One Last Time
November 30, 2006 02:24 PM | General
November 30, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many young boys dream of one day suiting up for the Old Gold and Blue. They wonder what the thrill would be like running out of the tunnel at Mountaineer Field to the cheers of 60,000 rabid fans. On Saturday night under the lights against Rutgers, 25 West Virginia seniors will experience that exhilaration one final time.
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| Tim Lindsey is one of 25 seniors who will make their final run out of the tunnel on Saturday when West Virginia plays Rutgers.
AP photo |
Coach Rich Rodriguez has talked often about how the greatest accomplishment you can have as a college football player is to simply finish your career. Whether you are a star player for four years or a career scout team contributor, the fact that you saw it through to the end is a measure of success nobody can ever take away.
“I think it is special for all of them, even the ones that haven’t played as much and have just been role players,” Rodriguez said. “To get your name called out and run out of that tunnel -- I can remember it -- it’s pretty emotional. Not just because you are ending your career at home but because of the finality of it. It is really their last chance to be in front of their family and friends.”
Rodriguez, a Grant Town, W.Va., native, remembered experiencing a whirlwind of emotions during his final home game in 1984.
“I do believe we lost. We had just beaten Penn State in the first night game here and then we played Virginia the next week and got beat,” Rodriguez said. “I remember how excited I was coming out and how disappointed I was in the locker room afterward.”
This Saturday night will be a time for fans to truly appreciate what this senior class has accomplished. The fifth-year seniors on this team committed to WVU at the conclusion of a 3-8 season in Rodriguez’s first year. Little was expected of them outside the walls of the Puskar Center.
All they have done in five seasons is compile a 45-16 record, win three Big East Championships and a Sugar Bowl, and come January they will have appeared in five consecutive bowl games. It is a class that has propelled the program from the doldrums of a 3-8 campaign in 2001 to a place among college football’s elite. With a victory over Rutgers Saturday night, this class will overtake last year’s seniors as the winningest class in school history.
Senior defensive back Aaron Meckstroth couldn’t imagine that he would have taken part in this much success five years ago.
“I never would have believed we would be the winningest class in West Virginia’s history. That would be a great feeling for me if we could accomplish that. Just to have my name in there with these guys would be amazing,” Meckstroth said.
Senior center Dan Mozes talks about how important it is to him to go out on top in his final home game. The Washington, Pa., native knows that with one more victory, his name along with 24 others will be etched in the WVU record book forever.
“You leave your legacy here. When people look in the stat book and ask who is the winningest class of all time here, our names are going to be there,” Mozes said. “As long as Coach Rod is here he is always going to stress that and people are always going to be trying to break that record.”
Every year on the eve of the senior’s final home game, the team meets at Lakeview and the seniors give a speech to their teammates, letting them know what four years as a Mountaineer has meant to them. More often than not, with each speech given, there isn’t a dry eye in the room.
Senior longsnapper Tim Lindsey describes the approach he plans to use for his senior speech.
“It comes from the heart. It is not something I will write down on paper and read verbatim off a sheet,” Lindsey said. “I am going to wait until that moment comes and whatever hits me right then is what I am going to tell the guys.”
Senior linebacker Jay Henry says that in his speech he just wants to let his teammates know how much they have meant to him over his five-year career.
“I probably will get emotional. Regardless of what goes on outside the program and what people say you know what it means to the seniors and you know how much work everybody has put in,” Henry says. “You see it especially with the guys that have been here five years and redshirted and gone through so much together. I just want the seniors and the rest of the guys to know how much they mean to me.”
Mozes says that while the emotion and the finality of the situation have not yet gotten to him, he expects it will on Friday and on through the weekend.
“The emotion won’t hit me until I get ready to give my speech to the teammates on Friday,” Mozes said. “I will sit back on Friday or Saturday and realize this is my last time on Mountaineer Field as a player. It is going to be painful.”
More than anything else, many seniors can’t believe just how quickly their time in Morgantown has flown by.
“You don’t ever think about it ending. Sometimes it feels like it is never going to end. Now the end is almost here and it is very nostalgic. These five years have been great,” Lindsey said.
Mozes agrees.
“I can’t really comprehend it. It seems like I just pulled into the Holiday Inn for the start of camp my freshman year,” Mozes said. “Now to be leaving, these last games mean a lot to us. You always want to go out on top.”
When it is all over on Saturday night, when the last first down cheer has been signaled, when the final playing of Country Roads has gone silent, when the final yell of “Let’s Go Mountaineers’ has faded off into the Morgantown night, all these 25 seniors will have left are the memories of a tremendous five-year journey.
“I’ll always remember being a part of the tradition here. I’ll remember the fans and also being around all the players and coaches,” Brandon Myles said.
Lindsey will miss the friends that have helped mold his life over the past five years.
“I’ll miss the camaraderie. The friends I have made over the last five years are friends I will have for a lifetime,” Lindsey said. “We spend so much time together. I will miss the quality time before and after practice.”
Rodriguez could not be more appreciative of these seniors’ efforts.
“Those guys have given a lot and played at a high level for a long time. This senior class has done as much as any senior class in the history of West Virginia football. That is saying quite a bit,” Rodriguez said.
Those seniors will have one more opportunity to add to their legacy on Saturday night facing No. 13-rated Rutgers under the lights in prime time. As they race from the tunnel and are greeted with a thunderous ovation, they will be ready to defend their home turf at Milan Puskar Stadium one last time.
