Joey’s Journal
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
As a fan of a rebuilding team, no matter the sport, what makes the losses bearable? What keeps you watching while you wait for the rebuilding project to reach completion?
Signs of your team improving help, sure. And Emporia State showed some of those signs in its opening game against Western State on Saturday night, scoring a never-in-doubt 42-0 pounding of a clearly overmatched team missing one of the nation’s best receivers.
But what really keeps you watching are stars — players who can give your team credibility when the Ws aren’t there, whom you can cheer for to reach statistical milestones and/or challenge for postseason honors. Until team success is a reasonable goal again, fans like to root for individuals.
Emporia State, clearly a work in progress and picked to finish last in the MIAA, is in need of stars this season to keep fans patient and interested as coach Garin Higgins continues trying to build a winner. And if Saturday night’s annihilation of hapless Western State told fans nothing else, it did say that this year’s Hornets have the potential for star power. If Emporia State’s 2008 season never gets better than it did Saturday, a few guys are around who could at least bring some excitement to tide ESU fans over until the Hornets are again competitive in the MIAA.
We can start with a healthy Andre Sloan-El, who picked apart the Western State defense and ran the spread offense with good decision-making ability. A junior who battled injuries all of last season, Sloan-El wasn’t just effective, but excellent, completing 14 of his 17 passes for 185 yards. He also led ESU with 62 rushing yards in 10 carries.
“He’s a dual-threat quarterback,” Higgins said. “You saw it tonight. Third-and-12 one time, what did he do? He took off running and got a first down. ... He secured the football and made good reads tonight.”
True freshman Xavier Smith didn’t disappoint in his first college game, giving fans an appetizing taste of what they might see for the next four years. Smith showed electrifying speed and quickness when he got the ball in his hands, especially when he took a toss in the second quarter and blazed 21 yards down the right side for the TD that put Emporia State up 21-0. Smith caught five passes for 31 yards and ran three times for 36. It remains to be seen whether he can make that kind of impact in conference play, but the opportunity is there.
“It’s gonna be a lot tougher,” Higgins said. “There’s gonna be teams a lot faster than Western State. I think we know that as a coaching staff, and we’re not playing with smoke and mirrors. We understand what’s ahead of us, we really do.
“But he’s faster than what we had last year, and we’ve got a faster football team, so that’s gotta be a plus somewhere down the road. ... To me, that’s what makes this football program exciting right now.”
Seville Ko and Adrian Abner both had productive nights out of the backfield. Ko ran for 54 yards in just eight carries, including a 33-yard TD run in the fourth quarter, and Abner ran for 41 in 10. All told, the speed, athleticism and playmaking ability that can excite fans appear to be present.
Defensively, well, it’s hard to tell what kind of star power you might have when you play a team like Western State — which only managed 169 total yards — and nobody on ESU exactly put up what could be considered a dominant defensive performance. But linebacker Katrel Larkins’ career-high 12 tackles earned him co-MIAA Player of the Week honors, and Travis Lee, a junior, should develop further and again be one of the MIAA’s best corners.
The strong Labor Day-weekend crowd of 4,907 that turned out Saturday night shouldn’t, and likely won’t, be fooled into believing that this game was a real sign of big things for 2008. But they have every right to be excited about the new-look Hornets. Even if the losses begin piling up later this year, a healthy Sloan-El, and the athletic playmakers he has around him, could make ESU a lot of fun to watch.
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