Football teams lose football games: It happens

Valdosta State lost to Ouachita Baptist over the weekend. It happened, get over it. What’s being said is a joke to me: “how could this happen?”, “I’m embarrassed” and the rest of this holier than thou mentality. First off you shouldn’t be embarrassed you don’t play the game. No matter how big of a check you write you’re not on the team, as a fan there is no embarrassment. Your upset but you can’t be embarrassed, because that would mean you were actually involved in the outcome of the game.

Being upset over a loss I get it, but don’t hold anything negative towards the players. I witnessed the game, that team didn’t execute but they put forth the effort. Had they given a half-way effort than yeah, go ahead criticize. But this team played pretty hard, they just got beat. They bit on fakes, couldn’t finish a tackle, missed some blocks but that was all failed execution not failed effort. But they attempted to score until the last possible second showing a sense of personal pride that has to be respected. They didn’t kneel the ball as the clock ticked down trailing two scores; they tried to get points on the board.

Take off the red and black and look at what happened as a football fan for a second. If you love the game of football, truly love the game of football, you have to understand that any team can beat any other given team on any given day. That is precisely what happened. Ouachita Baptist had the biggest win for their program in the last decade; it just so happened to be against your Blazers.

At the Division I level people root for this all of the time. People cheered as USC fell to Washington, as local star Greg Reid led Florida State to an upset against BYU, but Valdosta State losing…now that’s just embarrassing? I don’t think so. If you pull your fandom out of the equation, you’ll find as a football fan this was a monumental event.

The Blazers are a young team this year. They are a team centered around juniors, sophomores and freshmen. The few seniors on the depth chart outside of Melvin Black, Cedric Jones, Carlos Anderson and RJ Bastone haven’t played in the current system significantly enough to play like a senior, there is a learning curve involved with them even though they are seniors. I said in the preseason this team reminded me of the 2006 squad; junior heavy, young captains, a Callaway brother as the backup QB, coming off a down title defense year. This team is talented to compete this year but think about all this team has been through since the end of the 2008 season.

They lost a three time All American in Sherard Reynolds and three year starter Everett Kitchens. Valdosta State tried to replace them with two freakish athletes in the spring, Georgia transfer Donovan Baldwin and a JUCO transfer Jasmon Watkins. Those two didn’t make grades and it took until three weeks before the 2009 season to figure out and find replacements.

GSC Co-Freshman of the Year quarterback Chris Hart left the school for Georgia Military College, leaving a huge gap at quarterback that looked to be filled for the next 3 years. Then TJ Williams opted to leave Valdosta State which turned out to be a positive move for the locker room at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium but a talent blow nobody can deny. Other young guys like Brian Buford, Kiece Crite, Bryant Thorpe and Chris Grant who have all seen a lot of playing time over the last season or two were not back with the team for a variety of reasons.

This team had a lot working against it before the season started yet they are still a talented team. Freshmen are starting and playing significantly all over the field. They’re going to make mistakes; this is their first year playing at this level. But at the same time they’re very talented freshman with incredible upside. The last two freshmen classes have some of the most talented first and second year players I have seen in my time covering the Blazers.

The season however is far from over. Is it possible the Blazers can beat both Delta State and North Alabama? Absolutely, anything is possible. Is it likely? Probably not, but beating one and getting help from another team could aid Valdosta State, especially if that team is Ouachita Baptist who has Delta State at home this weekend. Again, likelihood of that is slim, but still possible.

Just because the Blazers probably won’t be in the playoffs doesn’t mean its time to stop watching Valdosta State football. Teams all over the country don’t even contend for their conference title on a yearly basis yet they get support, and people in Valdosta tend to lose site of that. Yes, people here are used to winning but it’s more than that. This town prides itself on being tight nit, now is the time to prove it.

These Blazers go out there every week with V-State on their chest and represent that school, this community and for some of you, your alma mater. They are the team you supported when they won; don’t turn your back because you think they might be down this year. It’s the fourth game of the year and stranger things have happened than Valdosta State winning some ball games. If you love the game of football and believe any team can beat any other team on any day, well I guess I’ll be seeing you two more Thursdays and four more Saturdays this season.

