Monday, October 1, 2007

Week 5 Recap

We are now 4-1 and let me tell you, it feels awesome. I've been 4-1 in high school and in pee-wee football before, but it has never felt this good. It's all because of the love I have for this team. I've had a love like this for my high school team before, but with this, being a Hoosier, just takes the cake because of what and who we are playing for.

This trip to Iowa is not one that I will soon forget. It was my second trip to the state (I had been there once before at the age of 14 for an AAU baseball tournament where I hit over .500).

The whole trip had a great feeling of looseness to it. I don't know if it was the exceptional weather the lavish hotel, the wait for our plane or Coach Lynch's infectious attitude, but we were like a bunch of happy-go-lucky campers.

First off, on Friday we were scheduled to fly out of Bloomington at 5 p.m. but ended up boarding the plane around 7:30 p.m. and taking off a little past 8 p.m.

PICTURE THIS
We're all in line, getting our IDs checked and going through the metal detectors. Trea Burgess is attempting to be a rap star while listening to Lil' Boosie, Brandon Walker-Roby is walking around with a full lap-top because he has no iPod (LOL), and I turn around to see Kellen Lewis dancing (as he often does) and “Crankin' Dat Superman.” This was a very refreshing scene.

Once the plane landed in Iowa we boarded a bus to get to our hotel. I sat next to Nick Sexton. You may not know this, but he is one of the funniest guys on the team as well as one of the funniest people I've ever met. He told me some weird story about how his grandparents' cat went into their garage and licked up too much gasoline. The cat proceeded to spin around in circles for hours until it finally "ran out of gas" and died. I laughed so hard! But I actually thought this story was real! He told me it was made up, and I'm not sure what's worse, the story, or the fact that I believed it.

GAMEDAY
When Coach Lynch told us how the atmosphere would be one of the best in college football he wasn't lying. The crowd was rockin' at Kinnick Stadium. I wouldn't have had it any other way. The fans are right down on the sidelines and they taunt you throughout the game. It did get amazingly loud for a little bit, and most of the time when I was on the field I could not here Kellen's cadence at the line of scrimmage. I had to watch the ball at all times.

Iowa is a hard-nosed, well-coached team. They will be tough for other teams to beat from here on out.

GIVE ME PINK
I got to see the infamous pink visitor’s locker room for the first time and let me tell you, I have never seen a better visitor’s locker room! Iowa made a mistake in this area. Sure they painted everything pale pink, but who really cares about that? The lockers were huge, we had chairs to sit in instead of stools, carpeted floors, a lot of space and great showers. The Hawkeyes really know how to treat a guest!

PLAYER PROFILE TOMORROW!!!!
This player has represented his home state of Louisiana very well!

WORD FOR THE ROAD
"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." -James Dean

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work! Go Hoosiers!

Anonymous said...

Good game buddy, can't wait to see you at the Rock this Saturday to go 5-1!! I need to get "crankn" cranking for you guys when you get off for the walk!!

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks again for the updates. A great win for the Hoosiers and you're lookin' pretty damn good carryin that football yourself. Here's to a good week, we're all behind you...Go Hoosiers!

Anonymous said...

As an IU fan it is just super that you have this blog. I'm damn proud on how well you represent this university. Congrats on the great win, look forward to the Minnesota game!

Unknown said...

Congrats on the BIG game BPayton--way to rep the Hoosiers and the Fort!