Back in the Huddle 

By Sarah McVeigh

We’re baaaaaack! Yessir, that is right! Sarah on the Sidelines is back, and so is the best sport in the world: college football.

The first college football Saturday was picture-perfect in Rockaway. I opened up all the windows, put on a sweatshirt, and even made myself a hot cup of joe. It was actually one of the few days over the summer that I woke up before 11 a.m. My Arizona State University (ASU) flag hung high for the whole block to see, and I made a lovely breakfast spread to celebrate the occasion with my family. We turned on ESPN’s College Game Day and watched as Lee Corso made his retirement with his final predictions (in which he went six for six). Everything was perfect — besides the 10 p.m. ASU kickoff — but I’ve already written a column on that issue.

After Gameday, the first real game I watched was Texas versus The Ohio State University. Texas’ starting quarterback is Arch Manning, yes, of THOSE Mannings. He came in with a lot of high hopes, and that made me nervous. After all, these are just kids. The first three commercials in the game starred Arch. I’m like, OK, can we watch the guy play first? To be honest, Manning did not perform the way he was expected to. He struggled to complete a pass. I barely saw the kid throw the ball; he looked nervous and messy.

Another player that came in with a lot of hype is wide receiver Jeremiah Smith from The Ohio State University, and he stunk it up, too! First, he tried to blame it on his gloves, then he complained about penalties on Texas’ defense. The truth is simple, Smith: If you can’t catch the ball, you can’t catch the ball.

The performance of these highly rated players got me thinking: Why do we spend so much time talking about preseason predictions? How are teams rated way before they ever play a single game? What exactly is the point of all this hype? It all seems a little ridiculous to me. It’s like trying to predict the weather in New York—it’s just never really right.

Let’s take my little ASU Sun Devils, for example. Last year, they were expected to finish last in the Big 12. But they ended up winning the conference and making it to the college football playoffs. This year, they had a bunch of pre-season noise grow their heads, got ranked 11, and the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks’ defense ended up being a bigger challenge than they imagined.

No one ever really knows what is going to happen to a team or to a player when the game starts. It’s much easier to perform at practice, against your own team, than it is to play against another team with 100,000 fans screaming for your failure.

I heard so much talk about how Alabama was “back” this year, they were going to take it all, and this will be the first time since Saban that they are in full force. What happened? Unranked Florida State beat them 31-17. And then you have #9 Louisiana State University beat #4 Clemson 17-10.

You catching my drift?

Pre-season BS does not matter. While I love hearing that my team is ranked and that our quarterback is one to look out for, a random man from ESPN writing it in his fancy sports column doesn’t make it any more likely to happen.

We will have to sit back, enjoy the games each Saturday, and see what ends up happening. Let’s go Sun Devils!