"Steveo's Salvos" - August 2009 Edition

"Salvos" is presented as the editorial content of CollegeFootballFan.com focusing on current issues surrounding college football and news about some of the teams on the CFF schedule this year.  Originally from a newsletter, this web site, CollegeFootballFan.com, has evolved. 

Tough ticket - We're set for our Thursday FBS opener when South Carolina meets NC State.  We got them through a friend with connections who said it was tough ticket.  The price of face value for the opener at 7 pm is $52 compared to other games at $35.  We thing this will be a great one.  NC State brings back sophomore QB Russell Wilson who turned the Pack's season around last year to win their last four to get them to the Papjohns.com Bowl where they fell to Rutgers, 29-23.  The story line of the game though was that State had a 17-6 lead at the half.  Wilson suffered a leg injury and could not play.  It became a whole new all game.  South Carolina counters with sophomore QB Stephen Garcia who seems to have met Steve Spurrier's expectations in the pre-season.   SC lost three of their top players on both sides of the ball from last year.  The Wolf Pack returns seven starters on a defense that improved during the course of last season, and the O-line returns three starters for a team that ranked eighth in red zone efficiency despite not having Wilson at the controls until midway through the season. State fell to SC last year, 34-0.  We look for Tom O'Brien's third team at NC State to turn the table on the Gamecocks in this season's opener.  The Pack could be the surprise team of the ACC this year.  Tickets could get tougher to find at Carter-Finley Stadium with a win here.

Showing some class - Ohio State fans are being requested by the school administration to give a great welcome to Navy when they play at Ohio Stadium this Saturday.  There was a statement about showing respect for an organization that puts their lives on the line for us every day.  You wouldn't think you'd have to make fans aware of that situation, but fans at Rutgers didn't seem to appreciate that when we attended their opener versus Navy in 2007.  USNA and the other academies are not your typical college football teams made up of blue-chip athletes looking to play pro football some day.  Kudos to Ohio State who is 103-12-4 in opening games.  They've won their last 30-straight home openers.  Jim Tressel's OSU teams are 8-0 in their openers outscoring their opponents 278-82.  The Buckeyes are 3-0 versus Navy with their last win a 31-28 victory in the 1981 Liberty Bowl.  When was the last time the Buckeyes played against a triple option team?  Probably when they lost the 1990 Liberty Bowl to Air Force, 23-11.  Maybe the Mids can make this opener at the Shoe interesting. 

#120 - Every preseason publication that rates all 120 FBS teams this season picks the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, the latest addition, as the absolute bottom doormat for the entire subdivision.  We'll watch their new era unfold Saturday when we see them meet the Tennessee Vols this Saturday at Neyland Stadium.  Tickets seem available as one die-hard UT fan tells us that Lane Kiffin has turned off some of the Knoxville faithful.  A win over WKU won't have them streaming back, but stirring interest with some of his freshman recruits may be a cause for optimism against tougher competition in the future.  WRs Nu'Keese Richardson and Marsalis Teague should see significant action early on with several upperclassmen sidelined with injuries.  RB Bryce Brown, on of last year's top recruits will see playing time along with SR RB Montario Hardesty.  In one of his tougher calls, Kiffin will start Jonathan Crompton at QB.  He was replaced last season after starting 1-3 to be replaced by Nick Stephens who went 2-4 losing the last game to Wyoming, 13-7.  Crompton returned to start and the Vols won their last two games.  WKU has no returning QB with experience.  Very little experience returns for the D-Line.  We look for UT All-American Safety Eric Berry to come away with a couple of picks, and we look for Bryce Brown to get a lot of yards in his first game at Rocky Top.  It won't be pretty, but we'll be staying on top seeing our 120th team and visiting Neyland Stadium for the first time.

We were there - USA Today ranked the "Golden Years "of each FBS team from the beginning of college football history and stated their comments.  We've witnessed several of the eras since we started attending games in 1979, and we can give you our historical perspective on the ones we've witnessed:

Air Force '97-'00 - In '98 we saw them dominate Army 35-7, but haven't they always?

Boise State '99-present - We witnessed a blip on the screen when we saw them hammered in their '05 season opener at Georgia losing, 47-14.

