That includes the parts of the world where few visit on a Saturday. But their allegiances are just as vital to them as they are to the Division 1 folks and their concrete and steel fortresses that house mid-sized communities on those same afternoons.
Early Saturday was interesting in that:
1) There was an 11:30 central time kickoff for game one of the day- the NAIA tilt between Faulkner and Shorter. The Mid-South Conference has four teams ranked in its Top 11. The University of the Cumberlands, Lambuth, Union, and Shorter are making the statement that the MSC is THE power conference right now.
The MSC will be more than happy to schedule games in the central time zone that will kickoff at 11 or 11:30. On premise, it's a little goofy getting up that early in the morning but if they want it that way, it's their call.
Faulkner has gone through a lot of adversity for a young program. This past April, two players were lost in a traffic accident.
OSG Sports ran the story.
Here's how WNCF-TV in Montgomery broke the news.
There are stickers on the back of every player helmet at Faulkner and no player will wear the 76 or the 67 jersey unless head coach Gregg Baker deems the person worthy of those numbers in the future.
Faulkner is a new program, three-years-old I think, and you can see that the 2009 team is a lot different than the 2008 team. They play their home games at the Cramton Bowl. Yes, that Cramton Bowl- the host of the old Blue/Gray Game from Christmas Day.
((Cramton is pictured, thanks to me))
Shorter was the better team, had the better crowd, but took a while to shake off the bus ride- winning 43-27. They rolled up their veer-standard 521 yards on the ground. Pre-season All-America AJ Cooley ran for 210 yards and three scores.
Faulkner is getting there... just not this week.
2) The Better Half has learned to roll her eyes at me, and be somewhat frightened, when a challenge is issued. The weather in the part of the country where OSG HQ is based has been downright soggy for the last two weeks- save the sunburn we got at Step 1 of the Saturday. I was lacking a hat as I made my way back to Auburn for the nighttime kickoff, so she suggested that (since I was in Montgomery), I should find the AUM campus and grab a hat there on my way.
The campus wasn't easy to find, so I found the next best place- Huntingdon College in the old historic district. It has nice, old-fashioned brick buildings and a very, old-school vibe to it. And TBH didn't know this was part of the plan.
Actually, I didn't either. I just pulled off the interstate and started bloodhounding my way to campus just to see if there was a game or something.
There was... showed up in the third quarter just in time for a 36-yard Cody Stepko field goal. According to the Huntingdon SID release:
Behind a career-high 379 passing yards by senior Justin Ridgeway and career-best 124 yards on the ground by fellow senior Alex Baronich, the Huntingdon football team rebounded from a disappointing loss last week to defeat Louisiana College 34-21 on Saturday at Samford Stadium.
Here's the crowd that braved the downpour at Samford Stadium, pictured, again thanks to me...
3) When the weather finally behaved enough, I made it to the final destination- the Auburn-Ball State game. After the hour delay, I saw instantly that Ball State's losing everybody really showed after the first quarter.
And that everyone on the Plains, loves Trooper Taylor...
