“Bring On The Buffet”

The last snap was more than seven months ago. That is when the Alabama Crimson Tide captured their 13th National Championship. But starting this Thursday night college football is back, and it comes back with a smorgasbord of ball games. There will be college football games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Wives, throw away the honey do list for the weekend.

There is nothing quite like college football. I’ll confess that I am bias about the subject. Football is my favorite sport to watch, which is somewhat odd in that basketball was always my favorite sport to play. But college football ignites a spirit and enthusiasm among it’s millions of fans that is unlike any other sport. There is an entire culture that surrounds college football. Think of the millions that will fill the stadiums this season. And that pales in comparison to the millions upon millions that will watch college football. I know the other sports have their own culture and their enthusiast, but they are dwarfed when compared to college football.

This season also brings with it many questions for local college football fans. Crimson Tide fans waited for many years for the return to glory. Now they must ask themselves “Can Nick (Saban) lead us to a repeat?” While most Bama fans have master’s degrees from the Bear Bryant school of poor mouthing and will tell you all the potential shortfalls of this year’s team, I think Bama can repeat.

Florida fans, and their enemies, are wondering “Is there life after Tebow?” Gator QB Tim Tebow brought the Gators two national titles and dominated college football for the past few years. But I would remind Gator fans, and their skeptics, Florida has a long history of great quarterbacks that began long before Tebow. This new boy, John Brantley, will likely come out and sling the ball all over the field and probably set all kinds of new records.

Auburn and Miami fans are asking if their relatively new coaches (Gene Chizik and Randy Shannon) can return those programs to glory. Yes they can and they probably will this season. Georgia fans are asking for a better season and Georgia Tech fans say if they can get some defense they’ll win the games their supposed to win and then some.

And of course there is FSU. The Bobby Bowden era is over and Nole fans want to know “Can Jimbo Fisher jump start a Seminole program that has been mired in mediocrity the last few years?” “Can Jimbo Fisher be to FSU what Nick Saban has been to Alabama?”. I don’t know, but the two did coach together at LSU when the Tigers won a national title.

It all starts on Thursday and after a seven month forced starvation diet, Simply Put, bring on the buffet. College football is back and back with a furry.



From the Front Porch: Uncle Bob said his mind is somewhat like lighting. One brilliant flash and then it’s gone.