Bulldogs Hope New Coach Houston Helps Them Visit The Past

CHARLESTON, S.C.–They say history repeats itself, and if you’ve been watching the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, you might see some direct evidence of that in sport, as Germany will battle Argentina in the World Cup final.

Two nations that are synonomous with success in the world’s biggest sport, and two that have seen things come full circle in a 24-year period, with both finding their way back to the final match of the World Cup to face each other.

In 1990, the then West Germans would post a 1-0 win over Argentina to put an end to an era, with the generation that incuded some of greatest players each nation has ever had come to an end, most due to age. The two had also met four years earlier, with many of those same players in what was an epic, 3-2, win for Argentina over West Germany.

The Holy City of Charleston is one about as historic as any in the world, and the very roots of the great nation of the United States lie within the now silent walls of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. Elements of that history and tradition the city has enjoyed over the years can be found on a warm fall Saturday afternoon at Johnson-Hagood Stadium following a Citadel TD, as cannons are fired after each Citadel TD.

Like the two nations that will face each other in the World Cup on Saturday, the Bulldogs hope the re-visit the historical in 2014. About the time that United States Men’s National Team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann was suiting up for and leading West Germany to its first World Cup in two decades, Citadel head football coach Charlie Taafe was busy building a team that would forge one of the most successful periods in the history of the charter member of the Southern Conference.

And just two years after the West Germans lifted the World Cup trophy with a 1-0 win over Argentina, The Citadel was busy winning the program’s first Southern Conference title since 1969 and only the second in school history, as the Bulldogs defeated nemesis and arch-rival Furman, 20-14, on a soggy afternoon in Greenville.

“C-I-T-A-D-E-L, C-I-T-A-D-E-L” could be heard by the Furman fans as they headed out of the stadium following Everett Sands’ score, which would seal the league crown and an impressive nine-win regular-season. The Bulldogs broke a nine-game losing streak to the Paladins a year before in Charleston, and the Bulldogs seemed to be enjoying their day in the sun in a rivalry that at that time, was one of the greatest in the FCS and the Southern Conference.

The Bulldogs were beginning to scratch the surface, and beginning to believe as a program. Just four years earlier, Furman had lifted the Palmetto State’s first Division I-AA national title, and heading to the postseason as the No. 1 seed, the Bulldogs had no reason to believe they wouldn’t join their upstate counterparts four years later.

But after a lopsided win over North Carolina A&T in the opener, Jim Tressell’s Youngstown State Penguins paid a visit to Charleston, and in what was a strange game, would end up closing out the game in a flurry and the Penguins took a 42-17 win over the Bulldogs, stunning The Citadel and the 13,021 fans on hand hoping to see the Bulldogs take a step closer to a national title.

Taafe would see a less than glamourous end to his coaching career in the Port City, cited with mutliple DUIs, and though it was a sad end to such a successful coach–arguably the best The Citadel has ever had–the end of an era bore a new optimism for a program that was told it couldn’t compete with the likes of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern due to recruiting restraints as a military program, although there was that one recruit from Summerville named Dexter Coakley that wanted to come to The Citadel, but that’s another story for another day. Belief can be a dangerous thing for a program that prides itself on the tenants that equalize where talent lacks, such as hard work and integrity. The Citadel will never be a program questioned for toughness, as those who aren’t tough either never make it to The Citadel or go home early.

Now, fast forward 22 years from that championship season, and once again, there is a new optimism. A hope that the Holy City will once again capture the excitement and success of the old, and the smoke will constantly billow from the cannons throughout the game, with the Bulldogs ground game putting together points as if they were going out of style like that vaunted ground game did back in that championship season under Taafe.

Interestingly, success has followed Taafe in each of his stops, finding his way to Maryland as the offenisve coordinator under Ralph Friedgen during those sucessful seasons in the early 2000s, which saw the Terps go to the Orange Bowl in 2002 And just this past fall, serving in the offensive coordinator role at Central Florida for head coach George O’Leary, Taafe was busy plotting the scheme for Blake Bortels and Co. in the Knights Fiesta Bowl triumph over Baylor.

The torch has descended down to some pretty good coaches since Taafe, and some that were better off remaining coordinators.

Coaches like John Zernhelt, Ellis Johnson, Don Powers and Kevin Higgins have all given their best to take The Citadel back to those glory days enjoyed under Taafe, but each has failed to approach that type of success.

There is a new optimism surrounding The Citadel’s football program entering the 2014 season, and it has a lot to do with the new man in charge, Mike Houston.

Houston comes to The Citadel from Lenoir-Rhyne–a program he helped lead to the national championship game of the Division II national title, and he will be looking to rebuild The Citadel back to the glory it enjoyed as a program in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s

Kevin Higgins spent nine seasons in charge of the Bulldogs’ football program before leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Wake Forest.

Under the direction of Higgins, the Bulldogs made it to the doorstep of making some real noise once again in the SoCon and nationally once

Citadel Senior QB Aaron Miller (Picture Courtesy of Charleston Post and Courier)

again similar to how it was during the Taafe days, however, with future NFL wideout Andre Roberts, and one of the best quarterbacks in program history, in Duran Lawson, The Citadel probably should have made it into the postseason.

