By Michael V. Hannigan/Henderson County Now
The annual Southwest Junior College Football Conference Media Day was held Friday, July 27, at the Garden Valley Golf Resort. I made the drive through the (really) back roads of East Texas to attend the event.
The schools in the conference include: Blinn, Cisco, Kilgore, Navarro, Northeastern Oklahoma, New Mexico Military Institute, TVCC and Tyler.
If you’ve never been to one of these get-togethers, it mainly entails coaches standing behind a podium talking about the upcoming season followed by a chance for reporters to conduct interviews. Reporters also get to pick up each school’s media guide, which come in handy during the season.
Football coaches are notoriously suspicious and like to play their cards close to the vest, so the discussions tend to be fairly predictable. That’s not a knock on the coaches or the event, which was well-organized and included a conference meeting after the media event. Just an observation.
Here are 5 more observations from SWJCFC Media Day:
1. I counted 31 people in the room when the media event started at 10 a.m. with the majority of those being coaches or people connected with the schools. At least nine of those were there mainly because of TVCC, including four from Henderson County media.
So almost a third of the people in the room were there for the Cardinals, which I thought was a pretty impressive turnout.
2. The customary release of SWJCFC preseason polls showed NEO at the top of both the Coaches and Media polls. The Cardinals came in second on both.
NEO was the concensus top pick in both polls gaining twice as many first-place votes as any other team.
I didn’t get a vote, but if I did I would have given the Cardinals the nod. Not because I am a homer (which I admit), but because TVCC is going to be strong on the offensive and defensive lines and because they are going to get their biggest games at Bruce Field (Tyler, Blinn, Navarro).
As an added note, TVCC Sports Information Officer Benny Rogers sent out an email this week noting that the Cardinals have shown up in 61 consecutive NJCAA polls, which is an amazing stat. The last time they were not in the poll was Sept. 24, 2013.
3. Tyler Apaches Head Coach Danny Palmer had the best line of the morning. He said that fans want to be coaches, that coaches want to be referees, and that referees apparently just want to watch the game.
It’s funny because it’s true!
4. Although it wasn’t discussed during the media event, the coaches apparently discussed new NCAA rules changes later in the afternoon. One of those changes will be very obvious even to a casual observer and deals with kickoffs.
As you know, on a kickoff the receiving team can down the ball in the end zone for a touchback, bringing the ball out to the 25 yard line to start their drive.
Well now the receiving team can also call for a fair catch anywhere inside the 25 yard line and have the same result. So, for example, you could see a kickoff go to the receiving team’s 10 yard line, but instead of the player returning the ball he could call for a fair catch and the team will set up on the 25.
This is obviously a rule to increase safety because kickoffs are the most dangerous play in football as far as concussions.
It won’t be long before the kickoff is taken out of the game completely.
5. The Cardinals have an exciting home schedule in 2018, so there’s no reason for you to miss out on the best football deal in town. The players who will grace Bruce Field this season will be running across your television screens in 2019 for major DI universities and you have the chance to see them first in Athens for $5 a ticket.
The Caridinal home schedule includes:
Aug. 25, 7 p.m. – Snow College (which could start the season as a Top 10 team)
Sept. 8, 7 p.m. – Tyler Junior College
Sept. 22, 7 p.m. – Blinn College
Oct. 13, 1 p.m. – Rezolution Prep Academy
Oct. 27, 3 p.m. – Navarro College
See you on the sidelines!
