I woke up this morning with a quickened heart, a smile on my face, and an enthusiasm I hadn't felt in months.
I wanted to hug everybody. I wanted to tell everyone how happy I was, and how beautiful today was.
Because today is Christmas Day.
Today is the first day of the 2013 College Football season.
This college football off-season has only really stood out because of Johnny Manziel, who can't keep his signatures, this mouth and his tweets to himself, and is paying a (very small price). Texas A&M fans who only get to the first game of the season were crossing their fingers to see their Heisman Trophy winner, but they'll only see him play half-a-game. If that, if they pummel the owls like expected.
Otherwise, there was LSU running back Jeremy Hill's blindsiding of a guy in a Baton Rouge, then should have put him in jail, but instead it's extended super-secret probation, and he's allowed to stay on his team, because his team-mates didn't want to get rid of their best running back talent. Staying in the SEC, there was the horrific rape at Vanderbilt, and the death in car crashes of Texas A&M and Ole Miss players.
Oh, and the other customary suspensions for assault, DUIs and marijuana possession that seem to plague college players, but they at least make the summer interesting. And the Miami vs NCAA case hasn't gone away yet. God knows why.
But as fall approaches, we move from praising The Lord in our churches and reading our Bible, to praising The (Dark) Lord Saban in our homes and reading our Phil Steele's 2013 College Football Preview, which provides us with more useless information that we'll never need to know.
Our music changes. We start listening a bit more of "Jump Around", "Enter The Sandman" and "Zombie Nation". We start to cross 'T's, Dot Is.
Our Youtube videos change. Suddenly the Ole Miss hype video is ALL-IMPORTANT. So is the Texas Longhorns hype video. And old College Gameday footage. We fall in love with Fowler, Corso and Herbstreit once again, but maybe not "Coming to you Citaaaaaay". We watch clips of 'Friday Night Clips', 'Rudy' and 'The Replacements', and fire ourselves up.
Our love changes. We fall back in love with the Song Girls of Southern California, the cheerleaders of Oregon, the Oklahoma State dance team, and the co-eds of everywhere from Arizona State and Arizona to Miami and Florida State - and something in between.
Our social life changes. Unless we are AT a game, we start sending refusal notices. Suddenly, we start refusing social events. After all, we don't want anything to do with anybody on a Saturday from about 10 in the morning to, oh, around 1am between September and the second week of December, do we?
Our concentration changes. We start not to care about job and family, as long as our team is in the running for a division, conference and national title. We start wondering what our jobs would be like if we put in the amount of effort that Nick Saban puts into his Alabama team. We start wondering if Michigan's going to be OK this year, and if UCLA really are the real deal in the South. And my God, do we start watching the recruiting guys make their statements.
We start questioning our coaches and patting others on the back at the same time. We question Lane Kiffin for why he hasn't chosen a starting quarterback at USC, but when Bill O'Brien doesn't make a decision between his two gold-standard QBs, we're OK with it.
And we put our players on a pedestal. The aforementioned Johnny Football's one, but Jadeveon Clowney is another. Please, show us the hit against Michigan again....it's not like we haven't seen it 10,000 times. Then there's Teddy Bridgewater (Louisville) and Braxton Miller (Ohio State). The players who were mini-gods last year have been almost forgotten about this year, like Aaron Murray (Georgia), Sammy Watkins (Clemson), and some guy out in Oregon called D'Anthony Thomas.
And we start to dream. We dream of 12-0, massive upsets, and great catches. We dream of hugging everyone in the student section, dreaming the impossible dream, and picking up that crystal ball.
I wanted to hug everybody. I wanted to tell everyone how happy I was, and how beautiful today was.
Because today is Christmas Day.
Today is the first day of the 2013 College Football season.
This college football off-season has only really stood out because of Johnny Manziel, who can't keep his signatures, this mouth and his tweets to himself, and is paying a (very small price). Texas A&M fans who only get to the first game of the season were crossing their fingers to see their Heisman Trophy winner, but they'll only see him play half-a-game. If that, if they pummel the owls like expected.
Otherwise, there was LSU running back Jeremy Hill's blindsiding of a guy in a Baton Rouge, then should have put him in jail, but instead it's extended super-secret probation, and he's allowed to stay on his team, because his team-mates didn't want to get rid of their best running back talent. Staying in the SEC, there was the horrific rape at Vanderbilt, and the death in car crashes of Texas A&M and Ole Miss players.
Oh, and the other customary suspensions for assault, DUIs and marijuana possession that seem to plague college players, but they at least make the summer interesting. And the Miami vs NCAA case hasn't gone away yet. God knows why.
But as fall approaches, we move from praising The Lord in our churches and reading our Bible, to praising The (Dark) Lord Saban in our homes and reading our Phil Steele's 2013 College Football Preview, which provides us with more useless information that we'll never need to know.
Our music changes. We start listening a bit more of "Jump Around", "Enter The Sandman" and "Zombie Nation". We start to cross 'T's, Dot Is.
Our Youtube videos change. Suddenly the Ole Miss hype video is ALL-IMPORTANT. So is the Texas Longhorns hype video. And old College Gameday footage. We fall in love with Fowler, Corso and Herbstreit once again, but maybe not "Coming to you Citaaaaaay". We watch clips of 'Friday Night Clips', 'Rudy' and 'The Replacements', and fire ourselves up.
Our love changes. We fall back in love with the Song Girls of Southern California, the cheerleaders of Oregon, the Oklahoma State dance team, and the co-eds of everywhere from Arizona State and Arizona to Miami and Florida State - and something in between.
Our social life changes. Unless we are AT a game, we start sending refusal notices. Suddenly, we start refusing social events. After all, we don't want anything to do with anybody on a Saturday from about 10 in the morning to, oh, around 1am between September and the second week of December, do we?
Our concentration changes. We start not to care about job and family, as long as our team is in the running for a division, conference and national title. We start wondering what our jobs would be like if we put in the amount of effort that Nick Saban puts into his Alabama team. We start wondering if Michigan's going to be OK this year, and if UCLA really are the real deal in the South. And my God, do we start watching the recruiting guys make their statements.
We start questioning our coaches and patting others on the back at the same time. We question Lane Kiffin for why he hasn't chosen a starting quarterback at USC, but when Bill O'Brien doesn't make a decision between his two gold-standard QBs, we're OK with it.
And we put our players on a pedestal. The aforementioned Johnny Football's one, but Jadeveon Clowney is another. Please, show us the hit against Michigan again....it's not like we haven't seen it 10,000 times. Then there's Teddy Bridgewater (Louisville) and Braxton Miller (Ohio State). The players who were mini-gods last year have been almost forgotten about this year, like Aaron Murray (Georgia), Sammy Watkins (Clemson), and some guy out in Oregon called D'Anthony Thomas.
And we start to dream. We dream of 12-0, massive upsets, and great catches. We dream of hugging everyone in the student section, dreaming the impossible dream, and picking up that crystal ball.
