These Are My JOTtings...

What Just Happened Here?

For most of the world it's probably a safe bet that American-style football is an acquired taste.

However, if you grew up in my hometown, then your presence at the Friday night high school football game was nearly as expected as your attendance at the 11:00 AM service at your local church every Sunday morning.

During the four years of my high school career, every season was respectable, even though we never won the state championship. Those four years we had a winning record, which means we won more games than we lost. The season was often a success or a failure, based on one question, "Did we beat Bonifay?" (Bonifay was the nearest town of similar size, and it was the archest or our arch rivals.)

The junior high years had been something to cheer about as well. Since football was basically an activity in gym class and on the playground, I focused on professional football. That is when the Miami Dolphins had the only Perfect Season in the NFL and won the Super Bowl.

As a teenager I enjoyed calling the Alabama Crimson Tide my favorite college team. Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant was a living legend of a coach. His record remains legendary, even though he had trouble consistently beating Notre Dame.

During my college years I didn't pay as much attention to football because my college didn't have a football team, and I had to study. However, after college I got a job as a sixth-grade teacher in Tallahassee, Florida. Anybody in The States, who follows college football, knows the significance of that job placement.

I have been and remain a staunch Florida State University Seminole football fan. I probably always will be.

My move to Tallahassee was in the thick of the Bobby Bowden days as the greatest head coach Florida State has ever known. He ranks right up there with "Bear" Bryant of Alabama. However, Bobby Bowden couldn't consistently beat Notre Dame, either.

(What was it with my favorite teams and Notre Dame? As it perennially stands my three favorite teams are #1 Florida State, #2 anybody, who beats the University of Florida, and #3 anybody, who beats Notre Dame.)

Pardon me,...I digress.

Fast forward to January of 1995, when we moved to the Magnolia Midlands of Georgia, which is well-known for Statesboro and the Georgia Southern University Eagles football team. We still live here. We now cheer for Eagles football, but I still cheer for FSU Seminole football. I expect I always will.

Georgia Southern has always had a winning football season for the bulk of the two decades that we have lived in the area. Erskine "Erk" Russell was the legendary, bald-headed coach, who lead the GSU Eagles to three National Championships for the Division 1-AA of the NCAA during the the late 1980s. "Erk" Russell is so revered in Statesboro that a bust of his upper torso and head adorns a monument at one end of the football field. It is traditional now for the football players to run past the monument before each game and rub or kiss the bald head, much like people "kiss the Blarney Stone" in Ireland.

We were all devastated, when "Erk" drove his car into the ditch on September 8, 2006, while suffering a stroke after having breakfast at a restaurant near the interstate. This was the sad day of his death, but none of us would have wanted him to live to see Wednesday, October 4th, 2017, when the Georgia Southern Eagles lost their fourth out of the first four games of the 2017 Football Season. (The announcer told us it would be necessary to go all the way back to 1941 to find a season that had that poor of a start.)

What Just Happened Here?

Apparently, it was the jump to first division NCAA in 2014. However, the 2014 & 2015 seasons were winning seasons, but 2016 was the first losing season in memory and 2017 has started with four losses.

Delayed reaction? Possibly.

Change of coaches? The timing corresponds to a coaching change.

Whatever the reason the result is painful.

Why the big angst? It's just a game,...right?

Well, the truth in college town America is that a winning football team brings in revenue of all kinds. Big name people show up to hold concerts, which is good for the local restaurants, motels and clothing stores and retail stores, et al. Big name football players want to play for your team, which is again good for the local restaurants, motels and clothing stores and retail stores, et al.

However, when you start losing games and having poor records for multiple years in a row, then the stadium becomes less populated for the games, the restaurants, motels and retail stores of every stripe start to lose revenue...

...AND...

Your team becomes a By-Word like the hapless Chicago Cubs,...who won the World Series in 2016,...Just Last Year!

YAY! There is still HOPE!

by Jay O'Toole
on October 5th, 2017