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How To Football: Week Zero

The splendor & misery returns

He shouts at the dark and stands back,
Counting the seconds before his voice returns.
All black everything.
No more cracks in the hull.
The small crack in the skull healed up quickly, now it is
-All black everything.
The space stretches on and the pace that he’s on
Matters not as he hurtles into the
-All black everything.

-All Black | Clippng.

Here we are at the threshold of the college football season. Tomorrow is the official beginning of the newest edition of college football. Tomorrow is the first step of a journey that will take us all the way into 2020. Tomorrow we stop staring at the void and step forward.

Last year officially no longer matters. Speculation from internet boards of various repute no longer matters. Arbitrary top ten lists no longer matter. Fall camp reports no longer matter. We are in the real thing now.

It will become all-consuming. It always does. Saturdays are now roped off entirely, completely separated from any social interaction unless you’re tailgating. It’s exciting, it’s relieving, it’s euphoria and it’s also anxiety, numbing, and some light depression. You will run that gauntlet of emotion and you will do it over the course of four hours on a week to week basis.

But it’s here, in all of it’s splendor and misery.

WatsonTiger Excel Productions, LLC.

Week Zero Shift

This year, Week Zero is a straight-up processional with one game in every timeslot from 11:00 on the east coast to 9:30 on the islands. So multiple screens won’t be necessary...yet.

The 2019-20 college football kicks off with Villanova at Colgate on CBSSN, formally known as The Forbidden Network. After that we get another FCS game, Samford at Youngstown State on the ESPN mothership. The official stance of ATVS on that game is this: GO DAWGS WOOO.

This year, we get an actual marquee game in Week Zero: Florida and Miami, in Orlando for reasons. Outside of the obvious Big 3 appeal of this game, this game will serve as a reference point for Florida’s marked improvement as well as the Manny Diaz era at The U, becuse part of college football is making snap judgements from one game, baby. Florida should win, but rivalry games tend to go off script, especially rivalry games that are each team’s first game of the season.

The kickoff day ends with Arizona at Hawaii, ending the ESPN triple header. Hawaii was stupid fun at the beginning of last year and Nick Rolovich might not be turning the Warriors into a conference title contender but the watchability of UH has improved tenfold from where it was. If Sumlin drops this game, Week Zero and thousands of miles away from his office aside, he might find himself on the hotseat before 95% of Division I kicks off.

The college football season will kick off with some spice, and I’m very excited for it.

It’s here y’all. It’s really here.