After all, the 2007 team was the best offense in the history of the program, and the Bulldogs should have made the postseason. It was a Citadel team good enough to throw a pretty good scare into No. 7 Wisconsin at Camp Randall before eventually losing, 38-24. In defense of Higgins, a late-season injury to quarterback Lawson in a key game at Georgia Southern, which the Bulldogs would eventually lose, inevitably costing them a playoff berth.

The Bulldogs appeared to be on the way back in 2009, with quarterback Miguel Starks captaining the spread option, as he had his coming-out party against Furman. However, after Starks was arrested for armed robbery the following February, Higgins and staff went back to the programs roots, and the offense which had made the Bulldogs so successful, returning to the triple-option attack in 2010, and have utilized that offense ever since.

Fast-forward to the 2012 season, which saw the Bulldogs surprise, and early on, the Bulldogs looked every bit the team to beat in the SoCon, knocking off both No. 3 Georgia Southern (23-21) and No. 8 Appalachian State (52-28) in back-to-back weeks, catapulting to as high as No. 11 in the national polls. Bulldog football appeared to have returned to those days in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, when Johnson-Hagood Stadium was routinely packed to see the likes of quarterback Jack Douglas, fullback Everett Sands and linebacker Lester Smith.

However, a lopsided, mid-season loss to North Carolina State would see the Bulldogs suffer a number of injuries, and the Bulldogs would go on a losing streak, dropping games to Samford (38-7), Chattanooga (28-10) and Wofford (24-21) during the swoon, dropping out of the FCS polls and playoff conversations. A blowout win at Furman (42-20) to close the season at least kept some faint playoff hopes alive.

Then came 2013, and the Bulldogs entered with especially high expectations, and the talk around the Bulldogs’ camp was winning the Southern Conference title and making the playoffs for the first time since 1992, and with 16 starters back from that 7-4 team, which owned wins over a pair of Top 10 foes, not many would see much of a problem with that talk, or see that as audacious speech from the coaches and players.
However, something wasn’’t right from the outset of the 2013 season, especially on the defensive side of the football, as the Bulldogs struggled to stop anyone at the start of the season.

However, though the 2013 season turned out to be a disappointment, there were signs of that championship pedigree shown in what was a tough final season for Kevin Higgins at the helm of the Bulldogs’ football program.

The Bulldogs would get some impressive results during conference play last season, with the most notable win coming against No. 17 in a game the Bulldogs certainly could have folded in.

Despite going through what would be described as a disappointing season, the Bulldogs didn’t fold or crumble when the league-leading Samford Bulldogs ran out to a 17-0 second quarter lead at Johnson-Hagood Stadium, and for the diehard Citadel fan base, which saw a large crowd cram into the facility for the Homecoming game, they began to brace themselves for what looked to be a lopsided loss for a second-straight season to Samford.

But the Bulldogs never-say-die attitude would get them back into the ballgame, and for the remaining 3.5 quarters of the game, the Bulldogs would show the fans and folks around the league the quality it had and the kind of season it might have been had the ball bounced the right way.

The Citadel would begin to click on both sides of the football, and out-scored Samford 28-9 the rest of the way, and the Bulldogs would start on the comeback trail with a TD when Darreion Robinson scored on a three-yard run with just 36 seconds remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs pull out all the stops to get back into the contest, as after The Citadel defense forced a three-and-out, Bulldog punter Eric Goins pulled the ball and ran it on a fourth-and-long play, gaining 27 yards to give the Bulldogs a first down and send the Hagood Stadium Homecoming crowd into a frenzy.

Robinson would find paydirt for a second time on the day–this time from nine yards out–as the Bulldogs cut the Samford deficit to three (17-14) with 9:45 remaining in the third quarter.

The Citadel defense would get into the act on the following drive, as the Bulldogs blitzed Samford quarterback Andy Summerlin, forcing him to fumble the ball away, and the Bulldogs took over with a short field at the Samford 28. Citadel slot back Vinny Miller would score on an eight-yard run a few plays later, giving the Bulldogs their first lead, at 21-17, and it would be one the home team would not relinquish the remainder of the way.

The biggest problem with the Bulldogs in 2013 seemed to be that it was reading a bit too many of the press clippings coming into the campaign. Plain and simple, the Bulldogs underachieved.

That doesn’t appear likely to happen under the disciplinarian Houston, who is a little more “in your face” than Kevin Higgins was, although, Higgins was well respected by his players.

In any history you look at for any sport, there’s always a time in which it repeats itself. Why? The question can probably only be answered like this–because it has happened before, and forging a close relationship to that tradition, reminding the players it has been done before will keep the hunger alive to directly affect the future by making history repeat itself.

That will be Houston’s challenge. Capturing that tradition and that fervor and being able to simulate what is was like back during the Charlie Taafe era some 22 years ago. The title trophy might not be lifted this season, but rest assured, Houston knows a thing or two about turning around programs and manufacturing success at places that have been through long droughts.

The key to the 2014 season for The Citadel will be the opener against Big South member Coastal Carolina on Aug. 30. The Chants, of course, lit up the FCS playoffs last year when they knocked out Montana in Missoula in 13-degree weather last season, only to lose in the FCS quarters to eventual national champion North Dakota State.

The Bulldogs took Charleston Southern for granted in the opener at Johnson-Hagood Stadium in 2013, and they can’t afford to do that if they hope to be a factor in the SoCon this fall. The Bulldogs must start strong and gather some momentum before heading into league play.

We will know in a short while whether the 2014 season will mark the resurrection of Citadel football and its rise back to the top of the SoCon.