Football is in the air.
Don’t believe me, check with Jude Redfield, who said as much this a.m. when I did what old men do: Check in on the weather forecast first thing.
So, yeah, I know many loyal readers are chomping at the bit.
Some might have even sneaked a peak at this past weekend’s comeback by the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal at Saskatchewan in a battle of CFL division leaders. Alouettes 27, Roughriders 24.
A bronconagurskian does what a bronconagurskian’s gotta to do.
And, don’t I know some of you are more than ready for the reveal whether Georgia Tech will wreck the Seminoles in the only real battle of consequence in Week 0?
Patience, s’il vous plait.
In due course before Saturday’s kickoff.
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One of the major factors in any school’s season long results is injuries.
It was not good when reported that portal superstar Caullin Lacy, expected to be a playmaking feature of ICBM-loving Jeff Brohm’s O, is down with a broken collar bone.
We’re talking six to 12 weeks recovery here. And that’s for normal people, whose main job pitfall is not getting hit by 6-4 245 lb linebackers, whose goal in life is to hurt people wearing a different colored uni.
So, Cardinal fans are wondering, who’s got next?
It shouldn’t matter — fingers crossed — until Week 4, when U of L battles Georgia Tech, after Austin Peay, Jacksonville State and a week’s respite.
But still. It’s not the best way to head into the year.
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One of my major beliefs, oft stated, about Cardinal football is that all is in place on Floyd Street to ascend to the highest level.
Schnell wasn’t patient enough to realize that. Even with the league thingie which pissed him off, and had him off for a one and done in Norman. Where Coach Pipe learned from David Boren that he was most certainly not Chief Commander Sooner Nation.
Bobby P I wasn’t patient enough to realize that. And off he went flinging about, including that motorpsycho accident.
Bobby P II did his best to undermine my premise.
Which riffing is why I was fascinated when reading a feature on the career arc of Oregon coach Dan Lanning. When considering the Alabama job in the wake of Nick Saban’s surprising retirement, Lanning said No.
He realizes that he has all he needs and more to achieve the crown right where he is in the Great NW.
The “and more” includes, for the time being anyway, rising OC star, one Will Stein, former U of L Cardinal, former Trinity Shamrock.
By all accounts, he has future major power HC on his resumé.
* * * * *
So, my intention is to post my Peerless Pigskin Predictions according to long heralded tradition each Wednesday afternoon of the season, through to the CFP title game.
Starting with the slim slate of Week 0.
Florida State/ Georgia Tech.
Montana State/ New Mexico.
SMU/ Nevada.
Hawai’i/ Delaware State. That would be the Rainbow Warriors vs. the MEAC Hornets, not to be confused with the Delaware Blue Hens of the CAAC.
— c d kaplan