Oct. 26, 2003

Statesboro, GA - Everybody in sports talks about going to the next level. But that's all it is. Talk. Nobody ever tells you what it feels like and tastes like and sounds like to be at the next level.

It always seems to be that nebulous goal that lurks just out of reach. That place where the other teams exist. That utopia you might reach next year, or the next or never at all.

And yet, there are moments when you get to look over the mythical horizon and see the Promised Land. There are days when you play well, weeks when you put it all together and seasons when you can do no wrong.

For The Citadel, this just might be that season.

With a hard-fought 28-24 victory over Georgia Southern here at Paulson Stadium on Saturday afternoon, this year's Bulldog team did what no other Citadel team has ever done before. It beat the Eagles on their home field. And that's just one way the Bulldogs know what the next level feels like.

A TRUE TEST

If you want to know what the next level feels like, just ask Citadel quarterback Willie Simmons, who threw for 182 yards, rushed for 35 and scored a touchdown in this milestone victory.

"In order to get to the next level, you have to fight through adversity," said Simmons. "This was a true test of a budding young team."

And yet it all looked so easy early on. That's when the Bulldogs took their first three possessions downfield for touchdowns. Running Nehemiah Broughton up the gut and zinging passes to six receivers kept the Eagles on their heels.

Where was the Georgia Southern that won those six national championship banners that were flying high next to the stadium? Where was the pride that Erk Russell built? Where, indeed?

This, after all, is the next level to which the Bulldogs aspire. To pull themselves up from the Southern Conference basement and compete and beat teams like Georgia Southern.

Well, the Bulldogs found out in the second half, when GSU came out fighting. The Eagles shut down the Citadel running game and matched them with three touchdowns of their own.

Tied at 21-all, it looked like the Bulldogs' run of luck had run out. Those wins over Appalachian and Furman were nice, but without this game the trifecta would be incomplete. For the Bulldogs had never defeated the Mountaineers, the Paladins and the Eagles in the same season.

And it looked like they wouldn't this year, either.

TAKE A PUNCH

"The momentum started swinging, and things started going backwards," Citadel coach Ellis Johnson said of the second-half turnaround. "But we hung in there. This was a game that could've gone a different way several different times."

And in the past, Citadel fans might only expect the worst. And it looked like it was coming back around again.

When Georgia Southern blocked a Citadel punt, it led to a field goal that gave the Eagles a fourth-quarter lead, 24-21. All they had to do was contain the Bulldogs and it would be over. Another predictable outcome. What the next level feels like another day in the life of the poor old Bulldogs.

But that didn't happen. This time it would be different. Because teams at the next level can get a lead, lose a lead, take a punch and somehow get a break and win the game.

This time it was The Citadel's turn to find out what it felt like to be that team.

'WE HAVE ARRIVED'

When Georgia Southern fumbled the ball in the final minutes of this game, the Bulldogs had a chance to step up. And they did.

Driving 52 yards with the clock ticking down, they sent Broughton over the top to score the winning touchdown and perhaps surprised even themselves with this victory.

"These guys keep surprising me and pleasing me," Johnson said of the win that made The Citadel 5-3 overall and pulled them into second place in the SoCon with a 4-1 league record. "They believe in themselves and I believe in them, too."

As the team left the field, a small band of loyal Citadel fans hooped and hollered to celebrate the win. Even long-suffering fans get a taste of the nectar they serve at the next level.

And once inside their locker room, the team's cheers and chants shook the walls just like teams on the next level do when they win a big game.

How good it must feel for a school like The Citadel. Just to savor for a moment what many players and coaches take for granted. But not these guys. They are new in town and loving every minute of it.

"I'd say we have arrived, but I don't know if we can stay here or not," Johnson said after the game. "When it comes to reaching the next level, there's a difference between a season and the program. But I think we have arrived there this season."

One thing is for sure. Reaching the next level is a nice thing indeed, even if it's only for a day, a week or a season in the sun.