The hay is in the barn, and we are simply waiting for 7:00pm/7:30pm to get here in anticipation of those Friday Night Lights! We’ve got some FLHSFB history revived, plus three different motivational pieces to get you on the right track mentally into this weekend, plus an interesting look at a questionable practice that has seemed to be common sense for decades in college football. Let’s get it cranking!
- Historical Perspective: Tonight on the east coast, the Mustangs of Merritt Island will travel down to the Citrus Bowl in Vero Beach to take on the Indians. If you’re an old-head or a lover of history in this state, that should be like music to your ears. This was THEE match-up for over a decade in the 70’s/80’s when two of the state’s legends in Gerald Odom (Merritt Island) and Billy Livings (Vero Beach) would stalk the sidelines and ONLY the winner would advance to the playoffs. This game was always a guaranteed 8K-10K in attendance, and you can expect more of the same tonight. While both teams might not be the juggernauts they were during the times we speak of, this absolutely melts our hearts that this game is being played and we wish that more schools would start to revisit some of these match-ups that produced the stuff that legends are made.
- Can You Handle The Truth? Nick Saban is who he is, and won’t make any apologies for that. In this quick little snapshot from The Athletic Tampa Bay courtesy of Jaycob Ammerman, Saban makes a brilliant point. If you can’t handle *him* getting on your case, how will you handle 100,000+ people yelling even worse things at you?
3. These Success Stories Never Get Old: Take for instance the story of Chicago Bears and former University of Florida placekicker, Eddie Pineiro. There doesn’t need to be much more said, other than you will thoroughly enjoy this piece by the Miami Herald’s Michelle Kauffman. https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/article235268867.html
4. CHUG-A-LUG: No lead-in. Simply read this story. It will make you believe in humanity again: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27645130/gameday-beer-money-sign-hits-36k-charity
5. Does This Even Work? The days when Bobby Bowden would take his ‘Noles to Thomasville the night before a home game are long gone, but it’s a practice the countless teams use in their game preparation. The problem is, does it actually work? Or are we actually screwing ourselves up by doing this? https://gatehousenews.com/college-football/