I Keep Bumping Into Days, and Waiting For Them to End.

Grad school, amongst other things, has a propensity for sticking daggers through fun. It lingers around corners and screams obscenities at your grandmother. It is not pleasant. If you are thinking of grad school, especially in English lit, I would dissuade you. Mostly because I hate competition, but also because it is a bitch-mother. When I started this blog back midway through last football season I had a plan that started with blogger and ended with world domination. Conquering the blogosphere in the name of RAWRCATZ! would be not only incredibly easy, but the apex of my life. I'm fairly sure that I had dreams where Frank Solich came to me and yelled, not because he was mad, but because he is one loud dude. He told me that my digital endeavor was an honorable one, and that I would one day establish myself in the pantheon of RAWRCATZian heroes. I'm also fairly sure that I was happy.

But then the pressures of my scholastic life intervened. As anyone who has typed in our web address hoping for an in depth look at our incredible MAC tourney run, and the culmination of our mighty RAWRCATZ! hoops force in their drubbing of Georgetown in the NCAA tourney has noticed, we were ominously silent. Fear not, your intrepid blogger took great joy in these moments. But he also had term papers to write, professors to coddle, and a pantheon of literature to overcome. Literature, not fat people or mother-in-laws (oddly enough), is the bane of all existence. And in the long run the weights of academia and the reality that I am not worthy to carry the e-Banner of Athens, forced me to reconsider the future of the site. And the future, it seems, has reached the fate of so many others in Blogfrica, it has come time to say goodbye.

I hope that all the RAWRCATZ! RAWRing across the countryside found a brief home at RAWRCATZRAWR! I know that exposing DeKalb as the post apocalyptic shitpit that it is, and watching Theo Scott make murder of MAC defenses has been the highlight of my e-Life, and will shine radiantly in my memories. And you can be damned sure that when I am filling out apps for my PhD that RAWRCATZRAWR! will be at the top of my list of accomplishments. No, don't look at my thesis, check out this blog I had. Yeah, I knew you'd let me in. It was only a matter of time.

But, my greatest hope is that King Solich would be proud. If he stopped by, on one of those sleepless nights where he is plotting the demise of yet another tasty MAC morsel, if he perused these pages, that he would be entertained. I know he wouldn't smile... Frank never smiles. But I hope that he would look upon the pages contained within and think, just for a second, that he doesn't want to kill me with that steely eyed glare of his. You know, the one that kills nations and Turner Gill's career with a single look. And though I will miss him most of all, I will also miss RAWRjuiceboxRAWR's immaculate photoshoppery (see above). I will miss our legion (read 3) of readers who read these rants, sent their emails, followed us on Twitter, and had words of encouragement. And I will miss having a place where RAWRCATZ! are in a perpetual state of RAWRing. Never have we RAWRed as proudly as we have this season, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have shared in the revelry with you.

So it is with a somber heart, and a hearty sigh, that I say farewell. Wherever you may roam, make sure you are RAWRing!

-RAWR CATZ

Lest We Forget

Here at RAWRCATZRAWR! we refuse to let our seniors go off into the night. We celebrate not only their ability to move on to more profitable endeavors, but fight for their right to party.

In this vein, news from the Senior Bowl has been incredibly optimistic for outgoing world-beater Taylor Price. ESPN's ever smug and supple Todd McShay praised the burgeoning draft hero in a quick segment.

Check the one minute mark. "Real Deal?" No, more like "Savaging Your Cornerbacks On The Way To The Endzone... Deal."

That's how RAWRCATZ! get it done at the Senior Bowl.

RAWRCATZ vs Central Michigan

Bobcats are beautiful, noble creatures. They are one of the few big cats unique to North America, where they control a vast domain that stretches from Central Mexico to the upper reaches of British Columbia. And right in the middle of this, for a small stretch in the Appalachian foothills north of the Ohio River, these magnificent creatures hold court in Ohio.

Tonight, for the second time in 4 seasons, our Bobcats will play for the MAC title. This is truly one of the great turnarounds in college football history... I do not have to tell anyone who followed this team through the Brian Knorr era what a massive change Solich has brought to us. In some sense, this game is meaningless. If we lose, we go to our second bowl game in the past 40 years. Butch Jones will leave Central Michigan for some middling BCS school and we'll still be poised to contend in the MAC for years.

But, we cannot allow that feeling to prevail. Our RAWRCATZ have not tasted conference title glory in 41 years. Well before I, and I suspect most of you reading this, were born. Winning tonight would be an important step forward, not just for the team but for the program. I'm tired of going to Peden and seeing people clad in their Scarlet and Gray. There is no reason that we can't do what Cincinnati has done and throw off the shackles of being considered a second class program in our own fanbase. Solich is the man to bring us there, and a win tonight would greatly accelerate the process.

