What happened to 'We Are Marshall?'

I took a great deal of interest in the movie "We Are Marshall because I went there the year after the plane crash.
But my memories of the football program were horrid - I mean drinking way too much vodka the night before and waking up to a flushing toilet. That loud swishing sound I kept hearing, which lasted through the 1980s, was the sound of one of the worst teams in the nation. In fact, for a few years they held the longest losing streak in the NCAA.
But then things slowly - and I mean slowly like the syrup that comes out of Waffle House jar - started changing. First, they entered Division 1-AA, where they found a place they could stand a halfway decent chance of winning every weekend. It was not guaranteed, however, like the bonuses handed out recently by AIG. But they had a chance.
As the years passed, Marshall started to turn around and I stopped mounting my "GO BUCKS!" call since I had attended Graduate School at The Ohio State University in Columbus. But they were still stuck in Division 1-AA, a lowly position to be in if you went to that GO BUCKS! school.
Finally, the town of Huntington, W.Va., shut down Fairfield Stadium and built a new, bigger one on Fifth Avenue near the dorms. It seated 35,000 fans - the minimum required by the NCAA to get in the big league - Division 1A.
Marshall was an instant hit on that circuit, playing well enoogh to win the Motor City Bowl when it was in the MAC. They were producing the likes of Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Brian Leftwich.
But alas, some fool had to go and make things "better." Marshall moved into Conference USA and has struggled there ever since.
That's only part of the problem, though. They failed to realize that they needed big-time talent at the key quarterback and receiving positions, as well as a defensive line that could hold better than a PB&J in front of Sumo wrestler.
Then the movie comes out and shows the glory they almost had the day of that fateful trip and the challenges the school faced in getting a team on the field. Too bad it didn't continue to today's version of "We Are Marshall."
If it did, then no one would remember the crash because they are seeing self-destruction each season in front of their very own eyes.
Tell you what. Want Marshall to have a better program? Go to all the schools (like Ohio State) with talented players are sitting on the bench because more talented ones are playing. Give then a promise to start and a scholarship. That goes for lawbreakers like Moss, too. So who cares if they have a domestic dispute every now and then? At least they'd be willing.
In the meantime, come next football season, you'll hear me yelling "GO BUCKS!" again. Marshall will be a mediocre team again.
By the way, I hated the movie. It had just as much fiction in it as it did fact. But I do feel sorry for a good friend of mine - Gene Morehouse Jr., the son of the PR man who lost his life in that wreck. Gene Jr. was a journalist and a good friend of mine.