Taking it all in

What was, what is, what could’ve been all on display as Kelly’s FBS Gamecocks prevail on homecoming, and old friends journey on with FCS Murray State.

JACKSONVILLE — FBS Jax State’s 45-10 handling of former Ohio Valley Conference rival and still-FCS Murray State on Saturday didn’t produce the hook storyline until one applied the overlay.

There, in the current Jax State coach’s words, which sound so much like Nick Saban’s words, one heard Charles Kelly, a former Jax State assistant and the second head coach of Jax State’s FBS era.

On Murray State’s sideline stood a Jody Wright, a former Jax State assistant who expressed interest in the Jax State job before Rich Rodriguez became the Gamecocks’ first FBS-era coach.

Murray State co-offensive coordinator Jim Ogle worked from the visiting coaches’ press box booth, just a couple of blocks west and six floors above his former house, on Mountain Street. 

The guy who worked under three Jax State head coaches and one interim head coach could look down on the field and see son Jim, the former Jacksonville High standout and current Murray State quarterback, growing with every snap.

The forking roads and fortunes of college football fill the mind with what is and what might’ve been.

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