George Ferguson Column: Lights deserved the moment on Saturday

There are a lot of superlatives to describe what the Montana State University-Northern football team has gone through the last month, but most of those words wouldn't really do it justice.

To have your head coach, the man who recruited you to come to Havre and play football out of high school or junior college, or hired you as an assistant, to have him taken away from the entire program just days into fall camp, those of us who haven't been in a college football program, we couldn't possibly understand what that's like.

Yet, that's exactly what the Lights had happen to them early last month when Mark Samson was forced to resign his post after 11 years at the helm of the Northern football program.

And while the Lights, and the MSU-N coaching staff did an amazing job of staying together, staying focused and at the same time, standing up for what they believed in, it wasn't until Saturday that the entire Northern football program could finally, truly smile.

It wasn't until Saturday's 40-17 beatdown of Dickinson State at sunny Blue Pony Stadium, that the Lights could really exhale and enjoy being a college football team again.

In sports, it's been said a million times that winning cures all. For these Lights, it probably won't ever cure losing their head coach before the season even started. But, Saturday's win, and hopefully many more to come, will sure make the Lights feel a lot better.

Northern had hoped that win, that good feeling, that collective smile would come last Saturday night in Butte. And for a time, it looked like it was going to. In the end, though, a victory against Montana Tech slipped away.

It was another disappointment in what has been a difficult end to the summer and an even more difficult start to the fall for the MSU-Northern football program.

But instead of letting another dose of adversity hold them down, the Lights dug in their heels, and, according to interim head coach Jake Eldridge, had one of the best week's of practice so far this year last week. And the result was a dominating home debut, where the Lights' offense flew past and barreled over a helpless DSU defense. The result of all the hard work was a Lights' defense smothering and suffocating an over-matched DSU offense. The payoff was four big plays on special teams, with two blocked DSU kicks and two field goals by Jordan Reuschhoff.

In the end, the result of the Lights' perseverance, of their grit and determination, of the decision to stay together and play the season for Samson, for their coaching staff, for the name on the front of their jersey's, and most importantly, for each other, was a resounding win over the Blue Hawks ... and proof that the 2014 Lights have a lot of good football in them this season.

Yes, Saturday was a cathartic experience for the Lights, who needed something good to happen to them in a season that while only two weeks old, had already had so much darkness. But the Lights didn't just wait for the good to come to them, they made it happen themselves.

The good came in the form of execution on offense, of Zach McKinley running wild on the DSU defense, of Trevor Baum making leaping catches all day long. The good came in the form of a hard-hitting Northern defense, a defense that drilled DSU quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers over and over, with a resounding thud.

In the end, the good came in a victory that everyone associated with Northern football could smile about. From a large home crowd that gathered to watch in the stands and in the parking tiers of Blue Pony Stadium, to the players and coaches, to everyone involved with the program, some good came to Northern football Saturday. And it came in the form of a dominating performance on the football field, one the Lights can be proud of and use as a springboard moving forward.

Make no mistake, the 2014 MSU-Northern football team won't forget what happened to them and to their head coach. But they will go on and continue to make good things happen this season. They did it Saturday, and given what these Lights have already been through this year, it won't be the last time they make some good happen either.

They say patience is a virtue. They say good things come to those who wait. Well, the Lights have been waiting for something good to happen to them for over a month. But they couldn't wait any longer. Instead, they went out and made it happen on Saturday, and the Blue Hawks were powerless to stop it.

Senior quarterback Travis Dean summed it up best when he said: "It was great to walk out of this stadium and see everyone smiling," following Saturday's game.

Indeed, everyone was all smiles, and I'm guessing somewhere, Samson was, too, knowing his team played as well as they did, and knowing they finally got to experience some joy and happiness while playing the game they all love so much.

Everyone deserves a smile, everyone deserves to feel happy. But Saturday, and over the last month, no one deserved it more than the 2014 Lights football team.