College Football is Back!!!
My ramblings on the new season.
I dove headfirst into college football last year. Before last season, I’d always been more of a casual fan. But I knew I wanted to invest time creating content this season.
I grew up in a basketball house — and I’m a basketball guy — so I will always cover the Knicks. I’ll also have some college basketball content in the future.
But I got sick of waiting for the Knicks to trade for Donovan Mitchell and wanted to do this instead. I wasn’t gonna let Danny Ainge fuck my summer up.
I never appreciated the fall when I was a kid. I hated September because it meant school was coming back. Like this was going to be the year I tried or something.
Now that I’m old and washed, I check the temperature for the unofficial start of hoodie season. It’s still in the 80s and 90s throughout next week. Yuck.
I’m also preparing to spend way too much money on various pumpkin-flavored beverages.
Most importantly, college football is here.
It’s hard for me to get inspired to watch any NFL team that isn’t the Jets. (That’s probably the first time anyone’s written that sentence.) But college football is different.
I could watch almost any college football game on TV. I love the rivalries, the storylines, the villains, and Michigan Stadium singing Mr. Brightside.
My day will start in Ireland with Nebraska vs. Northwestern and end in Hawaii with the Rainbow Warriors vs. Vanderbilt.
(I’m all in on the Huskers this year. I have them winning the Big Ten West. I need them not to lose today.)
In between, there’s a Wyoming/Illinois game that will likely be impossibly boring. I’m sure I’ll check it out at some point anyway.
I’m surprisingly excited about Rutgers football. A good friend of mine went to Rutgers and he’s unfortunately pessimistic about the season.
It’s a total cliche to say this if you live in Jersey but I think Schiano is a good coach and recruiter. He has the program on the right track again. That Doordash thing was fucked though.
I’m actually more excited about Syracuse football. They have one of the best running backs in the country, Sean Tucker, a new group of assistant coaches instilling a new offense, and an underrated defense led by linebacker Mikel Jones. I think they are going to a bowl this season. Editor’s note: My family are ‘Cuse fans.
College football is similar to the NBA in that you always have a good idea of who will win the championship. The Warriors surprised nobody last season when they won their fourth title in eight years.
Since the best college football player I’ve ever seen led Texas to a national championship in 2005, only three non-SEC teams have won a Natty — Clemson (2x), Ohio State (‘14), and Florida State (‘13).
You might enjoy college football if you’re a Succession fan. Nick Saban treats the entire college football world like Logan Roy treats his son Kendall. He’s shown no mercy with six national championships and eight SEC championships in the last 15 years at Alabama.
Everybody else bends the knee. Ex-assistant Jimbo Fisher tried stepping one foot out of line before thinking better of it. He won’t do that again.
Saban signing an eight-year extension through the year 2030 was a signal to the rest of college football that, much like Logan Roy, he’s not going anywhere. College football is still Nick Saban’s to lose for the next eight years.
Alabama is the favorite again this season. This sport really needs to fix its postseason, by the way. A four-team playoff just isn’t getting it done.
The NBA needs to go back to the best of five in the first round too. We know that’s never going to happen.
But you can write thousands of words on that issue on its own. It’s best just to enjoy watching the games until Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, or Clemson wins the Natty. I know I will.
My only problem for this season was that I didn’t have a team to root for. I thought about Rutgers and Syracuse but decided against them. After some extremely light research, I realized there was only one option — the New Mexico State Aggies.
The Aggies have consistently been one of the country's worst football programs, but a recent head coaching hire has excited many, including me, about the future in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In January, New Mexico State hired Jerry Kill as their new head football coach. It was a smart hire for a team that’s only had five seasons of .500 or better finishes in the last 50 years.
New Mexico State basketball has made the NCAA Tournament in 8 of the last 11 seasons. For the first time in recent memory, there is excitement in Las Cruces around the football program.
The Aggies will play tonight’s game at 10 PM ET on ESPN 2 — their first time on an ESPN network since 2018.
The offense will look entirely different from last season with only two starters returning last season. That’s probably a good thing. They ranked 105th in scoring and 123rd in rushing yards per game. Kill’s teams are typically known for running the football.
Perhaps the most interesting new face is quarterback Diego Pavia. The Albuquerque native led New Mexico Military Institute to a juco national championship last year and beat out three other quarterbacks for the starting job. Kill may have found a diamond in the rough.
Kill is counting on juco transfer Jamoni Jones and TCU transfer Ahmonte Watkins to bolster that lousy rushing attack.
The defense is led by seniors Chris Ojoh and Trevor Brohard (that’s his real last name) at linebacker. They’re the returning leaders in tackles and Ojoh led the team last season with 16 tackles for loss and six sacks.
But Kill and his defensive coordinator Nate Drelling have a ton of work to do with a team that was 128th in scoring defense last season. Only Duke gave up more 20-yard plays (84), and only Arkansas State allowed more 50-yard plays (16).
Kill earned a reputation as a program builder. His teams were always in better shape when he left than when he got there.
He took Division II Saginaw Valley State from 6–4 in his first year to 9–2 in each of his last two seasons with the Cardinals. He went 1–10 in his first season at Southern Illinois (FCS) before winning three conference titles. Kill had similar success at Northern Illinois, improving the Huskies to 10–3 in his third season before taking the job at Minnesota.
Kill was still an unknown when he took over a struggling Minnesota program that was desperate for a winner. The Golden Gophers were 3–9 in his first season. Three seasons later, he led them to their first New Year’s Day Bowl since 1962 and won the Big Ten Coach of the Year Award.
If anybody can help New Mexico State, it’s coach Kill.
I admire those who are so casually able to write about their own lives. Getting personal in my work isn’t something I’ve ever been comfortable doing.
However, it’s impossible to avoid the uncomfortable here because the reason I’m rooting for the Aggies football team is deeply personal.
I wasn’t drawn to the Aggies because of Kill’s coaching history. In addition to his accomplishments, Jerry Kill also has epilepsy.
His health forced him to retire as the head coach at Minnesota in 2015 — one year removed from being named Big Ten Coach of the Year. That was crushing to watch.
But Kill couldn’t stay out of the game long. He had a few stints as an assistant at Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and most recently TCU before landing his head coaching gig at NM State.
Why does any of this matter to me? I was diagnosed with epilepsy 20 years ago. I’ve been seizure free for over a year now.
(I buried the lede on purpose because Kill is much more than a football coach with epilepsy. He’s a proven winner.)
I know there are people with much more difficult problems than mine — even others with epilepsy — and they somehow manage to deal with their problems better than I do.
It’s always been a struggle for me so seeing some have success in such a public way is an inspiration. I know how corny that sounds but I don’t really care if anyone rolls their eyes.
Jerry Kill and I are complete strangers and likely always be but I can’t wait to watch him on the sidelines again this season. I’ll be rooting for him and his team. Go Aggies.
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Thank you to all four of you who read my nonsense. It means a lot.
