...because if I don't soon, I may not have a job when I do get back.  Seriously.  When I wrote my blog on Friday night saying that I had no doubt we were going to win the game, I did so thinking that our defense would hold Wooster to 10 points and that our running game would be the focal point.  I didn't write it thinking I was going to have to follow-up with a blog conceding my position.  Okay, maybe I won't go that far, but my protege stepped up in a big way Saturday, and I'll get to that in a bit.  

What a great win for Wabash on Saturday, though.  Talk about fighting adversity.  Not only were we without a contributor on offense, but the man who picked off four passes in our game against Wittenberg last weekend, Addrian Frederick, was also sidelined with an injury (short sidenote on Addrian - I may be biting the hand that feeds me once a year, but how does Addrian not get NCAC defensive player of the week for his performance against Wittenberg last weekend?  He had four interceptions.  FOUR.  Against a very good offense.  I don't know if there's a written or unwritten rule stating that a player from a losing team cannot be player of the week, but that's an absolute travesty).  All venting aside, I was so impressed with the way we came out and played.  It was not an easy situation to go into.  After all, we were starting a freshman quarterback, against a team that we knew was going to put up some points.  Couple that with a few key injuries, and you have all the makings of a letdown game in which our hopes for the playoffs would be all but crushed.  But like I said Friday night, Wabash Always Fights.  None more so than this kid...

When Chase Belton came on campus a little over two months ago, he was an unassuming, fairly quiet kid who had a lot of maturing to do in his game.  When we kept having receivers go down with injuries during camp, we even used Chase out at receiver, hoping that he could fill the void left by their injuries.  And he did, more so than I would have guessed a quarterback would have been able to.  And he never complained.  And he had every right to.  Coming into a new system is tough enough - learning two positions is next to impossible.  But he did, and once the receivers go healthy, he came back to quarterback full-time.  Early on, I wasn't sure he was going to be much more than a novelty in the backfield - after all, he's far more athletic than me, but he had a lot of learning to do when it came to his reads and decision-making when throwing the ball.  But as the weeks went on, he got better and better, and before I know it, he's making absolutely perfect throws that I can't even make.  

After I went down, it was going to be between Josh Miracle and Chase for the starting job while I was injured.  He shared some time with Josh during the Wittenberg game, but quite frankly, looked a little bit out of his element.  In sharing time, he just never really got comfortable, and I think maybe struggled to get adjusted to the speed of the game.  But somehow, the following week, something changed.  So when I wrote my blog on Friday night, I was truthful in saying that I was confident our quarterback would get it done... I just had no idea it was going to be like this.  Chase was 18-31, a good completion percentage against any defense, let alone one of the best ones in our conference, and threw four touchdowns.  Keep in mind, he's a freshman, and this is his very first start.  12 weeks ago, he had never run this offense before - now, he's running it like a seasoned vet.  But here is the key statistic - ZERO interceptions.  Maybe I should follow his lead.  He did the one thing that he had to do in order to win this game - take care of the football.  Not only did he take care of the football, but he learned a very valuable lesson on Saturday: When in doubt, throw to #1.  Because he's not bad.

Overall, though, I'm very happy with the win.  And I'm very happy to report, I've practiced the past two days.  Still am not sure if I'll be cleared to play by this weekend by the medical staff, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm ready to go and I can't wait to get back onto the field against Oberlin this weekend.  And it's not that I have to play this weekend, because I don't.  I'm extremely confident that the other QBs can get the job done just as well as me.  But I need some game experience before the Bell Game.  Because you can't take a 5-week hiatus from games and expect to go in there and light it up - you just can't.  So my body is telling me that I'm ready to go, hopefully the medical staff will tell me the same thing at the end of the week.

Okay, as has become customary following a weekend of football, I have some thoughts about the NFL.  1) Say what you want about the Colts' schedule so far, but they're not leaving anything to chance.  They are absolutely killing teams, and with the parity in the NFL, it's rare to see a team take care of business every single week like they do.  Colts fans, don't take this era for granted, because you are witnessing one of the most special runs in the history of the NFL.  2) It's looking very much like a Colts - Saints Super Bowl at this point.  First team to 45 wins it.  3) I get really tired of hearing all the Bears fans all the time, because they make a huge deal about relatively small accomplishments, but yesterday, I almost felt sorry for them - almost.  4) Just when you think Oakland has turned a corner - BOOM.  Back to inferiority.  5) Dallas isn't dead yet.  And Tony Romo really isn't that bad.  6) Cleveland may be the most sorry excuse for an offense I've ever seen.  They make the Raiders look like the Saints.