9/11…8 years ago…feels like yesterday

This was published in The Spectator a year ago. It is what my day was like in New York on 9/11/2001:

I was sitting in eleventh grade math class. The class loud-mouth stormed into the room. What idiotic thing was going to come out of his mouth this time? Who fought who? Do we care? Then he announced it.

We turned on the television. I thought it was an accident, something minor. Then our world came crashing down.

A girl in my class of 20 or so stood up. “My dad works there.” The room was silent, except for the gulps.

I went on with my day making jokes; my way of coping with awkwardness. Two class periods went by. Teachers were banned from turning on the television sets in every classroom. They were told to ignore it, but it was too big to be ignored.

Finally noon rolled around, and one teacher decided to address it. She said that this day would be like the day Kennedy was shot; we would all remember when and where we were in our lives. Then she uttered words that I hadn’t really thought about.

“When that phone rings and someone is called to the office to go home, we will know something is wrong.”

Phone rings. Guess who is the first to go?

I walked out of the room. My buddy from the baseball team patted me on the back.

All I could think about was that my dad was dead. One of my two aunts was dead. One of my three uncles was dead. My grandfather was dead. Someone close to me had definitely died. They all worked there.

I walked through the hallways of Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley, NY more scared than I have ever been in my life, knowing my world had just been shaken 50.47 miles away in Manhattan.

September 11th, 2001 was the worst day of my life.

I got to the front of the school after a walk that seemed like an eternity. There was my mom, crying in the middle of my school. Surely the worst had happened. Around her were the toughest kids you’d ever met on the ground in tears, trying to find a way to get out of school to find their parents.
The kids that never lost a fight, the ones that never showed emotion, were pleading with police officers and school administrators. They wanted to know if everything was alright with their family members that they couldn’t reach.

I finally approached my mom and barely uttered out “Tell me everyone’s alright.” She reassured me that she heard from my dad, uncles and aunts, but that the father of one of my aunts was still missing. He worked in the Twin Towers.

My dad watched the second plane hit. His office was in New Jersey, literally across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center. He described it as a “Russian Warzone from a movie” to me. His normal job was to walk the streets of Manhattan, but he had meetings that day, so he was one of the lucky ones.

I was lucky. My dad was able to come home early from work that day. The girl in my class, she lost her father.

My dad decided to get the oil changed on his car and get our swimming pool water checked. I didn’t get it. He wasn’t going to let them win. They weren’t ruining his day.

Living near West Point, the United States Military Academy, that night helicopters flew over my house with spotlights roaming the neighborhoods. Then I saw the face of Osama Bin Laden for the first time.
Seeing the person responsible for the worst day of my life began a period of insomnia that I can’t recount how long it lasted.

Forgive me if I think you don’t understand why this day is so significant. I know you think you get it; but you don’t.

Just like I don’t understand what it was like for people 50.47 miles closer than me. My friends from New York City couldn’t talk about it for months, I understood why.

This day should never be forgotten. I thought that at any second someone close to me would be dead; or even me. September 11th, 2001 lost more lives than accounted for. That day a part of me died and has been left there forever.

I had never been more terrified in my life.

Until the day I die, I am certain I will never forget September 11th, 2001, and neither should you.

Blazer season becomes more interesting after week 1

It’s always interesting hearing a team’s comments after a loss. For Valdosta State its even more interesting because the losses have been few and far between. Over the last three seasons, Blazer losses have only been against 2 teams; Delta State and North Alabama.

So Blazer Nation awaited the words from Head Coach David Dean hoping for answers. On Monday the Head Coach stood up at the booster luncheon and took the blame for Valdosta State’s 31-24 loss to Newberry on Saturday. Later that night Defensive Coordinator Joe Cauthen joined me and my show and said to put the blame on him. … Continue Reading