Sunday's Takeaways: Welcome The Return Of College Football

This internal alarm clock of mine has an uncanny sense of knowing when to unleash itself on important days. 

The first College football Saturday of 2021 arrived right on time, and at 5:30 AM, I’m wide awake, giving myself plenty of time to enjoy a cup of coffee before ESPN’s 3-hour Game Day Show marathon kicks off. Oh, and USC doesn’t even play till next week!  

Week 0, with or without a USC game, allows my quirky stream of consciousness a chance to get a full day’s workout as I slide comfortably into the couch with the laptop, waiting for the day’s games to start.

Hey, look! Welcome home, Lee Corso!  

Last year watching Lee Corso’s shtick on ZOOM was like watching college football filled with empty stadiums and pumped-in crowd noise. It didn’t look right. It did not feel right. And it sure as hell did not sound right. 

Watching the Wazzu flag waving in the background where ever Game Day sets up isn’t a meme anymore; it’s a tradition. College football was built on tradition. The band. The fans hanging out tailgates watching the early games. Even traditions as benign as kicking a flag pole before leaving campus. All of that was gone last year. All of that is welcomed back in 2021.

“Faith, Family, Football.” Good-bye, Bobby Bowden. The world and college football lost one of the good ones recently.  

One of the last vestiges of the current college landscape as we know it is no longer with us. But “dadgummit,” Bowden’s legacy and the culture he built will live on; because life goes on. 

And so does the return of the game that was yanked away from too many more than a year ago. Yes, the games were played in 2020. Well, some of them. And the 2020 college football story ended with another national championship for Alabama’s storied program.

Speaking of stories, Kirk Herbstreit said, “UCLA will be a story” in 2021. Kirk, what kind of story?  

Chip Kelly now has a 1-6 record as the UCLA head coach playing out of conference games following the Bruins 44-10 win over Hawai at the Rose Bowl in front of an alleged crowd of 32,000 fans. Imagine the story from Kirk and ESPN if Clay Helton had that same record after six OOC games with only 30K fans inside a smaller Memorial Coliseum.

The last time I gave two thoughts to anything regarding Illinois football was the weeks leading up to the 2008 Rose Bowl game between the Trojans and the Fighting Illini. But on Saturday, I was reclining on the couch like Julius Caesar and staring at the TV while they played the Nebraska Cornhuskers, with Markese Stepp starring at running back.  

You remember Stepp; He plays in a “gritty” offense now and is 3rd on the Husker’s depth chart. Behind two freshmen.

So it must have seemed ironic that Stepp’s first touch of the game produced a 15-yard pickup on one of those “flamboyant” passing wheel routes. The gritty happened soon after when he scored a TD, the Nebraska Way, pounding it in for a 2-yard TD.  

But, Markese, let’s focus more on your pass protection and less on USC’s offensive style because accountability is all that matters when your QB is getting killed. Stepp finished the game with 10 yards on three carries. 

Regardless of how gritty the game was played, I was still smiling because the stadium in Champagne, Illinois, was packed! The Illinois and Nebraska fanbases chose to support their favorite teams even when their programs have been worse than USC’s program.  

They say where you lay your head is home. 

Faith. Family. Football. Welcome back, Clay Helton.

So how long will the Trojan Marching Martyrs and Chowder Fans hold out protesting a game they can’t win or influence with the Trojan power brokers? The longer these fans chase their destiny, the stiffer their necks get; meanwhile, the games go on. With or without them.

I mean, wasn’t having a season taken away from you enough to show just how tenuous life and this game can be?

So for those of you in the “my checkbook is locked crowd,” ask yourselves; how many wins in a row will it take you to relent and support the young men by attending a game in 2021? Or is the game plan to white-knuckle the armrests and curse like Holy Helton until that eventual loss happens, thus allowing yourself the chance to exhale and proclaim your superiority?  

USC’s football tradition and history go back a lot further than Nebraska.  Still, the Huskers have put enough skin in the game over the past 50+ years to see their Memorial Stadium sellout even when the fanbase’s patience has worn out with their head coach.    

The Huskers lost on Saturday to a first-year Illinois coach that was playing with a backup quarterback. However, when the Huskers host Fordham and Buffalo over the next couple of weeks, how much would you be willing to bet that Nebraska’s 375-consecutive game sellout streak continues? Last season doesn’t count, but their streak started in 1962. By the way, USC won the national championship that year.

When USC plays San Jose St. in a week, I’m left to wonder whether the Trojan fans will even care enough to watch.  

The Huskers/Illini matchup was ugly, but the way UCLA, Fresno St., and San Jose St. won their games was just as ugly. The teams from California won their games by blowing out inferior opponents on their home fields.

For me, blowout wins are ugly games to watch; I quickly lose interest if I’m not emotionally invested with the winning team, and if the Trojans are losing ugly, I become Diva-Temperamental. 

But I digress. Those teams handled their business the way they should when playing lesser teams, and the games were essentially decided before halftime. USC needs to show San Jose St. that same type of welcoming hospitality next Saturday at the Coliseum that the Spartans displayed for the Thunderbirds from Southern Utah.  

Or is the Ball St. offense that dropped 27 first-quarter points on the Spartans in their bowl game better than USC’s offense?

Not only do the Trojans have to win the opener next week, they need to win convincingly; otherwise, the martyrs will continue their protest by staying at home, which is their prerogative. I understand not wanting to pay for a product you don’t support as long as someone is the head coach. But how invested are they with this holdout. Why pay any attention at all? Go all in. Don’t even watch the game on TV.  

Or maybe these fans can find it in their hearts to make a financial donation to San Jose’s athletic department. The Spartans can’t even afford goal post nets for crying out loud. USC, when you hand the Spartan AD the paycheck, give him a pair of nets too. It will be a nice gesture and save the State school a few hundred bucks as they complete their stadium renovation.

They say where you lay your head is home.  

Where’s your head, Trojan fans?