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Rice University Athletics
Three For Texas...Player Blog
12/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 29, 2008
Dec. 30
WOW, what a great night! Austin, David, and I (Jimmy) finished our careers on a tremendous high and there wasn't a better way to do that than by winning the Texas Bowl. The day was great from start to finish and was a great ending to a great week. We woke up and had a normal gameday, which consists of a walkthrough, brunch, and a pregame meal at 3:00. It was kind of a weird feeling all day as we all knew that it was our last game and day of college football. Like the rest of the week we experienced so many "lasts" of our career. Last practice, last team meeting, last pregame meal, etc., and it really starts to hit you the closer you get to kickoff.
When we got to the stadium, the team was met by a mob of fans that lined the walkway to the stadium and welcomed us to the game. All three of us were floored by the reception we got, and it was a great moment to reflect upon what we had done in the last five or in my case four years. When we all got here, no one even had Rice on their radar, compared to yesterday when the entire home side of the stadium was filled to capacity.
The game obviously went well and we were victorious and it was a great way to finish an amazing season. The atmosphere in the locker room after the game is something we three will never forget Our freshman seasons we had 10 losses and our senior years we accomplished 10 wins, so needless to say we had an amazing turn around. The most rewarding part to us all is the way the old letterman are reacting. They wore the gray and blue and understand the challenges of playing football at Rice and to hear them talk about how proud they are, is so rewarding. Thank you so much for all your support through the years and for reading the blog, we hope you enjoyed it.
Go Owls,
Jimmy, David, and Austin
Dec. 29th
Today was our first day that we could just sit around and relax.
I,(Austin) had to sleep in a little longer because it sounded like David was starting up a chainsaw all night... Once awake, there was the regular breakfast ready for us to eat whenever we headed down there. The rest of the morning there was nothing to do but hang out in the entertainment room where I dominated Charlie Wiebush in Madden. I was technically the o-line champ as I also made David my child and Charlie did the same to Jimmy.
After this Jimmy and David headed to the Depelchin Children's Center where they hung out with some of the kids. At around 4:30 we loaded the busses and went over to Reliant to have our regular "day before" walkthrough and bowl photos. Once this was accomplished we had to do a quick change in order to make it to the Coronado Club on time for our dinner.
The dinner was absolutely unbelievable where we had a five course feast consisting of a salad, lobster, bacon wrapped quail, tenderloin, and a trio of desserts. This is where David and Jimmy showed their eating prowess where they made the rounds to the "skinny" kids grabbing all of their leftovers.
The night and the bowl week are now over as we shift our focus towards winning the first bowl game at Rice since 1954. The dinner was a great ending to a fantastic week, we hope you enjoyed reading the diary as much as we enjoyed living it.
Now, it's time to play the game. Hope you will be in the stands. Give the O-line a little love if you are there.
Go Owls
Dec. 28, 2008
Rice senior offensive linemen David Berken, Austin Wilkinson and Jimmy Miller have been sharing their thoughts on the first days of the Texas Bowl, and after some technical glitches, we now present them for your review...
Dec. 26
Jimmy, Austin, and I (David), started off the bowl week with practice this afternoon. It was our regular "trap" Tuesday practice schedule. After practice we boarded the busses and headed to our home for the next 5 days in the J.W. Marriot. They had a great bowl welcoming party for us with a good group of people and a drum line playing for us. Then, we were officially welcomed by the bowl committee and we met the bowl chairman.
We were then introduced to one of the most surprising parts of the hotel, the hospitality room. It includes about 14 flat screen HDTVs complete with XBOX 360s, Nintendo Wiis, and Rock Band. We also have a freezer full of ice cream treats which Charlie Wiebusch immediately made them restock. There is a ping pong table and a foosball table. We also got our bowl gifts which included a backpack and some bowl clothes along with a belt buckle.
After we received our gifts we were released for the night to roam the galleria area. Jimmy had a nice steak dinner at Del Frisco's and blew all of his per diem in one stop. Austin made his way over to the mall where he attempted to apply for the modeling job outside of Abercrombie.... needless to say, they thought he was "too much man" for them.
I went over to the Cheesecake Factory where I ate entirely way too much food. We then went out on the town for a while and had a good time with our teammates watching Austin get shut down by several ladies he tried talking to.
Dec. 27-Morning
This morning was the FCA breakfast which was a real treat for the offensive line because the NFL great Bruce Matthews was the keynote speaker. Chase also gave a speech at the breakfast and did very well, but as Bruce pointed out, a quarterback should always thank his offensive line, which Chase failed to do. After breakfast, we came to a waterlogged practice.
It was a sorrowful time for us three because it was our last practice in pads EVER...the tears in our eyes were definitely sad ones. Presently we are boarding the bus to go compete with Western Michigan in the Rodeo Bowl. It should be an interesting time being that Austin made the cut as one of the best dancers on the offensive line, so he will be competing against the Broncos O-Line in a dance off. We will give you an update after the Rodeo Bowl.
Dec. 27-Evening
After practice Austin, David, and I (Jimmy) boarded the bus once again to head to the Rodeo Bowl at George Ranch in Richmond. It was a long bus ride but thankfully, like everywhere we have gone, we have enjoyed the ease of a police escort.
The Rodeo Bowl was a seven event competition between us and Western Michigan in a variety of events from calf wrestling to an end zone dance competition between the two offensive lines. Rice won the night, taking six of seven events. We are very proud to say that one of the main reasons for our victory was the performance of the O line in the dance competition, led by Austin himself.
You can see for yourself in the highlight video of the events, near the end you will see Austin working his magic Rodeo Bowl TD Dance Video. After the competition we had a great BBQ dinner and got to meet some of the Western Michigan players. After the event we headed back to the hotel and for another fun night in the hospitality room. David and I had a competitive game of Wii bowling, but I managed to arise victorious in the end.
Dec. 28
We got to sleep in a little bit this morning and than after breakfast we headed to practice. It was our last practice and so it was a bit weird knowing that was the last time we would come up the tunnel in Rice Stadium.
We got carried off the field as part of Rice tradition. Austin and David needed only two guys, but I wanted a third guy to help just in case.
After practice we headed back to the hotel and got some time to eat dinner in the galleria, but the real excitement of today was the Best Buy Shopping Spree we just got back from. We each got a $300 gift card and were taken to a Best Buy that they had closed down for us. It was awesome and we all got some really cool gifts.
David got an Ipod nano, Austin got a digital camera for his parents and I (Jimmy) got a set of Bose Headphones and some Blu ray movies. Overall it was a great day. Tomorrow we have a walkthrough at Reliant Stadium, the seniors are visiting a hospital, and are going to eat an incredible dinner at the prestigious Coronado Club, but more on that tomorrow
