It's Football Season!!!

My favorite weather of the year is the fall.  New TV shows start in the fall.  Lots of holidays happen in the fall.  And so does football!

Following up to last year's incredible season, the KSU Wildcats started off poorly.  Very, very poorly.  It was a 9-9 game in the third quarter against a blah Missouri State team when the Cats finally woke up.  They went on a scoring binge, ringing up 42 unanswered points to finish the game at 51-9.  It was the score that most people thought it would be, but a very different way of getting there.  Concerned that we're starting off slowly?  Oh yes.  But, the bottom line is that they got there, and now hopefully they can take that momentum into a genuine measurement game against Miami, who isn't the juggernaut they've been in the past but are still a solid team against whom the Wildcats can take their own measure.

I've talked with several people in the off-season about expectations for the season.  Personally, I'm a bit of an optimist when it comes to Wildcat football, and I can admit it.  I think that OU is overrated, and I'm not convinced Texas will put it all together quite yet.  West Virginia looks to be a big, big threat, but I'm not sure that there is a dominant force in the Big 12 this year as there usually is.  It seems to me that there aren't any real obvious 'elite' teams, but there are a BUNCH of better-than-average teams, probably close to half the league.  I wouldn't be surprised if the winner of the Big 12 ended up with one or two losses within the league this year.  So, with Klein's improvement in passing and 17 starters returning, I'm expecting the Wildcats to win no less than 8-9 games, with a real chance at another 10-win season.  Dark horse for winning the league, though they'd have to get those few lucky breaks that come along every season to fall their way.  But don't count out Bill Snyder.

On a semi-related note, a new thing I found that I'm really excited about is Sports Illustrated's Underdogs series, where each week they have a video feature about an inspiring high school football story.  Week 2 was Joplin.  Awesome stuff, go check it out:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/specials/underdogs/episode-1.html