Savannah State coach owed a good break in Oklahoma?
Published: 8/28/2012 7:00 PM
Last Modified: 8/28/2012 8:39 PM
Former NFL receiver Terance Mathis is the offensive coordinator at Savannah State, which opens the season with a Sept. 1 game at Oklahoma State.
He believes he is owed a good break in Oklahoma.
“I really do,” he said. “It would be nice if it came around on September 1st, wouldn’t it?”
This story is why Mathis suggests the state owes him some good fortune:
Mathis was a senior at New Mexico when the Lobos visited Skelly Stadium for a game against the University of Tulsa on Sept. 23, 1989. His team lost (35-33) because, by game’s end, one of the goal posts was leaning like that tower in Pisa.
New Mexico kicker David Margolis, who hadn’t missed all season, attempted a 44-yard field goal with five seconds left. If the goal post had been in its proper position, the kick would have been good and the Lobos would have won by a point. But -- wouldn’t you know it? -- the ball hit the leaning goal post and bounced away.
It was insult upon injury for Mathis. He showed why he was a future pro in the first half. He returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. He caught five balls for 99 yards in the first two quarters, including a 68-yarder for a touchdown. But he also sustained an injury just before halftime that prevented him from playing in the second half.
So, Mathis got on the bus after the game with a sore shoulder and sore feelings about losing a game to a crooked goalpost.
Afterward, then-TU coach Dave Rader acknowledged what everyone in attendance saw.
“The upright was definitely leaning,” Rader said. “It gets like that all the time.... We straighten it before a game but the wind bends it back. I haven’t talked to our people about what we might do about it.”
That should tell you a little bit about how the powers-that-be at TU felt about football facilities during that era. But, at least on this occasion, bad facilities proved to be a good thing for the Golden Hurricane.
“I feel for the New Mexico kids because they played really hard,” Rader said. “Last year we had a bunch of close ones go against us. Now one goes for us, and you won’t find me apologizing for that. I think our kids deserve for some things like this to happen.”
Mathis feels like he deserves some payback. But it would take a monumental upset for him to get it Saturday. OSU is the defending Big 12 champion. Savannah State is an FCS school which went 1-10 last season.
--Jimmie Tramel.
Written by
Jimmie Tramel
Sports Writer
