For SFA, the freedom of the underdog role is something to relish

"They just wanted it more."

When it's nearly impossible to justify a victory by a clearly inferior team, that's one of the things you'll hear people say. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban once famously shredded that argument while debating Skip Bayless on television. The idea that West Virginia didn't want to win their opening game against Stephen F. Austin in the 2016 NCAA Tournament is laughable. In that moment, crushed under the weight of heavy expectations, nobody wanted it more than they did.

Maybe, in the aftermath of an upset, the favorite actually just wanted it too much.

When I was 19 years old, I found myself living alone in the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. I grew up in the country of northeast Texas and walking to work in the shadow of a 72-story skyscraper was more than a little intimidating. The company for whom I worked officed and acted as a department within a distinguished Dallas private equity firm. For a teenager in the infancy of his professional life, it was a terrifying chapter.

Every day, I walked into the office frightened. Every hour, I looked over my shoulder. I watched peers get fired. Heck, I only got hired in the first place because someone was let go. "I need this job if I ever want to pay for college," I would always tell myself. It was a thankless, high stress undertaking.

It also changed my life.

One quiet afternoon, my boss, a successful businessman in his mid 40s, invited me to sit down in his office. "You need to get to a place in your life where you accept any outcome," he told me. "If you can welcome the idea that you might lose this job tomorrow, you'll be a lot better at it."

It resonated. I told myself that I no longer cared, even though I knew I did. I told myself that if I got fired the next day, I'd walk out with my head held high and my pride intact. I stopped looking back. I smiled more. I chatted up co-workers. I stopped scurrying out of the offices of important people and asked them how their day was instead.

As crazy as it may sound, the moment I stopped caring about my fate was the moment I discovered what success might actually look like. I stayed there for two more years and found my path back to college. The advice I got that day never stopped applying to everyday situations, though.

Relationships. Friendships. Professional and academic work. Whatever it may be, if we can find a way to get out of our own heads, a favorable outcome is possible. Possible. We still don't always get what we want.

Sometimes, in sports, the favorite wins the game. In fact, they usually do.

But when a team is caught up in their own expectations, weighed down by the pressure of a larger fan base, frustrated by the difficulty of their opponent, and facing a foe with nothing to lose?

That's the recipe for a sports upset.

This isn't about the underdog wanting it more. It's about a team free of expectations, with the liberty to enjoy the moment. It's about only being able to meet or surpass expectations, not disappoint them. Ultimately, it's about playing freely and confidently.

On Saturday, Stephen F. Austin will travel to Gerald J. Ford Stadium in that same city I spent a couple of my most formative years. They'll do battle with a team superior in both athletic ability and football maturity. They'll be fighting a program in one of the largest media markets nationally. They'll be at odds with a crew of beat writers who have written articles all week about how the presumed win over SFA needs to be of a "statement" variety.

They're not the better team. They don't want it more than SMU. Maybe, that's the reason the Lumberjacks could pull off their biggest surprise in program history. Perhaps, this, the perfect upset formula, is what Clint Conque needs to immediately rocket his program back into Southland Conference relevance. A win over SMU, any win at all, would be pressing a reset button on years of disappointment. The energy in and around SFA football could be unprecedented when the Lumberjacks open at home against Southern Utah next week.

Or, maybe, SMU just rolls them by 30. If they do, SFA is what we expected. That's what nothing to lose looks like.

In either case, a day from now, SFA's 2017 football journey begins. It may not end in victory, but the pressure tomorrow is not on the Lumberjacks. On that night, expectations are Chad Morris' burden to bear.

Yes, Jim Carey. I'm saying there's a chance.

But that's enough talking for now. It's been a long offseason in Nacogdoches. The wait is over.

Lumberjacks, it's time for football.