And as John Ward, the former UT play-by-play man would say, "It's football time in Tennessee!" And so tonight, we'll watch South Carolina and Mississippi State kick off the football season in the SEC. It'll be interesting to see how far both of those programs have come since last year. And Saturday, Vanderbilt begins life without Jay Cutler--in An Arbor, of all places! But then, a week later, the NFL starts, and it'll be great to see how far Cutler can go with Denver this year as a back-up. Even though I'm a 'Bama and Vandy fan, I hope Tennessee does well this year. Football in the South is even more electric when Tennessee is doing well. Last year's losing season for them was really strange, in a way.
Yeah, we always get really jacked up for football season. They've already been playing high school football for two Friday nights in Middle Tennessee, with schools getting back in session earlier and earlier each year. They'll start here in southwest Alabama this weekend. And of course, they're still playing baseball, too. The Braves will probably miss the play-offs this year for the first time since 1990. (Of course, in 1994, because of that players strike, everybody missed the play-offs, because there weren't any.) And we hear that little Presbyterian College in Clinton South Carolina is going to Division I-AA in football for 2007! Now, why in the world would they do that? They're competing at a championship level in Division II. They'll never be able to compete for championships in Division I-AA with the likes of Furman and Georgia Southern and Maine and Montana! Seems like a very strange move to me!
But back to the "big boys" of Division I-A. This is the first year of the twelve-game schedule across the board. Not sure if that's a good idea for the schools; but as a football fan, I love it. Bring it on! I hope to be sitting there in front of the TV tonight with something cold, watching one great coach and one potentially great coach go at it! "Are you ready for some football?" And that's a look inside sports for Thursday, August 31, 2006!