The Anticipation is Killing Me!

I see the cities on the envelopes of the pool entries: Columbus, Pasadena, Iowa City, State College, Los Angeles, Tempe . . . and I think football. Others may read them as towns, the post office may read them as zip codes, and I read them as Ohio State, UCLA, Iowa, Penn State, USC, and ASU. Or Buckeyes, Bruins, Hawkeyes, Nittany Lions, Trojans, and Sun Devils.

This morning I sat in front of my giant screen HDTV and watched the ESPN College Game Day preview show. The voices of Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Mark May and the others were music to my ears- like hearing the return of long-lost relatives from a sabbatical painfully prolonged. Even though not a single football has been snapped this season, every highlight featured on the show was a tantalizing glimpse that had me yearning for more.

This afternoon I had my traditional start-of-the-season "football haircut." The Hawkeye Barbershop was packed with students and faculty getting ready for the new school year (classes start Monday). The gossip was all about the hometown Hawkeyes, the recent credit card fraud scandal with a couple of wide receivers, and the upcoming road trip to Chicago that will essentially be an Iowa home game only 4 hours from campus. As I've said before, Iowa City is just a far west suburb of Chicago. The Hawkeye Barbershop gets football schedule posters from each Big-10 team and has them signed by each coach at the Big-10 media day (usually in Chicago). As I sit in the chair, getting my hair trimmed by the talented Kelly (who trimmed Coach Kirk Ferentz the same AM), I study each poster, looking for the cupcakes, the tough games, the rivalries, and, most importantly, the potential upsets.

Because this pool is all about the dogs, baby!

First games are Thursday. I can't wait. Can you?

Fight On,

Hans

PS: My traditional sign off, "Fight On" is a long standing motto of USC, and the title of our fight song. Yet some yahoo in State College decided to make it the slogan for this year's Penn State schedule poster. To the Lions: you suck. Be more original.