Saturdays in The Autumn

I love the first Saturday of college football. I mowed the lawn to get the smell in the air – it needed it anyway. I had some beers. I watched the pre-game shows, and then four games back to back, almost interrupted. LMJ threw a little bit of a tantrum because she wanted to watch the Backyardigans. Not today sweetie. The first Saturday of college football makes me feel young. It’s all about hope and renewal, which is strange since it signals the beginning of fall. We’ll get ‘em this year is the attitude that is shared by every fan, from the 98 year old alumnus who hasn’t missed a game since he came back from the war to the 18 year old freshman who just finished his first week on campus. There are also the cheerleaders. There is little better on this earth than big school college cheerleaders. Even though I’ve had nothing positive to say about the Seminoles in almost a decade and I still don’t. I can’t help feeling positive about the game with the Hurricanes this Monday night. I’m like a little girl hoping against hope that this year is going to be different, that the Noles are somehow going to be well coached and disciplined, that they’re going to pound the Canes and cruise through the ACC like it was 1999, walk into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium while I enjoy leftover turkey sandwiches on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and drain the Swamp. The two sides of my brain are fighting a bloody battle. My right brain is giving me visions of the sugarplums I just mentioned, while my left brain is telling me “Fool me once shame on you; fool me annually for a decade shame on me”. I know that Florida State has had fantastic talent but hasn’t been able to figure out a way to translate that talent into quality football, but this year is different. It has to be. It’s the law of large numbers if nothing else. That should be the motto this year.