Okay, time to roll out.  Hope everyone has a great week, and enjoy wrestling tonight - I know I will.  In hopefully earning my job back... I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been awhile since I've felt this out of place.  Almost like being at a wedding reception at which you don't know anybody and only went because you're trying to make your significant other happy.  That's where I am right now.  At a metaphorical wedding reception.  The only difference is, I do know the people I'm with now.  And they know me so they won't take this wrong - I really don't want to be with them right now.  And this is my family.  And they know where I'm going with this - I'd rather be with my football family on the road to Wooster.  Essentially, the last long, drawn-out paragraph has been a rhetoric major's way of saying that for the second week in  a row, I'm not playing for Wabash due to the complications that came from the partially collapsed lung a couple weeks ago.  And this hurts, probably even more than last week.  And that's probably because I'm closer and closer to being healthy, but still not to the point of being back on the field.  The good news is, I'm recovering.  The bad news is, I'm not yet to the point of being able to take a hit, and for the first time since my freshman year, I'm sitting at home while the Wabash football team travels on the road.  I'll be there with them tomorrow, since I'm traveling with my parents, but not being with my football family on a Friday night simply isn't the same.  So there's no suspense this week.  No, "Hudson's been at practice all week, but hasn't done much."  No, "Hudson's still questionable and is a game-time decision."  You heard it here first.  14 won't be out there tomorrow.  

Our team plays at Wooster tomorrow, and this is a big one.  Not only are they an excellent team, but this is basically a do-or-die week for us, something that we haven't faced in the past couple years, except for the "win or go home" realm of the playoffs.  I'm really interested to see how we do.  I'm fully confident that the guys on our team will step up when we absolutely have to.  In my last blog, I never got to the game last week.  What a heartbreaker.  The ebb and flow of the game had me absolutely believing that it was going to end up exactly like last year.  A defensive struggle the entire game, with each defense absolutely dominating the opposing offense.  We struggled running the ball, but had a few big pass plays every once in a while.  The defense comes up with a big stop at the end of the game, and we put together a drive to go down and tie Wittenberg in the last two minutes - with a touchdown pass - to Kody Lemond... for the second year in a row.  Deja vu all over again, it seems.  Our defense is going to get a stop, and Josh Miracle is going to lead Wabash down for the winning field goal...  but it didn't quite happen that way.  Our defense was absolutely gassed.  They had fought hard the entire day and simply couldn't anymore.  They played maybe the best game I've seen a Wabash defense play in the four years that I've been here.  But unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough.  They needed a little more help, and unfortunately, we couldn't give it to them.  But I'm proud of how we played, overall.  We were faced with a lot of adversity, and were playing against perhaps the best team we'll play all year, and still, we fought until the very end.  The last four games against Wittenberg have been decided by 2, 7, 3, and 3 points, and we're 2-2 in those games.  When two tremendous teams play against each other, it usually ends up like that.  But regardless of the final score, I'm proud of the way we fought.  

Tomorrow, we will see more of the same.  The defense will come out and be incredibly solid, and the offense will fight through some adversity and get the job done.  There's no doubt in my mind, and I can't wait to see it.  There's no doubt in my mind because Wabash fights through adversity.  Wabash fights when things look bleak.  Wabash doesn't make excuses.  Wabash Always Fights.  I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hard to believe all that has happened over the course of the last 9 days.  In fact, this has the potential to be one of my longest blogs ever - might even have to break it up into two or three parts.  The good news is, you will get nothing but the truth from me this evening - no rumors, no hearsay, no gossip.  Straight truth.  And I apologize for not getting to this sooner (believe me, I REALLY wanted to), but there is a good reason for that which I will get to later.  Before I get into the Wabash game against Wittenberg yesterday, let's rewind to the previous Saturday when we played against Washington University.

