You know, this SEC Network thing might have a future.
Another college football season, hand-in-hand with the new conference network, makes a sizeable splash Thursday evening when South Carolina and Texas A&M confer at Williams-Brice (and Spurrier) Stadium.
Is it possible that in this day and this region, where the beginning of a college season is to be treated as a high holiday, that we have actually under-hyped the opener?
Just doesn’t seem like there has been quite enough feverish build-up and speaking in tongues in advance of this one. Where’s all the breathless celebration that should precede the annual rite of the southern fan reawakening?
What a powerful statement game this is between the No.9 Gamecocks and No. 21 Aggies. Or statements, more like it.
Yes, there is intrigue after Johnny Manziel. We don’t yet know A&M’s new quarterback Kenny Hill from late British pratfall comedian Benny Hill, but we are certainly willing to learn. The game does not mourn the loss of a single personality; it carries on at full volume.
Meanwhile in Cleveland, Johnny Football has acquired a new nickname. For the moment, call him Johnny Bench.
South Carolina has losses of its own to overcome. Just the most dynamic defensive lineman in its history, as well as its winningest quarterback. There is so much to study up on, and this opening game provides such a robust learning experience.
If South Carolina really is two touchdowns better than Texas A&M, as the guys in Vegas in the sharkskin suits claim, then the rest of the SEC East might want to take note. Even if the Aggies approach defense like it’s an elective.
Georgia fans in particular will be keenly interested in getting a reading on the Gamecocks, for they are next up in the Bulldogs tour of its neighboring state. You’ll want to rush home from work and commit some serious scouting time to this game, for all your Facebook friends and Twitter followers are eagerly awaiting your thoughts. You have time to fill before the Clemson game.
But, largely, the statement emanating from this game is one of unfiltered joy.
It’s here. Another college football season is emphatically here. What a fine way to crank up another season, two ranked teams with no compass points in their names playing an honest game dripping with significance.
What a stage for those players who managed to remain unarrested and unsuspended all the way to this opener.
And what a fine excuse to seek out a new network from among the hundred or so that never should have been born, and to happily fritter away the first of many hundreds of late summer/autumn hours.
