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| 09-22-2003 | Previous edition: 09-19-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Black jerseys' return pumps team, crowd
I don’t think the singing of AC/DC has ever rung more true than it did as the Boilers ran into Ross-Ade Saturday afternoon. The players, who were as surprised as anyone by the switch, admitted the switch to black home jerseys fired them up and it seemed to pump energy into a crowd that needed to forget what happened the last home game. "Wicked good." "Badass." "Reminds me of the good ol’ days." "It’s about time." That’s just a short, clean summary of the fan reaction to the Boilers running onto the field in their black unis. While I agree with all four comments, the last one seems to hold a lot of truth. Since donning the gold in 2002 through the Bowling Green loss, the team has gone 4-4 at home. Pre-gold in the Tiller era Boilers held a home record of 25-5. I know there is probably a great deal of coincidence in those numbers, but besides just looking better, the players admitted they felt better. Shaun Phillips said it’s safe to say everyone on the team wanted the black back. Linebacker Niko Koutouvides said, "you look good, you feel good, you play good." When asked to elaborate on why wearing black makes a difference, Koutouvides was at a loss for words. All he could say was, "it gives the swagger back." I liken it to going to the bars or a party wearing your best clothes when you know you look good. When you walk in you’re confident. You own the room. Well, the Boilers went onto the field Saturday and they owned it. Center Nick Hardwick said the black feels tougher and I think that’s just what the team needed to regain home dominance. Granted Arizona will be hard pressed to win more than one conference game this season, but the Boilers dominated the game in every aspect for the first time in a while. Hardwick said when the team was in the huddle and they saw ‘Zona players with their hands on their knees that just made them want to pound the ball at them even more. They wanted to show no mercy. They gained that killer instinct. Whether it had anything to do with their jersey color, I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. They had the instinct and hopefully can keep it. One thing they will keep though is the black jerseys. Tiller said that’s it for gold. Not because he’s superstitious, but he’s seen enough home losses to say that’s enough. That doesn’t mean he still isn’t shooting for the "sea of gold," which was the motivation for the gold jerseys in the first place. The team was trying to take the lead on that, but that’s over. What Tiller might be happy to know is that he’s converted a large group by switching to black. One of those people who will be wearing gold when ND rolls into town will be Ryan Dowd, a product graphic design graduate. If you saw about 100 people at the game wearing black shirts that stated, "coach, I’ll wear gold if you bring back black," it’s because Dowd created them in an attempt to get exactly what happened on Saturday. "That’s Purdue football," he said, "intimidation and attitude." Doug Elish is a senior in the School of Liberal Arts. He can be reached via e-mail at sports@purdueexponent.org Printer-friendly version |
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