Florida State '85-'95 - We watched the Seminoles in a stellar performance in the Kickoff Classic as eventual Heisman winner Charlie Ward and company rolled Kansas, 42-0.  Saw the era end in the '97 Sugar Bowl for the national championship as they were rolled by Florida in the Sugar Bowl, 52-20.

Iowa State '00-'05 - Saw them just barely get by a weak Army team in '05, 28-21. Not very golden to us.

Louisville '98-'04 - Saw a thrilling loss to Army on a Thursday night in OT, 59-52, in our highest scoring game.

Nebraska '94-'97 - We witnessed the start of an era when the Huskers opened '94 with a 31-0 win over WVU.

Oklahoma State '06-present - We saw Zac Robinson replace Bobby Reid and win a 49-45 shootout over Texas Tech and Michael Crabtree that day.  Mike Gundy claimed to be "a Man!"

Rutgers  '05-present - It really started in '06 as we watched RU beat UConn and then witnessed their dramatic win over Louisville on a Thursday night before falling to WVU in their Big East finale.  This year will make or break their "era".  We'll see them get three shots at it.

South Florida '05-present - We saw them suffer brain-freeze in a 15-10 loss to UConn in '05 and a 30-27 loss to RU in '07.  We may see them make or break their era when we see them play RU in Nov.

Texas Tech '00 to present - We've seen firepower but no defense in a 49-21 loss to NC State and the aforementioned  49-45 loss to Oklahoma State.

Utah '03 - present - 0-2 in our book with losses to mediocre North Carolina and UCLA respectively in '05 and '06.

Virginia Tech '04 - present - We saw them start this era with the most lopsided victory in our history, a 63-0 whipping of Western Michigan.

Wake Forest  '06-present - Beat Navy twice including last year's inaugural Eagle Bank Bowl.

Washington State '01-'03 - Lucky we saw them when we did as they lost their '03 opener to ND on OT, 29-26.

Oh no, not another - As if there aren't enough already, the Meadowlands is rumored to be applying for a bowl game in the new stadium being built.  Who's going to play, the No. 5 Sun Belt team against the no. 6 MAC team?  Can't wait.

More trouble for Michigan? - The school is starting an investigation regarding allegations by current and former players that the team is exceeding its weekly time limits dedicated to football obligations.  Some players attest to committing ten to twelve hours to practice, film and other activities on Sundays alone.  AD Bill Martin will lead the investigation, but how could the AD not already know?

Top players - USA Today came out with its season preview this past Wednesday and selected the top offensive and defensive players from each conference.  If their predictions are right, we'll see some of the best of the best. Among the stars noted that we plan to see this season are Duke (ACC) DE Vince Oghobasse, South Florida (Big East) DE George Selvie, TCU (MWC) DE Jerry Hughes, and Tennessee (SEC) SS Eric Berry.  On the other hand, we've already seen six of their other picks play over the last few years.  These include Michigan State (Big Ten ) LB Greg Jones, Oklahoma (Big 12) QB Sam Bradford, Houston (C-USA) QB Case Keenum, East Carolina (C-USA) DE C.J. Wilson, Florida Atlantic (Sunbelt) QB Rusty Smith, and Nevada (WAC) QB Colin Kaepernick.  We also saw Selvie play against Rutgers his sophomore year.  We generally pick teams to see, but then we get to see some great players, too.  We'd still like to figure a way to see Tebow play in his last season.

RU kidding? - Several preseason including Phil Steele's 2009 Preview pick Rutgers to win the Big East. Now we understand the Knights face their toughest Big East foes all at home and we'll see three of them, but this is a program that when it expects the most. does the least.  Never mind the four main Big East challengers coming to play in New Brunswick.  Watch for them to lose to someone you least expect them to lose to.  Watch out for "RU-tude" this season.  That and an inexperienced QB will be the RU weaknesses,

