, a greater team you'll never see. We'll show our might again for Memphis University, ready to to fight again for MUS and VICTORY!"
I told the boys after the game that sometime, somewhere, someone would ask them if it was possible that we won this game. They would be able to answer proudly: YES. This game will certainly go down as one of the biggest wins and one of the greatest comebacks in MUS history. Both teams struggled defensively with MBA making it's biggest defensive plays in the 2nd quarter and the Owls making theirs in the 4th. And that was pretty much the difference. What we know we can say about these Owls is as our fight song says "Our team will never yield, Our men forever will be true". In a season which is certainly unusual, we have persevered and given our team an opportunity to play for a championship. AMAZING!!
MERCURY AWARDS: Since 2002 Mr. Earl Blankenship has sponsored the Mercury Player of the Game Awards. And over that time we have occasionally done something a little different with Earl's blessing. For this game it is just impossible but more importantly it would be unfitting to single out just a few players. So we will have one award that we will display permanently at the school honoring the 2020 football seniors for their teamwork, sacrifice, discipline and pursuit of excellence that made this victory possible. Old coaches find it hard not to be cynical. This team shows us the hope we can have if we only keep believing.
So for the 11th time our team has advanced to the state championship. The 2020 Owls join an elite group. Let me refer again to the school fight song again. Mr. Hatchett and Mr. Mosby said it best in the final stanza.
"Whether we win or lose A greater team you'll never see. We'll show our might again For Memphis University, Ready to fight again For MUS and victory."
The Owls went on the road to win a play-off game this past Friday at Father Ryan by a score of 41 to 17. The team played a complete game as an underdog to a Ryan team who had been very hot with wins over McCallie, Baylor, and Ensworth. For the Owls it was a true team effort in the victory. Down two starting linebackers plus loosing a starting safety at the half the Owl defense did a great job of keeping Ryan and their All-State and Mr. Football honoree QB out of the end-zone. It was a great team defensive effort. On offense we executed very well but props especially to our offensive line and running backs for providing a consistent run game against a team whose defensive identity is to stop the run. Add to this all the craziness that comes with travelling under COVID protocols and I would rank this victory very high up the list in all-time great play-off wins for the Owls.
MERCURY AWARDS: This was such a team win it is very hard to just pick a couple of people who stood out. So we will go strictly objective with production value scores to name the winners this week. On defense Nash Stewart ending up with 24 points based on 6 tackles, 2 for loss, and two short yardage big plays. The last few weeks Nash has shown the type play he had before his injury last year and he will have to play great for us this week against MBA. On offense our two running backs Christopher Goodwin and Hunter Barnes combined for 231 points. They accounted for 5 TD's.
The team will continue on the road this week as we travel back to Nashville to take on MBA in the state semi-finals. I am so proud of this team for reaching this goal. We got off to a rough start this year but the boys never quit working or believing in each other. We will be a heavy underdog again this week but I would never count our guys out. This team has learned how to fight through adversity and bring honor to the Red and Blue!