Now there is a boneheaded call . . .

Mean Green 93-98 · September 4, 2013

"Spike the ball! Spike the ball!"

Stan R · September 4, 2013

whoops!

untjim1995 · September 4, 2013

The Pelini's are known for their passion...not for their intelligence.

VideoEagle · September 4, 2013

That is a new classic!

UNTFan23 · September 4, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYcK6NV724

UNTLifer · September 4, 2013

That is nothing short of awesome.

jdennis82 · September 4, 2013

I'm all for cutting a first timer some slack. Similar to burning all of a team's timeouts early in the first quarter of a game in which you've already swung momentum to your side in a big way.

FirefightnRick · September 4, 2013

Dennis Parker did the same thing in a conference game vs ULM in '91 or '92, and we had the lead at the time, and ended up losing.

Rick

untjim1995 · September 5, 2013

Dennis Parker did the same thing in a conference game vs ULM in '91 or '92, and we had the lead at the time, and ended up losing.
Rick

Actually, it was our homecoming game in 1992 against Northwestern State. We were losing by 3 points, had moved down deep into their red zone, and had just completed a pass, so the clock kept running. He had Mitch Maher spike the ball, but it was 3rd down, so we were forced to kick a FG with about 20 seconds left in the game. Remember, back in those days, you had ties, so he basically decided to kick a FG and settle for a tie. So, as pathetic as it was to settle for a tie at home on your homecoming, we all were amazingly shocked when he then decided to call for an onsides kick on the ensuing kickoff, which the Demons recovered at about their 40 yard line. They then complete a pass over the middle and call timeout with the ball on our 30 yard line after the completion to bring on the kicker, who promptly kicks the field goal and they win by three.

It was the moment that everyone knew this guy was in waayyy over his head as a college coach. I still believe that it was the worst minute of college coaching I have ever witnessed in my life. The next year, after another 4-7 year, he got fired, since that was his last year of his contract. Just to put this all in persepctive, a huge crowd at Fouts in his tenure as coach was over 10k, which basically happened at Homecoming each year. I remember playing a home game on a Saturday night against Nicholls State in November. We won 31-3, IIRC, and literally played in front of the band and about 250 people--no lie, we counted about 25 students in the second half of the game. The alumni/parent side was not much better. I remember telling one of my fellow managers that there appeared to be more people in the press box than on the student side, minus the band.

I think about these games when things are looking dire in our program, especially when Dodge was roaming the sidelines in his latter years. No matter how bad we have gotten, we could be playing at Fouts again, as a FCS school, playing someone that nobody cares about, with a high school coach that is in way over his head, in front of 250 people. Sure, we have examples of the NMSU or MTSU games on the last weekend of the year after Thanksgiving with unbelievable small crowds, but at least we were FBS, and at least against MUTS, we were at Apogee with a real college coach on the sidelines.