McDANIEL: Case has knack for improbable comebacks

I remember it so vividly.

My mother and I are driving to Stephenville on a Friday in December 2004. My son is in his car seat in the backseat of the Chevy pickup truck.

We weren't running late, but after we passed through Brownwood, we got stuck behind some large, slow-moving equipment.

At this point, feelings inside the cab of that truck were getting a little overwhelming.

We were planning on being there early. The Abilene Wylie Bulldogs were set to play Decatur in the second round of the Class 3A Division I playoffs and we were going to watch my sister’s son Case Keenum play quarterback.

I was already nervous about the game. The Bulldogs looked pretty good but they were up against a team that had whipped them by 37 points earlier that year.

Now we were stuck on the highway moving at a snail’s pace with a toddler who throws back Gatorade like it’s high noon in the Sahara Desert but has a toddler-sized bladder. If we exit the highway for a potty break, we might have hell getting back in line.

Now, not only were we not going to arrive early, but we might miss kickoff.

Well, long-story short: we got there on time. And the Bulldogs came from behind to win 14-13.

He was a junior but, believe it or not, it was not the first time one of Case’s teams came from behind to win a game. He had already done that as a sophomore, in a playoff game, against a defending state champ — and by calling an audible at the line of scrimmage.

I had no idea I was going to see a lot more comebacks, and I certainly had no idea I was going to see – on television at least – Case participate in a play that some are calling the greatest comeback play in NFL history.

MORE: Back in Abilene, dad calls son's TD pass 'just really remarkable'

Two weeks after the win over Decatur, we were in Waco at Baylor’s Floyd Casey Stadium for the championship against No. 1 Cuero, a team that had “been there and done that.”

The Gobblers were ginormous on both sides of the line and were averaging more than 30 points a game. It was going to take a heckuva defensive effort.

And that’s what the Bulldogs got, holding the Gobblers to just 14 points.

Part of the defensive success was due to the deafening roar from the Wylie fans, who had three-liter coke bottles filled with BBs. We were shaking those noise-makers so loudly when Cuero had the ball the sports writer from the Waco Tribune thought the Wylie fans had coins in the noise-makers.

Sound familiar?

When I was at US Bank Stadium in mid-November watching the Vikings beat Case’s old team — the Los Angeles Rams — the crowd regularly hit 115 decibels when the Rams were on offense.

As I watched the Minneapolis Miracle take place on the small screen, it seemed like the crowd must have shattered the decibel meter when Stefon Diggs cleared the last line of defense and raced to the end zone.

So, back to Waco. The Bulldogs were down 14-7 early in the fourth quarter but they tied it up with a 25-yard TD pass on a third-and-long play.

With less than a minute to play, the Bulldogs were driving again but they were facing third-and-11 at midfield. This was it. You could feel the nervous energy all through the packed Wylie side of the stadium.

Case dropped back to pass. All his receivers were covered up, but the middle of the field was starting to open up.

He pulled the ball down and started heading down field but toward his left sideline. He got the first down and more and then, just when it looked like he was going to head out of bounds to stop the clock, he cut back into the field of play and scampered all the way to the 9-yard line.

The Bulldogs’ head coach Hugh Sandifer – who is still one of Case’s biggest supporters – ran one more safe running play and then let the clock run down and sent in his kicker, who nailed the 25-yard field goal as time was running off the clock.

The Bulldogs won 17-14 against the No. 1 team in the state.

There have been several I have witnessed in person or via television or the internet.

One of the best wasn’t a comeback after all, but it started fans talking about Case’s “it factor.”

They were playing Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, and Case was a redshirt freshman trying to lock down the starting position. Alabama. Tuscaloosa. Saban. Yes, you read that right.

The Coogs were down 30-10 going into the fourth. Case ran for a TD and threw a 30-yard TD and was leading a third drive, down 30-24, when a throw into the end zone was batted down by the Tide defense. And I kid you not, Alabama fans were seen on crowd shots on their knees praying.

Later that year, the Houston Cougars rallied from four points down with seven minutes to play to beat UTEP in El Paso – never an easy task – when Case threw a TD pass in the last minutes of the game. Another win that year was from 13 points down late.

