Missouri State: Tortoise

Mario Craver is fast. 

He was fast when he was a high schooler in Pinson, Alabama. In typical D1 athlete fashion, his high school Hudl tape is often filled with bad angles by defenders who can not truly comprehend his speed and moments where his QB loads his arm back like a catapult before launching a ball downfield with the understanding that somewhere in all that green grass, Mario Craver will settle underneath it and make a catch. 

He was fast as a freshman at Mississippi State, already more complete as a wide receiver than many of the guys on the field for the Aggies, which was why they pursued him immediately in the offseason transfer portal. 

And he was fast in South Bend when he announced himself to the college football world on this play.

Hello world. I am fast.

I was never fast. Not like that anyway, so it didn’t surprise me when my son seemed to inherit a similar throttle. It does surprise me how much that’s filtered into his everyday life though. I never considered how long it could take to put on a pair of shoes, to clean up a room, to do any number of things. This is not unique to him amongst kids his age, as any parent can tell you. What is a little unique, as he enters this new phase in life where we will continue to expect and demand more from him, is the new pet that lives in his room right now.

This is a red footed tortoise and his name is, believe it or not, Slowpoke. He lives up to the moniker, unless there is melon in his vicinity, in which case he can be surprisingly quick. Slowpoke doesn’t quite know what to make of us yet after just a couple of months of exposure to the wild jungle that is our house, he spends a lot of time burrowed under his little half log hiding place. But several times a week, we extract him from his little living area and plop him into a plastic tub of lukewarm water, a process known as “soaking”. Much like a BYU freshman, Slowpoke loves this time. He seems to move a little faster afterwards, has a better appetite, and seems to be more active. Despite being made for dry ground, he's reinvigorated by time in the water.

Weirdly enough, I got to see something similar occur with my son this summer. He’s always loved swimming, so we participated in competitive swim races for the first time, not really sure what to expect. He did really well, frequently placing in the Top 3 in different events over the course of the program, and it was really fun as a parent to watch him build confidence, truly excel in something, develop a competitive drive, and to be... fast. A couple of months ago I wrote about how he and I are already different in a lot of ways, and I’m really thankful he gets the opportunity to explore and try new things in ways that weren’t always available to me. It helped remind me to be patient with him in the slow times, to see the developments as they’re occurring and not just root for the end results. 

Because it’s not just Mario Craver’s speed that makes him an elite receiver, the type that can fill the void left by KC Concepcion (the first Aggie WR drafted in the first round since Mike Evans). Being fast is not enough, not when so many other people at your level are. If it was all about speed, it wouldn’t be so hard.

It’s the fluidity, the strength, the balance, the precise route running, the patience, and the confidence that only the criminally insane and great WRs seem to possess. Each of those (and the number of other traits and abilities unmentioned) required years of honing to perfection, on the practice field, in the weight room, on his own time in the offseason. 

It is a slow, painful process. But it’s the only way to beat the hare.

That’s what I’ll tell all my kids, when the gold medals and the trophies and the fun parts of competition don’t come as often as they want (or never again, possibly). Embrace the pace. Savor the slow build. Everyone will promise you quick results and demand you move at double time, but you don’t have to give into that. You are you because of the things that you do, not because of what everyone else does.

Schedule

Everything seems to drag to a halt in the final days of summer. As a kid this meant something different from what it does now, as a (sort of) grown man with his own kids, a job, and a host of camps and trips and activities that the Skylight calendar and my wife are constantly having to refresh me on, because for some reason my brain is only trained to remember movie quotes and weird trivia. We fall into this strange rhythm just waiting for the school doors to open up, trying to enforce screen time limits (and failing), and praying for some weather relief. 

Summer fades slowly, and Fall seems to build in much the same way. First school starts, then the activities (sports and dance and whatever else we jam into the schedule), suddenly there’s a Fall Festival or a Trunk or Treat on the horizon, and before you know it, it's a breakneck sprint to Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are the tortoise right up until we are suddenly the hare, racing the tree leaves and seeing who can fall and hit the ground in exhaustion first. 

