Flying V

I love these kinds of exposures, where a focal point is accentuated by the blurred surroundings. The Oregon Ducks have been a flashy college football powerhouse, and have been drawing attention both for their speedy play and their trend-setting Nike uniforms. 

September 28th: Loosiers

Last week, the Indiana Hoosiers pulled off a huge upset against the ranked Missouri Tigers. It was the first win against a ranked opponent in a very long time (lost their last 18 attempts).

Coming off of the win, Hoosier Nation was pumped. Twitter and Facebook activity yesterday showed fans more enthusiastic about their team than they had been in a long time. People were finally banding together around a team that, for the past few years, has been facing a strained relationship between fan base and team.

You see, when the team sucks, fans don't want to invest in them. Yet, when fans fail to get behind their team, they have very little opportunity for success.

That all was supposed to change when a very evenly matched Maryland team came to town. Maryland was just the kind of game that should have been a win, maybe a challenging win, but a win to prove Indiana's toughness. Instead, things got bad fast.

A first half that kept things close showed an Indiana defense that was as bad as it had been a year ago, and an offense failing to make up for it. The second half was a pure blow-out, embarrassing the Hoosiers and sending Maryland to their first Big Ten Conference win.

The sad fact of the matter was that this game was a program defining opportunity. They dropped the ball. They had the opportunity to take an energized group of fans and show them that they were committed to making the program better.

If it had been a close game, a tightly fought contest, it would have been one thing. But it was a lack-luster effort at best, and resulted in a large collection of Hoosier fans walking away before the final whistle blew.

I will always be a Hoosiers fan. But sometimes, I wish the Hoosiers would play like they cared about their fans.

September 9th: More Than Football

We, as sports fans, spend so much time watching, critiquing, and arguing about college students. We talk Heisman trophies, March Madness, College World Series, and more. These 18 to 22 year old men and women provide us with all of the entertainment we could possibly need, each of us living vicariously through them as they try to squeeze as much as they can out of the sports they love.

Sometimes, though, it is too easy to forget that these are students, young people who are betting everything on college. For some, this can come at personal expense. Not all student athletes are on scholarship at the schools they represent.

ESPN ran a great story about college football walk-ons who, through hard work and dedication, earned scholarships to play for their teams. It detailed the difficulties of having to pay their way when their teammates and friends had their experiences paid for.

Having watched it, it is remarkable how these young men were willing to give so much to follow a dream of theirs, and were so overjoyed by getting the opportunity to go to school and play the game they love on scholarship. They are getting the opportunity of a lifetime, allowing their skills on the field to not only provide them with a chance to play their sport, but also to pursue a world-class education..

It may be easy to judge football players as athletes when watching on ESPN. Every once and a while, though, we get the chance to remember that these student athletes are working for so much more than just a victory every week.