Football season...The best time of the year... For sure!

Here we are...

After all the months of recruiting, and transfer moves, spring practices and the differet ways that the spring game is being presented, the slow moving news days in the dog days of summer, the beginning of the fall camp, the fresh new promise of the new season and the first look of your favorite teams and now just a few weeks away from the start of the college football season. We've got the all the preseason picks, predictions, arguements and debates from all of the talking heads....

It all comes down to this, Week ZERO of the College Football season...

Football season is back, in all of it forms, from Pee Wee, Little League and Pop Warner to Middle and High School, to the College and Professional levels. Friday Nights, Saturday afternoons, and Sundays, it's back and I'm ready for all of it, but what I'm really ready for is...

"Saturdays in the fall".....

College Football...

I've been a fan of College Football ever since I can remember. Waking up on Saturday mornings in anticipation of watching and listening to Oklahoma Sooner football games and the remaining slate of College football games throughout the day and evening. I can still remember the emotional and psychological feeling that comes with Saturdays during the fall football season. There is a very real energy that comes with watching and listening to college football games, the environment and atmosphere in the stadiums is filled with an energy that is unmatched in any sport, and it is so unique in every way...

From the game day pomp and splendor to the game day tailgate scene, to the team warmup events on the field, to the stadium and television announcers before and during the game, to the energy and roar of the crowd to the historic and newly renovated stadiums and then the actual games themselves...

College Football rocks...

There's absolutely nothing like it...

Anywhere on the planet..

Whatever you think about of College Football in it's current state right now, there's one thing that can't be argued or debated...

The sport is still popular and always will be as far as I'm concerned. The reason that it is still popular in my view, is the rivalries and the history of them. Some of these rivalries go back 150 years or more. Imagine that, all that history wrapped up on the field of play throughout time..

The players that play in them, the records that was made in them, and those that was broken. The implications of national ranking and National Championship possibilities for every team in those respective rivalries...

Those rivalries are important for the respective schools and their fanbases...

For BRAGGING RIGHTS...

Whether it a In-State rival, Conference rival or a Historic rival, there's nothing like College Football rivalries..

It really brings people from all walks of life together for an intense, energy filled 2 and a half hours of epic football enjoyment. Every other problem disappears when you take in "Saturdays in the fall"....

I'm overjoyed that my most favorite sport is back for it's 156th season...

And I'm ready for it...

Is College Football going to be okay?

The college football landscape is definitely changing. If we, as fans have been paying attention over the last couple of years, we're starting to notice that it's a different landscape than it was 10 years ago...

There has been a lot of talk out there about all of the changes that are here in college football and the ones that are coming pro and against and the prevalent feeling is mixed in my view...

There is 3 basic aspects of this change that I want to screw down on and try to answer the question... Is the game that we've come to love, gonna be okay...

The first aspect comes in 2 parts, and that's the advent of the Transfer Portal & Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the impact that brings...

The "portal", as we all know now at this point, allows the player to transfer schools and still be eligible to play without sitting out a year. That player can immediately play for his or her new school without penalty.

The Name, Image, and Likeness or the NIL, allows the player to profit off his own image and Likeness, and allows the player to make endorsement deals and profit off his name. The impact this these two bring is the ability to be "sold" to the highest bidder. Although, schools are now setting aside money for the NIL, it's always been the boosters and alumni that drives the money...

With no clear regulations, the major schools will get all of the talent, and the sport will become nothing more than the "minor league" of pro football...

With those two aspects now being a part of college football's reality today, that just makes room for the next part of this thought, and that is..

Conference Realignment...

With the movement of not only players, but coaches too going to different schools and going to the schools that are going to pay out more and/or give them the best opportunity to build their platform grow, it only stands to reason that the more lucrative schools ("Blue Bloods") will get the lion's share of all the coaching & player talent. Those schools are getting all kinds of funds, mainly from the massive television deals that not only go to the schools, but also the conferences.

So the major schools are naturally going to want to go where the money is at so college president's and athletic directors are going to make the decision to leave a conference that they been in for decades, if not their whole entire existence and go to a conference that they can get a bigger payday for the school and a chance to compete at a higher level....

