This is a summary of the last few weeks of Tiger football. Read on -
you just might find this interesting!
The ESPN game vs. Louisville we played ok but we got beat on national TV.
The next game vs. East Carolina we lost QB#1 to a broken thumb in the first qtr. Just a few plays later we lost QB#2 to a blown knee. Its still the first quarter. Our #3 is a walk on, only game time he's seen is holding the ball for extra points. But he goes into the game and plays the rest of the game. We do play QB#4 some, he's a true freshman seeing his first college game. He's playing scared, as expected. We end up losing to East Carolina.
Next game is vs. Southern Miss and QB#3 starts. Somewhere in the first half #4 goes into the game, blows out his knee and is out for rest of season like #2. Coaches got creative that week of practice, though, and 3 other positions line up to take snaps besides the QB, and somehow we pull out a win against one of our biggest rivals (its got a name, its called the Black & Blue Bowl). That was 2 wks ago. Last weekend we had a bye, thank goodness.
But now our head coach is in real trouble, cuz all we have now is QB#3 and he's not very tall, doesn't have a strong arm, and we've got 3 games left. We haven't faced this before, and if #3 goes down we've got nobody else. The offensive coordinator is thinking he's going to have to go find himself another QB but where? He's thinking of going to watch some flag football games they have on campus, maybe somebody is there? Then the head coach turned to Rick and asked him "Think Adam would wanna come down, help us out?"
Whaaaaaa.....
you mean Adam's dream-come-true of playing a little college ball? Heck yeah! But Rick was smart enough not to say that, not just yet. He says "I guess I can ask him". And so last week Adam went down before practice, threw the ball for about 20 min to some of the receivers, talked to Coach West, and yesterday he was in practice gear, with his own locker, his own jersey and his own college helmet (he says they fit way better than his high school helmet did) and he was practicing with the team.
He is not there to take #3's job as the starter, nor do the coaches expect him to win any miracle games, but he is there just in case #3 goes down and the Tigers need to get themselves out of a game. I think they're taking him to Dallas with them for this weekend's game against Southern Methodist University.
This is all so funny because all season Adam has been sitting with us in our endzone seats and he's been commenting to us about the games. Most of the time I don't know what the heck he's talking about (I don't know alot about football formations, schemes, etc). But when #4 went down we (me & Lindsey) said to Adam "Why don't you run down there and see if you can help them out?" Of course we were joking. He played QB at O'Dea and was going to be the starter junior year, but that's when we moved to TN and "ruined Adam's life". He tried QB here, but got caught up in the southern bullsh*t that exists here, and only got to play QB for the JV team. We got so frustrated with the high school coach that we ended up sending Adam back to O'Dea his senior year. But by then he hadn't gone thru spring/summer drills with the team, and didn't end up being the starting QB his senior year there either. But at least he got to graduate with his buddies.
But now.........now he's got another chance, sort of. Its funny, cuz lots of the players already know him. He has been a spanish tutor on campus for the athletes and tutored many of the football players. He's already a student at the UM and has eligibility left, and he passed thru the NCAA Clearing House. The coaches like him because he's mature at 25 years old, so he's not so intimidated at the spot he's been put in. And he has a stronger throwing arm than #3. BUT...he isn't in top shape because he hasn't been practicing every day, he didn't know any of the signals, he has a lot going on (school full time and works early mornings for UPS) and he's got a wife and baby at home, with baby daughter #2 due in 7 weeks. But he's welcoming the opportunity, and as his parents we are so excited for him!
Today was Coach West's weekly press conference. Coach said Adam was the one everybody wanted to talk about. Rick was interviewed by the local paper as well as the local sports caster. They wanted to know about Adam. When asked how old he is...Rick replied "ahh, ahh, 23? 24? 25? I'm not sure, you're gonna have to ask his mom that one". True! Really happened.
Funny stuff.
Boy, there was good news to share today. I paid $1.35 a gallon for gas today at Kroger! Nearly on empty, it cost $21 to fill up my Odyssey mini van. THANK YOU, SANTA!
We decided to put all those princess costumes we've had given to us to good use this year...2 beautiful princesses and the little UPS delivery girl were ready for some candy. Check out the package strapped to Delaney's back, which her daddy made.
The Pumpkin Party at Germantown Baptist Church has been a fun place for us to take the girls for the past 3 years. The girls enjoyed all the carnival games and candy galore. And we all enjoyed the free hotdogs and soda.
The Collierville Square is all decked out for fall. We checked it out this afternoon with Daddy in tow. Free music, and lunch at one of the local eateries made this a really great day. The weather was terrific, too.
Daddy is the official family pumpkin carver every year. He did a fine job.
