Poll: Most memorable football season?

[SDHornet]

My fandom started in 2002 so I picked from the list at the bottom of this post. Feel free to chime in with a season that predates my fandom. I ultimately went with the 2019 season as that was our first BSC Title and D1 playoff appearance. In 2019, the season kicked off with the major coup that Nelsen and Orr had in bringing in Coach Taylor. Taylor then assembled a very competent and capable staff, some of whom are still benefitting this program today.

The first game was a total beatdown of a non-D1 opponent with a blowout non-conference win over Northern Colorado sandwiched between 2 very competitive FBS losses at Arizona State and Fresno State in the first month of the season. The Hornets then went on an absolute tear through the BSC. Those first BSC wins started with a 3 week stretch at home against 22nd ranked EWU, a road win at Montana State, and a home win over Montana, all of which were dominating wins. For anyone in tune with FCS football, that 3 game stretch really put us on the map.

After an easy win over Cal Poly, the Hornets ran into health issues with the lone BSC loss (and only BSC loss in the Taylor era) coming against a stout 3rd ranked Weber State team. The Hornets then hit the road for Northern Arizona and pulled off an amazing last minute victory to steal a win and stay in the BSC Title race. A win a week later at Idaho secured a berth into the playoffs. I watched that game at a sports bar with a dozen or so other Hornets fans. Beers were spilled, shots were drank, tears were shed, it was quite the scene.

The regular season culminated with my kid and I standing in the north endzone towards the west sideline and getting to watch Kevin Thomson keep the ball on the fly sweep and turn the corner to burn the phaggie defense down the sideline for the game and BSC Title clinching touchdown. The fans rushing the field, mass celebrations throughout Hornet Stadium, Nelsen and Taylor hoisting the BSC Trophy on the field...absolutely glorious. I'll never forget that experience. It's been all house money ever since.

Here are the seasons I chose from:

• 2008: 6-6 (3-5 BSC) in the second season of the Coach Sperbeck era. First non-losing season as a Hornet fan. Included the first Causeway win as a Hornet fan and instilled actual hope that the football program could actually be a contender after overcoming nearly a decade of dysfunction.
• 2010: 6-5 (5-3 BSC) First winning season as a Hornet fan. 4 of the losses came by a total of 11 points. A few bounces here and there and this would have been the first D1 playoff appearance, was also the high water mark of the Sperbeck era.
• 2017: 7-4 (6-2 BSC) in Coach Jody Sears' 4th season. Up until this season, it was the most wins in BSC play since the Hornets joined in 1996. The Hornets took care of business against the weaker opponents on the schedule but struggled against the better teams. The season culminated with a 52-47 Causeway win in Hornet Stadium.
• 2019: 9-4 (7-1 BSC) in Coach Taylor's inaugural season at the helm, the Hornets earned their first BSC Title and first D1 playoff appearance. The week 6 thru 8 wins over a 22nd ranked EWU (48-27), at 6th ranked Montana State (34-21), and 5th ranked Montana (49-22) will go down as one of the best stretches of Hornet football ever played. The BSC Title was secured with a 27-17 Causeway win at Hornet Stadium.
• 2021: 9-3 (8-0 BSC) Hornets run the table in the BSC for back to back titles after a cancelled season due to the China Virus. Season included notable wins at 5th ranked Montana (28-21) and the outright BSC Title was secured with a dominating 27-7 win at the Causeway.
• 2022: 12-1 (8-0 BSC) Hornets ran the table in the regular season completing the Hornet BSC Title three-peat and earned the first D1 playoff victory in program history. The season entailed dramatic wins against 7th ranked Montana (31-24 OT), a home win against 14th ranked Idaho (31-28), road win at 5th ranked Weber State (33-20), a home Causeway win (27-21) over a 24th ranked team and a 2nd round playoff win over 13th ranked Richmond (38-31). This was without a doubt the best team in program history.
• 2023: 8-5 (4-4 BSC) The Hornets maintained its postseason pedigree in Coach Thompson's inaugural season. Notable wins include at Stanford (30-23) over former Coach Taylor and a road playoff win over 12th ranked North Dakota (42-35).

 

[Super Hornet 2.0]

I would have very much liked to choose a season from the John Volek era, since that started my association with Sac State. I loved the exploits of Charles Roberts in the amazing West Coast Offense directed by OC Bruce Pielstick. But even the success we had in that era can't compete with the success we had under Troy Taylor, and particularly the 2022 season, featuring an undefeated regular season that included several wins over ranked teams (as noted by SD above) and even saw our first playoff victory. And it's not like Coach Taylor picked us clean when he left, either; he had more integrity than that. We have a good successor coach who is recruiting well, and things are looking up.

This is a good poll thread, SD. Thank you for posting it.

 

[HeavyistheClown]

2022, ranked #2 nationally a good bit of the season. I think if Taylor was focused during the IW game, we would have won. He had visions of $M’s floating around in his head and had a lapse of judgement on that last drive, time management.

 

[BSCfan]

This is a tough one for me. I didn't start following Hornet football until 2019 and I can't decide whether to vote for 2021 or 2022 (for selfish reasons). The 2021 season had the first ever win at Montana, the outright Big Sky title and a trip to the playoffs. 2022 had the undefeated regular season, the butt kicking of an FBS program (even if it WAS Colorado State), the great win at Northern Iowa avenging a loss at home to them the year previous, a shared Big Sky title and our first ever FCS playoff win. I think I'm going 2022 by a nose.

I agree, great poll SDHornet!

 

[stingthemgood]

Undefeated regular season was my vote. I feel like things were not a fluke once we did that.

 

[SDHornet]

Good comments. I had 2022 as a close 2nd. 2022 was just a magical season and that team just found a way to win even when things seemed bleak, but we were expected to dominate. Maybe not to the extent that we actually did, but it should have been expected given what was coming back and the momentum that was built in 2019 and 2021 heading into 2022. I doubt we see another Hornet offense or season like that ever again.

I went with 2019 over 2022 because I didn't expect to see the immediate success that was attained. This program literally turned on a dime with the Taylor hire. I expected us to improve and head in the right direction, but that dominating 3 week run against the top BSC programs solidified that this program finally arrived. Also that first taste of BSC Championship success was the sweetest one of all.