Five years ago we had our home opener vs. ECU. I took one of my kids (little girl in a Drew Brees jersey T-shirt who spent an inordinate amount of time in those much-derided East upper deck bathrooms ). It was the first home game I'd been to in a while. I kind of tuned out Southern Miss from 2004-2010 or so, because of how crappy things got, but also because I was dealing with some shit personally.
I remember being blown away with how much things seemed to have grown and improved. The eight year stretch from 2004 to 2012 was a time of actual progress. The stadium was bigger, and more full. The crowd was louder, and a larger proportion of the people in the stands actually gave a shit. Even after that disappointing Nebraska game, just shy of 35,000 people saw fit to show up. It looked like 40,000.
I won't lie, it got to me. Worked on the tear ducts a little bit, seeing what my beloved alma mater had grown into, after lots of stupid mistakes, with my little kid by my side. I'm a pretty cynical dude. I don't post pictures of Bigfoot in response to any optimism at all, but I know where BDR is coming from.
For once, I saw real fucking movement. USM was not what it had been. This was not the program that took 32 people to the 2002 Houston Bowl, or the program that gave the head cheerleader a microphone so he could insult I-AA liberal arts schools. This was better
And what did they immediately turn around and do? They did every possible fucking thing they could to run it all into the ground.
But progress is possible, even at USM. I saw it. Bigfoot just might be real.
Bring back Reed V. "Pie" TurkPalmer Eustachy.