Sometime late in the first quarter, I scramble on third down in an attempt to get a first down.  Two guys are coming at me, and even though people have been telling me to slide (to avoid injury) for awhile now, my competitive nature and desire to get the first down trump all the voices in my head.  I dive forward between the two defenders - one kind of stops me, the other puts his helmet square in the right side of my ribs.  I get the wind knocked out of me (quite literally).  Thankfully, I was close enough to Coach Raeburn to signal to him that we need to take a timeout.  The chain gang comes out onto the field (which is essentially a timeout), and I go back onto the field, simply thinking that I needed to catch my breath, and that I'd have sore ribs for a few plays.  But the pain didn't go away.  In fact, it got worse over the course of the day.  Now, keep in mind - this isn't Kenyon we're playing.  This is a good team that had us on the ropes at halftime, the first time we had really been in a game all season.  We're up four at the half, and there's no way in the world I'm telling anyone of medical authority that there may be something more serious than bruised ribs going on.  We come out of halftime, play much better in the second half, and win the game 31-12.  The atmosphere was joyous, and we were very happy to get out with a win.  After the game was over, I was in a lot of pain, I'm not going to lie.  I was talking to the local sports guys, and in the middle of the whole thing, my voice started to weaken and I couldn't enunciate at all.  My voice literally trailed off... and I apologized to the guys and told them that I'd have to stop.  Once they left, I got lightheaded, and went down to a knee.  I had my brother and my good friend Denver Wade walk me into the training room to get checked out.  

So I get checked out, it appears as if nothing is broken, and that I'm just sore.  Very possible, considering I've never had rib issues before.  Fast-forward later on in the evening.  I hop in the shower, and after a few minutes of talking to one of my friends who came to check on me, pass out in the shower.  One minute I'm telling him how I feel, the next minute I'm looking up at him and three others who have heard the boom from the other room (don't try to visualize this scenario, it's unnecessary).  So my parents (who are shacked up with my townie grandpa) rush to the house and take me to the ER.  At this point, I literally have no idea what is going on.  Why did I pass out?  Did I really get hit that hard?  Do I have a concussion?  So I get to the emergency room and they use a stethoscope to check my breathing - turns out, my right lung sounds a little off.  After an x-ray and CT scan, they conclude that my right lung is 25-30% collapsed, and that I'm bleeding internally.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear.  They inform me next that I'm going to have to go to St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis to have a chest tube put in - again, more information that I simply do not want to hear.  The reason that they have to put the chest tube in is because they need to drain the blood that has collected in my chest cavity.

 Basically, in a span of 2 hours, I go from believing that I'm just being a sissy and have bruised ribs, to knowing that my lung is partially collapsed and that I need a chest tube put in, in INDY no less.  Quite a ride, to say the least.  The next thing I know, I'm riding in an ambulance to Indy at 10:30 Saturday night, quite well aware that I'm going to miss our second biggest game of the year next week (and to all of those who read the local newspaper, I apologize.  There was absolutely no chance I was playing this weekend, and we all knew this 7 days in advance.  All that "Hudson's status in question" stuff was simply to keep Wittenberg guessing.  Sorry).  So I get to Indy, they put the tube in, and within minutes, it's drained about a liter and a half of blood from my chest cavity (I guess one would consider this internal bleeding).  The morphine makes me itchy, and I get about 3 hours of sleep on Saturday night.  

So I spend all Sunday in the hospital, get the chest tube removed (which was excruciating, by the way) Monday morning, and get to come home Monday afternoon.  Wow, what a strange turn my life took in the span of two days.  But my right lung is fine now, completely re-inflated, and quite functional.  I still get out of breath really easily though (that may be for another reason, but we won't get into that just yet).  