Especially if the team has the talent.....

Which all comes down to this third aspect....

The College Football Playoff System...

Or... the 12 team playoff, which by the way will expand to 16 teams in the next year or so. There's some gripe about this as well and we'll cover that on another day. I personally like the idea of a playoff like tournament for major college football and if it wasn't for the first two aspects of the change in college football, I don't think we would even be in this space right now talking about a playoff tournament for the National Championship, but with players moving within teams and conferences, profiting off their name, image, and likeness and the overall talent in the coaching community as well as players at are coming up with television deals that spans the tens of millions, the expansion of the National Championship just makes sense at this point, because as stated before, this is a BILLION dollar sport..

So... to answer the stated question : Is College Football going to be okay? I'm going to say...... Yes, it's going to be okay. I feel that it's even going to thrive. Right now, it feels like it's getting away from us and it's like a runaway train, but there are too many fans that simply loves this sport too much to just let it come crashing down.

I see regulations coming for the NIL along with sensible limits on how and when schools and conferences administer the transactions in the Transfer Portal....

And we'll all enjoy the new College Football Playoff format as the years go by and even get used to the expansion of it too...

It's all going to be okay..

Random thoughts before the draft

 

Ashton Jeanty...

The comparison to Emmitt Smith and/or Saquon Barkley, his vision and ability to find the hole and cutbacks lanes, the ability to catch the ball out if the backfield and make players miss in the open field. He's got the low center of gravity, tough body build, mental toughness, high football IQ, and great breakaway speed. The only "knock" on him is the caliber of competition he faced playing in a group of 5 conference, but as far as I'm concerned, football is football, if you can play, you can play....

Jeanty, in my view, will help bring back the RB position and put eyes on it again like Barkley, Harris and other great running backs that are in the league today. Eventually, his name will be among the best RB's in the league soon enough...

Brice Underwood...

Today (April 19th) Brice experienced what is going to be like as the starter at a big time football program (Michigan) and the results was mixed. The freshman is going to have some growing pains in his first year but he will have a lot of success as well. I believe that with enough reps during fall camp before the season and a chance to get some valuable reps against Oklahoma, he'll be ready to take control and command of the starting job in 2025..

Jadyn Ott...

Oklahoma has made it official and signed the former Cal Bears RB to their running back room and strengthen the backfield with Mateer and all of the returning receivers. With a disappointing season last year, the Sooners and the coaching staff needs a rebound season in 2025. There are already some grumbling in Norman, but if the upcoming season produces little or no results, there's going to be some changes coming at the place on the prairie...

The NIL...

The decision that Tennessee made regarding Nico Iamaleava was the right one.. for Tennessee... and maybe for the NCAA as a whole. Simply because at the major collegiate level, it's still team over individual. Although the players are starting to garner some form of power with the advent of Name, Image and Likeness along with the transfer portal, there's something to be said about some kind of regulation in how the conferences are going to deal with this kind of transactions and holdouts. With more and more college teams going toward employing a GM to deal with the growing presence of getting players from the portal, dealing with NIL money that comes with it and being a bridge between donors and boosters the college game is changing to meet the challenges...

This is the way.. A new approach to the spring game.

College Football Spring games...
This is the part of the college football season the we would be anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring games...

Most of the major college teams as of late has elected to either skip the spring game or restructure the event.

Such as........

Matt Rhule at Nebraska, Deion Sanders the coach for the Buffaloes and Brent Venerables from Oklahoma are just a few of the coaches nationwide, that are trying to go in a different route...

Many are going with a fan appreciation type of gathering and let the players showcase their skill set...

And other coaches are opting for this..

Scrimmage with other schools. Deion Sanders isn't the first person or coach to suggest such a thing, he's just the lastest....

Combined practices with other college teams will and can hope to bring variety to spring and summer/fall practices, if you have played this sport, you know that practicing and hitting on the same teammates becomes monotonous...

This would bring a new excitement to the sport in the spring that is usually dominated by the college basketball championships, the NFL draft, NBA and NHL playoffs and the first month of the MLB and now the UFL seasons, it would renew the energy and hopefulness of the upcoming season for all fans and get a real first glimpse of what their favorite teams will look like for the upcoming season.

