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A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Saturday afternoon in LaGrange, Ga., a YouTube video was worth a 17-point upset for Maryville College.

The Fighting Scots earned their first victory of the season, pulling off a 23-6 win before a highly partisan crowd in LaGrange's Callaway Stadium.

While not exactly the marquee of Tennessee at Florida, only the kilt-clad die-hards picked MC to win on the road against a 2008 playoff team returning 19 starters from a squad that embarrassed Maryville 38-14 a year ago.

A Scots team with a scoring problem that so far had put itself in double-digit, first-half holes in a pair of opening losses against a Panther squad that had won nine of its last 11 and was garnering Top 25 votes in a division twice the size of the BCS grade.

Not a chance.

Save for 4 minutes and 27 seconds of video that found its way into the Scots' Friday night team meeting.

The short clip titled "LaGrange D-BLOCK at Maryville" was posted to youtube.com in December and was archived by the MC coaches for this day.

"It just poured salt in the wound that it was from the football staff. It wasn't a parent's video camera or something like that," said MC coach Tony Ierulli. "When we watched it, our guys were obviously still upset about it. I promised them that if they did to (LaGrange) what they did to us, we'd make our own video."

The LC defensive highlights -- tied together with a musical background and featuring shots from the Court Street end-zone camera and from atop the Honaker Field press box -- became a stark inspiration for Maryville.

Last year it was the Panthers' Nathan Masters who intercepted Tim Conner and returned it 63 yards for LaGrange's first score.

Saturday it was the Scots' Bud Christy picking Drew Carter and motoring 45 yards to give Maryville its first lead of the season at 7-6.

Last year it was LaGrange stripping Brandon Joynes on a kickoff and returning it for a score, then later knocking the ball free from Rommel Hightower on fourth-and-1 at the Panthers' own 8 to prevent an MC score.

Saturday it was MC's Phil Garrett twice picking off Carter in the end zone to thwart LaGrange.

Last year it was Conner going bootleg on first-and-goal only to lose 2 yards as the Scots marched backwards from the goal line and squandered a scoring chance.

Saturday it was Conner going bootleg on third-and goal gaining 2 yards for a touchdown.

"To me, that's one of the most satisfying wins we've had. I was very proud of our players," said Ierulli. "Last season, that was the most disappointing loss I've had, not because we lost that game, but how we lost it."

Never mind that, given a choice of Maryville's three non-conference games, this was Option Three if you were picking the one they'd win. This was a team responding to a memory as much as a video.

Football videos -- some taunting, some celebratory -- from fans, family and, yes, even coaches, litter the Internet like black spots on the bottom of a bird cage. Players see them all the time. It's what they mean and how it makes players feel and how they are inspired as a team that counts.

The Scots enter their bye week with their backs no longer to the wall but still with a myriad of items to address before opening conference play with Methodist on Oct. 3. One Saturday of inspired football isn't a season. It's only a win.

The Scots, like their own highlight video, are still a work in production.

Marcus Fitzsimmons is a sports writer for The Daily Times and enjoys feedback to his columns posted to www.thedailytimes.com.