By: Dan Ryan, Senior Writer/Historian
BATON ROUGE, La. –
Larry Brihm, Jr.'s parents told him not to worry about them and focus on the football game at hand.
Good advice.
This 28-23 Bethune-Cookman victory over Southeastern Louisiana was all about staying focused.
The redshirt senior signal caller, who finished a career-best 25-of-39 for 354 yards, was all precision during the first quarter when the Wildcats offense was at its finest, and
Jawill Davis elevated from the guy who catches a pass in every game to Odell Beckham, Jr. – minus the sideline antics guy.
Anthony Cruz was focused also. You have to be if you're catching a touchdown pass in the midst of five defenders.
Keavon Mitchell running his route on that 47-yarder? Same thing.
The different thing became a different kind of focus. The one when the game turns from watchable to micro-officiated sludge, and the other team gets that one break or two to seize momentum. The one that's getting away from you after a promising start.
Southeast Louisiana took a 16-14 lead after getting a short field on a Wildcats turnover. It took a quarter, but Bethune-Cookman got exactly what it needed thanks to a defensive stand and short punt that put the start of a drive at the Lions 43. Five plays later, and thanks to Davis – who else – it's 21-16 us.
Cosmic balance restored.
For 14 seconds.
Give SLU's Juwan Petit-Frere, and an Orlando, Florida native, credit on the kickoff return. However, it quickly became 23-21 them, and with the game well beyond three hours, this could have been it.
Nope. Not this team. Not with "Resurge" as the team word. Not with
Terry Sims at the helm. Not with, well, not with this team – as I already said.
Brihm went 4-of-5 on an 11-play, 72-yard "Elway-ian" masterpiece of a game winning drive that ONLY had four penalty calls and a deliberation on Brihm's touchdown that took long so long it even made Head Coach
Terry Sims ask "what are we doing in the booth right now". Then the defense had to do some focusing off its own after a fourth down interference call kept the Lions' hopes alive three more plays before the win was finally secured.
Of course, we have something else to focus on the next 72 hours, and all of Wildcats nation, please stay safe.
But for three or so hours, we had a nice distraction because
Larry Brihm, Jr. and the Wildcats stayed focus.
Follow Bethune-Cookman Football on Twitter (@BCUGridIron) for all of the latest news and updates. For all Bethune-Cookman Athletics news, follow us on Twitter (@BCUathletics), Instagram (@BCUathletics), Snapchat (@BCUathletics) and Facebook (
www.facebook.com/BCUathletics).
– #PrayTogether –
