BLUE 42! BLUE 42!!

Can you feel it? Companies everywhere are experiencing a drop-off in productivity from the XY employees as they delve into their wildest fantasy (league). The feeling is palpable; it’s a living organism with drug-like powers that grab hold of heterosexual males everywhere and captivating us for the next five months.
More powerful than scantily clad women is the draw of this most wonderful of seasons: football. The air turning cool, the sun setting earlier; sales of chips, dips and chicken wings have spiked. The raw, unadulterated grind of men engaged in an epic battle of monumental (though, in reality minimal) proportions, demonstrating incredible feats of strength on a field of real or imitation grass.
I’m living for the weekend. College football; professional football; even high school football draws me in. I’m in three fantasy leagues, with three drafts to attend next week; BYU is opening Saturday against Arizona on TBS at 10:30pm EST (that 6:30am bishopric meeting Sunday morning is going to come awfully early) and I watch it all, yelling, rejoicing and anguishing over every play. Here in the south, where football is king and people know ‘the Y’ as the YMCA, my opportunities to revel and revile in Cougar football is minimal at best; I’ve got to make the most of this.
Living in the south and having attended an Alabama game at Bryant-Denney stadium, I’ve realized folks out west don’t really grasp was college football is. Showing up in Tuscaloosa, I was one of maybe a dozen people not sporting crimson and white – not for long, because I went into the first shop I saw and dropped $50 on a hat and shirt. But it was crazy and awesome because everyone – parents, grandparents, students, babies, pets – was decked out. BYU fans need to be more like that: only blue, white and gold allowed in the stadium.
Even with this relative lack of football fanaticism (some would argue ‘proper perspective on what really matters’, but seriously...) I love BYU football; I bleed Cougar Blue; the wallpaper on my desktop is sportin’ the Coug’s and their 2006 schedule. Not since the 50’s have the cougars had three non-winning seasons in a row; I’m hungry for a great season. I need it, like a southerner needs their Coke and iced tea. And the potential is there. A Top 20 QB (John Beck) who finished #7 in the nation last year in yards per game; Top 10 TE (Johnny Harline) who led the nation in receiving yards for a TE; a 1000 yard rusher (Curtis Brown) with nearly 500 yards receiving; an O-Line that averages over 325 pounds. Defensively a new 3-4 scheme will take advantage of a strong linebacker corps; they just have to make a couple stops and let the offense rack up the numbers.
Prediction: 10-2 in the regular season, MWC Champs.
Rise and shout, it’s football season.