It may not be a direct comparison, but this was one of my first thoughts after last night's game.

First, consider a few things:

We're a few seconds away from overtime and potentially winning against Miami to stay undefeated and to keep our BCS hopes alive. We lose after one of the most frustrating few seconds of sports we've ever seen (you know what I'm talking about), semi-recover and beat EMU, then lose three straight until redemption as we won our second straight bowl game and got a great performance out of Tettleton (14/22, 331 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT). I'd argue that loss (amongst more injuries than we could ultimately handle) really hurt our "mojo" as a team and as a fan base and we really had lost our edge.

Yesterday, we're one game away from getting back to the tournament and seeing if these amazing seniors can make yet another run to the Sweet 16. We (and I'm sure the team) thought we had a great shot. Unfortunately, here we are the day after arguably Cooper's worst performance that we've ever seen (amongst other things resulting in the loss) and we're all wondering if this is how it ends. Yes they'll go down in history for last year's run but I doubt any of them want their last "hurrah" to be an embarrassing performance at The Q. It wasn't just a few frustrating seconds like the Miami game, it basically was 40 minutes of "is this really happening?" (referring to the team, but mostly Cooper)

After the game, I contemplated, "Can Cooper (and the team for that matter) really turn this around, make up for an extremely poor showing against 'kron, and end this in a more positively memorable way like Tettleton and the football team?"

With the NIT, the opportunity is there. Sure Cooper can add to the one-of-a-kind stats he has already but you have to think he and these seniors are so disgusted with last night that they want to take it out on anyone and show that was a flukey performance and I don't mean just one more win. I mean multiple wins.

This is our chance. This is Cooper's chance. This is Ohio's chance.

P.S.: Not to go off on a tangent, but I was one of the people that hated when Groce chose to leave. I know this topic was covered already but just wanted to through my two cents out there that I still hold that against him and I find it hard to wish him success elsewhere. He had unfinished business in my book. And yes, I've always been a Cleveland sports fan so grudges are kind of my (our) thing.