Lenox Rawlings: WSSU's mole-hill mistakes became mountains

By: Lenox Rawlings | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: December 11, 2011

Winston-Salem State came up empty shortly before a full moon rose over Bowman Gray Stadium on Saturday.

The ground game ran out of time, and frantic passes hit the ground, and the drive for a national championship died right there on the dormant Bermuda grass surrounded by an asphalt racetrack.

Wayne State, the last seed in the last regional revealed on selection day, won 21-14 and booked a trip to Alabama for the NCAA Division II title game. The Rams altered their season-long plans at the end of the finest season in school history — 13 wins and just one final defeat.

They lamented the slipped tackles and bobbled catches and the molehill mistakes that eventually seemed like mountains. Connell Maynor, their detail-conscious coach, tipped a gracious cap to relentless Wayne State. He also remembered every blown chance, including quarterback Kameron Smith's fumble at his 16-yard line, which teed up the Warriors' third score.

"We had three dropped touchdowns," Maynor said. "The plays were there to be made, but the guys just didn't make the plays when they had to."

Linebacker Carlos Fields replayed the same videotape in his mind's eye and stopped in midframe. "But it is what it is, man," Fields said. "We made a good run."

The good run could have become a great achievement, but nearly every playoff loser leaves with the same sentiment. Football tournaments require strong performances week after week.

Wayne State (12-3), a public university of 32,000 students in Detroit, bagged its fourth straight road win. After two trips to Minnesota, another to Nebraska and this Southern excursion, the Warriors exceeded the requirements for their latest pseudonym, "Road Warriors."

"They put their pants on just like we do," Maynor said. "They had three losses coming in. In D-II, you play it off and see who the best is. This ain't the BCS — you pick 1 and 2, name the two best teams and say they're going to play. That's why you play the games. Wayne State has proven that you get in, you can win."

An hour before the game, WSSU fans leaning on the wall behind the grandstands could see a big playoff obstacle. The Warriors are not Lil' Wayne. They are huge, especially the hulking Midwestern blockers along an offensive line nicknamed "The Road Graders."

The line averages 296 pounds, led by 6-foot-6, 303-pound tackle Joe Long, the brother of Miami Dolphins all-pro Jake Long. He towered over the opening coin toss at midfield, and he moved Rams off the scrimmage line on the Warriors' opening series.

Defensive leader Alton Keaton, a senior rover, hadn't encountered anything like that all season. "Mainly it was their size," Keaton said. "The running backs would hide behind them because they were so massive, and they would get up the field."

Josh Renel, one of Wayne State's two 1,300-yard rushers, bolted 26 yards on the game's second play and soon ran 25 more yards for the first touchdown. That set the tone in the trenches, and it also left WSSU behind for only the fifth time all season.

Renel rushed for 82 yards and turned a sharp corner on several vital plays. He survived defensive pounding and one tumbling escapade on the pavement, which evoked gasps from the crowd.

"I'm lucky I was wearing elbow pads," Renel said. "I got a couple of bloody spots. It hurt, but everything's fine now."

The Warriors — formerly known as Tartars, in honor of Mongolian warriors — can make things even finer next weekend and perhaps replace all those nicknames with a straightforward title: champions.