And also, for the incoming freshman and or other transfers to major college teams, this will be their first real taste of the sport at a higher level, and showcase their talent, and have the opportunity to have a real chance to earn theor spot on the team....

The experience for both the players and the fans will be awesome...

Either path that college football will take, what we want as fans at the end of the day, is the growth and expansion of college football, and watch the popularity of the sport grow..

Let's just hope that the NCAA can come around and let the teams move forward...

Dynasties or Fan Favorites….

 Dynasties or Fan Favorites….

What is the difference between Sport Dynasties and Fan Favorites?

I believe that Sport Dynasties, are teams or organizations that are so dominate that they change the way the sport is played, and seen by the sporting world…...

While fan favorites, are just that…. Fan Favorites.. Teams that are so popular that they contribute to the culture brand of the sport and the majority of people love them or knows of them in some way….

We sometimes tend to confuse the two and both can be true at the same time….

Let's go back in time a little….

In my time, there was some "Dynasties" such as the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburg Steelers, New York Yankees. They were called dynasties, but they were also fan favorites as well.

In today's time, we try to make the fan favorites into "Dynasties" because they're so popular with the fans, when in some cases, they're not that dominate, just favorites..

Today, most of these fan favorites are able to win a bunch of games and string together a bunch of championships, but they are not dominating or changing anything. They're just taking advantage of certain situations in environment and scheduling…

For example..

When the New England Patriots went on their run for 10 plus years, not only they was popular, but the way that they change the culture with coaching, playcalling, draft picks, free agency and branding in the NFL made them dominate in all areas for quite some time, they made the term "The Patriot Way" symbolize what they was all about..

In the 1970's the Dallas Cowboys was popular as well as a Dynasty, because of the fresh and innovative offensive scheme that Coach Tom Landry and his staff implemented that clearly changed the way defenses had to defend against them. This was also true of the dominate San Francisco Forty Niner teams of the 1980's and most of the 1990's led by Bill Walsh and his coaching staff..

But those two examples also have top notch front office staff, from the administration to the scouting staff. These teams changed the way teams are administered, and in some ways, the Patriots improved on this formula during the 2000's and what they have done in the 10 plus years, is now the standard that all of the teams are chasing..

Which leads me to now….

There are a bunch of teams right now that has elements of the formula but not the total package to make them a total dynasty, some have an awesome front office staff but a poor coaching staff, some have a great team brand with great players but a messed up front office staff, and all of them have massive coaching and staff turnover that is not sustainable or conducive to a winning formula, let alone a "Dynasty".

We, who are sport fans and follow sport, are sometimes too quick to proclaim that some team is a dynasty when they are nothing more than a fan favorite that was able to string together a case of championships…. Let's just know the difference between the two…

Hello...

Welcome to my new and improved blog site. The blog that I started back in 2017 was addressing some real and personal issues that was happening in real time in the space around me and wanted to reach out and connect my thoughts to an audience.

I tied this blog with a podcast, and wanted to expand towards a YouTube Channel, but as time went on and life was going on in full force, I started to veer off and trudge deeper in to the toxic environment of racial social issues and partisan politics.

Immediately, I became an angry person..

No one really wants to listen to, or read an angry person.

After listening to people that are close to me, and searching deep within myself for the truth within me, I've decided to course correct and make a change to my podcast, my blog, and find a place and topic that brings me joy. that would be...

Sports....

And everything that goes with it....

Going forward, I will be talking and writing about the main top tier sports (Football, Basketball, Baseball) both college and pros. I will be speaking on the games, teams, and all topics pertaining the sporting arena. I'll do my best to keep away from politics across all of my platforms, but sometimes politics and social issues crosses all aspects of life.. even sports.

I'll do my best to navigate thru the mess and stay on topic and task.... Sports...

I will try to remind all of us just how important sports is to the human experience and how we can benefit from the experience.

And how it really ties us all together. please join me in this new experience as this grows, hopefully I too, can grow with it..

I can be reached at: marlongene29@gmail.com for any inquiries of comments

My podcast with new content and past available content from my other projects: https://allintalkandspirit.podbean.com/

Thanks.