For football fans, the play was valued for its sheer fascination factor. For Trinity, it represented so much more.
On Oct. 27, down two points with two seconds left on the road against defending Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion Millsaps (Miss.), the Tigers executed a successful pass followed by 15 laterals to score the winning touchdown.
The 62-second final play will live in infamy because of its absurdness. But it will be remembered by the Tigers because it saved their season.
“In a way, it was a message from our seniors,” said Trinity coach Steve Mohr, whose 13th-ranked Tigers (9-1) will face fifth-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor (9-1) in an NCAA Division III first-round playoff game at noon Saturday at Tiger Field in Belton.
“Last year, we had lost to Millsaps and didn’t win the conference for the first time in 14 years,” he added. “Our guys didn’t want that to happen again.”
For the record, the play began at the Trinity 34-yard line and went down as follows:
- Quarterback Blake Barmore completes a pass to receiver Shawn Thompson
- Thompson laterals to receiver Riley Curry
- Curry to lineman Josh Hooten
- Hooten to receiver Michael Tomlin
- Tomlin to lineman Stephen Arnold
- Arnold to Thompson
- Thompson to receiver Brandon Maddux
- Maddux to Curry
- Curry to Maddux
- Maddux to Barmore
- Barmore to Thompson
- Thompson to Curry
- Curry to Tomlin
- Tomlin to Hooten
- Hooten to Maddux
- And finally a one-hopper from Maddux to Curry, who scooped it up at the Millsaps 35 and raced into the end zone.
“We were too far away for a Hail Mary, so we sent four guys deep and one guy underneath,” Mohr said. “There’s no way we could ever do that again even on the practice field against air. It was a 1-in-a-million thing. But it propelled us over the top.”
The win kept Trinity alive in the chase for the SCAC’s automatic postseason bid, and the Tigers’ playoff hopes had been on life support since a 27-13 loss at Rhodes (Tenn.) on Oct. 6.
“After the loss to Rhodes, we could have folded our tents,” Mohr said. “But the way our kids responded was great. After that loss, every game was a playoff game for us.”
While Trinity was successful in fighting for its postseason life, it hasn’t been as fortunate in the actual playoffs the past few years.
The Tigers advanced to the national title game in 2002 but haven’t won a playoff game since that year’s semifinal round. Trinity was bounced in the first round by East Texas Baptist in ’03 and by UMHB in ’04 and ’05.
The latter three defeats all came at home in San Antonio, and now the Tigers have to come to Belton for the first time since the 1999 season opener.
Trinity is 4-2 all-time against UMHB, and the teams will be meeting in the first round for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
“It would be nice if things could change with the matchups,” Mohr said. “The playoffs are supposed to be about playing different people. But the way it is now, if there are only two Texas teams that make the playoffs, then they are always going to meet in the first round.”
Mohr is in his 18th season at Trinity, where he has compiled a record of 145-53, but says it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain those winning ways.
“Our academic standards have risen so much in the last 10 years that we’re just trying to hang on,” he said. “Do we have the same type of personnel we had in 2002? No. We’re not getting the same kind of kids. It’s a different era.”
When it was announced last year that Division II Incarnate Word was starting a football program, Mohr immediately was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Cardinals’ head coaching job. He said, however, that he never came close to leaving.
“I never applied for the Incarnate Word job,” Mohr said. “For me to leave Trinity after 18 years and everything we’ve built here, it would take a pretty tremendous job offer.”
He meant that, literally - or in Tigers terminology, laterally.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
