The Good, Bad & Unknown: Gettin’ Jagged Up

The long night is almost over, Bulldog fans. Football season is upon us and the staff here at FWtCT could not be more excited about it. I don’t know about you guys but this has been one of the least fun offseasons in recent history. But, that is all behind us now, cause it’s game week, baby. This Saturday, the University of South Alabama Jaguars come to Davis Wade Stadium to kick off the 2016 college football season. It shouldn’t be one of the top games of the season but who cares, let’s get Jagged up.

The Good

First things first, looking at the forecast (no whammies, no whammies, no whammies) it should be a bright, sunny September day, with the added feeling of simultaneously being in a sauna and a tanning bed. So, all things considered, at least it’s not rain. To be safe though, this is my personal formal apology if it does actually rain Saturday now that I have suggested that it won’t. Most importantly, WELCOME BACK FOOTBALL. We’ve waited the better part of seven months for this weekend so congratulations to everyone that survived the off season. This weekend will be a prime opportunity for the Bulldogs to take advantage of the first of their featured cupcake games. Wins aren’t easy to come by on SEC schedules so we need them wherever we can this year, regardless of who they’re against. Lastly, given that the team will get off to the fast start that I hope they will, this week should be a prime opportunity to let a lot of the younger guys get real-time snaps, so expect to see a larger sample of the roster Saturday.

The Bad

What did we do to deserve an 11 am kickoff in week one? Kickoffs before 2:30 should be banned in Mississippi during the month of September until we figure out this whole “global warming” thing. It definitely doesn’t help me to get more excited for this weekend knowing that it’s South Alabama so I can’t imagine how the rest of the student body, that cares much less strongly about football than I do, feels. So get ready to see a pretty empty endzone come halftime.

The Unknown?

Well, the week one depth chart came out yesterday and I bet you can’t guess which position had enough -or-’s listed to row a small dinghy. Stumped? It was QB, of course! Dan Mullen graciously listed Damian Williams AND Nick Fitzgerald AND Nick Tiano as the starters so I’m glad he was kind enough to clear that up for us. Mullen said expect to see all three in the first quarter but with Williams and Fitzgerald getting a majority of the snaps. Mullen’s plan? Play them all until one separates themselves from the pack, so who knows how long this saga could continue. The second big question that I have is how long will the starters be left in? A lot of this has to do with the performance of those starters and their ability to close out South Alabama early, but Mullen probably has some concept in his head already. I’d guess somewhere in the ballpark of the whole first half. Finally, the biggest burning question of the weekend is how much will water bottles be this year in the stadium? Last year they were like $3 on the hottest gamedays and that wasn’t even close to cheap enough to keep people in their seats. In my opinion, until they’re a dollar, good luck getting fans to stay much past the first quarter.

Get fired up Bulldog fans, it’s game week!

#GTHSouthAlabama