With The Famuan taking applications for the most influential male on campus, I conjured up a list of people not named Ramon Alexander or Torey Alston who I think could be the next BMOC, or Big Man on Campus for those of you who aren’t up on the latest acronyms.
Now, to be nominated for such exalted awards there are a few requirements.
First, the contest is strictly for men, notice the “M” in BMOC.
Secondly, the contest is for athletes only (thus eliminating our two expected SGA presidential candidates) and finally the athlete must actually be a contributing factor on their respective athletic team, eliminating any walk-ons and bench warmers.
With the rules out of the way, let’s get to the fun part, revealing the candidates.
The first candidate is none other than Ben Dougherty. Unlike Florida A&M University’s neighboring college to the north, our starting quarterback earned his way onto this list. It’s not a given; something Casey Printers learned the hard way in the 2002 season.
Although it’s not hard to notice a 6-foot-4-inch white guy at a historically black university, it doesn’t hurt that he has thrown for 4,328 yards and 26 touchdowns in his career.
The second candidate for the prestigious title of BMOC is Tallahassee’s own Rashard Pompey. Although he isn’t at Godby High School anymore, he still pulls his weight on “Da Hill”. As an added bonus, he’s not too shabby on the football field, as he is currently 10th in school history with 1,773 rushing yards.
A pair of Sigmas are the next two candidates.
As football players, Damon Miller and Fletcher Williams seemingly have two things that the many minions on our campus look for, athletic prowess (both have been All-MEAC performers in their careers) and an affiliation with a fraternity.
Then again, if you were an athlete at FAMU DRS, as Miller was, being a FAMU BMOC shouldn’t be something new.
Looking beyond the realm of the football team, the basketball team has a couple of applicants for the award that could inflate the ego of the most modest of mice, even with the departure the talented epitome of the BMOC, Terrence Woods.
Unlike the football team, the entire basketball team deserves to be on this list with its efforts in last year’s NCAA tournament, but the contest isn’t for the Big Team on Campus, it’s for Big Man on Campus. With that being said, senior Michael Harper and junior point guard Tony Tate are the men’s basketball team’s best chances for repeating as BTOC, making them viable candidates to be the next BMOC.
Although there are hundreds of scholarship athletes, and many hundreds more weekend athletes at FAMU, the six that were named were those with the best chance of walking off the playing field and having people, other than their groupies and freshmen who lack sense, know who they are.
While most would assume this is Dougherty’s award to lose, he’s received enough publicity- and rightfully so- for being the face of the Gulf Coast Offense the past two years, the award goes to Pompey.
As much criticism as the football team has received, Pompey has quietly had a good season with 454 yards and five touchdowns, which in the passing oriented Gulf Coast Offense, isn’t bad.
Even though he won’t win a trophy or plaque to hang in his parents’ living room for being named the Big Man on Campus, Pompey can take solace in the fact that someone has noticed him being a major player on, and uhhh off, the field.
Will Brown is a junior newspaper journalism student from Rockledge. Contact him at wwbrown19@yahoo.com