Thirty-six FBS mid-majors or FCS programs faced Power 5 programs this weekend. Thirty-five of them had to go on the road to do it.
Thirty of them lost.
I wasn't in meetings with all 36 of those supposed giant killers, but I'm guessing all of them were led by head coaches who told their teams all off-season they could win. I'm also guessing not all of them actually believed it. They're not immune to the numbers, that 100 percent would try and only 16 percent would succeed.
But I'm guessing the six that did win weren't in that second group. They believed they could, and they did.
South Alabama was one of those six that went giant hunting this weekend and came home with a head. A program that didn't exist in 2008 and didn't even play in FBS until 2012, a program that pays its head coach in a year roughly what its opponent pays theirs in a month, went to Mississippi State and won.
The Jags produced a video to commemorate the event, and they called it "A Dream."
Jag Films presents: "A Dream"#OneHeartbeat#GoJags#WeAreSouthpic.twitter.com/FVrpTeGQYV
— Jaguar Films (@USAFBVideo) September 5, 2016
The win is important for the program not only for the obvious reasons, but for the lessons it teaches their players. The Jaguars learned on Saturday that all those times they woke up before the sun to run gassers, baked under that same sun for 7-on-7 and stayed up with the moon to watch film were worth it. They learned that if their coaches tell them to run through a wall, they'll break through in one piece on the other side.