The college football schedule seems to work much the same way, for several years now the "Week 0" lineup has been the light at the end of the tunnel for a starving fanbase. A slate of games which is generally so weak it forces us to get excited about a game being played 4,000 miles away (and ACC football in general). This appetizer gives way to a slightly more exciting Week 1, but even with its extended runway into Sunday and Monday, it still features less than 10 games where both teams belong to a Power 4 conference. 

Now, don’t take this as a complaint from me. I’ve been dreaming of these first rounds of games (that will all be heavily discounted when it comes to post season implications) since the final whistle of the championship game. A 2:30 pm matchup between Oregon and Boise State is the type of thing I’d trade my left arm for in June, and I’ll be thanking God in the pew on Sunday morning that he is giving us a Week 1 Apple Cup showdown later that afternoon. My point is not that the schedule should be more front loaded, it’s just a reminder for myself (and anyone else who needs it) not to let it get away from me too quickly. 

The season will gather steam almost imperceptively, if the Aggies schedule is any sort of indicator.

Texas A&M starts with three teams at home who it will likely be large favorites over. Missouri State, completing its transition to an FBS member of Conference USA, returning one of the lowest amounts of production in the sport, and with a new head coach, will then be followed by Arizona State and Kentucky (two schools also suffering from a lack of returning names, and Kentucky will also be in Will Stein’s first season as a head coach). Anything can happen in any of those games, but it’s after that first quarter of the schedule that things get really interesting. With the exception of Arkansas and FCS midseason opponent The Citadel, the SP+ projects every Aggie game to be within less than a touchdown and predicts five of those games to be decided by a field goal or less. 

By the end of October this season could be culminating into another all time great, or it could feel virtually over depending on how the ball bounces. The uncertainty is already making my heart race, so I’ll try to embrace the slow climb as much as possible.

Song

Appropriate in every sense. That slow fiddle start and the way it kicks into high gear just before the one minute mark… phew.

And you know that I’m doomed to repeat this. With all the bad habits that I learned.

Snack

Normally for this section, stuff comes to me rather quickly. I’ve either grilled or made something recently that can slide in perfectly, but I was weirdly stumped for a while this time around. Eventually I thought about how it’s hatch green chile season, and things progressed from there. I wrote a couple of recipes involving hatch chiles last year, and if you don’t understand my obsession with them, you share company with my wife. The best I can explain is that I generally like peppers and a little bit of spice, but so much of that world is focused on how hot your tongue can get in the shortest amount of time. Hatch has a beautiful slow burn that never deadens the inside of my mouth like I just licked a car battery, and I guess that’s why I love them.

So from there, my mind went to chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce, but then I started thinking about how to keep things extremely on-the-nose and on theme. Then it hit me, stuffed shells. 

I’ve done a few versions of these, stuffed with sausage or ground beef or sometimes just cheese and spinach. Then covered in some tomato sauce and cheese and baked in the oven to finish it off. It’s a pretty fun and simple meal and only almost as messy as you would think it is. So why not take this Italian-ish dish and put some Southwestern flair on it? 

Easy enough process that looks like this:

Boil the shells, then stuff with pulled chicken and cream cheese mixture. Lay them out in a baking pan, and then cover in a green chile sauce of your own making if possible (there’s a lot of great recipes out there, but it usually comes down to some green chiles, butter, chicken stock, garlic, cumin, and some flour to thicken things up). Sprinkle some Monterey Jack on top, pop it in the oven for about a half hour, and boom. 

Southwestern Stuffed Shells.

Sign Off

Thank you to all that frequently come back and read this little blog of mine. This is Year 3 of its existence and I can’t say that I’ve ever fully grasped what I wanted it to be or spent nearly as much time working on it as I wanted. But every once in a while I hear from people that read who enjoy the content, whether that’s Aggie Football stats or a message about fatherhood, and that alone is worth having this space of internet leased out. I’ll try to be here as often as I can this season, so spread the word to your friends, or don’t. I have long become comfortable with this thing growing at its own speed. I am not attempting to win any races, just trying to soak it all in.