The Pumpkin Heads

Stealing bikes.

Drunk driving.

Purdue's football program must be improving.  The U has taught us that arrests just equal good football players.

Or thugs.

I get those confused.

Regardless, tomorrow we match up against The Boilermakers.  From my research, it seems that this is not only our first game played in Indiana, but also our first game against Purdue.  First, let's learn some things about Indiana.

1. Indiana was created in 1800.  The name means "Land of Indians".  That, of course, is culturally insensitive.  It should be called Nativeamericana.

2. No one can agree where the term "Hoosier" came from.  For real.  Everyone has a theory.  Hoosiers are Indianans, or Indianians.  They are also cool racing tires.

3. Nativeamericana is really proud of the Nativeamericanapolis 500. They even featured a "Nativeamery" race car on their state quarter.

4. The official state motto is: "Crossroads of America".

Now that we know enough to visit Nativeamericana, let's dig into the term, "Boilermaker".

boil·er·mak·er

ˈboilərˌmākər/

noun

1. 1.

   a person who makes boilers.

   • 
     
2. 2.

   NORTH AMERICAN

   a shot of whiskey followed by a glass of beer as a chaser.

Definition #2 is pretty awesome.  I mean, who wouldn't want a giant shot glass as their mascot?

Unfortunately, according to the Purdue website:

Over the years, Purdue teams had been called grangers, pumpkin-shuckers, railsplitters, cornfield sailors, blacksmiths, foundry hands and, finally, boilermakers. That last one stuck.

It seems that they wanted something to reflect the fact that they were a land-grant university, like us, but couldn't quite pin down the appropriate blue collar occupation to describe themselves.

I think they should have kept pumpkin-shuckers, at least for their football team.  It's very seasonally-appropriate, and well, just think of the mascot options!

You get the idea.  Instead, they got this:

I don't know... I really like pumpkin.  Pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin bread.  Pumpkin soup.  So many options.

So the pumpkin-shuckers are 1-1 on the season, beating Nativeamericana State and losing to Marshall.  They average 34.5 points per game, but allow their opponents an average of 27.5 points per game.  They are about 50-50 when it comes to rushing versus passing.  Like every game, our key is going to be St. Bud, the Patron Saint of Dented Old Lunchpails.

Townie had a good game last week.  I guess now we'll find out if it sticks.  He was 16-24, totaling 233 yards and 2 TDs.  He also rushed 38 yards, with a 4-yard TD.

He looked... decent.  Do I miss The Hobbit?  No.  Is he better than HWSNBN?  That remains to be seen.  At least I have hope now.  Hope is all that I'm asking for at this point.  It makes me actually want to watch the game every week.

Can Townie turn into this guy?

Holy crap!  Don't you miss Danny Coale and Jarrett Boykin?

Ugh... now I have depressed myself.

On a positive note, we can all be excited for another 3:30 kick-off.  Is it any coincidence that Weaves is gone?  I think not.

Try to ignore the idiocy of the WWLS.  At least you can watch this one on your TV.  It's the little things that matter in life.

LET'S GO!

Love salty pumpkin seeds, 

The B.S.C.