The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I hate seeing the opt-outs. It makes it virtually impossible to imagine that one's team is full of players who are willing to give it all they've got until the last game is played.

Yeah, it sucks, and it's pervasive.

One of my most endearing memories from this new season of cognitive dissonance I'm having with this sport was the bowl at the end of the 2021 season.  A disappointing team whose coach was fired and had limped to 6-6, was bowl eligible, and decided that having only 38 scholarship players wouldn't stop them.  They actually had a couple less than that, I think, available for the game, but 38 was the number of scholly guys who didn't opt out for the draft or the don't-give-a-damns, or transfer out.  That game was nearly canceled by the university for safety reasons, and probably should have been, but the kids really wanted to play.  

Among them was Jontre Kirklin, a WR who was tapped to play QB for the game, because we had no QBs on the roster.  He had played QB in high school, and, actually, played.....not terrible, for a WR.  I'll never forget what he said after the game when asked if he thought about skipping it.  "This is LSU.  If we have 22, we're suiting up.  It was the last game for a lot of us seniors, if there's a game to play we're going out there and fighting like Tigers."  

They got their asses kicked by K-State in that game.  But it was the most satisfying beating I can ever remember.  I loved every player that played that day, especially Kirklin, and for one afternoon, I was proud to be an LSU fan and was genuinely rooting for all the kids who chose to represent their state and university, even when the big stage wasn't there, and even when the loss was assured.  

Seems like seasons can do the same thing.  There's plenty of examples, but 2004 Auburn always comes to mind.  They seemed like a tough team, but not special through week 4, when they beat LSU on the infamous re-try of a blocked XP to avoid OT and win in regulation after a penalty called on LSU gave them a second chance.  

The two teams were rather equal that day, but something about beating their main division rival at the time catapulted them to greatness.  They shredded teams after that, and I think if LSU had met them later in the year Auburn would've won convincingly.  

Just seems like there are times a team has some defining moment, gut-check, or something like that, and then their psychology changes and they go gangbusters.

I've also seen what appears to be really good teams have a setback and then they spiral.  In both cases, it's kind of like the whole season turning on a dime.  

From The Athletic 

"Tailgating intertwined itself into the game early. Georgia fans were so despondent after a loss to Auburn in 1892, the story goes, that they barbecued their own mascot, a goat named Sir William." Dooley said it was the world's 1st post-game tailgate.

Lol, it just means more is not a new idea.

When I was in college, tail gating was literally that.  Folks arrived for the game and pulled sandwiches out of their coolers in a trunk or back of a truck.

It was a means to circumvent over priced "food" at the stadium.  

It has since "evolved" ....

Georgia's mascot was a goat?

Texas' first mascot was a dog named "Pig."

That is a serious identity crisis. 

But not nearly as much of one as the War-Plainsmen-Tiger-Eagles. 

I thought you were fixing to say something about the Army/Farmers/Aggies.  Although you usually only see those from the yell leaders and nowhere else.  

I believe Texas' original colors were Kelly green and white. 
They wanted to throw a parade or something, and the general store didn't have any green bunting. They only had burnt orange, so they just went with it.

I'm fond of telling Mrs. Droog that Texas is burnt orange because it's the color no one else wanted.