This summer the powers that be were in serious deliberation over whether or not to continue financing a winless football program.

However, after firing Sam McCorkle and finishing the 2002 season without a Division I-AA win, the Skyhawks hired a familiar guy in former offensive coordinator Matt Griffin to win, revive and save the sport from going under.

“It was no secret that I was given a four-year deal, and if the program didn’t grow or get better it was in serious jeopardy,” Griffin said.

Going into last Saturday’s in-state rivalry against Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-Martin had gone 43 Ohio Valley Conference games (nearly six years) without a win but were showing signs of improvement early in the non-conference season.

“Even in our games against Arkansas State and Western Illinois where we just got our butt whooped, we played a solid second half,” Griffin said. “And that’s when I knew we didn’t have any quitters on this football team.”

However, the Skyhawks found themselves down 23-7 late in the third quarter and it looked like the losing streak might continue. Griffin put the outcome of the game in the hands of sophomore quarterback Brady Wahlberg. The signal caller named OVC and National player of the week led the Skyhawks on a pair of long scoring drives and completed consecutive two-point conversions to send the game into overtime.

In the overtime session, it was Wahlberg who scrambled for a 21-yard game-winning touchdown.

“The kid is a winner and has the intangibles to lead a team at quarterback,” Griffin said. “Here’s a kid that I thought we might have to replace this summer in recruiting and it turns out he’s a hell of a football player that won’t quit.”

A lot of people wondered why Griffin would take the revolving door job at Tennessee – Martin and leave an offensive coordinator position at nationally ranked Maine, but he feels good about his decision to overtake a rebuilding process.

“A lot of people wondered what I was doing, but I spoke to three or four guys that I look at as fathers and they said if things were in place to get the program where I wanted it to go, then I should take it,” Griffin said.

Griffin is convinced this win will help recruiting which has grown immensely from past seasons now that UTM has decided to put money behind the program.

“The presidents here put $2.2 million into a state-of-the-art facility and the equipment here is better than we had at Maine,” Griffin said. “I believe we have the finest football complex in the OVC.”

However, a win against a team like Tech is not something Griffin will brag about to a high school athlete.

We are not going to negatively recruit because that’s not what we are about, but we feel like a winning reputation only helps bring talent to your program,” Griffin said.

One thing is clear around Martin, Tenn., and that’s the idea everything is more upbeat and positive after an OVC win.

“This process is going to take time and people understand that, but at UTM we are playing so solid football right now,” Griffin said. “I would hope that every team in the OVC feels like they have to come and play hard to beat us on Saturday.”

The Skyhawks will try to break another streak by winning an OVC contest on the road as they challenge Jacksonville State next week.

“Our kids have never worried about streaks at all because we simply don’t talk about them,” Griffin said. “But it’s been awhile since we’ve won on the road and we are going to have to do that soon.”

Tennessee-Martin isn’t thinking about an OVC title in the near future but they are hoping to challenge the upper competition on a weekly basis in the next year or two.

“We need more kids on the team and that’ll come, but more importantly we need to continue to have the kids we have now to buy into the system,” Griffin said. “Everybody here wants to win now.”