Opening Weekend

The first weekend of the season was one characterized by blowouts by my teams. I had fun Friday night watching Rock Hill High play at Wando, even though RH isn't really "my" team (they're actually my high school's big rival, but they became my team by default when my mom became principal). RH won 26-0, and watching the social dynamics at a high school football game made me extremely thankful for my 20's. :)

Saturday was pretty exciting, since not only was it the first game of the season, but it was also The Citadel's first game in the newly renovated stadium. You'd have thought my dad was a kid on Christmas. He couldn't wait to get to the stadium and check everything out--and have his picture taken with the new, HUGE bulldog statue. We had access to one of the new luxury suites for the game because someone my parents know wasn't going to be using his tickets that day. I'd really rather sit down closer to the field, but it was nice to see "how the other half lives" for the day! The game itself wasn't terribly exciting, as you could probably guess from the 54-7 final score. However, it was nice to see some of the freshmen get a chance to step up and make some big plays so early in the season. Freshmen Asheton Jordan and Luke Caldwell even scored their first collegiate touchdowns in the first game. Asheton's performance earned him the SoCon's Freshman of the Week Award, and junior Andre Roberts was named the Special Teams Player of the Week for his punt returns, including a 64-yard return for a touchdown.


While I was up in the suite enjoying some great food and beverages, my Furman boys were taking the field in Greenville against Mars Hill. I recorded the game and still haven't had a chance to watch it all, but I was impressed with what I did see. Or rather, I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would be! Now I love Furman football, but this probably isn't going to be "our year" so I didn't have high hopes for our performance. The new starting QB Jordan Sorrells had big shoes to fill in my eyes, and what I've seen so far of the game gives me a little more confidence in him. Hopefully I'll have some time this week to watch the rest of the game and see how we did filling the vacancy that Jerome Felton left in our ground game. In the end, Furman also wins big (62-14), but unfortunately with one casualty. Junior WR RJ Webb, who was out part of the 2007 season and all of spring practice with a knee injury, tore his ACL in the game and is out for the season. He will definitely be missed, but I think we've got a good group of receivers who will step up.

Next up: Furman @ Virginia Tech and The Citadel @ Clemson. Furman and The Citadel are playing Bowl Subdivision teams who were upset in the opening week by East Carolina and Alabama, respectively. If either the Paladins or the Bulldogs had a prayer in the first place, it's surely diminished by the anger of VT and Clemson over their opening week losses. If Hanna doesn't ruin my plans, I'll be at Clemson for the Citadel game. Good luck to both teams... I just hope they make it out alive! ;)