Countdown To Kickoff

By: Christopher Hall

Christopherhallsc.2010@gmail.com

With the NBA finals and Draft, College World Series and Women’s World Cup all in the rearview mirror, we have approached what I always refer to as the “dead period” of the sports year.

Sure there is still plenty of Major League Baseball to partake in this time of year, but for me it is just like the NBA. With the long schedule and there being so many games it is hard to get excited about a Wednesday night game where there isn’t all that much on the line.

The NBA is really starting to grow on me and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the playoffs this season. However, I’ll have to admit that during the season I probably watch no more than five games from start to finish and that includes the big games on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So in short, until the playoffs are on the horizon and begin, I’m still moderately interested at best when it comes to both Basketball and Baseball. Outside of a watching a guy fight his way to a no-hitter or someone sending a walk-off grand slam to the parking lot in the bottom of the ninth inning, baseball just doesn’t have enough going on during the summer to keep me interested.

Some may call it un-American and despite playing the sport myself in my younger years in recreation league, baseball overall just doesn’t do too much for me. So each year around this time I’m forced to read up on everything I can to get my football fix. 

From conference Media Days, the way-too-early rankings, predictions and watch list to the guys making headlines for finding their way into trouble during the summer and put their future playing careers.

I’m a big football guy and when fall comes around I can easily sit on the couch every night from Thursday-Monday watching, in my opinion, the best sport in the world. So you can absolutely bet I’m counting down the days and hours until football returns.

The 2015 season should be another one for the record books with the 2^nd year of the College Football Playoff system after a well-overdue replacement to the commonly flawed BCS system.

This is the time of year where I look around and file through all the storylines that I think might be worth following throughout the season. Most of which come at the collegiate level where I pay the most attention.

There are plenty of interesting storylines this off-season that will surely develop into some interesting games this year. I guess it is only fair I mention the Champions first.

Who would have thought that the same team that lost its starting quarterback for the season due to injury not once but twice, along with falling to an inferior Virginia Tech at home in week two would end up running the table and winning the first ever college football playoff.

I guess it helps when you have one of the best coaches in the game and a future Hall of Famer in Urban Meyer as your head coach. 

The question this year, though is who gets the starting role for 2015? Sure, Braxton Miller never “lost” his job but you can’t downplay how effective J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones who lead the Buckeyes to their first title since 2002, were in his absence. I can’t wait to see how the competition plays out heading to Fall Camp in Columbus. 

Speaking of the Buckeyes, how about their big rivals over in Michigan? There’s a new sheriff in town that goes by the name of Jim Harbaugh.  He is sure to shake things up for a program that hasn’t been itself for several years now. I still think about the 2007 upset loss at home to Appalachian State anytime I hear about the Wolverines.

Between Harbaugh and Meyer, you can bet that one of the greatest rivalries will return to what it should be in the years to come with these two guys running the show. Florida State prepares for life after Jameis Winston and now looks to Notre Dame transfer Everett Golson to lead the Seminoles this year. It should make for another interesting race in the ACC-Atlantic division as the sophomore sensation Deshaun Watson of Clemson looks to bring the hardware back to Tigertown after recovering from an ACL injury at the latter half of last season.

Over in the SEC, my new home team of Tennessee looks to climb its way back into the elite of the conference in Head Coach Butch Jones third year at Knoxville. With Joshua Dobbs leading the way, this could be the year the Vols make a run for at least an SEC-East title.

I’ve already begun penciling in my schedule for the fall which will hopefully include several road trips and knocking a few venues off my bucket list. 

In addition to heading back to Clemson a time or two to see my Tigers play, I hope to travel up to Louisville for a early season Thursday night showdown with the Cards. I’ll also be making the ride up to Neyland Stadium for the first time. A good college friend of mine is now in Law School at UGA so naturally I’ll be taking the opportunity to see a game in Athens for the first time as well. Finally, the Carolina Panthers visit the Titans in Nashville this year. I’ll cap things off with a return trip to Columbia to hopefully experience my first win in Williams Brice Stadium after an unfavorable 0-4 personal record. Can you tell that I’m ready for football yet?