Sports Editor

I received a pleasant surprise the other day when I looked in my box and saw a package addressed to the Messenger from the University of Miami.

Ahh, media guide.

That’s the good thing about TSU’s move to Division 1-A and the fact that they’re playing all these college football powerhouses. Not only does the school get a fat paycheck, but this employee of

Troy’s hometown paper gets a fat media guide from everyone on Troy State’s schedule.

Last year it was Alabama State, Southwest Texas, McNeese.

This season it’s Nebraska, Miami, Mississippi State, Maryland.

Plus they’re all free.

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about the media guide of a college football team that brings out the little boy in me. First of all, it’s loaded with stats and pictures and the history of the football team. There’s last season game recaps and a position by position breakdown of the team for the coming season. Coaches bios, players bios…just check out the media guide.

I suppose sports writers are somewhat spoiled by this, but hey, it’s part of the job. We need tools to do our job and the sports information departments of the various universities provide us this service. A media guide prepares you for the season. If I sit down to do a feature on a certain football player, I know firsthand from the player’s bio how he did last season, the year prior to that and on back into high school. I know what awards he won, what accolades he received. If I know a little something about the player before hand, this makes me a better writer come deadline time.

I’d say we have media guides around here for Troy State that go back maybe 10 years. The 2001 version has a collage of pictures on the cover featuring Trojans’ head coach Larry Blakeney, quarterback Brock Nutter, RB Demontray Carter and linebacker Jimmy McClain. Below all the cutouts of the players is a pool with the media guide’s motto shimmering in the pool’s ripples. This year’s motto is aptly, "Diving into 1-A". On the back is a 2001 football schedule sandwiched between Trojans’ secondary players Deiric Jackson and Rayshun Reed. At the bottom is a picture of defensive end Vernon Marable making a tackle on an Appalachian State quarterback.

That’s the interesting thing about media guides. They all have mottos. The University of Louisiana-Monroe’s motto, who the Trojans play on Nov. 10, is "The Wait is Over." The Indians join the Sun Belt Conference, after spending seven seasons as a 1-A independent. The Hurricanes’ motto for this season is "Ready, Set…Dominate", which is something you can expect from a program predicted to contend for a national title in 2001. App State and Middle Tennessee State’s mottos are…nothing. These two schools just choose to emblazon across the front of their respective media guide covers, "2001 Football Media Guide." How drab.

I haven’t received Nebraska’s or Mississippi State’s or Maryland’s media guides yet, but I’m anxiously awaiting them. In the meantime, I can imagine my own mottos.

For Nebraska how about paying Stephen King some more money, (as if he needed it), and licensing "The Children of the Corn" for their media guide motto. What about "Who Let Them Dogs Out?" for Jackie Sherrill’s Bulldogs, especially since they played that song out on the PA last season in Starkville. Maryland’s, and for that matter the entire ACC’s, could be "FSU’s Our Daddy,"

because no matter how talented everyone else in that conference is predicted to be, the Seminoles and Bobby Bowden always come out on top.

OK.

These are cheesy, I admit it.

I’ll just sit back and wait instead.