Miami of Ohio Football Adventure II

This past Labor Day weekend, my family and I had the opportunity to see my only cousin play D-1 football in person with 105,000 other fans at Ohio State Stadium in Columbus.  My cousin, Brad Bednar, is a four year starter on the Miami of Ohio Redhawks offensive line. He was even profiled in a Northern Ohio News-Herald article last week.   

Before the game, the famed Ohio State Marching Band took to the field for their famous Script Ohio:

Once the game started the Redhawks dominated the first quarter, racking up a 160-40 yard advantage over the heavily favored and nationally ranked Buckeyes. However, despite moving into the Ohio State redzone twice, Miami only came away with a field goal due to two key drops. Still, silencing the large home opener crowd by taking a lead was pretty sweet:

 

I do not need to go into the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th quarters, but seeing the star after the game was worth the wait:

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.

Its Bowl Season!

While all the attention will be on the BCS Championship game between undefeated Auburn and Oregon, I will be focusing on two of the more unheralded bowls. No, it does not involve UVA, which will be playing in the “Spring” Bowl. Nor does it involve Ohio State, which despite only one loss will only be playing in the Sugar Bowl. My attention will be on two bowls with a combined 13 years of history between all unranked teams.

First, my only cousin’s Miami of Ohio team faces off against Middle Tennessee State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. The Redhawks completed an incredible worst to first turnaround by winning the MAC championship game last week. Coach of the year hopeful Mike Haywood improved his squad by eight games, going 7-1 in the conference. Miami has reeled off five victories in a row, four of which on the road. Meanwhile the Blue Raiders are only 6-6 in the Sun Belt, but have better statistical rankings than the Red Hawks. Formerly called the GMAC Bowl, the game takes place in Mobile on January 6^th on ESPN. Despite being the 34^th ranked bowl game, it looks like there will be some fun activities planned, and I’m sure there will be plenty of Danica Patrick commercials on TV

Meanwhile eight days earlier in DC, Maryland and East Carolina face off in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman. My girlfriend and her company help manage the event, so maybe I’ll hang out with John Wall doing his dance while punching Dwight Howard for beating the Cavs. Now with a different major sponsor, hopefully there will be some sweet flyovers or cannon shots after each touchdown. RFK will be the site of a possible shootout since the 6-6 Pirates are 112^th in defense and 12^th in offense while the Terps are 42^nd or better in both. Strangely enough Maryland had the second biggest turnaround in the nation to Miami. Terps are bitter they are going to a lower seeded ACC bowl, but if you cannot attend a bowl game a couple metro stops from your campus, you do not deserve to play in warm weather. I’ll be going just to boo the Twerps the whole time.

What about the other bowls? Try naming all 35 of them first.

Week 12 Football Recap

Browns 24, Panthers 23

Whew. That was way too close. I know Cleveland has nothing to play for anymore, but blowing a game like that, against a 1-9 team, still would have hurt. The Browns need to learn to tackle for 60 minutes, since this is the third game in a row the D gave up a big play late due to poor tackling. Colt McCoy better be back soon because Delhomme has a 1/6 td/int ratio with a pick 6 in EACH* of his three starts. (*In week 1 the defender returned it 64 yards to the 3 and they scored a TD on the next play, so I’m counting it.) Can the MVP come from a 4-7 team? My new favorite Peyton ran for 131 yards and three first half touchdowns and is 39% of the offense for the season and first in receptions as well. Before I get his jersey, he needs to at least make a pro bowl, so please vote for my coolness sake.

Cavaliers 7, Hokies 37

Well that was a giant thud to end the season. The outcome is about what you would expect from a team with only two D1 wins against one that had won nine straight. I would have liked to have seen some more heart to make the second half watchable. I know it’s a new coach and our offense went from 118^th to 41^st in the country, etc, but outside of the Miami win and USC loss, there wasn’t much to cheer for this year and many games were unbearable blow outs. Not sure if I’ll get season tickets again. Is it spring yet?

Redskins 13, Vikings 17

Any chance Washington had at a wild card berth disappeared after this game. The injuries and lack of a running game caught up to the Skins. At least they keep most games close and entertaining in true .500 team fashion. But to lose on old man Favre’s scramble, on a broken ankle with no Peterson at home to a team that just fired their coach, is pretty disappointing.

Colts 14, Chargers 36

I know Indy matches up poorly with San Diego and struggled recently against them, but I was not expecting four ints and Manning’s worst loss at home. Obviously the injuries are mounting in the O Line and receiving corps, and Reggie Wayne is not having his best year. Once again, they ran the ball under 20 times compared to 49 passing attempts, continuing the losing trend. Luckily though, the Jags lost to the Giants, so the Colts can still get healthy and win the division.

On a more personal note, my only cousin’s Miami of Ohio team is headed to the MAC Championship game on Friday night. Luckily, the Redhawks played nationally televised games on ESPN the last couple weeks so I was able to watch him play. First it was the fog bowl winning field goal against Bowling Green, then a victory over Akron, with a red shirt freshman quarterback making his first start. Finally Miami manhandled Temple last week and benefited from Ohio blowing their chance against Kent State to make the title game in Detroit against Northern Illinois. After going 1-11 last year, the Redhawks are 8-4 (7-1 in the MAC), the largest turnaround in the country. Maybe their second year coach Mike Haywood will join the Cradle of Coaches one day.