'92 Rams

All of us like to talk about the good ole days. The glory days if you will. I'm no different and with Tuesday's edition of the Mt. Vernon Register-News making reference to the 1992 Rams I thought this would be a good time to offer some thoughts.

The paper made two mistakes in its reference to the '92 team. First off, we started 7-0 and finished 8-2 (not 7-3 as the paper indicated). The other mistake the paper made was in just mentioning a handfull of the players from that team. What made that team so special was that we had some good players who were also good teammates. Maybe some of the skilled positions received more press (which is no different than any other level of football), but without everyone doing what he did so well, we would not have won eight games. Let me mention some of those guys now. Our O-Line consisted of Jon Sweetin at center, Josh Lueker and Scott Garlick at guards, and Tony Williams and John England at the tackles. Our tight end was P.J. Giamanco and fullback was Adam Sursa. Chad Hammons was the QB, Robbie "Third and" Long our tailback, and Ryan Pietsch started opposite me at wide receiver. What's crazy is I didn't have to look in a yearbook to recall our first team offense. I still remember every one of those guys like we just broke the huddle yesterday.

The truly amazing thing about us is that our defense-The Grunts (thanks Coach Feuquay)-was better than our offense. I wish the paper would've mentioned Josh Phillips (strong safety). I wish it would've mentioned Rob Hulbert (nose tackle). I wish it would've mentioned Wil Lash (cornerback). I wish it would've mentioned Tony Duncan (linebacker). Jason Hudnall was a beast at defensive end and Pietsch (free safety), John (DE), Robbie (corner), and P.J. (LB) were pretty darn good players on that side of the ball too. Big Carlos Burns (DT) had his name mentioned in the paper and could he hit. I don't think anyone will forget the block he had against Bloomington in the playoffs. Wow. And when Coach Kuras put him in on power towards the end of the year, well, it made running in short yardage situations a lot more fun to watch on film on Saturday morning. Speaking of which...

Saturday mornings were the best. Hudnall described in beautifully in our Senior yearbook. Running on the track, lifting (or avoiding lifting depending on your preference), donuts & juice, and the big TV (which now isn't that big) that we watched the game on. As much as I'd like to go back and play just one more game with all those guys, I think I'd like it even more to go back for one Saturday morning. I usually hated getting out of bed, but when I look back now that's the last thing I think of.

Sometimes I hear people talk about how we weren't really that good because the old South Seven was weak. I'm not going to lie, we beat the dogcrap out of Herrin, West Frankfort, & Benton (combined score of those three games 135-7). But don't hold that against us, and don't forget that our two non-conference games were wins against O'Fallon in Week 1 and Edwardsville in Week 9. Some also like to bash Coach Kuras. Love him or hate him, I owe my entire football experience to him as he was the one who talked me into giving it a shot after having never played in my life before my junior year. I don't even want to think about what I would have missed out on.

I played four years of college baseball on some very special teams. I played against some guys who are still playing (a making some nice cash I might add) and with some who are among my best friends today. But, never before and never since have I played on a team and enjoyed a season as much as I did the 1992 Mt. Vernon Rams. So to all of you who still have the highlight tape-if you ever need someone to watch it with, give me a call.