Western Kentucky vs Indiana Liveblog

Welcome to Defend The Rock's inaugural liveblog for the 2008-2009 season for Indiana sports!

Will the Hoosiers be able to stop the Hilltoppers formidable rushing attack? Will Austin Starr kick one out of Memorial Stadium? Will the Big Ten Network manage to blow the coverage of this game somehow?

All the answers shall be revealed shortly. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the live blog, because anyway, it's not like you could be outside playing some sports for yourself.

10:58: Go figure, all the channel listings are screwed up, courtesy of Comcast or the Big Ten Network, or both. Betting that the games keep switching channels throughout the day, because honestly, it would just make sense...

11:02: Apparently Kellen Lewis "bought into his own hype" and became full of himself. I guess things like that will happen when you're the best QB your team has had in years. Sounds like he got over his "pity parties" and now enjoys playing Xbox with teammates, awesome. I wonder what his name is on XboxLive?

11:05: God I love having a good kicker.

11:09: Commentator on Kellen Lewis "He's a Heisman candidate" -- Awesome

11:15: So far we're all happy with IU's tackling today. It's still early, but so far so good. Improvement from last year is required. And Phillips screws us on a sack by Murando.

11:21: Wow, I called out a 90 yard TD run for Lewis at the start of this series and others in attendance said "you know he'll break it out at some point". I guess he decided that'd be a little too far, and opted for just 75 yards. But in the end, it's good for us.

11:27: Beautiful sack. Who's Gred Middleton?

11:30: "You guys need to get out of here. You guys need to get away from Jersey Boys"

11:32: What the hell type of play was that? I guess 2 yards are 2 yards...

11:39: First opportunity for Starr to start his run on a perfect season on Field Goals....it's in! 1-1.

11:41: What the fuck is going on with this network coverage. The Big Ten Network/Comcast keeps going to commercial in the middle of plays. This is horrible.

11:50: Sidenote on commericals: These ads for Lincoln Car insurance are terrible, but we are quickly becoming obsessed with them. We're pretty sure the women in them are real life prostitutes.

11:51: Andrew Means...two sport star.

11:57: Ben Chappell is in the game. At least he didn't throw an INT.

11:59: Awesome, now the IU game is no longer on any of the Big Ten Network channels. Great...

12:04: Just for the record, the IU game is still gone from the TV listings, but we do have 3 channels of Ohio St and 2 channels of Penn State. What the hell.

12:10: On Megan West: D: 1338, I: 0363, P: 1352, A: 1347.

12:11: Man, that was a total video game play by Lewis. Poor cameraman.

12:18: Sorry, we got distracted by Kige Ramsey.

12:20: This punter is ridiculous. Seems like every time he hits w/i the 20.

12:22: Well, these aren't really the plays we'd like to see with the half winding down. Plus Fisher is injured, so not quite the best way to crawl towards the end of the half.

12:30: Can't complain too much about the results heading into the half. Would like to have seen some more down field passes and fewer screens. But so far so good for the first game of the season.

12:49: Nice play by the defense to get the ball right back.

12:42: So Kellen Lewis is the record holder for IU with 43 touchdowns through the air. Good for Kellen, but man, that record number is sad.

12:45: Second thoughts on Megan West: D: 1148, I: 0363, P: 1252, A: 1137.

12:55: Got distracted by trying to figure out pizza to order. God, why is it so complicated?

12:57: Good job stopping 'em with just a FG. 17-3.

1:16: Good to know we're not blowing out a newly instated Division I team (yet?)...

1:20: Consensus here is NOT Thigpen for RB.

1:24: Ah, that's a patented James Hardy play....except it's Belcher...hopefully he can keep it up.

1:32: "She looks like a muppet...like that blonde band leader muppet."

1:42: Another long (62YD) rushing TD for Kellen. Heisman Watch.

1:53: Ben Chappell does not look good/comfortable at all. Yet somehow he completed that pass.

1:57: Last play as Ben Chappell flails around, all of us in unison "Ooooh noo! Ooh no! Oooh no!"

1:59: Good to see kicker turned safety turned punter Joe Kleinsmith come in and actually give the Hoosiers good punt.

2:02: This commentator continues to amaze. Expressing facts (time/score) as "feelings." Man.

2:05: We have determined Ben Chappell's nickname: Beck Chappell (like Beck Chapel on IU's campus).

2:08: That's a winner! Good start to the season.

Football Season Kickoff or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Suspensions and Fall In Love WIth Kellen Lewis All Over Again

Football season is upon us and even before kickoff the Hoosier squad has seen fit to bring some excitement to their fan base by continuing their version of musical chairs re: suspensions.

First up, Greg Middleton (the Hoosier who just so happened to lead the NATION in sacks last year) has been suspended along with his (non-starting) teammates Troy Wagner, Brandon Mosley and Kyle Kozak.

