Oh, how things have changed.

The SIUC football team rebounded from a 20-point second half deficit, weathered a Southwest Missouri State comeback of their own, and sent the Homecoming crowd home happy with a 33-30 overtime win over the Bears.

The Salukis (4-3, 2-1), who have been the doormat of the Gateway Conference the past couple of years, are now in a tie for second place in the loss column and head to Northern Iowa next week to battle for the league’s top spot.

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SIUC head coach Shawn Watson said the squad has just played itself into having an opportunity at the Gateway title.

I’m very proud of this football team, he said. They want a chance to have a great season and they’re going to have one.

We’re in the hunt.

The Salukis fell behind 20-0 in the third quarter but mounted a furious comeback by scoring 27 consecutive points.

SMSU sent the game into overtime when quarterback Jeremy Hoog side-stepped Saluki defenders and rumbled 22 yards for tying score.

The new overtime format in Division 1-AA football allows each team to get one possession at the opponent’s 25-yard line. After both team gets that one chance to score the game is over.

SIUC won the coin toss and decided to play defense first. Watson said he wanted to know how many points his team needed to score to win.

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Hoog again scrambled for eight yards following an incompletion to open the drive, but the Salukis defense stiffened. The Dawgs stuffed Bears’ tailback Michael Cosey, who ran for 109 yards on the day, for a two-yard loss on third down to force a field goal attempt.

Place-kicker Wayne Boyer, who converted on tries from 32 and 50 yards earlier, booted the 36-yard attempt through the uprights to give SMSU the three-point lead, 30-27.

SIUC faced a third down and six from the Bears 21, after gaining only four yards on their first two plays. That is when Watson and the Salukis fooled the SMSU defense by calling a quarterback draw on what is usually a passing down.Quarterback Danny Smith followed his blocking for nine yards to the Bears 12-yard line.

After a two-yard run by junior tailback Coe Bonner, Smith dropped back and hit a streaking Reggie Fowler running across the field. Fowler outran the Bears’ secondary and scored the game-winning 10-yard touchdown.

Fowler, a sophomore receiver from St. Petersburg, Fla., said Smith had a couple of options on the play.

It was a 50-50 chance of me or Damon (Jones) of getting the ball and all the backers jumped on Damon and I came out open, he said. The quarterback made a good read, had good protection, delivered the ball and I just tried my best to get into the endzone.

I saw daylight and I just ran.

Dawgs wide receiver Jermaine Gray, who caught two of the Salukis five touchdowns, said the Salukis are now in a great position in the conference.

Northern Iowa has a nice place and nice turf, so we’re going to go up there and we’re going to show them we’re not the same team as last year, but we’re a new team.

The Salukis trailed SMSU 13-0 at halftime and after Mark Gagliano’s punt was blocked and recovered by the Bears’ Brad Richardson in the endzone to open the second half, it looked as if the Dawgs were going to lose their ninth straight game to SMSU.

Smith and the entire offensive unit, however, were not going to quit.

After the Bears touchdown the Salukis converted a big third down when Smith connected on a 13-yard pass to Johnny Thomas.

Tailback Coe Bonner followed that play up with a 27-yard run, and three plays later, Bonner sliced through the heart of the Bears defense for a 10-yard score.

Bonner said that drive was a catalyst in getting the entire team going the rest of the game.

We got some big plays and that’s all we’ve been talking about, he said. We got one big play than after that the defense got hyped up and they started playing hard, and the offense was still hyped.

Then we got another one (touchdown) in and after that everything started falling into place.

The offense kept up the intensity, scoring on their next three drives of 94, 85, 72 yards. Gray made a 33-yard over-the-shoulder catch for his second touchdown.

Bonner caught an eight-yard underneath pass and turned it into a 39-yard touchdown scamper. Gray caught the last Saluki touchdown in regulation when Smith throw a 13-yard scoring strike. Ryan Givens hit the upright on the extra point, which eventually allowed the Bears to send the game into overtime.

Beside the touchdown that sent the game into overtime, SMSU’s other score came late in the first half when Cosey got outside the Saluki containment and ran for a 12-yard score.

On the day, Smith threw for 328 yards and the Dawgs outgained the Bears 469 to 318.

The Salukis travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa to take on 3-0 Northern Iowa, Saturday.