By Dennis Clark
TERRE HAUTE — As Rose-Hulman’s starting middle linebacker, junior Andrew Couch is adept at dishing out and absorbing the numerous violent collisions inherent to the game of college football.
But Couch’s time navigating around the gridiron must seem like a piece of cake to him compared to his time serving as one of the few, the proud … yes, I’m talking about the U.S. Marines.
“Joined the Marine Corps right out of high school … wanted to serve my country and all that,” Couch said prior to a Rose football practice last week.
During his six-year commitment with the Marines, he certainly got to see the world with deployments to such “exotic” locales as Djibouti and the Republic of Georgia.
Rose football coach Steve Englehart described it best when discussing Couch, who will turn 25 years old later this season, saying “he’s had an interesting journey to say the least.”
Couch’s specialty in the Marines was electro-optical ordinance repair. “Basically fix anything with a lens and a wire,” Couch said.
In 2006, Couch was deployed to Djibouti, located just above Somalia. While there he was involved in training exercises and protection of the U.S. base.
“Real small country, not real wealthy,” Couch noted. “Get a lot of like goatherders … people coming up from Somalia. They don’t really know where they’re at. They see the lights of the base and think it’s downtown Djibouti. They’re out there walking in the sun two or three days from Somalia. Kind of interesting out there.
“Spent a month in the Republic of Georgia, cross-training with the Georgian military.” He pointed out that particular deployment was prior to the unrest which happened there the last couple of years.
During the fifth year of his six-year commitment, he returned to school. Couch enrolled at Citrus Junior College in his hometown of Glendora, Calif., where he played football the past two seasons.
Even the process of how Couch ended up at Rose-Hulman was atypical.
“A lot of people ask me how I ended up out here,” Couch said. “Basically I was looking for a good school. I wanted my degree to mean something. I didn’t want to go to just some school that’s not really known. [Rose] had Division III football. I wanted to keep playing football and I had eligibility. I applied online, got in and here I am.
“I didn’t even come visit Terre Haute before I came out here. But I wasn’t too worried … you don’t get to visit Djibouti before you go out there, you don’t get to visit Georgia right? So I’m still in the United States, it can’t be that bad.
“Some of the guys here think Terre Haute is horrible. I always tell them it could be so much worse,” he laughed. “Overall, I really like it here. Yeah.”
Englehart agreed it was atypical how Couch matriculated to Rose-Hulman.
“[Couch] kind of fell in my lap,” Englehart stated. “We typically don’t recruit junior college transfers. Usually [athletes] are at junior colleges for one of two things. They want to go there to prepare themselves to get a scholarship to play Division I, or they didn’t have the grades. In his case, that wasn’t the case.
“He e-mailed me, said he was interested and wanted to look at engineering. So we created a dialogue through e-mail last November and December, then started through the recruiting process over the phone. He never even came here on a visit. He knew he wanted engineering, to go to the best engineering school and have a chance to play football.”
Couch, listed at 5-foot-7, 215 pounds, played fullback in high school and at Citrus College. But he was quickly switched to middle linebacker upon arriving at Rose.
“Still learning, trying to get better every day,” Couch added. “Trying to learn the speed of the game. It’s going pretty well, but still a long way to go I think.”
“He hadn’t played defense since high school … and high school for him was seven years ago,” Englehart laughed. “He’s done a really nice job. Obviously, it’s been a learning curve for him … trying to adapt to playing defense and running more than what a fullback normally does.”
Statistically, Couch is indeed doing a nice job, currently ranked third with the Engineers in number of tackles.
Couch feels his age difference from his teammates has not been a factor.
“It’s not like they see me as an old man,” Couch noted. “Sometimes they ask my opinion on things because I tend to see things a little differently … course, being older and having some more world experience. It’s cool to help them out where I can.”
Couch, despite his worldly experiences, is currently living on campus. He rooms with a student near his age that served in the South Korean Army for two years.
“Me and him always talk about how some of the freshmen … they’re just younger,” Couch grinned.
“He’s fit in right away,” Englehart said. “One big thing about him is he’s been through a lot. The guys can look at him and see he’s been through a lot and obviously respect what he’s done.
“Through all that, he’s able to have so much more influence on some of our younger kids. We were able to see that right away during camp. He was hanging out with some of the freshmen and you could tell he was taking them under his wing. He was kind of ‘I’m been through the ropes before, let me show you young bucks’.
Couch has recently switched his major to electrical engineering.
“It kind of fits in with what I’m doing in the Marine Corps,” he explained. “My personal goal is to be a pilot in the Marine Corps.”
