An Inside Look at Freshmen in College Football
Barely three months out of high school and already your number’s being called. The lights are cast down, the pressure is set on your shoulders and the beaming eyes of 80,000 spectators monitor your every move. Third and long…better hope coach draws up a play that will get the first down, if not there will be some hell to pay as a media frenzy ensues and immediately questions about talent level arise. What could possibly be the scenario?
True college freshmen, most 18 or barely 19 suit up, put on pads and enter an extremely structured, professional like surrounding. Following the binding pressure of being named starter, these freshmen are immediately cast into the spotlight and pressured to perform. In a 2011 season where more and more roster vacancies seem to appear, these freshmen teenagers are bound to the largest commitment of their lives up to that point.
A true inner test…the football season can become that for the freshman, tested in nearly everything he’s learned up to that point in life. NCAA Division I football and its brutal, topnotch and highly competitive atmosphere is a breeding ground for showcasing talent but also can be home to something far more severe. This is, watching a life’s worth of talent fickle out into the shape of a quarterback no one will remember in two years, or a defensive lineman whose dedicated lifestyle got him only as far as four years of ball could.
Today’s question is analyzing and describing the life of the true college freshman in NCAA football, and their impact on the game as a whole. All these players, from all positions embody the future of their programs but also show us what true talent is about, and on a scope far more broad and demanding than what they knew in the past. To perfectly display this topic, the brief careers of Braxton Miller and Gary Nova will be relayed.
Braxton Miller, Ohio State quarterback, entered the season as OSU’s backup quarterback, after committing to the school nearly 14 months earlier. Joe Bauserman, the starting quarterback, saw some trouble at the helm and soon, first year Coach Luke Fickell named Miller the starting quarterback after seeing brief action in only two games. Now imagine this, going from a high school game in Huber Heights, Ohio, to being called upon in front of 100,000 screaming Buckeye fans at the Ohio Stadium; the “Horseshoe.” Would he need an adjustment period? Would he be mature enough to handle himself in a professional manner? Could he communicate with his offensive line and other teammates as well as he needs to? All these questions one could throw towards Miller, still a teen, he answered in a most admirable way. He started and beat Colorado University. Following the first start, he handled the pressure professionally, although seeing his share of rookie mistakes, but managed to knock off a ranked team so far, showing incredible potential and leadership on the field; quality any coach would want from a rookie. He sure answered the call.
The scope of his involvement in a program immediately shifted from small town high school football to knit picked NCAA DI nationally televised games. The amazing thing about this feat, is that it occurs all the time in the sport, like it did with Miller, and is one of the game’s shining spots. Similar to Miller, Gary Nova, freshman quarterback at Rutgers, was called upon just weeks into his freshman season. Being too nervous and not performing at the one-and-only Rutgers Stadium was out of the question for the first-year player, who like Miller, proved all freshman capable of handling the adjustment.
He has taken the reigns as quarterback at RU and has shown Greg Schiano and the world watching that he is the epitome of the college freshman athletic experience. At 51, the Scarlet Knights now sit atop the Big East, with high hopes and a quarterback who does not fear the “bigtime” with cameras and analysis staring down his back 24/7. This, to all my readers, is one of the wonders of the game.
A lot like these big time NCAA powerhouses, Monmouth has its share of freshman talent and continues to see them grow. They contribute to the team in multiple ways, and have even helped the Hawks to a 33 record so far in the 2011 season. Although not in front of the Heisman candidates or the memorable coaching names, these freshmen truly hit the grind on the field to make a point, a note worth mentioning because these student athletes too, fresh out of high school, are proving the adjustment period to be just fine.
As the lights cast down on the kickoff, your number is soon called and the ESPN SkyView camera follows you towards the huddle. Your task is: to march down the field against a swarm of defensive players and potentially against a ‘house’ full of people who are there just to see you fail. Could you handle the pressure? Could you be like Braxton Miller or Gary Nova or the many other freshman standouts and prove to the nation how outstanding it is to see a teen develop so quickly to take part in a national, almost sacred sporting event…? We’ll watch and see with wondering eyes.
***Introducing The Outlook’s new Interactive Sports Opinion Section! You can have the opportunity to field your questions to Dan Gunderman, staff writer of The Outlook and columnist for “The Gun Show.” All responses will be read and carefully analyzed, and the best one will be chosen from and responded to. See your question/concern carefully considered and responded to in print in the next week’s issue! Just email all questions/statements about the week’s article or what you’d like to see out of it to: s0784904@monmouth.edu.
