Troy University Athletics
Boca is Bittersweet
10/8/2008 5:00:00 AM | Football
As I sit and type this, I have not been to sleep in over 27 hours, I'm still wearing the same clothes in which I broadcast Troy's win Tuesday at FAU, and I can't seem to get either of the two fingers I type with to hit the right keys. One of these days, probably in June after baseball season, I'm going to sleep for as long as I want to. I can't see a window of opportunity for that until then.
I'll go against the grain after a sizable win and give you the bad news first: quarterback Jamie Hampton hurt his knee Tuesday and will be out for a while, maybe all season. That's demoralizing to me, and not because I don't think Levi or Tanner can step forth and do the job. It's aggravating because you can sit with any member of the Troy football team or staff for a year and never hear any one of them say a word against Jamie, whether as a football player or a human being. Watching someone who stands for the right things and is totally accountable to his teammates and coaches being helped off the field in obvious pain is heart-wrenching, even if you're not a Troy fan.
The good news is that the Trojans 2-0 in the league with wins on the road against the two teams that have split the league title with Troy the last two years, they've got a week-and-a-half to get well and rest and get repetitions in practice for Tanner or Levi to step in seamlessly at quarterback on the 18th at home against FIU! It was a really significant win for Troy and one that I hope played positively to the national television audience.
DB Jorrick Calvin borrowed my clipboard at the airport so that he, Terence Moore, and Sherrod Martin could work on memorizing formations on the flight down and it's obvious they paid attention, because Terrence especially seemed on a couple of occasions to know what Rusty Smith was going to do before he did it. We had a couple of noteworthy encounters on gameday: Jerry and I ran into Jamie Hampton's mom in the hotel elevator and we made sure she knew how much we enjoyed watching Jamie play; that's another reason why it hurt to watch him go down that night.
When we got to the press box, we chatted up our security guard, Capt. Rick Maglione, and it turns out he's a Troy grad, Class of 1987. He remembered the national championship team while he was there and was interested to know that one of that team's members, Kenny Edenfield, is on the staff now. Well, any time you run into a Troy person on the road, you've got to get a picture! From left, it's Jerry, me, the Captain, and Chris. Checking the picture, I'm pretty sure they don't want anyone smoking in the press box...
Because our game was the only game in the country Tuesday night our studio host, Mike Mote, was scrambling for content during his segments of the broadcast, so we enlisted the Troy beat writer for the Dothan Eagle, Drew Champlin, to be a live halftime guest on our entire Troy ISP Sports Network. Drew is a talented writer and 
very conscientious, and getting good enough on the radio to make me nervous for my job. I ambushed him while he was on the air and got a candid photo.
Usually on the road, whether it's football, basketball, or baseball, I try to keep up some sort of an exercise schedule, so on GameDay Tuesday I lit out for the local park by the hotel to run for a while. Several members of the traveling party were already out there working up a sweat, including Assistant AD Tony Ferrante and receivers coach Shayne Wasden.
The park itself was dotted with these little ponds and, every once in a while, these dragonlike lizards that came up to my knee --I swear-- sprinted across the path with these gigantic 
fins on the backs of their necks, just to get from one pond to the next. It was a humid day and I thought the first time that I was hallucinating. I reminded myself that I wasn't in Pike County any more.
Being able to run in new places is one of the things I like best about being on the road. The only real difficulty I face on the road is forcing everybody to wait for me while we tape the "Trojan Football Report" TV Show with Coach Blakeney immediately after the game. Nobody has ever complained, but I'm always fearful that I may botch a segment and force Coach to do another take, and knock back the departure time another ten minutes. Coach Blakeney is wonderful to work with, though, and we haven't had very many retakes. Of course any show, like Tuesday's, that highlights a big road win in the league is a lot easier on everybody!
