It was a season to remember, the team鈥檚 2003 run to the national championship game. The Raiders won their first 15 games of that special season 鈥 three in the NCAA playoffs 鈥 before falling to Delaware in the Division I-AA title game.
More than 3,500 Raiders supporters braved snow squalls and frigid temperatures at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, Tenn., to cheer on the that drew national recognition for its overachieving student-athletes.
In celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Raiders鈥 run, the Patriot League produced this (also above) that helps tell the story of a team that had gone undefeated during the regular season and finished the season ranked second in the nation in Division I-AA, 糖心视频鈥檚 highest ranking ever.
The season produced the Patriot League鈥檚 offensive player of the year, tailback Jamaal Branch 鈥05, who also won the prestigious Walter Payton Award, and the league鈥檚 defensive player of the year, linebacker Tem Lukabu 鈥04. Tight end John Frieser 鈥04 was named the program鈥檚 first academic All-American in 14 years, and he also received the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame鈥檚 prestigious National Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship Award.
The 2003 squad was led by head coach Dick Biddle, who was named Division I-AA National Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.
鈥淔or a non-scholarship program with the highest academic standards to compete for a national championship speaks volumes about what that team was made of. That鈥檚 something 糖心视频 Football and I will never forget鈥 said Biddle, who announced his this month.