I love being underestimated. And it’s a good thing since it seems Northeastern is always the underdog. This was very true Saturday when the football team took on Northwestern State after two shutouts to open the season.
Everyone was counting out the Huskies, including the “Die Hard” fans who were calling for junior quarterback Anthony Orio to give the starting job to junior John Sperrazza and calling for head coach Rocky Hager’s job after last week’s 49-14 beating from Richmond. In my opinion that is a bit extreme.
But I went on record saying I thought the Huskies would pull out a win over Northwestern State, even if I was among only a dozen people who thought so. And when everyone else had (prematurely) written off NU football, they brought a decisive 42-14 win at Parsons Field.
“Die Hard” fans should be more than pleased with the plays called by Hager and his staff. Orio’s performance was a career-best. He ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more, amassing 130 yards passing and 50 more rushing. That should quiet the critics for at least the next five minutes.
I’m sure the Demons were less than pleased with the final score. But they were also less than pleased with the Parsons Field environment. On The Daily Demon blog, members of Northwestern States’ staff found a few things about Northeastern they didn’t enjoy.
“The screech of feedback on the Parsons Field sound system reminds me of the cultural differences between college football in the Northeast and the deep South,” wrote NSU Sports Information Director Doug Ireland.
Ouch. So maybe feedback isn’t the most professional sound at a football game, but between the rain and problems with the officials’ microphones, a little feedback was unavoidable.
The Daily Demon was also quick to point out the high school atmosphere of pretty Parsons Field.
“Parsons Field is a baseball, soccer, lacrosse and football facility wrapped into one. The ‘visiting’ bleachers are set up on the baseball infield at one end. The right field foul pole is on the far right end of the home (press box side) bleachers,” the blogger wrote. “Note the word ‘bleachers.’ There are two sets of metal bleachers which run the length of the field on both sides. From the top of the bleachers, you are 12 rows away from the sideline.”
Point made, Parsons Field isn’t quite the football stadium of our dreams, but that isn’t for lack of trying. Northeastern has made multiple attempts to get an on-campus stadium. It is one of the oldest conversation on campus.
Finally, The Daily Demon pointed out just how empty our bleachers would be compared to the other teams they are facing this year.
“Interesting that we’ll play in what is listed as a 7,000 capacity stadium today in front of a crowd of, at best, half that; then, the next game for the Demons in two weeks is against another team wearing red and black, but at 52,282-seat Jones AT’T Stadium in Lubbock where Texas Tech plays its home games.”
This is the one thing we have any control over. I understand no one wants to sit in the rain and watch their team lose and fans had little hope after the previous week’s blowout loss to Richmond, but if it weren’t for the Greek Tailgate there wouldn’t have been any students at the game.
To the herd of freshmen that showed up for week one in their Die Hard Dogs T-shirts and sat in the blistering heat (if only until halftime) I implore you to try again. The Huskies are on the road this week at UC Davis but they return home to face a very strong James Madison team Oct. 6 and hopefully we don’t send the Dukes home with something to blog about.
– Erika Carrubba can be reached at
