Division II Upset: CSU-Pueblo Has 42 Game Regular Season Winning Streak Snapped By Ft. Lewis

Ft. Lewis Head Coach John L. Smith

Ft. Lewis College stopped a near record regular season winning streak and John L. Smith has
resurfaced.

Late in the fourth quarter on fourth down and trailing by five to #2 CSU-Pueblo Ft. Lewis head coach John L. Smith went to his bag of tricks and I'm sure it's a deep bag.

Smith has always been sort of a mad scientist from this days at Louisville, Michigan State and that one year at Arkansas called for a wide receiver pass, something the Skyhawks had been working on that week.

Quarterback Jordan Doyle tossed to wide receiver Jordan Gillen who found Juquelle Thompson wide open in the end zone for the go - ahead touchdown.

You can see the play below.  The play occurs at 1:42.




“We repped it all week in practice, and I was ready for it. I kept wanting coach to call it all game,” said Gillen, “I kept waiting for it, and we had run the ball hard enough before, and we had run plays that were similar to that, and we blocked good on it. They thought we were just going to run it again, so they all bit on it. Everybody bit, and Juquelle was wide open.”

CSU-Pueblo could not counter and saw their 42 game regular season winning streak come to an end as Ft. Lewis prevailed 23-22.

“That was special. ... I’ve been to Notre Dame’s stadium and beat them there, and I’ve been a lot of places, a lot of bowl games. I’ve beaten No. 1 UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and this is as big as it’s ever been in my career,” Ft. Lewis head coach John L. Smith said.  “I can’t be more proud of these guys than I am. They hung in there and fought from the bottom of their heart.”

CSU-Pueblo streak goes down as the second longest regular season win streak in NCAA Division II history.  Grand Valley State set the record winning 48 straight from 2004 - 2009.