Aumsville Assassin (msubobcats.com)

[wbtfg]

Lulay, 'Cats Livin' on a Prayer
MSU Bobcats Bobcat Football News : 2005-10-10 : Bozeman, MT
By Bill Lamberty


Travis Lulay has made spectacular comebacks routine...
Mike Kramer, an avowed head-banger, couldn't help referencing a bubble-gum rock song from nearly two decades ago after watching his Bobcats escape defeat at Weber State on Saturday.

"I'm not a big Bon Jovi fan," Kramer said with a smile at the conclusion of his post-game interview with Bobcat play-by-play man Kris Atteberry, "but we're livin' on a prayer."

Those prayers were again answered Saturday by senior quarterback Travis Lulay, who combines angelic delicacy with sniper-like precision and a forceful, physical relentlesness. The Aumsville Assassin again refused to succumb to near-certain defeat at Weber State, willing his offense into the end zone twice in the game's final quarter, taking the last steps across the goal line himself both times.

Lulay's precision passing -- the final stats show him 18-for-41 with three interceptions, but he could easily have been 25-for-41 for well over 300 yards -- isn't what impressed his head coach.

"I never played the position," Kramer said with the relish every old lineman holds for the quarterback position, "but Travis plays quarterback the way I played guard." That statement ringed true throughout Saturday's fourth quarter, when Lulay repeatedly hurled his body toward first down markers, lunging and spinning and flipping for extra yardage, drawing press box comparisons to John Elway's first down Super Bowl lunge near the goal line.

Bobcat receiver Rick Gatewood calls Lulay the best he's ever seen. Wideout Tramaine Murray, who transferred from Washington State last winter, calls him Houdini. Whatever the label, Lulay has shown an amazing knack for late-game heroics throughout his career. In his first start, during his freshman year at Idaho State, he led the Bobcats the length of the field, falling short on a controversial incompletion as time expired.

That drive, that game, was such a clear case of foreshadowing that any first-year film student could write a paper on it, if only Lulay's career were scripted. The senior Payton Trophy candidate has now led 10 second-half come-from-behind wins, but that stat is a little vague. Some of those games were decided long before the final moments. He has brought the Bobcats from behind six times in the fourth quarter, but even that doesn't seem to define or clarify the force of will Lulay is able to almost inevitably exert on every crucial situation he faces.

With the Bobcats facing a fourth-and-two early in the fourth quarter Saturday, trailing 24-10, the offensive line jumped offside. Now facing a fourth-and-seven from the Weber State 31, Lulay broke out of the backfield, eluding tackle after tackle, scampering into the end zone for a touchdown. That play did more than cut Weber's lead in half. It pumped life into the Bobcats, offensive and defensive players alike.

"When his teammates see him do things like that," Kramer said, "they can't help but play harder. They can't help but understand what a special chance this kid is giving them. Heck," he says with a laugh, "it makes me want to go out there and block and tackle."

Lulay has the Bobcats in the same position as last year as the season's mid-point recedes in the rear view mirror, standing at 4-2, 2-0 in Big Sky play, facing a powerful and hungry Portland State team. This time, the Bobcats meet the Vikings in Portland after escaping with a miraculous come-from-behind overtime win last year, one PSU has talked openly about avenging.

Almost as quickly as Kramer uttered his 'livin' on a prayer' line high above the Stewart Stadium field on Saturday, he paused, even as Atteberry further quoted the New Jersey icon, and he smiled.

"A red-headed prayer."

[HelenaCat95]

If they were going to use a Bon Jovi reference for Lulay in Saturday's WSU game it should have been "Slippery when Wet"

[grizzh8r]

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