This busy Griz weekend will officially come to a close in a couple hours and I think my tweet I sent out Saturday evening still sums it up best: It could have gone better, and it could have gone worse.

Our football team dropped a close one to Coastal Carolina yesterday. Once again the Griz staged a very gutsy comeback but this time it fell just a little short. On the brighter side of things, our women’s basketball team went 2-0 this weekend to win the Holiday Inn Lady Griz Classic. The team defeated Idaho in a close contest on Friday evening and then played a great game in the tourney championship to blow out UC Irvine.

This afternoon I attended the Griz football awards banquet. The team and everyone associated with it managed to put the disappointment of yesterday behind them for a couple hours to celebrate a wonderful season. Our athletic director and head coach both spoke some meaningful words, a hard hitting highlight video was shown, and players were recognized. Taking home the big honors were two of my favorite players on the team, Brock Coyle and Jordan Johnson, who both received the Steve Carlson MVP award (on defense and offense, respectfully).

Sometimes less is more so I want to keep it simple: The 2013 Griz football team is one of the best examples of resiliency that I have ever seen in my life, both on a big scale and a smaller scale. When it comes to the larger scale, the majority of the student-athletes on the team went through a turbulent period that few other teams will ever go through. The removal of its head coach, the loss of its MVP, and a microscope pointed right at it as sharp as anything you will find in the finest laboratories will definitely test a squad. But with a “united” attitude and the return of its brother and MVP, the team took the lessons from 2012 and used them to go on a tear in 2013. It is because of the above major tests in resiliency that the team dealt with earlier that they were able to conquer the smaller tests of resiliency this season. I am talking about the come from behind wins and fourth quarter heroics that were on display several times this year.

In life, people from the outside looking in don’t know anything about what goes on in the inside. While they think they do, they really don’t. Most people, including myself, will never know how much dedication, trust, and hard work the 2013 Griz football team poured out to make this year’s campaign such a success. While we can all see the major obstacles they overcame and the dramatic change in wins they recorded, we will never really understand the immense amount of heart that this team exerted on a daily basis. But there is one thing that we can understand, one thing that was clearly visible all season long. This team was UNITED and it was absolutely beautiful. Don’t Blink.