Now, putting aside the issue of why they were suspended, the three non-starting players aren't that big of a deal. A for Middleton on the other hand, is he truly a stand out player, a key to our defense?

While he led the nation in sacks, he mainly did it by absolutely destroying bad teams' QB's. He started piling up the sacks early in the season against weak opponents, and as the season went on, there were fewer and fewer sacks showing up in the boxscores for him.

So will IU miss him against the opener against Western Kentucky? My expert opinion is yes -- WKU represents just the sort of team Middleton would have success against.

Now we come to our dearly re-instated QB Kellen Lewis.

If you're an avid reader of Defend The Rock you know that we've been Kellen Lewis fans since before there we even such things. Even during Blake Powers' Sports Illustrated featured year we were pushing for Lewis to start (the fact that he was redshirted that year, eh, not so much of an issue for us), with chants at games of "Start the freshmen!"

Hell, we even started the first Kellen Lewis group on Facebook!

So while we accepted his suspension, players should have to follow the rules, be good students, and excellent team players after all, we eagerly awaited his return. We had never been impressed with Ben Chappell, in fact after his single down implosion in Northwestern we pretty much swore an oath against him, so having Kellen back is like a breath of fresh air.

Now, Kellen Lewis is undeniably the face of this team. Gone is his main playmaker James Hardy, as is star defender Tracy Porter. It's up to him, and we firmly believe in his third year, he is once again ready to step up to the plate, accept the challenge, and exceed all expectations.

Let's play some football!

Defend The Rock will be liveblogging the season opener starting at 11am central time. Join us!

ITWCT: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Edition

The first team that will be covered in our new series If These Walls Could Talk, just so happens to be the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

So just who are these guys? We've chose three Hilltoppers that we think you should know more about beyond their stats.

#7 WR Quinterrance Cooper
Favorite Music: "Anthing Bangin"
Favorite Movie: Scarface
Favorite TV: BET (But he admittedly does not have enough TV time due to his excessive use of his computer.)
Relationship Status: Single. But watch out guys, he's just looking for love from the ladies. "no homos."

#78 RG Austin Chestnut aka A/C
Are you a single woman looking for a companion? Then A/C may just be cool enough for you. A Taurus, he's open to dating and serious relationships. Can you imagine a nice night at home, starting off with a romantic dinner to the tunes of Lil' Wayne, followed by a classic cuddle movie like 300? Then A/C would be the perfect date, and don't worry if you're thinking long term--he's got good genes, as A/C proudly declares himself: "There aint nothin but ballers in my family."

#31 SS ORLANDO MISAALEFUA
A self described military brat and Christian, Orlando has moved around a lot in his life, but has always been grounded by his spirituality and the presence of family and friends in his life. Unfortunately at the moment Orlando's mother is deployed in Iraq, and we here at Defend The Rock, send our best wishes to her and the entire Misaalefua family, and hope she returns home quickly and safely.

So there you have it, a little bit more about a few players lining up against our Hoosiers this Saturday. Enjoy the game, because this time, it's personal.

If These Walls Could Talk

With IU's football season opener only days away, it seems only appropriate that we take a closer look at the team our Hoosiers will be playing, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

Now, it's not difficult to just go online and cut and paste some stats about these guys, but those bases are already covered by pretty much any major sports site, and probably a few of our fellow IU blogs.

No, we are going to do things differently this year.

Instead of telling you how many yards on average our oppositions running back gains or how many sacks a defensive end has, we're going to give you something much more personal, juicy tidbits from his myspace page.

Oh yes, it's come to this...

Football Schedule

Here is the IU football schedule for the 2008 season, available nowhere else everywhere.

Home games in bold.

08/30/08 vs Western Kentucky
09/06/08 vs Murray State
09/20/08 vs Ball State
09/27/08 vs Michigan State
10/04/08 vs Minnesota
10/11/08 vs Iowa
10/18/08 vs Illinois
10/25/08 vs Northwestern
11/01/08 vs Central Michigan
11/08/08 vs Wisconsin
11/15/08 vs Penn State
11/22/08 vs Purdue

Back From Summer Vacation (Or: No way was I going to stay inside and blog all summer in Chicago)

So, it's a sad fact in the real world that there is no real summer vacation for non-students.

We work Mondays through Fridays all summer long, doing errands on the weekends, and trying to find time for fun and friends whenever possible in our busy "adult" lives.

Needless to say, when it's summer in Chicago, even though we don't get a summer vacation, there's no way we here at Defend The Rock were going to stay inside in the few good months we have here in the Windy City blogging, instead of spending time at poisonous beautiful Lake Michigan.

So now, with summer coming to a close we return. Not rested, not refreshed, but maybe slightly tanner and with a few more chips on our shoulders (There is only so much crap one can take from Northwestern fans bragging about their football team before one cracks).

What has surprised us in our time off is that you have continued to visit us. With no new posts, you have continued to check everyday in the hopes of seeing something new.

Well, the suspense is over.

We have returned!