In the looks on their faces and in the way they answer questions after each Stagg Bowl victory is a telling clue about Mount Union players. They each seem to genuinely enjoy the national championship as though they never expected to win it and never expect to get back to Salem again.

There has to be a reason why Purple Raider players enjoy each of their seven championships like it's the first.

As Mount Union Sports Information Director Michael DeMatteis reminded those of us who stayed late in the press box after Saturday's win, it is the first for many Purple Raiders.

Sure, many of them have played and practiced with national championship teams as young players. They may have even been lucky enough to make the trips to Salem before, as backups or spectators.

Some, like Dan Pugh, played on the other championship teams, but had limited roles in 2000 and 2001. Others, like reciever Randell Knapp, did not emerge until halfway through this season.

For Pugh and Knapp, this was in a way their first championship. Or rather, the first one where they stood in the spotlight.

Chuck Moore's 34-carry, 273-yard, three-touchdown record-setting performance in Stagg Bowl XXIX was one of the games I thought I'd wait years to see from a single player.

Instead, Pugh, his one-time backfield mate, turned in Saturday's 49-carry, 253-yard, four-touchdown gem.

Clearly Moore meant it last year when he said "everyone should walk off like this."

After Stagg Bowl XXX, Pugh fielded questions with confidence and wore a champion's smile.

"This definitely completes the picture," Pugh said. "This is what we came to do."

Pugh probably needed an extra suitcase to bring back everything he took from Salem: the Gagliardi Trophy, a third consecutive national championship and more records than anyone in the press box could accurately count.

Though he dove over the goal line twice and bulled over tacklers on a Mike Alstott-ish run on a different score, Pugh wasn't the only one having a ton of fun. Chris Kern made his third Stagg Bowl look like a game of backyard football as he danced like Deion Sanders on a beautiful punt return touchdown that got called back.

Knapp, who had six catches in the five outings before his breakout game against John Carroll this season, dove for nearly every pass thrown his way. A guy who had clearly become Rob Adamson's favorite target played Saturday's Stagg Bowl like a reserve glad to get a ball thrown his way.

Since the Raiders haven't lost a game since 1999, it's easy to think they might take success for granted. But they cherish each and every win like it's the greatest thing in the world.

When you're on top, it probably is.

Tough day to debut

It's hard enough to make your first collegiate start under any circumstances, let alone under the microscope that brought Trinity quarterback Dan DesPlaines under center Saturday afternoon. And while deposed starter Roy Hampton said he told DesPlaines to "just trust in your abilities," nobody anticipated winds gusting up to 40 mph.

"I really felt for the quarterbacks today," said Trinity head coach Steve Mohr. 

"If you could grow up in one day, I guess this was it," said DesPlaines, at the end of a frustrating afternoon in which he threw for just 86 yards on 9-for-18 passing. 

Although DesPlaines had been in games previously for Trinity in 2002, none came even close to the Stagg Bowl in level of competition. "It took a little bit to really get up to the speed of the game," said the junior. "(During the season) when Roy got hurt a little bit or the game was out of hand, I'd go in. But by that time the game is a little bit more subdued."

As for the wind, both teams had to play in it, as Mohr pointed out, but "you don't really change your game plan a few hours beforehand except to hope the winds will die down."

"From a certain point you just have to ignore it," said DesPlaines. But moments later he showed why that just wasn't possible. "Some of my throws would come off my hand and just look like an ugly duckling."

Purple Dynasty

Mount Union head coach Larry Kehres deflected comparisions of his team to a dynasty such as the New York Yankees in baseball.

"That word bristles some of us," Kehres said of he and his staff. "I don't like the Yankees. I'm a Cleveland Indians fan."

Kehres seems to prefer to think of each Mount Union team individually. Each of the seven champions is a separate group that defines itself by how it works and how it plays.

"Our football team this season had sort of the daunting task of trying to play as well as the others," Kehres said. "It's hard to be recognized as a great team unless you win all your games, and they did."

Pugh put it differently.

"Do you want to be the team [that makes it] 6-1 [in the Stagg Bowl]," he asked. You don't want to be that team that the one in the loss column, so it adds to the pressure."