The death Monday of assistant coach Jeff Cole provided the University of Maine Black Bears with some harsh perspective about how football fits into the overall picture of life.

Coach Jack Cosgrove’s 3-3 Bears, coming off a crushing 24-20 home loss to James Madison on Saturday, will now try to draw on the inspiration provided by Cole during his 31/2-year battle with cancer as they head into the final five games of the 2004 season.

UMaine, 1-2 in Atlantic 10 play, is now at best a longshot to win the conference championship. It also faces a difficult task in trying to earn its way into the 16-team NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in November.

The Bears realize they will have to get on a serious roll if they’re to meet their goals.

“It puts a ton of pressure on us,” admitted senior tailback Marcus Williams, who sparkled while rushing for a season-best 166 yards on 29 carries against the Dukes.

“To have three losses in our conference, that’s tough,” he explained. “There’s a lot of good teams, a lot of teams that are ranked. I think this is the best our conference has ever been, so we’re really going to have to be on our A game.”

Next up for the Bears is an always-tough Northeastern squad. The Huskies lead the Atlantic 10 North with a 2-1 league record and a 3-3 overall mark.

UMaine realizes it can’t afford to look any further than Saturday’s 2 p.m. Homecoming game on Morse Field at Alfond Stadium.

Of utmost importance is for the Bears to maintain their confidence and cohesiveness while focusing only on their next game.

“Right now we have Northeastern next so we just need to make sure that we don’t let this pull our team apart,” Williams said of the last-minute loss to James Madison. “If anything, we need to come together so we can win these close games. This is the third straight close game we’ve lost and that can really take a toll on the psyche of the team.”

At present, UMaine isn’t a serious threat in the A-10 postseason chase. South Division members Delaware, James Madison and William & Mary are all 4-0 in conference play and two of them own wins over the Bears.

The league champion is determined by the best A-10 record, regardless of division. The first two tiebreakers are head-to-head competition and record versus common opponents.

Right now, the Bears can’t worry about those things and become demoralized.

“We really need to come together and dig deep and I think we will,” Williams said.

“We have too much invested in the season to say OK, we’re in the middle of the pack now in the league so the season’s over,” he said. “We can go out and win every single game we play and we know that.”

Cosgrove attributes the Bears’ 3-3 start in great part to talented opponents.

Five of UMaine’s games have been decided by seven points or less, including all three losses. The Bears also have faced five teams ranked in the top 20 during the first half of the season.

“It’s probably going to be that way throughout,” Cosgrove said. “Maybe it’s day by day, but this conference is as good as it’s ever been and I’ve been in it a while.”

Black Bears back on the run

The UMaine football team has struggled to establish consistency on both sides of the ball so far this season.

Initially, the Bears had reworked their offensive scheme to account for some inexperience at fullback and tight end. In Saturday’s game against James Madison, they returned to the power running game on which it had built its success in recent years.

Marcus Williams, who came into the 2004 season bigger, stronger, faster and more elusive, finally was able to showcase those improvements. He carried the ball 29 times for 166 yards and a TD, helping UMaine show signs of its former self.

Nobody was more aware of that than JMU coach Mickey Matthews.

“They became the old Maine [Saturday],” he said. “They just ran it down our throat. If you’re wearing a Maine helmet, offensively they blocked us very effectively. If you’re wearing a gold helmet, I was very discouraged with how we played defensively up front.”

Williams, who now needs 386 yards to surpass Lorenzo Bouier’s UMaine career rushing record of 3,828, credited the guys up front with making the difference.

“It was definitely a change in our mindset,” said junior center Ben Lazarski. “The past couple games we’ve been trying to mix it up a lot. From the start of [last] week, we said we’re going to run the ball right down their throat and that’s what we tried to do.”

Don’t be surprised if the Bears try to line up and run the ball right at Northeastern on Saturday afternoon.