The Big House on the Prairie.

[Captain Canada]

Seatbelts all damn season. That's a whole lot of turnovers forced.

[redsox907]

It’s gonna be crazy when Keiyana shows up at the awards show and offs this man on life TV in a psychosis fueled rage

Don't forget she'll be wearing a wig made out of Irene's scalped head

[djp73]

6 straight under 40 yards with no tuddies

[Soapy]

It’s gonna be crazy when Keiyana shows up at the awards show and offs this man on life TV in a psychosis fueled rage

Don't forget she'll be wearing a wig made out of Irene's scalped head

Caesar Redsox Perry

Seatbelts all damn season. That's a whole lot of turnovers forced.

6 straight under 40 yards with no tuddies

receipts were kept, don't you worry

[Soapy]

The Big House on the Prairie
Chapter Nine :: Million Dollar Baby, Part One

Being a cornerback is like being the loneliest man in the world with seventy thousand people watching your every move.

The thing nobody tells you about playing on an island is that glory and disaster are separated by inches — no, centimeters — and by milliseconds of hesitation. If you’re thinking, it’s too late. You’ve already been beat.

I was completely in the zone against Texas A&M, making a couple of early tackles to settle into the game and the first time that they went after me, on a deep shot to Tristan Norman, a highly-ranked four star in his own right, I was with him step by step and made an acrobatic play on the ball to knock it incomplete. It would be the closest that he would come to catching a pass against me that night.

They would score a late touchdown but all in all, we dominated that game as a defense and beat them 20-17 to make an early statement as a team and personally, I announced myself as one of the better cornerbacks in the country. To the victor came the spoils and that island, and my bed, wasn’t lonely at all.

Then came Oklahoma.

Thirteen days later, under the unforgiving lights in Norman, I learned how quickly the island can become a prison. Early in the game, Elijah Thomas got behind me for a touchdown on a deep ball I poorly judged. It was the same sort of play that I had broken up against Texas A&M but this time, Thomas came down with the ball and the avalanche began. On the next drive, they went after Ellis in the redzone and jumped out to an early 14-0 lead.

Later in that second quarter, hell bent on making up for it, I fell for a rudimentary post-wheel combination on my side of the field and jumped the post, leaving Thomas wide open for a touchdown.

We lost 31-29, our first defeat of the season, and I carried it like a stone in my chest. I secured a late interception but it felt hollow, meaningless as when it really mattered, I had gotten beat and the last plays that I had made weren’t enough.

Back on campus, those same eyes that had been on me since the Texas A&M game felt different. The comments on my Instagram page were different. After a loss to South Carolina the next week, the stares only got more intense and the comments only ratcheted up.

Maybe it was that noise—the judgment, the doubt—that nudged me back toward Irene. We’d grown distant as the season picked up, maybe because our bond from that winter break was thinner than I wanted to admit. She was the girl my ex had assaulted, and I was the guy tied to all of that history. That shadow had a way of creeping in.

But when I reached out again, she answered. First texts, then calls, then nights where I’d drive ninety minutes each way just to sit on her couch. I’m not sure what was more beneficial at the time, the hanging out or the quiet car rides that would allow me about ninety minutes each way to myself. I would be deep in thought but not about the game we just played or the game we had coming up but about life, real shit, the shit that hurts to think about, the ones that bring a smile to your face. I thought about my father, my siblings, my mother and everything in between.

With Irene, things were stripped down, simple. She’d cook, I’d show up, and we’d exist in the same space without the weight of expectation. Maybe she just wanted someone to share the couch with; maybe I just needed a plate of food that wasn’t from the team cafeteria. Either way, it worked.

Our rhythm wasn’t built on labels or titles. Some nights we’d talk for hours. Other nights, barely at all. But the silence was never awkward—it was relief. An escape. For me, from the suffocating pressure of SEC football. For her, from the grind of bills, work, and life.

Our relationship evolved slowly, without labels or expectations. Some nights we’d talk for hours. On others, we’d barely speak, comfortable in the silence. Either way, it began to involve me spending the night. Those shared moments of escape; me from the pressure of SEC football, her from the grind that was everyday life as a bill paying adult; those moments helped me navigate through a season that was only going to get tougher before it got any better.

[Soapy]

#8 UT (10-3, 6-2) | 3 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 22
#4 UGA (11-2, 6-2) | 3 | 14 | 7 | 22 | 46

UT QB Kenny Minchey (R-Sr): 32-55, 450 Yds, 2 Td, 3 INT
UT HB Peyton Lewis (R-Jr): 22 Car, 81 Yds
UT WR Braylon Staley (R-Jr): 9 Rec, 155 Yds, TD
UGA QB Ryan Puglisi (R-Jr): 25-41, 312 Yds, 4 TD, INT
UGA HB Jimmy Gamez (Fr): 17 Car, 86 Yds, 2 TD
UGA CB Booker Gurley III (Soph): 13 Tkl, INT, 2 PBU (47.6 PFF Grade)

Book 'Em! (powered by ChatGPT)
WR Vandrevius Jacobs: 1 Rec, 15 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR Treyshun Hurry: 2 Rec, 56 Yds, TD (Community Service)
WR Jett Tousaint: 3 Rec, 68 Yds, TD (Community Service)
WR Tristan Norman: 0 Rec, 0 Yds (Death Penalty)
WR Matt Pharms: 1 Rec, 13 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR Elijah Thomas: 4 Rec, 132 Yds, 2 TD (Jailbreak)
WR Garrison Pouncey: 1 Rec, 13 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR Cole Adams: 3 Rec, 33 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR Dallas Wilson: 1 Rec, 32 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR Oliver Mitchell Jr: 3 Rec, 36 Yds (Minimum Security)
WR Kylan Billiot: 2 Rec, 15 Yds (Angola)
WR Tank Hawkins: 2 Rec, 38 Yds (Maximum Security)
WR #14 Braylon Staley: 5 Rec, 127 Yds, TD (Jailbreak)

The Bullpen
TBD

The Book Report
Total 28 Rec, 578 Yds, 5 TD
Average 2.2 Rec, 44.5 Yds, 0.4 TD

Award Finalists Chuck Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Award, Jim Thorpe Award
Season Stats 97 Tkl, 15 TFL, 12 INT, 9 PBU, FF (79.6 PFF grade)
Upcoming Schedule College Football Playoffs

[Captain Canada]

I mean y'all won the SEC pretty handily and you did get an interception. But that boy took off on you.

[Caesar]

Was out there hunting for them picks too much and let up that big pass and got moss'd

I feel like bro was plotting on Irene the whole time

[redsox907]

you got that pick but got damn not a way to finish the season

inb4 Keiyana pulls up to the crib and gives Irene the ol 1-2 again

[Soapy]

I mean y'all won the SEC pretty handily and you did get an interception. But that boy took off on you.

Was out there hunting for them picks too much and let up that big pass and got moss'd

I feel like bro was plotting on Irene the whole time

you got that pick but got damn not a way to finish the season

inb4 Keiyana pulls up to the crib and gives Irene the ol 1-2 again

I thought he was running an out when I saw him keep going vertical, I knew I was cooked

vis-a-vis Keiyana and Irene, the heart needs what the heart needs when it needs it