SB Nation’s own The Hustle Belt covers all thing MAC. So you can imagine they have some thoughts on Miami (OH)’s monumental upset of Northern Illinois in the MAC Championship game Friday night.
Miami-Ohio 26, No. 24 Northern Illinois 21: ‘Miami Football Is Proof You Are Stupid’
The win truly was a spectacular one for the program for the simple reason that the Redhawks shouldn’t even have stood a chance.
For Miami OF OHIO, here’s why this win was so spectacular: because they were supposed to lose so abominably. They were playing a vastly better team on all facets. I really did believe — and feared, for the attention span of my brethren — that Northern Illinois was going to post 30 before halftime, but the act of shell-shocking went the other way. I’d have taken NIU -17 if I had gold coins to spare. I’d have probably taken NIU -27. I still can’t explain it. (Also inexplicable: why ESPN booth analyst Rod Gilmore thought injured sophomore quarterback Zac Dysert was a four-year starter.) Boucher won this game for them, and this is the same young man who almost spiked the ball on fourth down. Freshman mistakes almost cost them the game, but the long Thomas Merriweather run to start their offense set the tone.
It still feels like a lucky victory, because so many sure things blew up in coach Mike Haywood’s face during the game. And maybe it was. But whether fortune or fortutide was the driving force, that MAC Championship trophy will soon be locked in a displayable case in Oxford, Ohio.
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