Toward the end of the college football season the big universities (i.e. Florida, Texas, Ohio State) schedule easy games for the sole reason of protecting their BCS rankings: The later in the season you lose, the more it will affect your end-of-season ranking, so ranked matchups or intense rivalries are practically non-existent this week. So, instead of picking the teams this week, I'm trying something different.
I found one interesting game — the surprisingly undefeated, and fourth-ranked Texas Christian University Horned Frogs on the road against the 5-5 University of Wyoming Cowboys. One of the starting receivers for the Cowboys, freshman Chris McNeill, is a friend of mine from high school back in Los Angeles, and I asked him a few questions about the game, the experience of playing D-I college football, and his transition from high school.
Even though he's playing for Wyoming, which has almost nothing to do with NYU, the freshman athletes from both programs can relate to one another. As with most freshman athletes, whether they play football, tennis or basketball, the transition from high school to college is difficult at first. New rules, better competition and higher expectations make it hard for a player to compete at his full potential.
"The game is a lot faster," McNeill said. "You have to think faster along with playing a lot faster. Being a freshman, it's difficult to adapt to the speed of the game right away, but as the weeks go by, you have more games under your belt, which allows you to be more comfortable as the season progresses."
McNeill is pumped for this weekend's home matchup against the highly-ranked TCU, especially with the possibility of an upset on his own field. But to hopefully get to that point, the team, including McNeill, must prepare and practice all week.
"The coaches have introduced a game plan this week like they do every week," McNeill said. "And it's up to us as players to practice hard so we can execute well during the game on Saturday."
Wyoming, who hasn't been a powerhouse in the WAC conference for over a decade, has a solid foundation of young play makers like McNeill up and down their roster. McNeill, in particular, will play a large role in the future of this program. He's a quick receiver with great hands who can stretch the field.
"I personally take pride in my route running as a receiver," he said. "Knowing that I'm not one of the bigger receivers on the field, I have to find other ways to get myself open for the quarterback."
McNeill, who owes a lot of credit to the coaches for helping him adapt to the initial hardships of collegiate football, will be joining Wyoming as they take on TCU on Saturday in hopes of shocking the College Football world. Let's just hope that the ESPN "Accuscore Predictions" don't come true: TCU, after 10,000 computer simulations, won 99 percent of the time.
