It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

A little more nip in the air, the sun going down just a little earlier, kids getting ready to head back to school...it all means one thing.

Fall?

Well, yes, but actually it means...

FOOTBALL SEASON IS NEARLY UPON US!!!

It means preseason scrimmages, attended by diehard fans who have been lusting for this month since that tragic, destructive evening back in early January. It means speculative chatter about who will start at (this year it's quarterback and defensive secondary). It means cranking up the press coverage again, so that we get fresh stories every week, in on seemingly mundane issues such as who got some time with the second team.

I myself have been waiting for this time. While I admit my spirits were considerably dampened after the fiasco in January (I couldn't even bring myself to watch some of my DVDs of OU's past great victories for nearly 3 months afterward), I knew that it was inevitable that my Oklahoma blood would rise again, and that the Sooner Tradition upon which I was weaned would claim my heart again as we edged slowly closer to the new season.

I love summer, don't get me wrong. Summer is all that is right with God's creation; swimming, golf, lazy weekends, hot weather (which leads to more swimming and other water sports), golf, fun with the kids, vacations, golf...ah yes, summer is definitely my favorite season. But football season, aka fall, is Season 1A, in my book. There's something intangible in the fall, something that makes things feel fresh and new, almost like the feeling of spring but with more focus on humanity and less focus on nature. School starts up in the fall, and that always has the feel of the new year to it. And of course, football, football, football. I long for fall Saturdays, when I can go downtown and watch the OU games in the great atmosphere provided by the OU Club of Colorado, then I can go home and watch the other big games of the day to see who might rise in the polls and who will drop. Sure, I might get some yard work done, or something around the house like laundry or cleaning or something, but really, fall Saturdays are mostly about football.

With every new football season is a new promise, a new hope, a new realm of possibilities. I still remember exactly 5 years ago this month, talking with my mom and dad about the upcoming 2000 season. OU had finished a decent year in 1999, their first decent year in several seasons. Bob Stoops had done some great things, and was entering his second year. The pollsters had OU at about #20 in the preseason polls. I remember looking at the schedule, and seeing the murderous October stretch of Texas, Kansas State, and Nebraska, all programs still at the top of the college game, and saying to my dad, "if we can come out of October winning two of those three games, I'll be happy...even emerging from that month with 1 win would be OK." Well, all of your Sooner fans out there know how that season ended; OU not only won one game of the three, not only two games, but all three games, en route to an undefeated 13-0 season and a 7th national championship. The 2000 season really demonstrates how wonderful college football can truly be, how amazing the possibilities are, and why every new season brings that new hope.

I also love football season because my parents and I are closer during football season than at any other time during the year. We are always very close, always have been and always will be. My parents are still some of my best friends. But our already incredible relationship gets kicked up a notch during football season (BAM! -- apologies to Heidi for the Emeril impersonation). I've joked with my dad that he and I need to host our own Internet-based postgame show, seeing as how we do our own postgame analysis of every OU game by telephone, anyway. Mom and I are always hyped up on OU games in the fall; it's most of what we talk about. (In fact, after my divorce began in earnest, one of the top priorities on my list of requirements for the next woman I found was, "she must love OU football as much as I do, just like my mom".)

So it's time once again to crank up the RAH! RAH! RAH! and break out the OU Pride of Oklahoma CD and get ready for another Oklahoma land rush. The Sooners are coming, and I'm SOOOOOO ready.

Thanks for reading along.