Winter IS Coming... but Fall First

Fall... the greatest of all the seasons.  Summer's heat is beginning to wind down.  There's Halloween to look forward to, somewhere in non-tropical climates the leaves will begin to turn yellow and orange and several shades of red, and for all my fellow football fans, it means about 20 weekends worth of Christmases.  That's right... You aren't a red-blooded American if you don't celebrate the start of the football season.  We can argue about right-wing left-wing politics, we can argue about monotheistic and polytheistic religions, but we can't argue that the real opening day is the first day of the NCAA College Football season.

That being said, I am and always will be a University of Oregon fan.  The blood runs green in my veins... and yellow, and black and silver and day-glow green and anthracite.  For Ducks like me, the start of the football season isn't just about coming off of the winning-est season in the history of Oregon football.  It's not just about being the reigning two-time, two-time champion of the Pacific-10 - now Pac-12 - Conference. It's not even just about beating rival Oregon State in 3 consecutive "Civil War" games (the longest streak since the Ducks won 4 in a row back in 1994-1997).  It's also about having the greatest uniforms the world of football has ever seen.  And since we've worn the same jerseys for two years in a row, the 2011-2012 season will be the debut of some brand new threads.  This is the uniform that Oregon is supposedly wearing in the season opener against LSU in Dallas, on September 3rd.

There are those who are saying, "Oh, here goes Oregon with all that Nike money again," or maybe, "If it wasn't for Phil Knight, Oregon wouldn't be where they are today."

To those people, I can only say, "I don't care."  Chip Kelly prepares his team (my team) to play another team every single week.  He can't live his life based on "what ifs" or "how comes."  What if Cam Newton was ruled ineligible before the championship game?  What if USC had to sit Reggie Bush in 2005?  Sorry, we can't go back in time, and as a friend of mine is notorious for saying, "It is what it is." 

And what "it" is... is AWESOME.  I love SEC fans that claim Oregon has no tradition, or that Oregon has a "gimmick" offense, and a defense that has a "puncher's chance" at best.  Guess what, our defense came closer than anyone in shutting down Cam Newton, and did well enough to go undefeated in conference play.  And that "gimmick" offense, has the best coaches in the nation visiting Eugene, Oregon, just to see exactly how it's run.  As far as tradition goes:



I can't wait for football season to get here.  It's been a slow week for sports.  Let's get this thing going.

"Our expectation is to win every game.  I don't know if that will ever happen... but you can't rise to low expectations." - Chip Kelly