DETROIT — History can be unrelenting.
For some teams, it can feel like a funny footnote on the way to a first Mid-American Conference Championship since 1988. For other teams, it can suffocate you until your final, dying breaths.
In a cruel twist of fate Friday night, the team with a destiny met The Team of Destiny.
Coach Frank Solich has never been one for revisionist history; but as Solich and the Bobcats reflect on the end of another title-less season, one can't help but think of the missed opportunities. The Quinton Maxwell fumble. Missed tackles on Corey Davis. Windham's final interception to end the game at 29-23 on Friday night.
"It definitely hurts," wide receiver Jordan Reid said. "This is what we've been working for all season, all football camp, all summer, and then 12 weeks to get to this point. That just comes down to us finishing, period."
Each year the Bobcats have made the MAC Championship Game under Solich's 12-year regime, it's a different poison that ends a chance at history.
In 2006, it was a fourth quarter collapse before a 21-point loss to Central Michigan. In 2009, it was a stagnant offense that lost to the same Chippewas squad. In 2011, it was a second half collapse after a 20-point halftime lead to Northern Illinois.
And finally in 2016, it was a back-breaking interception in the final seconds to an undefeated team obsessed with oars and boats.
"We had a lot of things that happened throughout the course of the year that was somewhat problematic for us," Solich said. "But they kept pressing for it and kept working their way through things and got themselves here and then played well, but obviously we didn't play quite well enough."
After an Ohio field goal in the fourth quarter to put Western Michigan on the ropes, Ohio had to come up with one more stop on defense. After a Broncos field goal and a six-point deficit, the stage was set.
Windham would lead the team down the field, deliver Solich his first MAC championship and vanquish demons in one fell swoop.
Then reality came down with one swift, powerful punch to the midsection, as Windham didn't see linebacker Robert Spillane, who seemingly came from the ghosts of MAC Championship's past to intercept Windham and end Ohio's chance at history with 51 seconds left.
Game ending interception. pic.twitter.com/tadpz9vq6M
— Andrew Gillis (@Andrew_Gillis70) December 3, 2016
"And good play by that guy, he ran my eyes out," Windham said. "I did a bad job with my eyes. I locked in right away on him because I thought it was there. So that was a mental mistake on my part and it cost us the game."
It wouldn't be fair to judge the redshirt senior quarterback, or the 72-year old coach who sat at the postgame presser and stared at the floor. Maybe he was just looking for answers.
Because right now, Ohio is stuck with the stinging reality that it put absolutely every ounce of strength and desire into the final MAC game of the season, only to come up short. There really isn't a simple answer.
It's not fair to blame history, or curses, or even the team that was just more talented. But it's certainly easier.
"It's no consolation, we just play to win," safety Toran Davis said. "I guess it's an accomplishment, but the ultimate goal is to hold the trophy at the end of the day. We played our hearts out. The comeback, nobody gave up the heart."
