The wait is over.

After nearly one and a half seasons of college football, I finally got my first win in the NCAA ranks. We came out to play Lawrence University at home with the same confidence we’ve had every week so far, and blew out the Vikings 42-0. It was one of the more enjoyable victories I’ve ever been a part of since we executed in all phases of the game. I felt like I had my best game yet, as I was able to execute my assignments and dominate more than I had in weeks past.

This was the first time in about four years that I’ve been pulled from a blowout to let some of the younger kids get some playing time. I sat out the final 5 minutes of the third quarter, and the entire fourth quarter while watching freshman QB extraordinaire Mike McCabe continue to lay on the points during cleanup duty.

I also got to watch Marquis Bradley lay down one of the hardest hits I’ve seen in my life:

I was down on the sideline right in front of the hit, and it legitimately looked like Marquis decapitated the kid. It took a good 20 seconds for the guy to get back up and put his helmet back on. We can say with ultimate certainty that Marquis “rickrolled” Lawrence (Rick Astley is without a doubt one of the team’s favorite musicians, so I had to throw a rickroll reference out there).

I still smile when I think of that victory. The fact that I got to share it with such a great team, coaching staff and football family makes is that much sweeter.

The feeling of getting that first college win is still an extraordinary one. So much work goes into each season and each week of college football that it can be depressing to get turned away from victory so consistently. So much of my blood, sweat and tears went into this victory that I can’t even comprehend it.

I think most of all the win helped me lift a psychological weight off of myself. I feel like I can let loose and have fun playing the game more than I could have before. I feel physically better too; it’s a lot easier to tell your body to head out to a tough practice when you won the previous Saturday.

The win has kept our confidence at a good level going into a game against the current best team in our conference. Monmouth is currently ranked #11 in the country, and we’ll be traveling to Illinois to face the Fighting Scots on Saturday. Since we’ll be taking a game-day bus ride over, we won’t have time for our normal road trip shenanigans (illustrated here in pictures):

Above: T.J. Schaid keeping it cool as we roll out of Grinnell. You can barely make out Mike Bogard laughing at T.J. on the right edge of the photo. Also notice T.J.’s remarkable resemblance to Bradley Cooper, the guy from The Hangover.

Above: Michael “M.C.” McLeran makes use of some stickers that were somehow on the bus by forming a sticker goatee. Logan Granera pretends not to notice.

Above: Mike Martinez shows off his attempt at a sticker goatee. Notice the nice placement of the forehead sticker.

Certainly this week’s trip will be much more focused since it is the morning of the game. We’re confident that we’ll do great things on Saturday, and we’re confident that we’ll have fun doing it.

Questions? Comments? E-mail me at chris@thed3experience.com All original material copyright © 2008-2009 Chris Jarmon

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Posted: 09|29|09 at 9:07 pm. Filed under: My Life as a D3 Player.
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