In 2008, the Cougars won two where they were down by 12 points in the fourth quarter.

In 2009, the Cougars were down by four with seven minutes to play but rallied to beat the Dez Bryant-era Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

I was in attendance the next week when Mike Leach’s Texas Tech team came to Houston’s Robertson Stadium. It was a steamy Saturday night in September.

Trailing late in the fourth quarter with the ball deep in their own end of the field, the Cougars had their way against the Red Raider defense, which was thoroughly gassed under the relentless pressure of the Keenum-led fast paced offense.

I still remember the call from the broadcast when I got home Sunday to watch the recording.

“Remember, Keenum can run.”

When Case scored what became the game-winning TD on a delayed keeper, the stadium erupted. The defense then shut down Leach’s offense to seal the win.

MORE: Win over Texas Tech a Keenum 'signature moment'

Later that season, the Cougars were in Tulsa against their most hated rival. I was never comfortable going into games with Tulsa.

Houston was down by 11 points late in the third quarter, and while they were staying with the Golden Hurricane squad, the Cougars never led.

Houston pulled within one point with about eight minutes left but then Tulsa scored again to take an eight-point lead with less than four minutes to play.

Case threw a TD pass to pull Houston up to 45-43 with 21 seconds to play, but when he was sacked while trying desperately complete a two-point conversion, I could feel the hope draining out.

Case’s expression said it all. I wonder if maybe he had some doubt there.

MORE: Keenum fondly remembers 2004 Wylie state championship

The Cougars did the only thing they could: tried an onside kick. (How many times has anyone seen an onside kick work when everybody in the whole stadium knows what is happening?)

Case drove the team 27 yards, and freshman kicker Matt Hogan’s heroic 51-yard kick was so good, it could have scored from 65 yards.

Fast forward to 2011, because the less said about Case’s 2010 knee injury the better.

Well, maybe that was Case’s greatest comeback. I don’t think anybody in the nation thought Case was going to be awarded the rare sixth-year by the NCAA.

But it was his comeback traits that actually made that happen.

During Case’s senior year at Wylie, the Bulldogs were trailing late in the state quarterfinals. Trying to rally his team, Case dove on one play and hurt his shoulder.

That shoulder was still injured when he took his redshirt year at Houston, and this was one of the criteria for the medical redshirt. If Case had just taken the redshirt year to save his eligibility while sitting the bench, he would not have qualified for the ruling that gave him back his senior season in 2011.

Case’s largest comeback came in his second senior year.

The Cougars were in Ruston, Louisiana, playing against the Sonny Dykes’ led Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. It was two high-flying offenses squaring off early in the season.

It was perhaps the worst performance in a few seasons by that now-super polished Cougar offensive attack, which had veterans at just about every position. With five minutes left in the third quarter, Houston trailed La. Tech by 27 points.

I was beside myself, wringing my hands and pacing back and forth in front of the TV screen.

I guess you can probably figure out the Cougars won that one, 35-34, with a little more than a minute left to play. Case threw two touchdown passes and led the Cougars on four scoring drives.

There’s been a lot of comebacks. And some of the attempts fell short. There have been interceptions in the end zone. Games where the comeback attempts resulted in more bad luck, and eventually a loss.

As I’ve been reading all the stories this week following the Minneapolis Miracle, one thing is expressed over and over again by Case’s current and former teammates: They know Case believes … not only in himself but in his teammates.

MORE: Keenum 'barely' remembers huddle before TD

He leads by lifting up his teammates higher than himself. He doesn’t bark orders that say, “Play at the level I am playing.” He says things like, “I’m going to give one of y’all a chance to be the hero.”

Case would much rather have that dominant win like the Bulldogs did when they beat Royce City 28-0 in the state semifinals on their way to the state championship.

But if his team finds itself down 14-7 to the No. 1 team late in the game, he’ll be the last one to stop believing.

Amy McDaniel is a multimedia sports journalist for the San Angelo Standard-Times. She can be reached at 325-659-8258 or amy.mcdaniel@gosanangelo.com. Follow her on Twitter at @WTXScribe