Yes, you read that title correctly. I'm currently in my beautiful home on campus, where my freshly installed internet is giving me the ability to type this. Guess who's excited? No word on the cable yet though. I figure if I mention it at least once throughout the course of every blog, someone will get tired enough of hearing about it that they'll do something about it. All I know is this; the day we get it, you can plan on there being a party at my crib (contact me directly so I don't have to give my address to the entire web). 

As we begin to embark on the first week of school, there's several things going through my mind... is accounting 201 really only a 200 level course? Because I sure hope so. Everything I've heard so far, however, leads me to believe otherwise. We'll know soon enough. Also, is it just me, or was there way more reading involved in the first homework assignment this year than last year? Finally, is the Sparks center going to keep rolling after an astounding first week of meals? People love to critique our selection of cuisine at the Sparks center, but I've always been one of its biggest supporters. That being said, I have occasionally been forced to complain about a lack of variety / too many healthy meals. So great news; I was only subject to veggie burgers once this past week, while eating real cow in burger form roughly 3 times. It was incredible. †Whatever the people there are doing different, keep it up. 

And the last thing I must talk about is the state of Wabash sports over the weekend. Congrats to the soccer team for putting on a clinic yesterday. I could hear a huge crowd over there, and it's nice to see the soccer team back on track. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but from what I understand, 4-0 is the equivalent of a 60-0 in football. Which brings me to my next point. The football scrimmage yesterday went pretty well. We had a solid crowd, some big plays on both sides of the ball, and overall, we had a good time. I'm not going to say we're in mid-season form by any means, but I was pleased. Next week, we'll have a great indication of where we really are, as we scrimmage Wheaton College, who absolutely dismantled us last year. It was somewhere in the 35-3 range (not that we should put a lot of faith in it, because the next week, we went on to beat a ranked team). But I'm not someone who can turn it on and off, and I will be much more encouraged if it goes well. Countdown to real kickoff is at 13 days. 

I'm going to write an extra blog at some point this week for my NFL preview. I figure if I'm going to be involved in some type of sports writing, now would be the time to practice, and I need to get used to my predictions being wrong and people giving me a hard time once they all turn out to be way off.  So get ready for the most controversial, mind-boggling, and riveting NFL predictions of the year later this week. I'm sure my readers will have something to say then. Everyone enjoy your week. I'm out. 

Posted by Matt Hudson at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The title of this entry says it all.  I'm sorry, but without my daily allotment of ESPN, I'm afraid I'm just not a very interesting person anymore.  I've had to rely on old techniques of acquiring information such as the newspaper.  Not a good thing.  

Anyway, we started school yesterday, and everything went off without a hitch.  The first two days of classes are typically not the most riveting, but it gives us a chance to get prepared for the rest of the year.  By the way, thank you Wabash for starting classes on Thursday (keep in mind, this is not sarcastic Matt).  It gives us all the weekend to digest everything about our impending doom after having only one of each class.  I, for one, love it.  Thank you also for having Labor Day classes (okay, this may or may not be sarcastic Matt).  When Thanksgiving week rolls around though, and we have the week off, I will definitely speak to the fact that not giving us certain national holidays is a good thing.  

The football team is looking solid, and I encourage everyone to drop by tomorrow afternoon to our Red-White scrimmage.  Ideally at halftime of the soccer game (I think they have halftimes in soccer, but I'm not really sure).  Get out and support your Wabash athletics, people.  We have one of the greatest athletic programs in Division 3, and a lot of it is due to it being supported by the students and community.  This year should be no exception.  

And I couldn't sign off without an NFL update.  What's up with the Colts?  I understand that Peyton Manning has an inflammation or infection or disease in some part of his leg, but can our backups really be that bad?  I know the pre-season means absolutely nothing, but I'm beginning to get a little worried.  A world without a healthy Peyton is not one I'm interested in living in.  By the way, I'm needing some feedback from you guys.  Let me know what you think of my blogging abilities.  I dealt with Chris Creighton for 2 years, so I happen to be very thick-skinned.  I'm out.    

Posted by Matt Hudson at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow, what a long and tiring week it has been.  As I outlined in my previous blog, I've been at football camp for the past 7 days, and it has been quite the week.  50 new freshmen, a new coaching staff, and a new playbook all made for an interesting beginning to our new football season.  That being said, things went very well.  After testing our maxes and having a practice here on campus last Tuesday, we headed out to Twin Lakes camp, where we were able to have practice as well as team-building activities that get the new guys used to Wabash football.  Everyone gets to know each other, and the new guys find out what Wabash football is all about.  My hat's off to this years freshman class.  They've done an excellent job so far, and if first impression of their talent is any indication, those of you that attend football games will enjoy watching these young men for years to come.  

For all my faithful readers, I first must apologize for my long delay in writing another blog.  I've been quite busy, as you might imagine, and the internet at my campus-owned house isn't quite up to par (hint hint to anyone who may be in control of that).  I'm also currently without cable (another subtle hint to whoever's in charge).  You can imagine my dismay of being thrown back into the 50's.  

