Of course the bowl season is coming, "the most wonderful time of the year," but thirty days is a long time to go without a Duck game. The hype and manufactured controversies will only sustain us so long. It was weird to wake up without pregame jitters, without last-minute panic about pass defense or zone read blocking, without a scoreboard to watch or red zone updates or Rece, Lou and Mark and their daffy sideshow.
College football fans are fortunate in one sense, because college football has the shortest off-season this side of the NBA. Recruiting gets us through January and February. Spring ball gets us through March, April and May. In June and July there is the steady trickle of eligibility updates, preseason mags and Rob Moseley's dispatches from summer workouts. By July 15th we're ready to talk about depth charts and taking a look at the schedule and preseason predictions. There's always some Duck football to talk about, even at the Fourth of July picnic. But the first dark weekend of the winter is always a bit of a shock.
We're well-rounded people, so our holiday gatherings will touch on many subjects. We'll catch up on the kids and tell a few family stories. But eventually the conversation will come around to one of our favorite topics: How about them Ducks! How do you stop Cam Newton, Nick Fairley and the Tigers? And who starts at receiver and defensive tackle next fall?
There really is no off-season. There are just various degrees of Duck intensity. I hope I get some new gear for Christmas.
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