Camp Festivities and Traditions

Football camp really is one of my favorite times of the year. For two weeks, nothing but football matters. You get to hang out with your best friends and act as gross and vulgar as you want. In fact, that kind of behavior is both expected and rewarded. All of the glamorous BS you see on shows like MTV's "Two-A-Days" and the most recent ESPN special on Bama's pre-season practices  is not what makes it fun (Although watching my boy Preston Dial on the ESPN special was quite humorous and exciting to be able to say I played with him for 2 years). Come spend a night in the dorms with us to hear the stories from the summer, watch us gamble all of our money away on poker and street craps, and join in on nicknaming the smelly freshmen- that's what makes it fun. They don't really smell worse than us and I would call it a term of endearment but it's really not. My favorites nicknames- that I can actually post on the internet without having a sexual harassment law suit being brought down on the team by one of the freshman's parents- are Johnny Tsunami for our Hawaiian corner, Augustus Gloop for an o-lineman from Dallas, and Twiggy for the smallest o-lineman I've ever seen. The best part is the upperclassmen don't really give the freshmen a say so in the matter, and the names are given within hours after meeting them for the first time. The names all stick no matter how awkward or idiotic they are. Even the coaches join in sometimes.

For more entertainment, come to a meal and enjoy our tradition of making each freshman stand on a chair and sing a song while we scream at them from every direction. And God help them if they forget the words- that's when we make them sing "I'm a Little Teapot" with the hand motions included. Even the rookie coaches have to sing, which is usually even funnier than the freshmen. We added a new tradition this year amongst the o-line- writing down all of the funny/pervish/awkward/asinine things our coach says and posting them on twitter completely out of context. Check out @doctorfishma for great ones such as "don't be afraid to expose yourself on the field." We may publish a book by the end of the year.

Aside from the joking around and hazing of freshmen, camp is the most important time of the year. It sets the tone for the rest of the season- if you come out with no fire or excitement, your season will be exactly like that. Luckily for us, we came out and started off on the right foot. Our practices were some of the most intense and focused I have ever seen, definitely since I've been at Washu. The athletic department even made a recruiting video of camp to show prospective players. My fat butt is in it right at the end watching my boys hitting the sled. But the challenge with classes starting up now is keeping that intensity and focus with so many distractions. Much easier said than done.

So I decided every week I'll do a a recap of the games from the previous weekend along with a preview for the upcoming games. No games so far, but the big news for Bama was Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram having his knee scoped. I'm not too worried considering Trent Richardson may pull a Lou Gehrig/Wally Pip and make everyone say Mark Who? Ingram will be 100% for the Penn St. game and with a freshman quarterback at the helm for the Nittany Lions, Bama's defense may do all of the scoring anyways.

My games to watch this week will be Oregon St. vs. TCU, LSU vs. UNC, and finally Boise St. vs. Virginia Tech. Basically everyone other than these 6 teams has a week to shake off all of the cobwebs and get in a groove while these teams are hitting the ground running. But if you have to lose it's better to lose early than late. I'm almost mad we actually have a night game because I will miss the first two games, but hopefully we can get the Bear 100 (number of running plays plus completed passes in a game) on offense and can have the shortest game in D3 history so I can catch some of the 2nd halves. I can't wait to see if TCU can carry the momentum from last year into another BCS bowl bid, or if they will fall flat on their face. I'm excited for either. For UNC, I hear all of the analysts say this team has the most NFL talent on it. Those were also the guys who said Matt Leinart was one of the best pro style quarterbacks coming out of college in 2006. Considering he's on the same path as Jamarcus Russell right now, I don't really care what the analysts say about UNC. I like LSU in this match-up. ACC just can't hack it when playing SEC teams. As for Boise St, this is by far the biggest game of the year for them and maybe in their history. The national championship hangs in the balance as this game will make or break their season. They are damn near unbeatable at their place, but playing at a "neutral" site will definitely even out the playing field. And by "neutral" I mean a VA Tech home game considering it's in Maryland. Should be interesting to see what trick plays Boise still has left up their sleeve to see if they can beat Beamer's Hokies.

Should be a great opening weekend to say the least. I know when I'm not on the field I will be glued to the couch watching the games and analysis as always.

Until Next Time,
Roll Tide!
The Big Man