I'm not going to talk about "facts" or "stats" or "injuries". The truth is, they don't mean much. We come into tonight's game 13 point underdogs with two of our best players supposedly "questionable". We face off with a team with a dark horse Heisman candidate at quarterback and a coach who's currently the second hottest in the country, only slightly behind the man he succeeded at Central. None of that matters. We will win for the same reason we've won 9 of our games this season: We want it more. We need it. And we are not leaving Detroit empty handed.

Sorry, Central but you can get fucked.

Score prediction:

RAWRCATZ - 35
CHIPS - 27

RAWRCATZ vs Northern Illinois

Tomorrow, in the glorious confines of Peden Stadium, we go to battle against a foe not unlike ourselves. NIU has the same conference record, the same overall record, both teams are tied for 8th in the nation in turnover margin. As enemy mouthpiece Red and Black Attack put it, it's like looking into a mirror.

But don't let these superficial similarities fool you, NIU is nothing like our beloved RAWRCATZ. They hail from the barren wasteland that is the MAC East, they've played a paper thin schedule that Sagarin has decided is 131st in the country... and there are only 119 teams. They tout some impressive statistics, but you'll excuse me for not being impressed by their body of work against the likes of Eastern Michigan, Western Illinois and Toledo.

NIU comes into the game after a close call against Ball State. We've been there. But nevertheless, it was an ugly game against a school who has only managed to best one team all season. The Husky defense apparently decided to take the first half off and the offense struggled in a sluggish affair. An ill-timed onside kick almost cost them dearly. Don't look for these trends to repeat themselves, though... NIU needs this game to stay in the MAC title hunt. Too bad we need it more.

NIU Huskies:

Strengths:

-Coach has one of the coolest last names in the business
-Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, is an alumnus
-Getting out of the hellish apocalypse of a city that is DeKalb should improve morale
-It's finals week :(

Weaknesses:

-Coach has a pedo mustache
-The Marching 110 will destroy any hope they may have inside themselves
-Products of puppy mills
-No SOLICH

Prognosis:

NIU is coming into Athens at just the right time as most of the student body will be gone after finals week. But that's all meaningless when you have the Marching 110 and FRANK SOLICH on the sidelines. Two of NIU's three losses have been on the road, and Jerry Kill can't afford to make any mistakes when going up against one of the best minds in the game. We're not Ball State, we will pounce on them and make them pay.

Predicted Outcome:


Look at that jackass. Look at him. Do you think he can run with Solich? If you do you're either high or an NIU fan, in which case I'm sorry for your lots. This is going to be a tight game, to be certain. But I think the home field advantage combined with superior coaching will be the difference. On we shall march to Temple.

RAWRCATZ - 20 The Killers - 17

Husky Hate Week

This week the RAWRCATZ! play the loathsome Huskies of Northern Illinois University. Which is in DeKalb, Illinois. If you are not familiar with DeKalb it looks something like this:


Down on the bottom right you can see the campus of Northern Illinois University. Sadly the original campus was deserted after the nearby Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 contaminated much of the area with high levels of toxic radiation. DeKalb has never recovered, although it is reported that stalks of corn the size of sequoias grow near the teams former football practice facility. These stalks of corn could end the world hunger crisis and spur on a golden age of agricultural renaissance. Unfortunately, nuclear corn tastes like crap.

Since the disaster has rendered the city unsafe for human habitation the university was forced to close its ancestral doors and relocate. Instead of setting up at a new, more expansive and desirous location, they decided to become a nomadic campus. Much like a virus they'll latch onto a city or town, using up all of their natural resources and consuming all of the tastiness at the local KFC, until the city dies a horrible death. Here is a picture of the last town that they "relocated" to.


That used to be a charming outdoor garden. Not anymore. Rumor has it that these Huskies have set their eyes on fair Athens. THIS SHALL NOT COME TO PASS! The RAWRCATZ! are well aware of their nefarious schemes, and will use every tactical and schematic advantage in an effort to expel the visitors from our city streets paved with gold. Athens, by the name of Solich, shall not, must not fall.

So remember fair citizens of Athens and RAWRCATZ! alike. This weekend when you see a husky in your midst, he is not there as a friend. He and/or she is there on a recon mission. They are looking for what stores to swallow up, where they can get the newest Jonas Brother's bootlegs and most importantly who's homes they want to steal.

Stand tall RAWRCATZ! Stand tall.