As losses mount, Texas College kids won't be defeated
10:12 PM CDT on Thursday, September 24, 2009
TYLER – Coming off a 75-6 loss that was only his second worst of the season, Ricky Carson got a call Monday from Trinity International, owner of an 0-3 record, suddenly interested in scheduling Texas College next year.
Any idea why they called now, Coach?
"Maybe they thought we'd be an easy win," Carson said, smiling.
"But it ain't gonna be like that."
Certainly it won't be the case Saturday, if only because the Steers have the weekend off. For that matter, maybe it'll be different in two weeks, when Texas College starts playing teams its own size.
But until further notice, anyway, the Steers are college football's unofficial punch line.
In four games, all losses, this little NAIA school hidden neatly in East Texas' Piney Woods has been outscored 287-12. The worst was a 92-0 pounding by Stephen F. Austin, when the Lumberjacks' coach pulled his starters in the second quarter and requested a running clock in the fourth.
And even that's not the worst of it, because hardest of all is remembering what you once were.
Only two years ago, Texas College – back in football since 2003 after a 42-year hiatus – defended back-to-back co-championships in the Central States Football League.
X'Zavier Bloodsaw, a four-year starter at quarterback, remembers what winning was like.
"It's hard to take," he said, eyes hard, jaw set.
What went wrong? Plenty. Players say some of their peers "lost focus." Conduct on and off the field deteriorated. Recruiting suffered as losses mounted.
The new president of the historically black university fired the former coach in May, announcing a "shift" back to core values.
But the new coach – originally hired in January as athletic director from Mississippi Valley State, where he'd been offensive coordinator – was stuck with the same old schedule.
Among their nonconference opponents: three from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) and a Division II team.
Frankly, Texas College, with an enrollment a shade under 1,000, wasn't prepared for that level of competition. Only two starters returned from last season's 1-9 team. Most of the incoming freshmen didn't qualify academically.
Asked how many players he could suit up, Carson said 47.
"The number must be up," said George Lee, a junior, "because last week, we were in the mid-30s."
The numbers have taken a toll on Lee. Asked to play middle linebacker, he gained 25 pounds in the off-season, to 234. But with the lack of depth and talent, he's also working at fullback. Most of his teammates play both ways. He's on special teams, too, but at 220 pounds, not 234.
"He's losing it," Bloodsaw said, "because he's playing so much."
The alternative is not playing at all. It'd be easy enough to quit. Especially when you lose your opener, 68-0, to Concordia (Ala.) College, a team you beat last season, and teammates are slow to grasp Carson's spread offense.
It'd be easy to walk away when home crowds dwindle and classmates smirk and the next team on the schedule is bigger and better than the last.
The others left. One day you notice that, of the 25 freshmen you came in with, only five remain.
How about it, X'Zavier? Ever thought about quitting, too?
"No, sir," he said. "Never."
Why not?
"It's just how we were raised," he said as Lee nodded.
"You start something, you finish it."
Confession: I'm a sucker for this kind of story. In my business, winners get the glory and losers the scorn. But what's more inspiring? An athlete afforded every advantage who excels in a gilded environment?
Or a kid who comes back week after week to a weed-strewn lot and a rundown field house and the worst team in the nation?
Bloodsaw and Lee would argue the last point. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they still think they can win. For my money, they already have.
Founded: 1894
Location: Tyler
Conference affiliation: Charter member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference from 1920 until dropping football in 1961. Revived football in 2003 as a member of the NAIA Central States Football League, a six-team conference that includes Bacone College, Langston, Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southern Nazarene, all of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Assemblies of God in Waxahachie.
Coach: Ricky Jackson (Mississippi Valley State, 1983). First year as head coach.
Record: 0-4, with losses to Concordia (Ala.) College-Selma (68-0); Ouachita (Ark.) Baptist (52-6); Stephen F. Austin (92-0); and Texas Southern (75-6)