BRACK: The coming of fall and enjoying college football

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

SEPT. 24, 2024  |  There’re many reasons to enjoy the fall season. There is the cooler weather, the turning leaves, the return to a more normal-than-summer schedule….and college football. The best part of college football is that you can sit in your own television chair and virtually have a front row seat for the best games of that day, in essence enjoying several top games.

Television has also allowed us to enjoy the top high school game of the week in Georgia. But you note, we leave  out pro football. We’re no fans. We don’t watch it, until deep into the playoff games. And then we have no favorite pro team, for the ages have  proven, you are lonely looking for Falcon victories.

Perhaps the best part of the college game is the unpredictable nature of the game. All of a sudden, a lowly team takes down a powerhouse. It happens over and over,  virtually every week of the season. That  alone makes the matches more interesting.

Nearby, there was Georgia Tech taking down heavily favored Florida State in the overseas opener. And FSU, coming off an undefeated regular season, continued to flap around ineptly, finally winning their first game of the year in its fourth try, against a weak California team, 14-9 last weekend. Don’t expect FSU to score easy victories in coming weeks, facing strong SMU, Clemson and Miami teams, with Duke also on  that stretch of the  schedule. Then FSU plays Miami and Notre Dame.  Their only easy game: against Charleston Southern, but watch out!

Though we spent a year at a Big Ten school, we’ve been no fan of their teams.  But look at the big surprise of that enlarged now Big 18 Conference: most-times lowly Indiana, the Hoosiers. They’re 4-0 to start this season, the best start ever for Indiana football, which is quite a surprise. We suspect it’s because of their coach Curt Cignetti, who has been successful at other schools, at Elon and James Madison, where he was 11-1 in his fifth season, and 52-9 for his five seasons at James Madison.  He’s another model of successful coaches having successful teams. The not-so-good coaches don’t win, and often, simply get out of coaching.

Another Big Ten (18) team making a racket this year is Illinois, also 4-0, and upending Nebraska last week. We’ll know more about the Illini this weekend, when they face 3-0 Penn State.

Back to the Southeastern Conference.  It’s playing pretty good football, having four of five top teams in the nation.  Texas is on top, followed by Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and Tennessee. That’s pretty tall cotton!

In the top college game of the week, Georgia travels to Tuscaloosa to face the Crimson Tide. The last time the Bulldogs were in Tuscaloosa, in 2020, the Tide won 41-24. We’ll see how new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer does against Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs. The winner could be the SEC champion, but remember there’s also Texas and Tennessee seeking that title. The game is at 6:30 on ABC. I’ll be watching, but switching to see what’s happening in other games!

Enjoyable part  of the football season so far: hearing Brad Nessler of Duluth and Gary Danielson and their expert analysis and play-by-play description of top Big Ten games. While we often turn off the sound for most games, these guys know what they are doing, and make the game more enjoyable.

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