I feel it in my fingers. I feel it in my toes. Football is all around us, and so the feeling grows. It didn’t take long walking around my local high school’s campus to be reminded that the best part of the year is coming. Bands are in the parking lots sweating, drill teams are stepping along to odd counts, and football teams are either braving heat that feels like we’re nestled in the Devil’s taint or grinding in indoor practice facilities with garage doors open. No matter the particular facet that appeals to you, Fall — the sports season, not the weather — is upon us.
Clear your extended weekend calendars for three consecutive days of gridiron goodness during the last week in August. Funkytowners can watch 12 quarters’ worth of God’s gift to humanity with little to no travel necessary.
This weekend begins, as the wicked ones in college always did, on a Thursday, with Texas Wesleyan (who competes in the NAIA division of college football) opening their season with the University of Central Oklahoma. The TWU Rams are hoping to return to their prolific offensive styling of 2024, when they went 10-1 and set school records for scoring. Wesleyan has made a steady rise after winning only two games in as many seasons after the program was restarted. Now, they hold consistent winning records. The Rams have made the playoffs in consecutive seasons but have yet to realize a postseason win. Since football returned to Fort Worth’s smaller private university in 2017 after a 76-year hiatus, they’ve won the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) four times consecutively. The Rams’ season kicks off on Aug 27 at 6pm at the Crowley ISD Multipurpose Stadium, which hosts Wesleyan for all their home contests.
Friday, drive yourself back to the same Crowley ISD stadium at 7pm to watch the high-school season light up with a non-district contest between North Crowley — who have been in the mix of the most dominant teams in 6A Division 1 (the largest in Texas) — as they host the Aledo Bearcats, whose student population growth has landed them in 6A Division 2 for the first time in the school’s history. The Panthers and Bearcats are easily the two best teams in the Fort Worth area, and a non-district matchup should be quite the local treat, since the two are in different size classifications and won’t have a chance to meet during district or in the playoffs. Both squads will be eager to prove themselves after deep playoff runs last season which ended with fourth- and fifth-round exits, respectively. There are some other heavy-hitter games in Week 1 of the high-school season, but this one is easily the best in this part of North Texas.
As much as I’ve searched, there is no practical way to watch Friday night’s lights and make it to Saturday’s contest in person, so my best advice is to sleep off the tailgating beverages you definitely didn’t imbibe on Friday — it’s a high-school game, you degenerates — and watch TCU start their season across the Atlantic in Dublin, Ireland, at 11am in front of your television on Saturday morning.
The Frogs will face Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels for the second year in a row. This isn’t one to miss but for completely different reasons than last year. Plainly, this is Week 0 and is the most notable game among a list softer than my desire to take my kids to Disneyworld in the spring (which I probably can’t avoid any longer), so unless you were planning to dissect San Jose State versus USC, you were probably watching the Frogs anyway. There’s not even another game in the timeslot. TCU is literally the kickoff for the entire major college football season, and that’s pretty rad. Also, no longer is the narrative centered on Bill’s now 3-year relationship with a woman who could be his granddaughter, but it is the enigmatic Frogs who have undergone as much of an offensive overhaul as one could imagine without changing head coaches.
I refuse to forecast anything about TCU football this season because to do so would be irresponsible ESPN(-ish) drivel about a subject that no one — including the coaches — really has a bead on. Yet it’s inordinately exciting to consider that the purple and white will no longer be shackled to the reckless and questionable style of Kendal Briles and are now being led by Gordon Sammis. Formerly of the UConn Huskies, the former offensive lineman will inevitably bring a new style of physicality and emphasis on offensive balance. Josh Hoover, now with the defending champion Hoosiers, is likely to be replaced by graduate transfer Jaden Craig from Harvard, the most prolific player of the position to come out of that program. Do any of these changes amount to a more successful team on the field? Only time tells, but I’ll assure my loyal readers — if there are any — that the first successfully executed read-option in this new scheme will be a sexual experience, even if it’s only for two yards.
