The Campus Sports Guy
This could be an underdog weekend
By Corey Ryan, Sports Editor
September 15, 2007 | 10:32 a.m.
Here’s a little riddle for you.
So here is the situation. One football team is playing the team that beat them like a red-headed stepchild 45-0 the last time the two squads met in 2005. The other team is coming off one of the worst performances in football history, against a local rival. This week, the later team will be facing another local rival coming off a thrilling victory.
Can’t guess what teams I’m talking about? Well here are some more hints.
The first team’s last season ended in disappointment, but their respective pubic relations department has publicized it as being a season for the ages. The second team’s coach uses a coin to decide his quarterback and quite possibly every major life decision.
Still can’t figure this one out? I will continue the riddle.
In each of the last two seasons, the first team has beaten at least one, BCS-conference team. This week, they play the only one on their schedule because the guy who makes the schedule prefers to play sub-par teams.
The second team named a starting quarterback, almost let him play the entire first half of that first game, and finally sent him packing cross-country for a Starbucks café latte. Now that team’s fans are threatening to boycott the team.
Team one gets no support from its fan base, while team two gets undeserved support.
For those trying to figure this barn burner out still, team one is your Ohio Bobcats and team two is the CFL destined Cleveland Browns and both teams have a chance at redemption this weekend.
If the Bobcats can find a way to beat Virginia Tech, even if the Hokies go winless at the end of the season, they will earn ultimate legitimacy. That will be enough momentum to catapult them through Wyoming and into the Mid-American Conference schedule.
They don’t need a win this week to achieve the ultimate goal, a MAC title, but they do if they want to win over the student body.
The reason the Bobcats play second tier to several other college football teams is because the legitimate Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame fans on campus have these amazing memories of their team’s glory days.
What do the Bobcats have? One really boring upset over Pitt two years ago that provided two, 30-second memories of Dion Byrum running into the end zone, a mad on-field dash for all those who weren’t too drunk and a blazed couch on Mill St.
I’m sorry, but that isn’t exactly like yearly trips to the Horseshoe, listening to hundreds of thousands of fans screaming for guys like Eddie George, Craig Krenzel, A.J. Hawk, Joey Galloway, David Boston and Maurice Clarrett.
And we’re all trying to forget that last one.
If Kalvin McRae wants to become immortalized, then he needs to win a game like this.
As for the Browns, I may join the boycott suggested by commenters on Cleveland.com. No, I’m not abandoning them like the Bengal fans from 1990 to 2003, but I think I have just reason to get a little upset.
Sure the smart money is for a Hokie and Bengal blowout, I can’t argue that, but a good chunk of football fans on campus, including myself, are in need of redemption.
We need new memories. We need a miracle. We need a hero.
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, fighting all who rob or plunder.
Underdog!