Will we have Frito pies, hot chocolate and coffee at the concession stands this week when football season gets going?
Watching the TV weather Monday night, I saw a map that had blue tones – signifying cooler temperatures. In August. Just in time for kickoff.
“Cooler temperatures” is a misleading description. “Less sweltering heat” is more like it. Don’t expect the concession stand near you to offer midseason fare. Do expect it to run out of ice. Hopefully you are pleasantly surprised.
Pleasant surprises are what nearly everybody has in mind this week as we head to a stadium, or at least, to a TV. Strong lean to the stadium visits. Remember, the goal of the telecast is to make you feel like you’re there. Unless you are, you’re not, and no amount of crowd shots provides the real feels of a football game.
Upside to the TV: There are no lines to the fridge, the bathroom (almost) never runs out of TP, and it costs nothing to park. If your remote control skills are more relevant than your super-smart back way into the stadium lot, you can scope out wall-to-wall ball, minus the fringe benefits.
Downside: if you weathered the DirecTV disputes not that long ago with NBC and FOX, and spent months without their football coverage, and to avoid that, signed up with YouTube TV (I did). It’s been great, but Monday, the YouTube people said they are in a Jerry Jones-Micah Parsons staredown with FOX. If it’s not resolved by Wednesday, when I’m afraid Ryder Cup hopeful Sam Burns becomes a full-time football fan and doting daddy to 15-month-old Bear, FOX networks will disappear from the YouTube lineup before college football’s Week 1 slate. For Saints fans, missing NFL on FOX may not be totally terrible.
The high school games that count, and the NFL season, are a weekend away. This week’s slate brings high school jamborees (defined as “large festive gatherings” by those brainiacs at Merriam-Webster) with mini-games divided into a quarter or two of competition, and Week 1 college football involving the 250 or so teams across the wide range of NCAA Division I.
A spicy jam will be served Thursday evening at Lee Hedges Stadium when rivals Byrd and Captain Shreve collide for half a game. Tell the Yellow Jackets and Gators this doesn’t count. Good luck with that. They won’t meet again until the last week of the regular season, 11 weeks to the day away on another Thursday night, when Frito pies and hot chocolate and such WILL be in demand.
Also Thursday, Huntington heads up to Northwood. The other 15 local teams do the jam thing Friday or even Saturday.
College ball of interest in the 318 gets going down I-49 Thursday night in Natchitoches, where the Northwestern Demons host the Alcorn State Braves, trying to walk off winners for the first time since the Astros beat the Phillies in the 2022 World Series. With 50 true or redshirt freshmen, any victory by Blaine McCorkle’s second NSU squad will be an upset this season, but if it’s going to happen, Thursday night is a prime opportunity.
No chance of an upset, or any upset home fans, Thursday night in Funroe. ULM kicks off against St. Francis, which ended last fall with a 21-20 loss to Mercyhurst. Nothing more needs explained. After slamming the Red Flash, the Warhawks stay on I-20 next week, going to play the Crimson Tide. That’s not as big a mismatch as the next Week 2 outing to consider.
Saturday’s college menu starts at Independence Stadium, where Grambling will rely on defense to put away the Langston Lions. A week later, the Tigers go to the Big Horseshoe to play the O-HI-O State Buckeyes. As in the reigning superpower national champion Buckeyes. There will never be a bigger contrast than Ohio State will encounter: watching game tape this week preparing for Saturday’s battle against Texas, then trying to figure out if Langston has any football players who would make the OSU scout team.
Over in Ruston, the folks running the replays on the super-sized videoboard spanning sideline-to-sideline at Aillet Stadium will have the toughest task. Louisiana Tech’s new (and not so new; he was with the Bulldogs 13 seasons ago and led them to a 51-point AVERAGE) offensive coordinator Tony Franklin wants the ball snapped 12 seconds after it is spotted. Tech meets a pretty stout Southeastern Louisiana squad that could win the Southland Conference. The Bulldogs best not be looking ahead to their Week 2 visit to LSU.
Speaking of the Tigahs, if you can get past worrying about their untested and unsteady offensive line, you can feel good about their visit to Clemson. If you realize Clemson has some high NFL Draft prospects on its defensive front, you make sure you have good stuff to eat and drink and you hope Garrett Nussmeier can scramble a lot better than you’ve seen so far.
Perhaps. But at least after months of talking about it, we’ll finally find out.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com