RU talks and money walks - Big headline in August 20th Newark Star Ledger by Tom Luicci : "A huge payday awaits Rutgers." In 2010, the Scarlet Knights will do battle with the Black Knights of Army in the new stadium now being built in the Meadowlands.  The point of the story is that Rutgers will clear $2.7MM, more than the $1.5MM they claim they can clear when the play in newly expanded Rutgers Stadium.  It was interesting that Luicci also mentioned that RU cleared only $16,000 after costs from their appearance in the Papajohns Bowl last season.  If the money's so important to RU, and who would doubt in this economy that money isn't important to any business or major college athletics program, then why did they cancel out on the six-game Notre Dame series when the Irish insisted playing Rutgers home games in the Meadowlands? Army-RU is no guaranteed sell-out.  Believe us.  We've been to enough of them over the years, and despite RU's recent success, there's no guarantee that the momentum will continue and the fans will pay a premium price in the Meadowlands.  And because Army is nearby, they're not guaranteeing a big showing.  They have a tough enough time filling seats for homecoming up at West Point with most of their young alum deployed somewhere overseas right now.  Notre Dame sells out no matter who they've played over the years at The Meadowlands.  RU would be the home team and sell out most of the stadium, and all the other seats would be filled by ND's subway alum - no doubt about it!  Assume that the $2.7MM profit is a conservative estimate based on the assumptions presented here for less than a sellout.  Figure a guaranteed sellout against the Irish and a nationally televised TV game to boot, and RU could bring back the five sports it recently cut from its budget in another year.  What was RU thinking?

30th Anniversary - Ours!  September 8th, 1979 marks the 30th anniversary of the first weekend we started attending college football games, and aside from a few personal interruptions over the years, never looked back.  The first of our 361 games was played between the Fighting Blue Hens of Delaware visiting the Rhode Island Rams in Kingston, RI.  We visited my sister< Mary Kay, matriculating there at the time and met her future husband, Gunther, there and remember partying at somebody's  place called the Light House.  Any way, the Blue Hens won that day, 49-14. Scott Brunner called signals for the visitors that day and went on to play for the New York Giants where he battled teammate Phil Simms for the starting position for several years.  It was the first of six of 300 career victories we'd see by UD Head Coach Harold "Tubby" Raymond.  The Blue Hens went on to win the Division II  national Championship that year.  The most memorable plays of that game involved URI, not UD.  The Rams kicked and onsides kick to start the second half while trailing.  The kicker kicked a perfect spiral down the left sideline which was caught over the should by the end on the far sideline to retain possession for the Rams.  The next play went for a long TD run which sealed the final score of the day for the Rams.  Despite the 49 points by Delaware, that's what I particularly remember about that game, probably because it was the finest onsides kick I've ever seen.

Days of yore? - The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers may be back to their old ways.  All the hype is there after playing in three consecutive bowls, certain players are the best position players they've supposedly ever had, their schedule is very favorable with weak non-conference foes ,and all the best of the Big East are coming to play in their newly expanded stadium.   We've watched similar stories unfold in New Brunswick prior to 2006.  Their first scrimmage indicated they had trouble getting the ball into the end zone with their three most experienced QBs;  fifth-year man Dom Natale, Jabu Lovelace, and red-shirt freshman D.C. Jefferson who racked up the most yards in his short time in the 3-hour scrimmage.  Look for true freshman QB Tim Savage to get more reps in the next scrimmage.  Is their defense that good?  Supposedly, the O-line is one of the best in the country.   But all the hype can come to a complete halt in the first game of the season when RU hosts defending Big East champ Cincinnati.  QB Tony Pike returns with a lot of question marks around him.  If RU struggles with an inexperienced QB early, they could revert back to the days when 1AA teams knocked them off early before supposed promising seasons.  A loss to the Bearcats could be a sign of return to their old, struggling ways.

Freshman to the front - First year Army HC Rich Ellerson is installing the true triple option at West Point.  He may be leaning to freshman QB Trent Steelman to operate it.  Chip Bowden is still taking most snaps with the first team and Carlson Williams can still be used to pass the ball when necessary, but Steelman may be the entire package when it comes to running Ellerson's offense.  With 3 weeks to go before the opener, there may be enough time to get him ready.  We'll see the Cadets in their home opener the week after they open at Eastern Michigan.  The QB on the Duke side won't be too shabby either as Blue Devil Thadeus Lewis, named to the Manning Award watch list, returns as the ACC's leading passer in 2009 with an average of 197.4 yards per game.  Duke will definitely air it out, but we're interested to see how much passing Ellerson likes to add to his triple option offense.  This game should be an interesting match-up. 

