You Can Hear Football Season Before You See It

There are a few reliable ways to know football season has returned.

The first is obvious: football.

The second is walking into a coffee shop on a Saturday morning and realizing three people who have never met are discussing somebody else’s offensive line like they jointly own it.

That happened yesterday.

College football officially got underway this weekend, and by lunchtime there were games running from Dublin to Los Angeles. USC had San José State at the Coliseum. Hawaiʻi was headed into Stanford. TVs were on behind counters, phones were propped against napkin dispensers and at least one guy near me was watching a game while his wife was very clearly attempting to have an unrelated conversation with him.

She eventually looked at the screen too.

That’s how they get you.

Silverdale hasn’t even played yet, but you could feel the season arrive anyway.

I stopped near the stadium yesterday afternoon and there wasn’t much happening. A couple of staff carts. Someone moving equipment. Two students throwing a football badly enough that neither should expect a call from Coach anytime soon.

But the place already feels different.

Maybe that’s what I like most about the start of a season. For about five minutes, nobody has a record.

Nobody has blown a fourth-quarter lead. Nobody is demanding that a coordinator be fired. Nobody has spent Monday morning explaining that technically a 4–3 start is still consistent with a championship season.

Every team is undefeated.

Even ours.

Elsewhere, reality has already begun. USC opened with a win over San José State yesterday, 42–26, and apparently has another freshman receiver everyone will now spend the next four months pretending they knew about in high school.

That is college football tradition.

The Buffaloes will get their turn soon enough.

There will be plenty of time for me to tell you what went wrong, what went right and why a perfectly sensible person decided to attempt a pass on third-and-two.

For now, though, I’m enjoying this bit.

The helmets are clean.

The field is untouched.

And Silverdale is still undefeated.

Try not to ruin it before kickoff.

— Dave