Kid Cudi wrote a whole song detailing a series of highs and lows. The Ohio football team wrote a whole season's worth of them, punctuated with Saturday's highest moment.
I said recently that it would be difficult to get excited about the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and called it a forgettable exhibition.
I was wrong — and I could not be more glad.
Maybe the bowl game in Boise didn't mean anything in the grander scheme of college football, but it certainly did in the faces of the seniors and coach Frank Solich, as seen through the tweets and texts from Bobcats throughout the nation.
And heck, there's nothing forgettable about Tyler Tettleton's game-winning dash to the corner of the end zone with 13 seconds left.
The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is anything but grandiose. It's played on blue turf, has a mascot called Spuddy Buddy, and literally gives its winner a bowl of potatoes. It's way more of an after-school special than the Allstate BCS Championship.
But none of that matters in the microcosm of what the Bobcats accomplished on the field Dec. 17. It was the highest high in a season full of ups and downs.
There was the high of the Marshall game, jacked up in all black and trouncing the Thundering Herd to reclaim the Bell.
There was the low of losing two winnable games that dropped the Bobcats to 4-3 and made many wonder if they were for real or just setting up another disappointment.
There was the high of the Temple win, with the late game-winning drive led by Tettleton, on ESPN in a blacked out Peden, and then the MAC East-clinching win at Bowling Green.
It was so good that "MAC East Champs" was trending worldwide on Twitter.
But that string of highs ended in Detroit. In fact, highs and lows were encapsulated in those 60 minutes of the MAC Championship game, all the way from a 20-0 halftime lead to a second-half meltdown and the resulting 23-20 loss.
Describing that loss as “disappointing” would be an understatement. “Debilitating” and “disheartening” are better adjectives. Again, the Bobcats fell short in the MAC Championship game, which meant a not-so-anticipated trip to Boise.
But that cold smurf turf was the spot of the season's greatest high, redemption for the Motor City Meltdown. It was a high that capped off a season framed by a low, transcending the on-field action.
It was last spring that the Bobcat family lost defensive lineman Marcellis Williamson. A different defensive player donned Williamson's No. 62 jersey in his honor each game. But in Boise, the jersey was on the sideline as the 12th man.
"Forever relentless" became the slogan inspired by Williamson. The Bobcats were all that and more in beating Utah State, this time surmounting a fourth-quarter deficit rather than blowing a lead. Ohio channeled Williamson and brought his spirit to the field in pulling off a victory.
Shortly before his death, Marcellis posted on his Facebook, "enjoy today because tomorrow isn't guaranteed." That's perspective enough and advice Bobcat fans should surely heed following the bowl win.
Connor Kiesel is a recent graduate of Ohio University.
