There are hundreds of rules and procedures that govern the game of college football. After a 51-40 loss to North Texas on Homecoming last Saturday, coach David Elson said he feels like he’s being affected by the one rule that can be difficult to find in the football rule book.
“It’s just Murphy’s law right now,” Elson said.
“It’s just not working right now. That’s what’s frustrating. Some of these things that happen are just unbelievable. It’s ironic things. You never know what to expect. That’s why you play.”
It seemed like everything that could go wrong did in the Topper’s latest misstep, a 51-40 loss to North Texas at Homecoming on Saturday.
Such things included a botched two-point conversion by the Toppers that was rescued by a facemask penalty but then saw senior kicker Tanner Siewert miss the PAT kick.
This was one of the two PAT kicks Siewert would miss in the game.
The game also saw four turnovers, one by the Mean Green and three by Western.
The last turnover proved to be the most costly, and the best example of Murphy’s law.
On third-and-goal on the one-yard line, senior quarterback David Wolke was picked off in the endzone, and an interception was run back for a touchdown as time ran out.
This led the Toppers to their fifth consecutive loss, and their third home loss this season.
Junior running back Tyrell Hayden said that missed opportunities like that could be interpreted as a theme for the Toppers.
“We had enough opportunities to win the game, we just couldn’t finish,” Hayden said. “It seemed like we missed a couple opportunities in the other games. I don’t think there’s any problem, there’s just another opportunity that we missed.”
Freshman defensive back Ryan Beard said that if the team is to succeed the players must continue doing what they are doing and have confidence.
“All you can do is go into practice each week and think you’re gonna win the ball game,” Beard said. “If you don’t believe you’re never going to win the ball game. If you don’t know failure you’ll never know success. We just got to win a ball game and we’ll be fine.”
The Toppers hope to get back in the win column with a victory against Troy at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in Troy, Ala.
Reach Chris Acree at sports@chherald.com.
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