PASADENA, Calif. \u2014\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0enjoyed my time grading. Penciling in a letter next to Indiana\u00a0football\u2019s\u00a0position groups each week is the exact type of power trip I imagine my high school teachers got when marking down my unserious essays for being \u2014 well \u2014 unserious. Jokes on\u00a0you,\u00a0Mrs.\u00a0Castine,\u00a0you have no control over me now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when the Hoosiers exited the field\u00a0Thursday\u00a0to a roar of cheers and autograph requests after their\u00a038-3 win over the University of Alabama<\/a>\u00a0in the Rose Bowl, I came to a melancholy conclusion. It\u2019s time for me to snatch the apple off my desk, take one last look at\u00a0my empty\u00a0classroom\u00a0and close the door on my grading career.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s with a heavy heart that I declare Richards\u2019 Report Card has come to\u00a0an end.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is the part where you grab a tissue box and sob while reminiscing on all the time\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0spent\u00a0together. I know, my ever-so-reliable series has been a fixture of the Indiana Daily Student\u2019s football coverage all season long.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0had so many amazing moments with one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n My personal favorite was when I confessed my love for \u201cThe Beatles\u201d after Indiana\u2019s Senior Day\u00a0win over Wisconsin<\/a>\u00a0on Nov.\u00a015.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Through it\u00a0all,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0been a good reason for me to\u00a0utilize\u00a0my grading abilities. Certain position groups have struggled at times. The Hoosiers\u2019 offensive line played terribly against the Badgers. Even redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza \u2014 the Heisman Trophy winner \u2014\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0immune to the\u00a0occasional subpar letter\u00a0grade<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as I stood on the confetti-ridden field in Pasadena, a mere 20 feet away from Indiana\u2019s Rose Bowl celebration, I thought about what I had just\u00a0witnessed. I had just seen the Hoosiers hand Alabama its worst postseason defeat in program history. How can that be anything but an A+ performance?\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure, I\u00a0could\u2019ve\u00a0written another one of my traditional report cards where I tell you why each position group earned a perfect grade. But what\u00a0would\u2019ve\u00a0been the point of that? We all watched the same game. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0need to\u00a0explain\u00a0why Indiana was so great because you saw it for yourself.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, as I wrap up\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0arguably the\u00a0most self-centered article\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0ever written,\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0look ahead to the Hoosiers\u2019 semifinal matchup against Oregon in the Peach Bowl. While Indiana\u2019s season pushes ahead, it will do so without Richards\u2019 Report Card.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you have any complaints, be sure to take it up with my\u00a0editors\u00a0and not me. And while\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0at it, try and get me a raise. But for old time\u2019s sake,\u00a0here\u2019s\u00a0one last grade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Explanation: Do you need one? The Hoosiers won the Rose Bowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PASADENA, Calif. \u2014\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0enjoyed my time grading. Penciling in a letter next to Indiana\u00a0football\u2019s\u00a0position groups each week is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-388198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}