End of the College Football Season

     This year in college football has been a very exciting and enthusiastic year. This year has contained many upsets and tons of unexpected twists and turns. At the end of each college football season comes my favorite part of it all especially when Tennessee is playing in one (but not this year…) is bowl season. If a team has a record of 6-6 or better then they are offered the chance to go to a bowl game. A bowl game is played at an neutral site somewhere in the United States and is usually played between two teams who are matched up pretty well together. The three things that stood out to me this year were the Auburn Tigers, Jameis Winston, and the last weekend of the regular season.

     

     We had the turnaround team of the year in the Auburn Tigers who were 3-9 and 8-0 in conference play who are now heading to the national championship to play Florida State. When Gus Malzahn (first year Auburn Head Coach) took the reigns at Auburn, he inherited a group of guys that had a rough previous year but were eager to get better and start fresh. Malzahn brought in a new scheme on the offensive side of the ball with the spread fast-tempo offense. Malzahn also brought a new mind-set to Auburn; he brought back the winning mind-set back.

     

Auburn's Stadium after upset of Alabama

     Who would have thought that someone who was only two years four months and twenty-six days older than me could win the most prestigious award in college football as only a red-shirt freshman? Jameis Winston obviously knew he could, because he did exactly that. No one knew who Jameis Winston was until he made his first career start against the Pittsburgh Panthers where he had 356 yards passing, four passing touchdowns, zero interceptions, 25 yards rushing, and an rushing touchdown. On the season as a whole, he has 3,820 yards passing, 38 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 193 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. Most senior quarterbacks in college football could not accomplish never the less a red-shirt freshman.

Jameis Winston

     

     The last weekend of the college football regular season was as crazy as any other week of the college football season. For another SEC team to go to a national championship either Florida State would have to lose to Duke in the ACC championship game or Ohio State would have to lose to Michigan State in the Big 10 Championship game. Ohio State ended up losing to Michigan State and Auburn ended up beating Missouri in the SEC championship, which would slingshot Auburn into the national championship picture to play Florida State in Pasadena, California. Now for the eighth year straight there will be another SEC team in the national championship.

Auburn vs. Florida State

     I am going to miss college football when it is all over this year. But I am very excited for next year because next year I will be in college and attending a lot of the games at the school that I choose in the student section. College football is very close to me; I have been raised on college football since day one by my dad. I am very fortunate to say that I have been to so many college football games and I probably would not be the same person without college football.

            

My Dad's View of College Football

     I highly respect my father's opinion on anything he tells me in life. I agree with him a lot on one main subject, College Football. I know that I learned everything I know about college football from my dad. He loves college football almost as much as I do. When I was given the opportunity to interview someone on my topic I knew exactly who I was going to interview. I asked my dad questions about his favorite and least favorite teams in college football, I asked him about his first game day experiences, and I talked about new college football uniforms. 

     When I asked my dad about his favorite college football team he immediately responded that his favorite team is the Tennessee Volunteers. I should have seen that one coming, knowing that he has taken me to Tennessee football games since the day I was born. I asked him if he had any other favorite football teams to watch besides Tennessee. His answer was very surprising to me. He said, "I liked Southern California before Kiffin started coaching there." I asked him what was so interesting about Southern Cal. He replied with the traditions they have at Southern Cal especially the mascots. He said the he loved the trojan riding into the stadium on the horse carrying the sword. I also asked my dad about his least favorite team. I already knew his answer before the words came out of his mouth. "I hate Alabama." I begged for him to give me a good reason why he hate such a hatred for Alabama. He replied with a story. "One year I took you, a friend of yours, and our neighbors daughter down to Tuscaloosa. And after being pelted with cups of ice and hotdog wrappers during a losing day I noticed some Alabama students smoking cigars. In most college football stadiums smoking is not allowed in the stadium, as it is at Alabama. At halftime I walked down to the police officer who was standing at the rail and I asked him if smoking was allowed in the stadium? He replied with a quick no. So I pointed up to the group of students who were smoking and said what about them?" The policeman looked at my dad and said "It's not my job to control them…It's my job to control you." 

The USC Trojan

     In the next part of my interview with my dad I talked to him about his earlier game day experiences. He couldn't remember his first game day experience but he told me it was at an Vanderbilt football game. He also said it was nothing like the Tennessee games that we go to today. He remembers when he was a freshman in high school and his brother was a freshman at Tennessee how the University would allow the fraternities to take care of the cannon that they would fire during every Tennessee touchdown. He remembers that Tennessee would give the people who helped fire the canon free access to the game. He remembers riding into Neyland Stadium on the cannon. He remembered how cool he thought it was to ride in with his brother and his fraternity brothers into the game on the cannon. I asked him about his favorite game day experience. He told me about a game when Tennessee and Alabama where playing on national television and how that was such a big deal to be on national television because it was not like today when every single college football game is on national TV. He told me about a key series in the game when Tennessee's defense stopped Alabama and Alabama was down by a touchdown with about a minute or two left in the game and Alabama was in a hurry up offense. He told me that Kenny Stabler in an effort to stop the clock threw the ball out of bounds. I asked him why that was so important in the game. My father replied, "It was fourth down!!!" He said everyone in the stadium erupted into a frenzy. Tennessee had defeated Alabama in Neyland Stadium and my father was there to witness it.

Ken Stabler on 4th Down

     The last topic that I talked with my dad about was the uniforms in college football. The first question that I talked to my dad about was what is your favorite college uniforms. He replied with a surprising but not surprising answer. When I first thought about what he was going to reply I knew he was going to say Tennessee's uniforms because that is his favorite team. But a surprising answer came, The Oregon Ducks. He told me that he loved the buzz that the new uniforms you see every weekend from them creates. "Everyone is talking about them." Not surprising his least favorite college football uniforms were Alabama's uniforms. He named them bland and boring. 

Oregon's Uniforms

     I have learned everything I know about college football from my dad. He raised me in Tennessee's stadium. I would ride on his shoulders from the parking lot to the seats and then all the way back after the game. I look up to him as a person and as a college football fan. One thing I learned from this interview was that if you want to have a successful football program you have to have great traditions, great fans, and great uniforms.