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.

No Surprise: John L. Smith out at Arkansas

Well, this didn't take very long and really, it is almost stating the obvious, but Arkansas officially cut ties with "interim" head coach John L. Smith Saturday morning.

The move comes on the heels of the Razorbacks last game, a 20-13 loss on Friday to LSU. That loss left Arkansas a team ranked 8th in most preseason polls with a 4-8 record in 2012.

Read the University's Press Release RIGHT HERE

You'll recall Smith was a sort-of last second replacement for the disgraced Bobby Petrino who was let go much earlier in the year after a scandal involving a female member of his staff.

Smith, who is deeply in debt, was coaching at Weber State for all of 9 months when the scandal broke and bailed out on the Utah school to help out Athletic Director Jeff Long at Arkansas.

What Smith's future is in the coaching world at this point...is anybody's guess. Who will step in at Arkansas? Well, it won't be Jon Gruden despite the alleged huge contract Arkansas is rumored to have offered him. But the Razorbacks do have options. We would not be surprised to see a Sonny Dykes from La. Tech or Kliff Kingsbury, the primary assistant at Texas A&M get the opportunity here.