The end of the road

It wasn't supposed to end this way.

Not this game, not this season, and not the careers of so many seniors. But when the last seconds ticked off the clock in Saturday's 31-6 loss to Middlebury, the most disappointing of seasons came to a definitive end.

"It's tough," junior tri-captain Caleb Hudak said. "We had lots of expectations and lots of talent coming into the season. You never really think you're going to have a losing season."

The Jumbos entered the season with every reason to be optimistic. They were coming off of a strong 6-2 record last year. They were returning nearly all of their starters. The nationally ranked defense of last season, if anything, looked better than the year before.

And for the first three weeks, everything was going as expected. Tufts opened the season with a 20-0 rout of Hamilton, and won its first homecoming game in over ten years the following week against Bates, again without allowing a point.

The Jumbos entered the third week of season riding high with the best-ranked defense in the league and one of the most efficient offenses. They carried this momentum into a game against Bowdoin and translated it into a 44-13 drubbing, in what would be their last win of the season.

Tufts seemingly imploded during its next three games, losing two after leading late in the fourth quarter, and the third because of two missed extra points and a botched field goal attempt.

"We felt like we were really rolling after the first three weeks, and we should have beat Williams," junior defensive lineman Matt Keller said. "Those three losses really took the wind out of our sails."

The mental fatigue from the consecutive heartbreaking losses was evident in the Jumbos final two games. Against an altogether mediocre team from Colby, Tufts was completely shut down. The shutout was the first at home since 1995, and the offense was held to a season low total of just 76 yards.

And against Middlebury on Saturday, everything seemed to fall apart. Not even the defense, which had kept Tufts in so many games, could stop a pesky Middlebury pass attack. The offense continued its struggles, managing only two field goals on the day. Adding injury to insult, senior quarterback Scott Treacy was knocked out of the game with a broken leg, providing an all too fitting end to the season for an offense that limped through its final three games.

But the end was not a fitting tribute to the departing seniors _ talented leaders like Treacy, Chuck McGraw, Andy Dickerson, Adam Collette, Evan Zupancic, and many others. Not even Zupancic's seven interceptions, which gave him the all Tufts' career interceptions record, would save the Jumbos' season. The seniors, who quietly and with heads held high worked their way to a 15-17 record over the course of their four seasons, will leave a void in the program in both leadership and on field production.

"I've learned so much from those guys," Keller said. "They had a great work ethic and they were just great players. Guys like Dickerson and Collette who were just monsters on the field. We can't replace their size, and we can't replace any of the other things they did."

Junior defensive end Reid Palmer agreed.

"We are going to miss a bunch of those guys," he said. "The things they did for this program are really great. Not just statistically. You can't replace them."

The challenge to next year's team will be finding a way to fill in the gaps left by the departing seniors. But if anything can be gleaned from this season, it would be to use it as a learning experience.

"Coach (Bill) Samko told us at the beginning of the year, 'Just because you were good last year doesn't mean you're gonna be good this year,'" Hudak said. "He was right."

"We've learned a lot this year," Keller said. "You can never take anything for granted in the NESCAC. On any given day anyone can beat anyone."

It is with these lessons, and little else that the Jumbos finish the 2002 season. They leave without a winning record and without a title, and with only thoughts of what could have been.