Potential changes - We're thinking about these: the Villanova-Penn game at Franklin Field kicks off at 7 pm on Sept 19 presenting us with a possible DH following The Citadel at Princeton at 3 pm. Villanova is highly ranked in preseason polls and favored to challenge for the Colonial AC South championship with 17 starters returning.  Penn will be in the hunt for the first time since 2003 for the Ivy title.  Six starters return on a defense for a team that lost in OT to the Wildcats last season, 20-14.  This nightcap may be better than our opener.  Cheese steaks for dinner in Philly that night?  Also, there is a slight possibility that we may regretfully forgo the Clemson -TCU game for the Florida-Kentucky game in Lexington instead.  We'd love to see Tim Tebow play one game before he moves on to the next level and changes to another position.

Fertile recruiting grounds - The Meadowlands:  rumor has it that Syracuse will host three games in the new Giants Stadium against USC in 2012 and against Notre Dame in 2014 and 2016.  Both visiting schools under head coaches who cut their teeth at Giants Stadium in the NFL, Pete Carroll and Charlie Weis, still keep a pipeline running from New Jersey to their respective programs.  WR Dwayne Jarrett and LB Brian Cushman journeyed all the way from the Garden State to LA to play for the Trojans.  Former Irish TE Anthony Fasano and current freshman LB Carlo Calabrese both hale from Verona, NJ.  Always a hotbed for ND recruiting, Weis started his coaching career at a New Jersey HS, our alma mater, Boonton HS.  Since Rutgers cancelled  an upcoming 10-year series with ND because they preferred to host games on their own campus instead of at the Meadowlands, the Irish compensated by scheduling Navy, UConn, and now Syracuse in the new Stadium, and will play Army in Yankee Stadium only about 10 miles further east next year as well. For that matter, Syracuse must be thinking the same thing infringing on Rutgers territory where they used to recruit so effectively from.

Prepare to pay - When Army plays Notre Dame next season at Yankee Stadium, we figure the cost of a ticket will be somewhere around the price of those Yankee-Bosox tickets ($2500 in the front row).  Now we know the prices will be astronomical.  This is considered an Irish home game.  Three weeks prior, we plan to take our chances seeing the Irish "visit" Navy at the new football Stadium in The Meadowlands.  Rather than pay Yankee Stadium prices we hope to be at the 146th game between Lehigh and Lafayette, this time in Easton for the first of that series.  Army will play ND again in 2011 in Orlando, FL.

Neutral sites provide neutral atmospheres - Especially during the regular season.  Bowl games and some traditional games at neural sites (like Texas-Oklahoma at the Texas State Fair) bring a charged atmosphere where activities abound around the games in the cities they're played in.  Florida-Georgia plays at the World's largest outdoor cocktail party or whatever they call it now, and we'll have to get down there to Jacksonville some day.  But, we've been to enough neutral site games to say we definitely prefer the atmosphere played on a college campus.  The spirit, traditions, the student body, the alum on campus, all make for a special atmosphere.  We've enjoyed games at the Meadowland which provided us chances to see many teams we'd never have seen otherwise, but the true college atmosphere there is generally lacking.  Notre Dame's following always brings a charged atmosphere to the Meadowlands.  Army-Navy in Philly is tradition, but when they played in the Meadowlands, the management there tries to turn it into a pro game with all the advertising and canned music drowning out the school fight songs.  There's a lot of games being scheduled at the Meadowlands and at Yankee Stadium.  We'll probably go to some.  We had the Meadowlands season ticket package which included the Garden State Bowl and the Kickoff Classic for 24 years (Krajewski's in Secaucus, here we come!), but if we find a more competitive game accessible to get to on a college campus in a day's drive including some of the smaller school venues, we'll trek there to enjoy the fun and excitement of where college football belongs - on the college campuses.  We've learned over the years.

Play-off Watch List - You know we love play-offs despite what the FBS College Presidents say.  With family Thanksgiving usually celebrated in Rhode Island, we're hoping UMass or New Hampshire will host a home game that weekend, preferably at the latter since we've not been to Durham yet and saw UMass defeat Fordham , 49-35,  in Amherst at a 2007 first-round game.  If we can't find a play-off game at some level in New England this year, there's always Syracuse at UConn.  Don't laugh, we saw the Orange spoil BC's Fiesta hopes that same weekend in 2004 and we added USF to the Goal the following year in a 15-10 loss at Yukon, er... UConn.  It felt more like the Yukon that night, especially for a bunch of kids from Florida.

