Unbelievable. Heartbreaking. No, heart wrenching. It was a storybook ending right up until the last sentence when the protagonist and everyone in his family is murdered and dismembered.
Tennessee wasn't supposed to be in this game. The first play from scrimmage was a QB draw for over 80 yards for a TD.
But then UT dusted off its britches and went to work. We held them. We scored. They hit a field goal. We missed one. And then we scored to go up 14-10, and we had them.
We had them. Despite the Tigers driving with time winding down, and despite giving them the ball and four downs to go two yards for the win. They brought in their running QB, and we stopped him. And then, as the clock ran, with neither team having any timeouts left, everyone wondering just how badly Les Miles was going to screw up the clock management, his team stood around looking completely lost. They had no play ready to go. They did manage to get lined up with about three seconds left, but they weren't really ready, and the snap sailed past the QB and time ran out and Tennessee had won thanks to yet another Les Miles Clock Management Fiasco.
Derek Dooley jumped on Marsalis Teague. The team ran out onto the field. They'd turned the corner. They'd done the miraculous.
They'd had too many men on the field. As confused as LSU was, Tennessee was just as confused, and they had 13 players on the field when the ball was snapped. LSU lined up for the last play, and they ran it in for the win.
Joy.
Pain.