Only tangentially connected, but fact I am even here, texting now another indication that this is gonna be a TOUGH " 'Tween Season" this time around...
I mean, here I am, a little after 6am on a Saturday morning, the "Directional Dakota" FCS Semifinal replay (I ASSUME it's a "replay" at this point LOL) on my bedroom TV as I awaken to its sound and
and the smell of coffee brewing...I am online now in the first place to look up the game line-up for today, and know that I'll be watching relatively (to me anyway) meaningless match-ups most of the day, sucking up as much crap college football as I can these next coupla weeks plus...Then it'll be a focus on recruiting news right up til NSD: Then THE GAP, little but rumors and whatever transfer action we can glean, right up til the "Spring Game" (whatever they are calling it)...
All of it our "REWARD" for an unexpectedly MORE than "promising" season, however it actually "ends", whatever kind of taste this last one in Atlanta leaves in our mouths.
We'll yak about THAT one plenty these next two weeks, of course. I intend to roll in it, damn well DROWN in the run-up to this Michigan game in my own way--at least that's what it FEELS like I should do, somehow: Get the most out of EVERY MOMENT, every play, squeeze these last few drops out of a season that to me has seemed to rush by this year.
I love college football, and of course I love our Gators. We are finally back on track, clearly headed in "the right direction"--only question now is "How fast?", or put another way, "How SOON???". How soon til we are back in "the annual discussion"? How soon until WE are playing in that Championship game? How SOON until we too are AT LEAST "an inevitable part of that annual DISCUSSION"?
I can't wait. That's the problem. But this is the FUN PART: What's directly ahead, whatever the actual details, the ups and downs, the breaks either way and the speed at which they line up in our favor (or not), THAT ride is now ahead: We're on the slow, tick tick tick upslope climb on that "first hill", the highest one whose potential energy we have felt and witnessed in the course of THIS season, the one winding up now...
Feel it? That feeling of anticipation, excitement AND foreboding as the fromt car approaches the peak, about to cross over and DOWN, pulling us with it:
Here we go.
I wish the Seniors well. They have seen, been through a lot, us right along with 'em. The ones who get shots in The League are the Fortunate Few, and even fewer of THOSE will truly cash in directly.
Even more so the Juniors who leave early. Won't bother getting into THAT discussion here--our Head Coach is a good and honest guy when it comes to advising his young charges, wants the best for them in every way and for practical as WELL as emotional/sentimental reasons--but wider factors of family, lifelong dreams and god-only-knows what many OTHER influences out there will play out now...As fans all WE can do is face forward, LOOK AHEAD.
And like I say, I am damn near drowning in that reality, that sea of "Possible Futures".
And that's at a time when OPTIMISM seems warranted! LOL...
You hear a lotta folks noting now how "fan" comes from the root word, "fanatic"--how apt that is and a comment on our true natures...
It strikes me that this is more than some small bit of self-depracating humor, a way of acknowledging the borderline craziness involved. In fact, I will go a step further here: I listen to some of these callers on Paul Finebaum, for example, the way they are not merely encouraged but actually enshrined, welcomed and come to be COUNTED ON to participate in a regular, even "daily-crazed" way...It drives ME away, but I do come back at some point, and in general have to admit my OWN tendency to react strongly to certain trends, to make sure SOMEONE offers counterarguments (at the moment, my main concern is with devaluation of EACH GAME of the season, and a parallel failure to properly appreciate differences between schedule strengths from school to school, Conference to Conference is starting to be "conveniently eroded")...
In short, maybe I am just another in a further such "root-word" development:
If "fan" comes from "fanatic", does "man" come from "maniac"??! 'Cause maybe I'M one of THOSE, a "MAN"...
(laughing) Whatta y'all think?
