Steers score points by just showing up

TYLER, Texas – Coming off a 75-6 loss that was only his second worst of the season, Ricky Carson got a call Monday from Trinity International, owner at the time of a 0-3 record, suddenly interested in scheduling Texas College next year.

Any idea why they called now, Coach?

“Maybe they thought we’d be an easy win,” Carson said, smiling.

“But it ain’t gonna be like that.”

Certainly it won’t be the case Saturday, if only because the Steers have the weekend off. For that matter, maybe it’ll be different in two weeks, when Texas College starts playing teams its own size.

But until further notice, anyway, the Steers are college football’s unofficial punch line.

In four games, all losses, this little NAIA school hidden neatly in East Texas’ Piney Woods has been outscored 287-12. The worst was a 92-0 pounding by Stephen F. Austin, when the Lumberjacks’ coach pulled his starters in the second quarter and requested a running clock in the fourth.

And even that’s not the worst of it, because hardest of all is remembering what you once were.

Only two years ago, Texas College – back in football since 2003 after a 42-year hiatus – defended back-to-back co-championships in the Central States Football League.

X’Zavier Bloodsaw, a four-year starter at quarterback, remembers what winning was like.

“It’s hard to take,” he said, eyes hard, jaw set.

What went wrong? Plenty. Players say some of their peers “lost focus.” Conduct on and off the field deteriorated. Recruiting suffered as losses mounted.

The new president of the historically black university fired the former coach in May, announcing a “shift” back to core values.

But the new coach was stuck with the same old schedule.

Among their non-conference opponents: three from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) and a Division II team.

Frankly, Texas College, with an enrollment a shade less than 1,000, wasn’t prepared for that level of competition. Only two starters returned from last season’s 1-9 team. Most of the incoming freshmen didn’t qualify academically.

The alternative is not playing at all. It’d be easy enough to quit. Especially when you lose your opener, 68-0, to Concordia (Ala.) College, a team you beat last season, and teammates are slow to grasp Carson’s spread offense.

It’d be easy to walk away when home crowds dwindle and classmates smirk and the next team on the schedule is bigger and better than the last.

The others left. One day you notice that, of the 25 freshmen you came in with, only five remain.

How about it, X’Zavier? Ever thought about quitting, too?

“No, sir,” he said. “Never.”

Why not?

“It’s just how we were raised,” he said as Lee nodded.

“You start something, you finish it.”

Confession: I’m a sucker for this kind of story. In my business, winners get the glory and losers the scorn.

But what’s more inspiring? An athlete afforded every advantage who excels in a gilded environment?

Or a kid who comes back week after week to a weed-strewn lot and a rundown field house and the worst team in the nation?

Bloodsaw and Lee would argue the last point. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they still think they can win. For my money, they already have.