Just a year ago, Josh Lider thought his football playing days were over after Western Washington University dropped its program.

Yet one week ago, Lider, now a West Virginia Mountaineer, walked off a college football field for the last time in front of 84,192 fans at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

Although the Mountaineers ended their 9-4 season with a 33-21 loss to Florida State, Lider says one things for sure – it was quite a difference from Civic Stadium in Bellingham.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever play Florida State or play Bobby Bowden in his last game, to be a part of history like that,” Lider said. “I loved every minute of this season.”

Lider transferred to West Virginia this year after WWU cut the football program amidst budget concerns after the 2008 season

Now, after a year of playing major college football in a BCS conference ended with the bowl game loss, he has a chance to reflect on just how far his path veered from Bellingham to Morgantown.

After WWU dropped football, Lider sent out tape, hoping to just get some interest from Division-II schools.

Then West Virginia and coach Bill Stewart came calling, giving Lider a full scholarship and a promise for open competition for the punting and kicking duties. So the senior flew to Morgantown with all of two bags – as his parents drove across the country with the rest of his belongings.

“The craziest thing was that before the season ever started, people wanted to interview me,” Lider said. “I didn’t expect people to even care that I was there.”

A harder part though, was winning over his new specialist teammates.

“It took a little while for them to warm up to me,” he said. “They weren’t sure who I was, just this new senior here to try and steal their jobs. I totally respect that. But once the season started up, we were there to help each other.”

In the end West Virginia split the three kicking duties amongst three different players. Freshman Tyler Bitancurt kicked field goals, Scott Kozlowski handled the punts and Lider won the kickoff duties. Lider said he knew he was going to be an insurance policy, used to help break in Bitancurt as smoothly as possible.

“It took about halfway through the season for me to realize that every game I got to play in was like cheating,” he said, “in the sense that after Western cut the program, I should have been done.”

Lider, who was named to the ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 First Team in November, kicked 48 kickoffs for a total of 2,668 yards with one touchback. He also got on the defensive stat sheet with three tackles, including one unassisted.

“That was a lot of fun, I love getting in on tackles,” he said. “But you can’t celebrate getting those tackles, because if I’m the one making tackles, the guy has gotten too far.”

The Mountaineers were 2-0 when they traveled to play the Auburn Tigers in front of 87,000 fans. Lider recalls the intense fan base of the Tigers, which made their presence felt during warmups.

“Normally the stadiums are empty during warmups, but they were paying enough attention that they started cheering when I missed a field goal,” he said. “I kicked another that went through the uprights into the stands. The students got the ball and kept tossing it up and up the bowl and finally threw it out of the stadium. I decided to practice kickoffs after that.”

West Virginia was involved in another game that merited national attention later in the season. In week seven West Virginia, at 5-1, faced off against the University of Conneticut, less than six days after Huskies player Jasper Howard was killed after being stabbed following a university-sponsered dance.

“The hardest part was getting ready,” Lider said. “We wanted to respect Jasper Howard, but as soon as that whistle blew, we had to win a game. We gave them our best wishes. The coolest thing was seeing how the student body responded. They cheered UConn into the stadium.”

West Virginia won that game 28-24, but lost twice more to USF and Cincinnati before beating Pitt and Rutgers to end the season. The team was selected for the Gator Bowl after their final game, and Lider was selected to speak at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast in Jacksonville, alongside Mountaineers coach Bill Stewart, Seminoles coach Bowden and a Florida State player.

“To share my story [about his path to West Virginia], that was amazing,” Lider said. “I was honored to be able to get that opportunity. Coach Bowden’s main story was that ‘you don’t know where your path is leading until you’ve taken it’. That really spoke to me.”

Although the Mountaineers lost 33-21, Lider still says the experience of the Gator Bowl was something he never expected.

“I thought my only bowl game would be the Dixie Rotary Bowl,” he said with a laugh. “Normally it takes a day or so for me to think it over after a loss, but I felt like this was such a cool opportunity I had, to see how it all worked out, that it didn’t take as long.”

And although his college football path took him almost 2,700 miles from Bellingham to Morgantown, he’s thankful for the final year of football he received.

“I’m very happy, I felt that I got to see Division-I football at its best,” Lider said. “I got to play in venues I never imagined. I got to play in front of 87,000 fans. I would never have thought in my wildest dreams that I would play in front of a crowd that big.”

If professional football doesn’t workout, Lider plans to take a year off working in Denver, where his girlfriend lives, before going to med school. For now though, Lider says his plan is to try to get a professional tryout, though he admits that path will be difficult given the fact that this season he only handled kickoffs, whereas most pro teams are looking at kickers who have done everything.

“It’s really a matter of who I know, which at this point, I don’t know anyone,” Lider said with a laugh. “The stats don’t look great, I don’t have great networking, but I’ve seen this story before and it worked out alright.”