Storytime: One Kick in Waco

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On September 5, 1992, Louisiana Tech walked into Waco, Texas, chasing something that had stayed just out of reach for years. The Bulldogs had made the leap to Division I-A in 1989, the top level of college football, but it had been a hard, humbling climb. The 1988 team that blazed the trail up did so on one of the most brutal schedules in school history while playing with only 65 scholarships, the allotment for a I-AA program, against bigger, deeper opponents.

That team is memorialized by the Spirit of ’88, the bronze bulldog statue inside the Davison Athletics Complex behind the south end of Joe Aillet Stadium. Every Tech player and coach touches it on the way onto the field to this day.

Because as a Division I-A independent, Tech had no conference to fill out most of its schedule, and no built-in slate of games against teams its own size. Instead the Bulldogs had a standing invitation to go play anyone, anywhere, for a paycheck. And they answered the call, year after year. But what Tech hadn’t done was knock off one of the big names.

That 1988 transition team took its lumps against a murderer’s row, losing to Mississippi State, Houston, Wyoming, Texas A&M, and #7 Florida State by a combined 241-40. 1989 didn’t make it any gentler in multi-score losses to Florida and No. 12 Auburn. The 1990 season brought a two-point heartbreaker at #5 Auburn and a 34-34 tie with Maryland in the Independence Bowl. In 1991 the Bulldogs opened by getting run out of the Astrodome 73-3 by #12 Houston, then tied South Carolina. And next up, opening the 1992 season, was Baylor.

The Bears were a Southwest Conference program under Grant Teaff, coming off an 8-4 season and a bowl bid the year before, a season in which they’d been ranked for long stretches and even won on the road at #12 Colorado. And Teaff had announced before the year that 1992 would be his final one on the Baylor sideline. So Tech was crashing the farewell-tour opener of a coach who’d end up in the College Football Hall of Fame.

But Tech did have a few cards up its sleeve. The first was senior left tackle Willie Roaf, who was a few months from being the eighth overall pick in the NFL Draft and a couple of decades from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was a co-captain that day, alongside future NFL linebacker Myron Baker. They’d make their mark on the game. But this one, as these things so often do, was going to come down to the kicker.

Chris Boniol was an Alexandria kid who had wasted no time becoming the go-to man in Tech’s kicking game and seemed to have a flair for the dramatic. As a freshman, and the Louisiana Freshman of the Year, he ended Tech’s season with the game tying field goal in the Independence Bowl. The next year, Boniol provided yet another last-second game-tier against South Carolina and even a last-second 54-yard game-winner on the road at Eastern Michigan.

On this particular night in Waco, though, he was having a highlight reel night for all the wrong reasons. In the first half he pushed a 47-yard attempt wide. In the third quarter he lined up from 45 and shanked it badly. But luckily for the junior, life (or rather, football) sometimes offers you third chances. 

And it wasn’t like Boniol was the only Bulldog making mistakes. Despite the defensive success against Baylor’s vaunted veer option attack, Tech committed 10 penalties for 94 yards as a team before halftime. The first came on the opening kickoff of the season. And twice, Tech penalties on offense gave the Bears short fields that they turned into field goals, even if the defense denied them the endzone, giving Baylor a 6-0 lead going into halftime.

And then it got worse. Starting quarterback Sam Hughes limped off early in the third quarter. In came backup Aaron Ferguson, who told reporters after the game that he “was scared to death.” But he sure didn’t play like it, steadying the offense, and leaning on running back Jason Cooper, who would soon punch in a 4-yard touchdown run. 

Boniol’s extra point, this time able to split the uprights, gave Tech a 7-6 in the third quarter. And Sam Hughes was soon able to shake off his leg cramp and return to the game.

Baylor didn’t answer until there was 1:34 left to play, with field goal #3 to nudge them back ahead 9-7. 

This almost felt too familiar. It had been seen in the ties to Maryland and South Carolina. In the one score losses to Mississippi State and Auburn. Louisiana Tech was going to yet again show their might, but come up just short.

But instead, with less than 90 seconds on the clock, the Bulldogs got to work.

Taking over at their own 34, QB Sam Hughes connected with WR Corey Parham for eight yards, and two plays later RB Jason Cooper picked up just enough for the first down. Now at their own 45, Hughes again finds Parham, this time on a crossing route, who’s able to scamper out of bounds at the Baylor 33.

But it just feels too good to be true. Something’s about to go wrong.

There’s a problem with the snap. It’s on the ground. Precious seconds are coming off the clock. Hughes dives for the ball, but in the process takes a hard hit. Tech recovers the ball, but Hughes needs time to recover himself.

Less than 20 seconds left. Now playing through two injuries, Hughes tries again to find Parham, but gets hit again. Incomplete pass. Hughes is down on the ground. 10 seconds left.

After the game, Boniol was asked where he was hoping the Bulldogs could get to before he would get the chance at the game winner: “I just wanted the ball in the middle. At least at the 35-yard line.”

Here we are, granted on the left hash, but at the 35-yard line. And with 10 seconds left and the starting quarterback unavailable, maybe the Bulldogs should go ahead and kick it from here.

But why not let the backup Aaron Ferguson, who engineered the drive that provided Tech’s only points, go back out there to gain a few to make it that much easier to score three more.

It truly was a beautiful throw.

Twenty-two yards down the left side of the field, John Henry climbed the ladder to make a leaping catch over the defender, got a single foot down in bounds, and fell across the sideline to stop the clock with 3 seconds remaining.

Out trots Chris Boniol before Baylor calls a timeout to freeze him. To make him think about the two missed field goals earlier in the game. And the missed opportunities the team has had against other schools like Baylor.

Everything the night had been, narrowed to one swing of a leg.

High snap. Good hold. The kick up and good.

Louisiana Tech 10, Baylor 9. Final.

Tomorrow, the Bulldogs face the Bears for the seventh time. Again Tech is the heavy underdog. Again Tech will turn to a backup quarterback, with Blake Baker fracturing his hand against LSU. And don’t forget that this season, just like 1992, started off with a penalty on the opening kickoff.

While history does repeat itself, it doesn’t announce when. It is much more likely that the Bulldogs fall in Waco than it is that they pull off the unlikely. But perhaps the stars are aligning for an upset in the Lone Star State.

In that case, let’s hope we have a kicker as clutch as Chris Boniol:

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