Miami of Ohio Football Adventure

This past week I got the opportunity to see my only cousin play D-1 football in person. As I have mentioned before in this blog, my cousin, Brad Bednar, is the starting left tackle for the Miami of Ohio Redhawks. After two seasons at center, he was moved to left tackle for his junior year for the defending MAC champs. Before the game I was able to bother him with pictures during warm-ups and then took videos during the action against Temple in Philadelphia:

It turned out to be an entertaining game as Miami mounted a fourth quarter comeback that fell just short. Miami WR Nick Harwell set school records for receptions and yards as the RedHawks tried to thwart the Owls intense pass rush. Despite the loss, Miami still has a chance to repeat as MAC champions and I had a great time supporting my cousin.

On a side note, I believe I’ve found college fans worse than Maryland. Despite being a campus of 37k, only a couple hundred Temple students made the 30 minute subway ride to the game. Notice the crowd in this picture. That’s roughly one fan for every 100 students. Compare that to UVa’s 10k student section for 20k students. Not showing up is one thing, but how they acted is what made it worse. After Miami scored a touchdown to make the game closer, half of their band came over to the Miami family section and began to play their fight song. After the Owls sealed the game a dozen students came over and started taunting the RedHawk section as well. Some of the students even had signs saying they should be in the Big East. They were kicked out of the Big East five years ago for poor attendance and a dismal record! Maybe it’s something in the water in Philly.