Far afield: Your weekly football fix from Afghanistan
9/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | General
Sept. 12, 2011
Courtesy: Chad Shuman, Army Reservist, Kandahar, Afghanistan
As much as I hate talking about myself, I'm gonna do just that to start this article. No really, I hate talking about myself. Sure, I talk a big game about how tough I am, how good looking I am, how much money GoGriz.com pays me, how my wife is a 20 on a scale of 1 to 10, how both of my children have already been offered full ride athletic scholarships to preschool, grade school, junior high, high school and college. Wait, I know I was trying to make a point here, but I kind of got wrapped up in talking about myself. Oh well.
Okay, stay with me here. So I'm doing this CrossFit thing. It's a pretty big deal. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically a bunch of people torturing themselves day after day, doing a bunch of different workouts. The goal is to do better today than you did the previous day, or the previous workout. Well, Kandahar CrossFit had its first ever CrossFit Games competition September 10-11, and I "competed."
I use quotations because I'm 160 pounds soaking wet, and I never had any illusions of hanging with some of these brutes. Two days, four workouts, total exhaustion each workout. Despite never having a chance to even come close to winning the competition, I had my own goals. My first goal was to finish every damn workout as it was prescribed, without decreasing weight. My second goal was to STAY IN THE FIGHT and give it all I had.
I can tell you, and believe it or not I'm proud to say this, I accomplished, and in some cases exceeded both of my goals. And I think I was happier than the guys who won it!
So here's my point...the Griz stayed in the fight on Saturday. From what I can see in multiple articles and the stat sheet, this was a great, back-and-forth game. Cal Poly's option offense kind of steamrolled us a bit, but we just showed a whole lot of other teams that we'll bend but we won't break. There is nothing more demoralizing to an opponent than when the team it is facing takes its best shot and just keeps coming back and throwing punches.
Hell, even before the game starts, it's intimidating to know that you are going to be in a dogfight with a team that just flat out has NO QUIT (yeah, Eastern Washington will be thinking about it ALL week, I guarantee). Bra...vo, braaaaa...VOOO, Grizzlies. I don't care what anybody says, that was a HUGE victory.
I hate to go back to a previous week, but I want keep going with this "stay in the fight" theme just a tad longer. I was talking to a guy from Tennessee the other day, and he even admitted to me that we were a couple plays away from making our game with them a REALLY, REALLY close game. He couldn't stop talking about how tough we were, and how we really kicked the snot out of them, nonstop, for the entire game. You all would have been so proud. By the end of the conversation, I think I had him convinced that we actual DID beat them.
Let's get to the weekly wrap up. A lot of teams made ol' CPT Shuey look like Nostradamus this weekend. Go back to last week's article and take a look for yourself, and you will see that I called every shot.
That other Montana team defeated UC Davis. This was a 28-14 game until it seems that other team decided to put some points on the board in the last five minutes of the game to make itself look better.
NAU put a hurt on Fort Lewis. I am not familiar with Fort Lewis. The only Fort Lewis I know is Fort Lewis, Wash., an Army post that is home to a Ranger Regiment. Since all the Rangers are away shooting bad guys, that leads me to believe that NAU played the wives of all those Rangers.
Northern Colorado got whipped by Colorado State, and Colorado State is not good. Colorado State's water boy was 32 of 40 for 340 yards passing. Message to Northern Colorado: I'm almost starting to feel bad about making fun of you. The hits will keep on coming until you put up a fight in one of these games. In a way, I'm pulling for you, because right now you are just making it way too easy for me.
Weber State got clobbered by Utah State. No change to my opinion of Weber State, but I'm telling you, Utah State is a good, good football team. They should have beat Auburn last week. Keep an eye on them this year.
Sac State got beat by Southern Utah. Last week I said Southern Utah was middle of the pack in the Great West, and this game would be an indicator of where Sac State would end up in the Big Sky. I also said how Oregon State faired against Wisconsin would say a lot, too. Prognosis for Sac State: not good. Although Oregon State kept it within 50 points (and I AM shocked), the Badgers stuck it to them.
Before we move on to the preview of the main event, I want to talk a bit about the Michigan/Notre Dame game. I have a few friends who are diehard Notre Dame fans. I feel for them. Notre Dame looks like dog poop. I usually have a solution for everything, just ask my wife, but I'm stumped with the Irish.
When I was growing up, they were the standard. I'm just at a loss for words. But I gotta say, despite that being a great game, it's just not the same as it used to be. Neither of those teams is a top 10 team anymore, and it kind of loses its flair a bit from where it once was. It's a great rivalry, and I hope to see both those teams climb back to where they once were.
And now the Griz' next opponent. Eastern Washington lost to South Dakota, and they showed some real vulnerabilities in that game, mainly in their rush offense. We will still have to be very cognizant of their passing abilities, but if we can get a few picks, and stuff the run, things are looking good.
If you will recall, I said EWU didn't have a streak in them like last year. I can tell you right now, the Eagles are worried. They're coming off what I consider to be an upset loss, and they have to come into our house and play a team that will punch them in the mouth on every play. If you have never believed a word I have ever said before, start now. THEY ARE AFRAID OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA GRIZZLIES. Go out and show them they have reason to fear the Griz.
Go Griz, keep supporting our troops, God bless, Rangers Lead the Way!
