Fan Blogs

Big Ten fans love to follow their school's teams on the Web. So we set out to interview the passionate voices behind your Big Ten blogs.

Q&A: CRIMSONQUARRY.COM

How did you come up with the name for your blog? The name of my pre-SB Nation blog, "The Hoosier Report," shows just how creative I am with these things. Picking a name for the new blog was the most stressful part of the transition. When I was invited to join SB Nation, I struggled to come up with something that was evocative of IU or the state of Indiana. I settled on the Crimson Quarry because of the connection that limestone quarries have to IU and that part of the state. Just "The Quarry" would have been preferable, but it was taken. When was the blog created? I started blogging about IU in February 2007 on a Blogger site. After doing that for about two years, I was asked to join SB Nation and The Crimson Quarry launched in early March 2009, with about two games remaining in the basketball season. What made you want to create a blog? I had never thought much about it until reading a post on Stampede Blue, the SB Nation blog for the Indianapolis Colts, mentioning that the network didn't have an IU or Purdue blogger. Within a couple of days, I started the Hoosier Report and simply started writing. My thought is that I devote enough time to following IU sports that I might as well do something productive with it. How many hours a day do you devote to the blog? That's hard to say. Much of the reading that I do I would have done in my free time anyway. It really fluctuates depending on the time of the year. How many people contribute to the blog? Right now, I'm the only contributor, but that may change at some point. Also, a nice thing about the SB Nation platform is that readers can make their own contributions that I can highlight or bump to the front page. What is the best part of the job? Again, turning my "wasted" free time into something productive and that other people actually want to read is rewarding. I know that it's politically correct for writers to say that they are writing for themselves, and that is true to a degree, but it's rewarding to see that a piece that I labored over is well-received.

BigTenNetwork.com editor Brent Yarina caught up with John M., a 1996 Indiana graduate and the man behind CrimsonQuarry.com, for an e-mail Q&A about his Indiana blog, which enters its inaugural football season.

BigTenNetwork.com: I'm an Indiana fan and love the hoops games against Purdue, so I was curious what's your favorite part of the rivalry?

CrimsonQuarry.com: Some rivalries are focused on a single sport. The IU-Purdue rivalry reaches into every sport. Football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, you name it. Because the two schools are public universities located in the same state, the rivalry divides families, workplaces, neighborhoods, and friends. On the other hand, I think that as much as the fans and alumni hate the other school's athletic teams, most keep it in pretty good perspective. While the schools are competitors in some academic fields, for the most part, their strengths complement each other.   

BigTenNetwork.com: Is there any single memory from the longtime rivalry that sticks out the most in your mind?

CrimsonQuarry.com: While IU's wins in the Old Oaken Bucket game became unfortunately scarce during the Joe Tiller era, that made IU's two most recent wins, in 2001 and 2007, all the more enjoyable. Although I can't watch the 2007 game, because I still can't believe that we blew a 24-7 lead.

BigTenNetwork.com: Indiana is clearly a basketball school first. How does that affect traffic during football season?

CrimsonQuarry.com: I have never noticed a huge difference in the traffic, believe it or not. Part of the reason is that the run-up to basketball season overlaps with football season. Also, the 2007 season, the first football season that I blogged, was IU's best season in years. Finally, it seems that the Big Ten schools with the strongest blog communities are Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State and that the Big Ten blogosphere overall is football-centric, so I probably get more traffic from opposing fans during football season. 

Of course, my biggest traffic days have been when something big happened in the Kelvin Sampson trainwreck, but hopefully my future traffic will be driven by success rather than scandal.
 
BigTenNetwork.com: What would it take for the Hoosiers to sell out Memorial Stadium on a consistent basis?

CrimsonQuarry.com: I could write an entire blog just on this topic. While it's tempting to suppose that there is some magic marketing bullet, I think the answer is simple: IU has to consistently produce winning seasons - say, bowl games in 4 of every 5 seasons - and occasionally threaten the top teams in the conference.  IU has never had great attendance, but it's no coincidence that IU's best era of football attendance was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Bill Mallory produced IU's only sustained period of winning football since the 1940s. Bloomington is a small town, and so IU has to draw fans from Indianapolis and other parts of the state to fill the stadium. I don't think IU has to go 11-1 to draw fans, but the program needs to be good enough to convince fans that they have a chance to win. The "what" is easy. The "how" is why Fred Glass and Bill Lynch are getting the big bucks.

BigTenNetwork.com: Alright, let's talk about your blog. How do you try to differentiate it from all the other ones out there today?

CrimsonQuarry.com: I don't know that I make any conscious effort to do that. I simply try to provide a product that is worthwhile, whether it is by linking to other stories by other writers or with a meaty post breaking down a box score. At present, there are few other IU blogs that make a comprehensive effort to cover both the football team and the basketball team.  Also, I try to touch on other quasi-major sports such as baseball and women's basketball. 

BigTenNetwork.com: What's your single favorite aspect/feature that your blog offers readers?

CrimsonQuarry.com: I'm not an on-the-scene reporter and I'm not an x's and o's expert on either football or basketball. I do try to delve into the statistics and history to a greater extent that readers might not find elsewhere. 

BigTenNetwork.com: I assume the basketball team's recent controversy created a lot of traffic for you, but could you tell us about some of the other posts that got people talking about your blog?

CrimsonQuarry.com: Sometimes it's predictable and sometimes it's random. As you guessed, the Kelvin Sampson debacle created lots of traffic. Of course, writing anything negative about another school or taking issue with something written in another blog inevitably draws traffic, including a mini-flare-up with Purdue blog Boiled Sports a few weeks ago. Still, sometimes it's unpredictable. Since I began the Crimson Quarry, my most-read post was a one paragraph blurb about blue chip basketball recruit Kyrie Irving. It was nothing but a link to someone else's article, but someone on Duke Basketball Report linked to it, and traffic shot through the roof.

BigTenNetwork.com: On a daily basis, which blogs do you find yourself landing on the most?

CrimsonQuarry.com: On the IU side, Inside the Hall, a basketball-only blog written by some recent IU student newspaper alums who also are professional writers, is indispensable. The Hoosier Scoop, written by the sports staff of the Bloomington Herald-Times, is excellent as well. As for other Big Ten schools, there are too many to mention. Eleven Warriors, Lake the Posts, Hammer and Rails, and Black Heart Gold Pants are blogs that I check out regularly. Newly launched Michigan State group blog The Only Colors, based on the blogs it absorbed, is going to be one of the best around. Really, that's only a start.

BigTenNetwork.com: Is there any blog or writer who you try to pattern your product after?

CrimsonQuarry.com: Not really. I try to write in my own voice. Two writers who really understand the medium are Brian Cook of MGoBlog and John Gasaway, formerly of Big Ten Wonk and now of Basketball Prospectus. I don't try to imitate them - if only I could - but both guys demonstrate that the best way to build an audience is to provide something that the mainstream media can't or won't provide. I don't always succeed at that, but it's the goal.

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