To Greg Windham, it had to be deja vu.
Down a touchdown, with the ball and a chance to win, Windham had the same chance to play the hero as he had 21 days earlier in Detroit. This time, however, his fatal interceptions had come earlier, not later.
Pressured on fourth down with under two minutes left, he escaped the pocket like his life depended upon it and found fellow senior Bo Hardy on a check down. Hardy got hit, but he fought tooth and nail to get the first down, 10 yards away.
He got nine.
The Bobcats, in back-to-back games, couldn't score on their final drive as they lost Friday night to Troy 28-23 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in the Dollar General Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Ohio finished the season 8-6.
“We lost to two really good football teams at the end of the year," coach Frank Solich said. "We were in both of 'em, had a chance in both of 'em. I still feel the same about this team. I wouldn’t trade them for anyone."
Just like in the MAC Championship Game, the defense looked wobbly early on. But after gaining its footing, the defense rebounded to not only slow down Troy's
Troy had just 322 yards — and just 236 in the final 56 minutes of the game.
But Ohio's continuous problems on offense persisted, no matter which band-aid was placed on the wound. Windham, though not all his fault, turned the ball over five times. Troy scored 21 points off of turnovers.
"One thing that we did that was too much to overcome was five turnovers to two turnovers," Solich said. "Other than that, was pretty
Windham's turnovers came as a result of just about everything: batted balls, errant
“I wouldn’t trade Greg for the world," Jordan Reid said. "That’s my boy. Been through a lot these past five years. It hurts to go out like that. It really does.”
Reid caught 12 of Windham's 47 passes for a game (and season) high in catches and yards. Reid also had one touchdown.
But while the Windham and Reid connection thrived in the air, the ground game remained stagnant. Windham led the team with 10 rushes for 24 yards. Ohio's longest rush of the day went for 10 yards.
“They were very quick, very athletic up front," Solich said. "They give you a lot of different looks. We adjusting some of our blocking schemes at halftime, more seven-man protection to help out a little bit. As the game went along, we adjusted a little better to their speed, but Greg was on the run too much in the game.”
Windham, who hadn't started since Oct. 15 against Eastern Michigan, stood tall and tough in the pocket the entire night and took hit after hit. Seemingly from a scene out of a movie, he rose up again and again. Windham was hit eight times in the pocket, not including his 10 carries.
“(I) always tell our guys, mistakes do happen," Casey Sayles said. "This team is a family. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
In Windham's final games as a Bobcat, he brought Ohio within 37 yards of a MAC Championship and within five points of the school's third-ever bowl win. For the quarterback who had to overcome everything imaginable, that would be enough for most. But that doesn't make it any less difficult to endure.
“It’s tough going out like that," Sayles said. "You set goals and stuff, we got to the conference championship, obviously couldn’t win it. But we got to another bowl game. Losses do happen. It’s not like we got blown out anytime this year, really. It is what it is.”