Bowden boy back - Terry Bowden returned to coaching this year at Northern Alabama taking over for former HC Mark Hudspeth who won more than 10 games and made the D-2 playoffs in each of the last four years there. Hudspeth joined the new staff at Mississippi State and didn't exactly leave the cupboard bare.  Bowden who last coached Auburn in 1998, relied on his D1 connections, his father Bobby in particular, to attract 24 transfers from the FBS level.  There will be some Seminole flavor at UNA this season as seven former players of the senior Bowden will play for his son at the D-2 level.  Transfers at key positions from NC State, West Virginia, and Miami fit into the mix.  Bowden has become the KC Keeler (Delaware) of D-2.

West Coast Bowl Swing - We're leaning to pulling off a western bowl swing this year as we save up frequent flier miles and hotel points.  It's not final yet, but we'd start in DC where we plan to attend the Eagle Bank Bowl for the second year in a row,  Played on Tuesday, Dec. 29, their priority is to invite Army if they have a winning season against an ACC team.  We'd fly to San Diego the next day to arrive  mid-day to attend the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - always a great contest between the Big 12 and Pac 10.  From there, we'd travel to Phoenix that night and the next day to catch the Insight.com Bowl between the Big 10 and Big 12.  We have to figure we'd take a red-eye so we can catch all the Jan. 1 games before heading back to DC from there.  Stay tuned.

Wade Wilson Classic on August 29 - With a 4 pm start, the WWC will be our second game and second D-2 game of 2009.  The game was moved to Charlie Martin Stadium in Northeast Philadelphia where the Cheyney Wolves take on the Lincoln Lions who open their second season since the Pennsylvania school re-committed to football since giving up the sport in 1960.  The Lions finished 1-9 last season while the Wolves finished 0-11 in the powerful Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.  CSU Head Coach Jeff Braxton predicts improvement in his second season after his late appointment prior to 2008.  He's had more time to prep his team and will have his first class of recruits on the roster.  Lion Coach O.J. Abanishe leads his Lions comprised mostly of sophomores and freshman into Martin Stadium for its second season in 48 years.  The Orange Crush Roaring Lion Marching Band will hopefully be on hand for the "Battle of the Firsts "between the Historically Black colleges.  Wade Wilson was a former student-athlete, Professor, and President of Cheyney State University,  Ticket sales will go to their athletic scholarship fund.

Good D? Bad O? - How do we interpret the first season scrimmage for our opening FBS game for NC State?  The offense rushed 27 times for 103 yards.  QBs tallied 21 completions on 31 passes for 168 yards, 1 TD, and 3 INTs.  DB Rashard Smith returned one INT 77 yards for a TD.  CB Koyal George returned his INT 32 yards and CB C.J. Wilson came up with the third.  The defense combined on six tackles for losses and three sacks.  Is the offense this good, or is the defense this bad?  It's probably too early to tell and Head Coach Tom O'Brien knows that the Pack has some work to do before the opener against South Carolina.  In the meantime, Steve Spurrier seems to have his back-up for incumbent QB Stephen Garcia.  Frosh Reid McCollum looked sharp in the scrimmage tossing TD passes of 46 and 57 yards.  The offense totaled 677 yards on 100 plays.  Spurrier liked the fact that his Gamecocks gained 276 yards on 59 carries.  He can balance the ground game with his passing attack.  Again, is the offense that good, or does the defense need some shoring up for the Gamecocks?  Whatever it takes, we know both teams will be prepped on September 3 for a good one at Carter-Finley Stadium.  We don't think the Cocks can trounce NC State as they did last year, 34-0. 

TOP 19 - This isn't what you think it is.  This is our pre-season poll indicating how we see the 19 FBS teams on our slate will finish relative to one another this season:   1.) Penn State  2.) Ohio State  3.) TCU  4.) Pitt

5.) West Virginia 6.) Clemson  7.) South Carolina   8.) Rutgers  9.)South Florida  10.) Minnesota  11.) Southern Miss   12.) NC State  13.) Tennessee  14.)  Michigan 15.) Marshall 16.) Army  17.) Duke 18.) Tulane

19.)  Western Kentucky. Things will chage if we plan to go to that aforementioned Florida game.