All of my venting aside, the football team is looking good.  The defense looks strong, and the offense is getting the timing down that will help lead us to another successful year.  I, along with the other players, am very excited about getting after it against Denison in 19 short days.  Although we have two scrimmages prior to that, our main focus is getting on the field to play when it counts.  

Now that I've filled you in about camp, here are my non-Wabash-related thoughts of the week.  Can someone tell me how China won more Gold medals than the United States?  It seems like we were cleaning up in everything, diving, basketball, etc.  The only gold medals I saw the Chinese take were the ones issued to the 8-year old... ummmm... 16-year old  gymnasts in the all around team competition.  Also, am I the only one who thought that Usain Bolt's win in the 100 meters was more impressive than Phelps winning 8 gold medals?  That guy was literally jogging past people.  Shout out to the U.S.A. basketball team.  Not quite the Dream Team, but it's safe to say that the gold medals are back where they belong.  I will get another entry in prior to Thursday hopefully, ideally from the comfort of my own room once my wireless internet is properly installed...  I'm sure I will have more to talk about once I get my cable back, too.  I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perhaps the most clichéd question/phrase of this time of the year is "Are you ready for some football?"  My answer is a resounding yes.  Let me rephrase that.  I am ready for some football games.  Let's be honest here; going against your teammates for 3 weeks in 90 degree temperatures while continually having new information shoved down your throat isn't necessarily why we play the game.  We don't work out at 6 a.m. every week-day for 7 weeks during the winter so we can beat up on guys that we go to school with.  All 130-something guys on this team will tell you that we live for the games.  All that venting about my next 2 weeks of football camp aside, I AM ready to get going.  Summer has been long enough.  You can only watch three SportsCenters and four re-runs of Full House daily for so long.  And all this news about Brett Favre made me want to quit SportCenter altogether.  Enough already, let's talk about Wabash football.

As some of you may already know, I now have one full year of starting experience under my belt for the Wabash football team.  Hence, I'll be privy to privileged information about a given week's opponent and how we will attack them.  Now that I have you excited, you'll never see any of it in my blogs.  I don't think the coaches would be too happy with me if I discussed specific details about how we're going to attack the Cover 2.  You also will not see any bulletin board material in any of my blogs.  Yes, I will occasionally talk about how awesome some of my teammates are.  I may even claim that a certain group of my teammates is the best in the country (insert: my offensive line is one of the best in the country).  But you will never hear me say, "________ is terrible, we're going to kill them."  It's never a good idea to accentuate the already immense bull’s-eye located squarely in the back of every Wabash football player.   

Now that I’ve Bill Belichek’d you all to death about how I won’t share information regarding game-plans or say anything juicy, I will say this.  This team has worked harder than any team I’ve ever seen, and we are not content with getting beat by 40 in Wisconsin to end our season.  Nor are we content with losing The Bell and not having it to look at every day as we pass through the Allen Center.  I’m not stepping out and making any guarantees, but I can assure everyone who reads this that everything has been done to assure a fine season ahead of us.  Now we have to make it happen.  I will get back to you guys ASAP after camp, perhaps even before then depending on what’s on my mind.  And I can assure you that it will not be Brett Favre-related.  I’m out. 

Posted by Matt Hudson at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So here I am on a beautiful Monday evening, 7 days prior to reporting for football camp, and seeing as how there’s still an hour and a half before wrestling comes on (yes, I may or may not still watch WWE), I thought it would be productive to write my first career blog.  

I’m a rookie when it comes to this stuff, but I’m going to be doing it throughout the course of the year to give everyone the opportunity to look inside the life of an independent football player (exciting stuff, I know).  I will write about my classes and football (not necessarily in that order), my social life (non-existent for the first two weeks of camp), and I will occasionally vent on such subjects as the Colts, NASCAR, and maybe even the football coaches (highly unlikely).  In case you haven’t noticed in the first paragraph, I’m a big fan of parenthesis.  So although this is already longer than most blogs you are going to read from me, I will continue, because I have to talk about my summer that Wabash made possible.

 Jeff Gordon.  Mike and Mike.  Kelvin Hayden.  Antoine Bethea.  Dale Jarrett.  Eric Gordon.  These are just a few of the people I had the pleasure of meeting this summer as a result of my summer internship with Emmis Communications in Indianapolis (if you don’t believe me, I have proof in the form of photographs).  I worked in the promotions department for ESPN 1070 The Fan and 97.1 Hank FM.  This mainly consisted of sitting at events and giving away free stuff while talking to potential clients, which sounds exciting enough, but I would occasionally get to meet the likes of the aforementioned sports figures.  It’s not exactly what I want to do, but by getting to work with Bob Kravitz and Eddie White (two of Indy’s most renowned sports personalities), it was a step in the right direction.  It was also cool because I got to work with girls. 

 I feel like if I continue much longer, you’ll probably quit reading, so I’m going to wrap it up.  But not before I send a shout-out to the   U.S.A. 4X100 swim team.  What a performance Sunday night.  Thank God we whipped up on the trash-talking French guys.  In the immortal words of WWE legend Hacksaw Jim Duggan, “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!”  I’m out.   

Posted by Matt Hudson at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)