HOW COLLEGE FOOTBALL MATTERS

Football matters to everyone who has played the game in the backyard, in the street, and on the football field.

It matters because we all like to think we were as good as the guys playing today; our teams were better than their record.

No matter the level of play, we were so much better than the record shows.

The record for three years? 6 wins in three years, including losses of 54-0 and 52-0.

Were you a better player than your record showed when you played? Of course you were, but:

If guys were better, they had to have played on winning teams, not three consecutive losing seasons.

But, like coach Dan Lanning of the Oregon Ducks said after the Peach Bowl, these are the times that reflect on your character the rest of your life.

He’s right about that. I’m reflecting on how a team from Indiana whooped the Ducks the way they did.

The answer?

My stat-man says Indiana scored twenty-eight points on drives that only took thirty-one offensive yards.

The Ducks went down to Georgia and laid a big old egg.

It happens.

One year the arch-rival Marshfield Pirates pounded the North Bend Bulldogs 52-0 on our home field.

Let’s say they made themselves comfortable in the end zone.

The lessons learned from those days have been a comfort.

Had a bad day? Not as bad as getting stomped in front of Mom and Dad and the whole town.

We weren’t chokers, just not a very good team. It happens.

Was it the coaching? Halftime pep talk:

“You are all playing like you’re more interested in the dance after the game than you are the game.”

I remember thinking, ‘the last thing I’d bring up to guys getting pounded is the dance.’

What would have worked better?

“We’re here to respect the game because football matters. Running hard matters, hitting hard matters, doing it over and over matters. You matter, so run harder, hit harder, and act like it.”

 

Why Winning Football Matters For Fans

Once you attach yourself to a team, high school, college, or NFL, and they win, the sky is bluer, the air is fresher, the colors brighter.

Losing teams leave a hangover of smudges and smears and stink that eventually wears off.

I’m happy to hear people talk about their winning times, the winning touchdown, the game-saving tackle.

I listen.

Sometimes it’s a recounting of events for the millionth time, other times I hear new insights.

Which one is this:

The Oregon Duck football team should fire their coach and start over because they can’t win the Big Game.

Or,

The Ducks have lost to the eventual national champions, and so has everyone else.

Keep that last one in mind when you go outside. I know I will.

And since it’s Oregon, I’m happy to say the clouds are a little brighter, and the rain isn’t so wet.

There is one game left, Miami vs Indiana.

The only thing better than the Ducks hammering an ex-coach’s new team, is Indiana doing it.

 

We Want Justice For College Football To Matter More

In the current state of college sports, football in particular, Name Image and Likeness is the law of the land.

Some of the guys in school are making big-boy money with big-time teams.

The same guys jump their teams for better deals, and who blames them?

It reminds me of an old song.

Everybody’s talking at me
I don’t hear a word they’re saying
Only the echoes of my mind

People stopping, staring
I can’t see their faces
Only the shadows of their eyes

I’m going where the sun keeps shining
Through the pouring rain
Going where the weather suits my clothes

Banking off of the northeast winds
Sailing on a summer breeze
And skipping over the ocean like a stone

 

Where do the Ducks go from here? Some clues from Google AI:

 

Average age of the Oregon team: 19-20 years old.

Average age of Indiana: 22-23 years old.

Average age of NFL guys: 26-27 years old.

 

When players are at the top of their game in college, they go pro.

If they have a high ceiling, but haven’t reached it, they stay in college.

I like the story of one player who stayed in school because they can make more money than they would in an uncertain NFL future.

Take Oregon QB Dante Moore, seen by some as the top quarterback in this year’s draft.

Before last night.

The NFL draft order for 2026: Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals.

They all don’t need a quarterback, but they can all ruin an Oregon quarterback.

The Detroit Lions ruined Joey Harrington, the Cincinnati Bengals ruined Akili Smith, the Tennessee Titans ruined Marcus Mariota.

Go back a little further in history and find the Dallas Cowboys nearly ruining Troy Aikman.

Have a great year, be a Heisman Trophy finalist, go pro to a bad team and get smashed so badly it takes years off your playing career, if not your life.

Go ahead and ask Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, or any NFL quarterback on a bad team with a worse offensive line protecting them from the kind of hits that break bones, wills, and hearts.

Dante Moore is twenty years old. Fernando Mendoza is twenty-two.

Let’s hope the best for both of them.

 

PS: Life goes on.

 

PSS: Try to keep up.