Line 'em up - The Big East Pre-season Media Day predicted the following finish for 2009:

Rank    Team                        Pts.
1.         Pittsburgh (8)           161
2.         West Virginia (5)      151
3.         Cincinnati (8)           144
4.         USF (3)                      130
5.         Rutgers                     126
6.         Connecticut               74
7.         Louisville                    51
8.         Syracuse                    27

The good news for us is that we bought  an RU mini-plan pitting the Scarlet Knights against the four teams predicted to finish ahead of them.  We'll miss their Labor Day opener against Cincinnati, but we'll see Pitt on Friday, Oct 16, USF on Thursday, Nov. 12, and WVU on Saturday, Dec. 5.  Each game could have a bearing on the Big East championship, or else we'll see three insignificant Big East games if the Knights falter to Cincy right out of the gate.

Record game #145 -  When Lafayette visits Lehigh for the 145th time on November 21, we'll be there to see the longest rivalry in college football played for the second time.  The Patriot League Media Day prediction finds the Leopards and Mountain Hawks tied for third in this year's race behind Holy Cross and Colgate.  Looks like this game could be a great FCS battle.  We'll see Colgate visit Princeton on Thursday, Oct 8.

OU 've got to be kidding - Talk about long term planning: Army and Oklahoma announced a two-game home and home series - at Norman in 2018 and at West Point in 2020!  The seniors in that game will be in seventh grade this year!  Will Army be a wishbone powerhouse by that time?  Will OU have to break out some old Barry Switzer team footage form the '70's to figure how it needs to stop the Brave Old Army team?  We'll let you know in 11 years - hopefully.

Best bargain in college sports - This would depend on the quality of the games you'd see on the field, but for $25, you can buy a Princeton season ticket package for their five home games against The Citadel, Columbia, Colgate, Cornell, and Yale.  We plan to see the Tigers host The Citadel in their opener on Sept. 19 and host Colgate on Thursday, Oct. 8.  We'll have to break down and pay the $7 single game ticket price.

Bowden vs. Paterno - You know we love Paterno as we've seen him coach 80 games since 1979, but from a distance we've always liked Bobby Bowden, too.  In the 80's and 90's, his non-conference match-ups  were always one of the strongest slates around.  His team took on all comers and won a lot of them.  We watched his national championship team of 1993 mow down Kansas 42-0 in the Kickoff Classic like a well-oiled machine with Charlie Ward at QB.  It was impressive.  We have no feeling either way if the NCAA decides to take away 14 wins because of the cheating scandal at Florida State.  We feel bad if he personally loses these wins, but if he gets to keep them more power to him.  In our eyes, we see his record in a different light than JoePa's.  Paterno's 383 were won at one major football program.  Bowden's 382 were achieved at three different schools.  Thirty-one triumphs came at Samford, then known as Howard, which did not play at the D-1 or FBS level when Bobby was there.  That gives Bowden 351 at the "big-time" level compared to Joe's 383.  Bowden won 42 at WVU.  That leaves him with 309 at FSU, a great achievement for anyone guiding one program for so long.  Winning 382 over the years marks a tremendous career at any level of football from High School to the Pros.  Just to stay at one program for 43 years and accomplish what Paterno's done to win 383 games at the highest level of college football is always a mark, however, that will probably stand alone for the ages.  Both are great college coaches no doubt, but even if Bowden surpasses Paterno in the final number of wins, he'll probably never reach the mark Paterno's made at the highest level coaching at only one school.

119 or 191 - You can now check out our "Other History" as we've updated our records indicating which non  Football Bowl Subdivision (we hate this name!) teams we've seen in addition to the current 119 at the FBS level.  We've seen 72 other teams play among FCS, D-2, and D-3 levels.  Check it out.  We plan to add three new D-2's this year (Ashland, Cheyney, and Lincoln) and one new D-3, Cortland State, before we scope out any play-off games that may feature some new squads.

We did it!!! - October 27, 2007.  CollegeFootballFan.com is #1!!!  Aside from any media types, no one can say that they've seen more College Bowl Subdivision teams than we have.  It's impossible.  There are 119 teams and now we've seen 'em all!  Great time with some big Nevada Wolfpack fans for the Grand Finale against Idaho in Reno.  Now we move on to more great football games season after season!  Western Kentucky becomes #120 in 2009.  We hope to be at their opener, but a certain Guest Game Analyst (GGA) we've had with us over the years will probably start playing Freshman football in HS this season.  We'll have to work around that.