Lordy… it is about time the football season got here. Normally, during the dog days of summer, I have to drag around looking for something decent to listen to on sports radio or read in the paper. However, I was truly blessed to have a long drawn out Paris Hilton-esque drama with a certain former QB as the star right in the middle of summer. This tided me over until the start of the season.
The opening of college football has never really had a ton of hype. The NFL has done a much better job of it with their Monday Night Crew and the kickoff.
South Carolina vs. N.C. State on Thursday is really not an attention grabber, especially when they have to compete with the Democratic National Convention and Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. Even when Ohio State and Texas squared off early in the ’05 & ’06 seasons, that was the second week of football.
The year in Viking Land should go like this: Cold, Warm, Nice, Labor Day, Football, then one day you notice it got dark really early and it is also cold. Finally, there is something about the Holidays at the end of the year. Point being, there should be a clear cut distinction between the end of summer (ie Labor Day) and the start of football and the start of those schools that people attend so they can play football.
Anyway, every year has got something good and I think this one should be fun for local football. Coach Tim Brewster at the Gopher dome can technically get worse since he did win one game last season going 1-11. However, I do think they should have won three of those and I think he should at least triple his wins from last season.
We lost the North Central Conference to an old reliable reason….bigger and supposedly better things. Division II football was getting stale for a number of Midwest programs that were setting their school’s sites on bigger recognition. North Dakota is one of them and they just went on probation as they make the transition to D-I AA. A once powerful DII school is now in a holding pattern and will be playing more games far from Viking Land.
The death of the NCC has led to the birth of a North and South Division of the Northern Sun Conference. The number of scholarships allowed in the NSIC is lower than the former NCC, so really the talent level drops off slightly as the schools literally have less to offer athletes. However, it will be fun to see what those former NCC schools will be able to do in the new NSIC.
So, look for me during the 2008 season every Friday morning to get an idea of what is happening in local college football. Vikings fans need something to follow on Saturdays during the fall and I can give them a few ideas.
GAMES OF INTEREST
University of Minnesota "Golden Gophers" (0-0) vs. Northern Illinois University “Huskies” (0-0) – 6 p.m. HHH Metrodome, Minneapolis, MN
Radio: WCCO – 830AM
TV: Big 10 Network
Northern Illinois is not a formidable squad. They won just two out of 12 games last season. The do have 18 returning starters (9 on Off. & 9 on Def.), but they have a brand new coach in Jerry Kill who is going to try and make some sense of those 18 kids. The Gopher meanwhile have 14 starters coming back to the field (7 on Off. and 7 on Def.) with QB Adam Weber leading the way. Weber’s connection 67 times last season, Eric Decker, is also back in the line up and hopefully these two will continue to set records.
Results from 8/28
Augustana 13 OT
St. Cloud State 10
North Dakota 41
Texas A&M Kingsville 14
South Carolina 34
N.C. State 0
Eric Fowler is in his fifth season as a freelance writer for vikings.com. He graduated from St. John’s University in 1998. He currently lives in St. Paul with his wife and 2 children and he works in Bloomington where he holds a position in personal finance. Eric was born and raised in Holdingford, MN. He can be reached via email at efowler57@hotmail.com