“We didn’t shock the world at all.”
These were the words grumbled to me by a TCU fan, once we got back to our hotel in The Desert, late Monday night. We just witnessed Boise State pull off what some people describe as a shocker, by beating the Horned Frogs 17-10. Marcia Masenda, my sister, former TCU cheerleader and loyal Horned Frog alum, wasn’t in the mood to laugh or joke at all after the game, but even she couldn’t do anything but laugh, when she heard the old lady make her remark to me. That night, I decided to rock one of the ETSF Shock the World t-shirts, and while her comment was similar to one in my direction hours earlier, it was in a much different context. A significant number of TCU faithful put the loss in perspective, and made sure to let the players know how great of a season they had, even with the game turning out the way it did.
"Shock the worrrrrrld!”
Before the game, I was wandering around the tailgate area, taking in the scene, when a Boise State fan yelled those words in my direction. Laughter immediately came out of me, and I went on over to speak with her, as well as another lady standing next to her. One of the women was the mother of Kyle Wilson, the all-everything DB/PR from Boise State. It turns out the lady saw my shirt, noticed the “1” on it, and that’s what triggered it all, since their boy wears the number as well. The three of us spoke for a several minutes about Kyle, his family making the trip from New Jersey, as well as the cleanest bus I’ve ever seen in my life. If you didn’t know who Kyle Wilson was before the game, seeing this bus would leave you with no choice but to know him now. What stood out to me, more than anything, was his mother telling me she was most proud of him earning his degree on December 19, two weeks before the big game. Soon after, I got the opportunity to meet his father as well, and we shared a few words, and even though our initial meeting took place in that tailgate, the feeling was as if we'd known each other forever.
Two different tales of the same phrase; some people were shocked by what happened on Monday night, and for good reason. Prior to the matchup, TCU steamrolled a majority of their competition, while Boise was winning, but not in the convincing fashion that TCU was doing it in. On the other hand, Boise State has been in this position before; the position of being an underdog in a BCS game, only to come up with the victory. This was TCU’s first BCS game, and even though they were invited to the Prom, it’s clear they weren’t ready to dance. There’s a big difference between going to a Sock Hop or a Sadie Hawkins dance and the Prom. When it comes to the Prom, you gotta look the part (which the Horned Frogs certainly did), but you also have to perform (which they did not, in comparison to what they did all year). Boise State, on the other hand, danced like they were fully prepared for anything the DJ played that night, and in the end, it got them the dub.Be easy.
-K. Masenda
http://www.edthesportsfan.com/
