To most, football is just another sport. To the Lone Star state however, football is more than just a sport.
To Texans, football is a religion. Our Big Red football team jetted off down south this past thursday to Georgetown, Texas to take on the Southwestern University Pirates and immerse themselves in the culture of Texas football.
Denison started off strong with a touchdown in the first quarter to grab an early lead. However, after some adjustments by Southwestern the Big Red found themselves trailing 7-21 at the half.
The Big Red regrouped during half time and in the third quarter, senior running back Alex Minton found the endzone, closing the gap to 14-21.
Southwestern answered with two consecutive scores, followed by another Big Red touchdown on a 10 yard pass to senior wide receiver Malik Webster. Another touchdown from Southwestern put the game out of reach for Denison, and the Pirates eventually emerged victorious with a final score of 42-21.
While the Big Red walked away with a disappointing loss, the team still talked of what a great time they had together in Texas and how regardless of the score, they were proud of the effort they put in. Andrew Zellers, a junior offensive lineman from Hartville, OH commented on the game.
“We did all we could to prepare for the game against Southwestern. We did not have film so we practiced to go against the schemes they ran last year. In the beginning of the game they ran those schemes and we were dominating them in the first quarter. Then they adjusted and we began to struggle. We were only down a touchdown about to score when we turned the ball over on downs. That pretty much sealed the game and they scored a go-ahead touchdown”.
When asked about the atmosphere of Texas and how their world of football varies
Zellers was more or less shocked. “I grew up in Ohio so I’m used to people being crazy about football but we played in a 12,000 seat high school stadium and a lot of our guys were surprised.”
Will Brady, junior linebacker out of Cincinnati, Ohio was also surprised by the atmosphere. “Southwestern’s home field is actually a high school’s stadium and it was still the biggest one I’ve ever played in so it was pretty apparent how big football is down there.”
Brady continued, “It was a really cool experience getting to travel across the country with the team like always. It was obviously disappointing to not win but were still very confident going into conference play and were excited to play in Piper next weekend”.
The Denison Big Red will look to bounce back when hosting Allegheny this Saturday, September 15th at 1 p.m.