So some of the rumors were true.  Yes, I had a partially collapsed lung.  Yes, they had to transport me to Indianapolis.  Yes, I almost passed out after the game and actually did pass out later.  No, they did not stat flight me to Indy. (as the entire town of Salem now thinks, thanks to someone who may or may not be known as my brother)  No, I did not die, nor do I believe that I came close to dying.  No, I'm not playing against Wittenberg.  So I've been asked this question numerous times - how long am I going to be out?  Not really sure yet.  Really hoping to be back in a couple weeks.  If I can crank up the rehab and be back this week, that would be great.  I'm certainly not ruling it out (although my mother seemed to scoff at the idea today).  We'll just have to see how things go.  Okay, I'm getting really long-winded and my pain pills are making me tired - but there's so much more to get to.  So I'm going to save it for another day.  Sometime in the next couple days, I'll address the game this past weekend and also give my NFL thoughts for the weekend.  Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers over the past week - I really appreciate and needed them.  In hoping none of you ever have to get a chest tube removed, I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Seriously?  What happened to fall?  This has arguably been one of the crappiest weeks I can remember in a long time.  Is there anything more depressing/uplifting than the weather?  Is it sad that I let the weather dictate my mood so much?  School, yes, that is understandable.  If I have an awful practice and it puts my state of mind into a tailspin for the rest of the evening, I get that.  But should I really let something as arbitrary and random as the weather decide how I feel over the course of the day?  This is driving me crazy.  This week has been nothing but rain, and it's kind of made me a surly character.  Especially considering this is my favorite time of the year.  Maybe it's because it's football season, maybe it's because 65 and sunny is ideal weather (typical for this time), maybe it's because my birthday just happens to be in 10 days.  Whatever it is, fall is without a doubt my favorite time of the year, but this year is awful.  Seriously, it hasn't stopped raining in the past two days.  No lie.  Has not stopped.  Come on, it's OCTOBER.  Not November yet!  (for some perspective, when we traveled to St. Louis for this same game last year, it was 85 and sunny)  To make matters worse, I do not happen to own an umbrella (birthday in 10 days, hint hint).  Which means if I don't drive everywhere on campus (which my lazy behind has been doing, as of late), I get drenched.  I guess it's not all bad though, because since it's Friday afternoon, and I have nothing to do, there really isn't anything better than a nap on a crummy day like this (note to self: do not extend blog to length of Sunday night's blog, or nap will have to be relatively short).  

But enough about the weather, especially since it's supposed to be clear by gametime tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we play Washington University from St. Louis.  It's our first of two consecutive home games, which I'm really excited about.  Not that I don't enjoy traveling, because it's not all that bad, but playing at home in front of the home crowd, and the 30 people who generally show up from the Hudson Regime, just puts me more at ease.  It's probably more relaxing too.  Friday afternoon nap, Friday night dinner at Grandpa's, movie night at the house to put me in a chill mood and get my mind off football for a little bit.  Sounds like a pretty good routine to me.  

Wash. U is a pretty decent team, though.  They're currently 2-2, and are coming off an impressive win last weekend.  Hard to judge completely because we don't have any common opponents yet, but we're going into the game feeling that they will be a very formidable opponent.  They were last year, to say the least.  They had the game close at halftime, but it turned into the Kody Lemond show in the second half, and the final score was 37-12.  So it was probably a little bit closer than the score indicated.  But I hope to see everyone out there this weekend for our third home game of the year.  (self is telling me that the nap time alarm is going off in my head)  Okay, better go now.  In the rain stopping sometime this month, I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...actually we learned several things, not the least of which is this: Don't schedule Wabash for homecoming.  It's just not a good idea.  Pretty sure Kenyon had their homecoming last year against us.  Bad idea.  Allegheny scheduled their homecoming this past weekend against us.  Again, bad idea.  In fact, over the past two years, including our own homecoming games, when we have played in front of a homecoming crowd, the combined score is 202-47.  I'm hoping that schedule-makers in our conference take note of this completely random (but likely relevant) statistic when they plan out when to bring everyone back to talk about the good old days.  

But anyway, for those of you who haven't heard yet, we traveled to Allegheny, PA over the weekend, and beat the Gators 37-3 yesterday (oh, and I'm sorry to all of you who were expecting a mid-week preview blog as is usual; the end of the week got hectic, and it just never materialized.  My apologies).  Allegheny was 3-0 going into the game, just like us, and we knew that they would likely be the best team we had played up to this point, and they were.  But yesterday, we were just better.  The defense played out of their minds again, only allowing 3 points to a solid offense.  The d-line was suffocating all day, and we only gave up like 45 rushing yards (which is no surprise considering no one has been able to run against us all year).  As usual, our blitzing linebackers had the QB running for his life, and forced him into some bad decisions (not completely unlike myself).  On offense yesterday, we could probably best be characterized using the word "sloppy".  Much like two weeks ago, we just didn't finish drives very well, and had way too many turnovers.  Our redzone offense was appalling.  Pretty sure all four turnovers we had were in their territory as well, meaning we easily left four scores on the table.  But it wasn't all bad.  The previous offensively-challenged rant is just the perfectionist in me critiquing every single thing that we did wrong.  We did a lot of good things too, not the least of which included my dynamic duo of receivers (Wes Chamblee and Kody Lemond) going for 150 and 130 respectively, and Tommy Mambourg collecting his 4th straight 100 yard rushing performance.  Pretty sure Wes and Kody each had 100 yards in the first half.  They both played excellent, and I would expect nothing less, given what we've seen out of them this year.  The offensive line played great as well, and for the most part, kept me clean.  Much like two weeks ago, we didn't feel like we played very well, but it's kinda hard to be too disappointed in a 34-point win in which you don't have any serious injuries.  

