McNeese is turning to its bluest of bloods to restore its football greatness.

It’s been nine years since Matt Viator walked out of Cowboy Stadium 1 yard shy of winning his first playoff game.

One yard he never got.

Now he returns to fix the program he has loved since long before he even attended class on campus.

And maybe, just maybe, gain that 1 yard and playoff victory.

Viator takes over a program that has lost its way since he left. As much as wins, McNeese needs to re-establish its identity.

So it seems only fitting that the school is calling on its native son to restore its place among the Southland Conference and Football Championship Subdivision elite. After all, he does have as many wins as anyone else in program history and more in the league.

“It is a huge hire for this department and this institution,” said Athletic Director Heath Schroyer.

It is a public relations home run for Schroyer, as fans seem to love the move of bringing back one of their own.

But this is about more than just victories; it is about regaining the trust of fans who have lost belief in the Cowboys and far too often stayed away on Saturday nights.

Viator is all about McNeese. His parents graduated from the school, and so did he. They took him to games as a boy when he sat and watched the Cowboys in “The Hole.”

He isn’t just family, he is royalty. His father, Nolan, was also a coach at McNeese and joins him in the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. They are the only father-son combination who can make that claim.

“I love this place,” Viator said. “Always have, always will.”

Even when he left, he kept an eye on the program, reading up on the happenings. A little of him lost when they lost, even if he was coaching elsewhere.

“This program has always been personal for me,” Viator said.

That was at least part of the reason he came back, he said. Another reason is that he might never really have left.

Talking to Viator a few years back while he was on the staff at Louisiana-Lafayette, it wasn’t what he said but rather the passion of how he said it when we discussed McNeese.

You could hear it in his voice over the phone. For him, this was more than a job for 10 years, this was home.

After years of coaching at area high schools, he joined the McNeese staff and later became its most successful head coach. He never dreamed of Tiger Stadium. For him, college football was McNeese.

When he finally outgrew the Cowboys financially, you knew he was leaving with a heavy heart and maybe some unfinished business, like that 1 yard.

Always humble and quick to credit others, Viator says he’s ready for another round on the Cowboys sideline. He understands it isn’t the same McNeese, but maybe it’s better.

He also knows he must count on others to get him over the goal line. There is a framework and people who can help him win.

There is no telling if Viator’s comeback story will have a happy ending, but one thing is for sure: Nobody is more committed to making it happen than Viator. He knows he still has work to do at McNeese.

And that 1 yard still to get.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com