We're still undefeated... Well, half of us anyways

We're still undefeated... Well, half of us anyways

On the joys of optimism

     On Saturday months of anxiety came to a head for myself and countless others across the country and possibly the world (thank-you internet) when college football kicked off its season. For myself, the tension leading up to and into the Georgia-Clemson game was thick enough that I asked myself what heart palpitations feel like and whether or not I was having them on multiple occasions. This does not make me unique. If anything, it is the norm for football fans today. Yes, you watch the games during the season, but you ultimately spend many more hours pouring over the recruiting rankings, predictions, etc. during the eight months of the year without football. If your team started the season with a cupcake opponent that roughly equated to playing a school for the deaf or blind then I envied you at 7:00 PM CST on Saturday night. As Georgia entered the fourth quarter of a then tight game that they lead by a mere three points, I wished desperately that the schedule had been more fortuitous. I wished the last weekend of August had brought forth a sacrificial lamb of an opponent. A school from some obscure place. A school that would be over-matched to a degree that the game allowed for casual snacking and checking out some second stringers in the fourth quarter.

     This was not the case. As I waited for the game to start I thought of how much it sucks to lose your first game. I thought of how when the dream dies on the first weekend of the year, you are rudely jolted awake before the fun even starts. I am happy to report to you that Georgia put on an impressive display of power football that resulted in three touchdowns and much joy in the fourth quarter. Joy. It's an appropriate word to express my feelings about the game now. But then? As it was being decided? Relief. It was the relief of knowing that you didn't waste the last eight months filling yourself with anticipatory excitement for a group of 18-22 year olds that, ultimately, shit the bed four hours into the season. It was the relief of knowing that the fatal flaw of this group has yet to be exposed. I know LSU fans felt the same way.

     Half the teams in the country are still undefeated. As the weeks tick by every team, or all but one or two of them, will collect a tally in the loss column. However, for this week, many of us are able to continue living in the happy delusion that this might be the year. We can sleep for another week without any of the rude awakenings that often come. They come in the form of your defense getting gashed for 500 yards in a blowout loss. Sometimes you wake up when your QB throws his third interception of the day while driving for that late, gamesaver of a touchdown that never comes. These are sobering moments and they happen most years for all of us and all years for most of us. So enjoy the week ahead. Enjoy the next two weeks if your school has been blessed with a bye. Enjoy it now. College football is a crazy sport played by young and unpredictable students who posses the athletic ability to do anything at anytime. Sometimes they do things to you and sometimes they do things for you. Hail Mary passes get caught. Stud athletes go down. 2013 Auburn does 2013 Auburn things. Les Miles does Les Miles things.

     So dream now about the confetti falling on (insert your team's name here). That ocean of optimism will turn into little tide pools spotted across a few parts of the country by the time Thanksgiving rears its head. But week one belongs to all of us. Well, half of us. Sleep deeply.

-Graham Coffey