And how about the Wabash football program?  600 wins, only the second football team in Indiana to reach that mark.  It's really an honor to be a part of the 600th, and to have been a part of about the last 35 or so.  What an amazing ride it has been over the past four seasons.  It's really hard for me to even comprehend how significant this accomplishment really is.  For a little perspective, there are only five other teams in Division-3 football that have over 600 wins, so we are most certainly in elite company.  I have to thank all of those who came before us, those who paved the way for our success.  From Pete Metzelaars in the 80's to Adi Pynenberg when I first got here, exceptional men have led this football program, and I'm truly glad to be a part of it.  

I know I'm already long-winded, but the NFL fans should probably stick with me, because after a great weekend of football, these are my traditional thoughts.  A) The NFL is really turning into a touch-football league.  I saw no less than two plays today illustrating that the referees have been told that any helmet-to-helmet contact whatsoever should result in a penalty.  News flash: it's going to happen.  This is, believe it or not, the reason why helmets are a required part of the uniform.  The quarterbacks are already protected like they have a glass bubble around them (and that's hard for me to say given my position, but it's ridiculous), but now any contact downfield that appears worthy to be on SportsCenter generally receives a 15-yard penalty for being too rough.  I don't get it.  It's football.  These guys are not robots.  You're talking about hundredths, possibly thousandths of seconds to avoid contact that may be deemed too rough.  It's simply not possible for no injuries to occur.  If you don't want contact to result in injuries, start up a national flag football league.  

B) (sorry that one was so long, but this one will be too)  It seems to me that Mark Sanchez, the rookie quarterback of the Jets, was anointed the savior of New York football just a little bit too quickly.  Sure, he was serviceable in his first three games (all wins), but winning hides a lot of things, things that were unmasked today when Sanchez was responsible for four turnovers (and two Saints touchdowns) in a loss to New Orleans.  I promise there's a point to this, I'm getting to it.  The fact is, Sanchez is on the right side of the media.  And what I mean by that is that the media (namely ESPN, Sports Illustrated, etc) let certain things slide with certain people, the Brett Favre concept, if you will.  This is an idea that was explained to me by former IU basketball coach and current radio personality Dan Dakich (who I worked with over the summer).  Some people get free passes in the media, and others don't.  Sanchez has a free pass (at the moment, and maybe not in New York by tomorrow morning).  What I noticed as I watched him throw away the game today, is that the announcers were chalking his poor play up to inexperience, and continually drilling into my head how well he had played up until this point in the season.  Can you imagine if guys on the wrong side of the media had games like Sanchez did today?  What if Tony Romo threw three picks and had a fumble for a touchdown?  Would the media come to his defense and claim that there was a legitimate justification of his poor play?  Absolutely not.  In fact, Romo had two turnovers today in a game that Dallas should have won, and that is what will be focused on tomorrow morning.  Not the fact that he completed a 4th down pass late in the game to keep the Cowboys' hopes alive, not the fact that he got Dallas inside Denver's 5-yard line before succumbing to Denver's defense; the fact that he turned the ball over twice is what will get the headlines.  I feel for the guy, I really do.  The position of quarterback in football receives more praise and more criticism than any other position in all of professional sports, which is why you have to be very tough-minded and thick-skinned to play it at a high level.  Some people aren't, they let the boos get to them, and that's why Rex Grossman and Vince Young spend more time holding clipboards than they do out on the field.  But if you can date Jessica Simpson, who cares, right?  

Wow, didn't realize how long that was.  Better wrap it up.  If you're still reading this, bless you.  In hoping that Ben Roethlisburger doesn't get hurt and ruin his appearance on Monday Night Raw tomorrow night, I'm out.  

Posted by Matt Hudson at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)