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  • TVCC Head Coach Brad Smiley (center) will try to prove doubters wrong once again when the Cardinals face No. 2 Navarro this week in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference championship game. COURTESY PHOTO

    Smiley, Cards prepare for No. 2 Navarro

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November 12, 2010

SWJCFC CHAMPIONSHIP: Without a doubt

Can Cardinals upset No. 2 ’Dawgs? They’ve been underdogs before

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

ATHENS — Trinity Valley Community College Head Coach Brad Smiley said he’s not one to play up an “us against the world” mindset among his football players.

But he could if he wanted to.

Last week, the Cardinals (6-4) traveled to Brenham to face No. 11 Blinn in a Southwest Junior College Football Conference semifinal. The consensus was that it would be the Cardinals’ final game of the season.

The consensus was wrong — way wrong. The Cardinals demolished Blinn, 59-38, to earn a spot in Sunday’s 3 p.m. conference championship game against rival Navarro College. The game will be played at Corsicana’s Tiger Stadium.

Navarro moved up to No. 2 in the NJCAA national football poll this week, and once again, the conventional wisdom will make the Bulldogs a favorite to win and play for a national championship.

Smiley says he could care less.

“We’re more worried about Trinity Valley than anybody else,” said Smiley, who will be head coaching in his first conference title game. “Our kids are just confident and they have played well. In our field house, we believe we’re going to win, and that’s all that really matters.”

Momentum has been swinging in the Cardinals’ favor for nearly a month or more, depending on where you want to put the placeholder on its genesis.

You could point back to the Cards’ 44-20 win at Kilgore on Sept. 18 — which began a streak of strong road performances by the Cardinals. They won two more on the road, at Arkansas Baptist and Northeastern Oklahoma, before nearly pulling off an upset of then-No. 3 Navarro in Corsicana on Oct. 30, 27-25.

Then again, the team’s second half against Cisco on Oct. 23 was a big turning point, too. TVCC blew an early 14-3 lead, then had to find another stadium to finish the game when a storm knocked out power to the Athens area. The Cardinals rallied back to win that game, 31-27.

“I think that’s when our guys really started to figure out who we really were,” Smiley said of the rain-delayed game.

You’d also have to consider the Oct. 30 loss to Navarro. TVCC held a lead midway through the fourth quarter before Navarro drove the length of the field on an eight-minute drive that ended with the game-winning touchdown.

Smiley said he feels all the pressure is on Navarro — which has lost the previous two SWJCFC championship games.

“Our team, all we’re thinking about is winning and getting to the Heart of Texas Bowl,” Smiley said. “Them? They don’t want the Heart of Texas Bowl. They want to be playing in the Citizens Bank Bowl playing for a national championship.”

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