The Entirety of College Football Rejoices
Kennesaw State Earns their First FBS win
1 Samuel 17th Chapter
49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
Last night, something truly amazing happened in college football. Not only was it amazing, but it was also historic, and another reminder of why College Football is the most unique and beautiful of sports.
Kennesaw State, an 0-6 team this year that had never won a game against a FBS program in their history, was playing host to Liberty, who was coming in at 5-0 and had not lost a regular season game under second year coach Jamey Chadwell. The Owls were 25.5 point underdogs. Liberty was hoping to contend for the FBS College Football Playoff.
In the sense of a CUSA match up, this was David vs. Goliath.
Well, for those of us who know a little bit about that particular Bible story, we should have known to bet on the Owls tonight. Because it was also in this instance that David did indeed slay Goliath to the tune of 27-24. And there was great rejoicing throughout the college football world.
The last time an 0-6 team defeated a 5-0 team was in 1998 when the Temple OWLS beat Virginia Tech 28-24.
The parallels to the story are even more striking than one might think though.
As previously mentioned, Kennesaw State had never beaten a FBS school. Their program has not even been around for a full decade, and this is their first year as a FBS full time member. Liberty’s football program has been around for much longer and has had their fair share of program defining wins and accomplishments.
Then there’s the literal budgets that are a David vs. Goliath story. Liberty may be a private school who doesn’t need to disclose finances but through their online courses and diplomas flushing them with cash they do not hide their wealth, especially when it comes to athletics. Compared to the rest of CUSA, respectively, they probably outspend their counterparts 3-5 times at minimum when it comes to sports.
One could say…while Liberty was coming at Kennesaw State with a sword, the Owls had but a humble sling and stone. And with that stone they slew the giant and protected the college football world.
You may think I am speaking in hyperbole here, but what was crazy was the reaction to this upset not just from Kennesaw State fans, or even Sun Belt fans, especially those from JMU. It seemed like EVERY college football fan base was behind the Owls rejoicing in the Liberty Flames being slain…or extinguished. College football accounts were all over this. Writers and pundits seemed to be somewhat jubilant in their posts. Even the Reddit comments were coming from fans that spanned the entire college football landscape. My college football Twitter feed is decidedly not “mono fanatic”, and every single one of the people I was seeing on that feed was overjoyed from Pitt fans to ULM fans to Georgia Southern fans.
And these Wednesday night CUSA games don’t always get the best publicity. They have modest turnouts, and sometimes the banter online is “meh” at best. People were really fired up about this, not only because of the magnitude of the upset, but because of the Goliath that was slain.
Hooty Hoo was even trending for a while following the KSU win.
So, no offense to Vanderbilt upsetting Alabama this year. That may be the upset of the year for the loudest talking heads in the college football landscape. This was truly an earth-shattering result for many fans of the sport including some from the bigger schools. I’ll leave it to you all to discuss why so many people rejoiced in seeing the demise of Liberty, especially at the hands of Kennesaw State. But even on the surface, this was an absolute stunner.
Kennesaw State has defended us. We should all be grateful, and congrats to the Owls on their first FBS win.
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