College Football camps are in full swing. This week Indiana Football Coach Curt Cignetti had his first post-game presser. As amazing as it seems, we are still interested and glued to the same old questions being asked and hoping, I suppose, to hear something different out the coach. We have been getting that.

The reporter has to ask something, even as mundane as some of the questions may be. Still, he has to ask something. Coach Cignetti does a good job of taking those questions and frames an answer that is “process oriented”. Wink.

In reality, August feels like the longest month to wait for your favorite team to kickoff the season. The build-up and the media blow-off is at epic proportions. I get it. Having called high school football games on the radio and knowing there is air time to fill, sometimes you know when the media guy or gal is saying “something” because he or she has to say “something”. The less is more days of Keith Jackson are solidly placed in the history books and he is revered. He is not, however, the model. There is too much time and advertising space to adhere to these days to go back.

So how about these new players in camp for your favorite college team? Recruiting too, as we knew it, is a thing of the past. Personally, as the traditionalist that I am, I miss it. You know what I mean if you were back there. Only twenty years ago, former North Carolina Recruiting Coordinator, Coach Bruce Hemphill called recruiting an “inexact science”. “As many background checks as you do, you never know how kids are going to react to a college setting. They are away from home, from family, and instead of being the kingpin pf a 1,000-person high school, they are in a setting with 30-50,000 other kids…without parental guidance.”

Coach Hemphill was right. And yes, there will always be the “how will the kid react” intangible to deal with. In these times of college football free-agency, this dynamic does not hold as much water as it once did. The gulf between the next place to play is more like a puddle. The inundation of communication and social media drives decisions these days. If you have adapted well to these times, and I would say, given the performance of the college football earthshattering, SEC pain in the butt stemming season the Indiana Hoosiers had for the first time in the modern era of college football, Coach Curt Cignetti was made for these times. I nod to Pat Conroy with that last sentence.

At the end of the day, at the end of August, you just hope the recipe for your team has all the ingredients it needs and that no ingredient tries to add more to the recipe than it needs to win when that stadium pot starts to boil and we can finally exhale and move on to 1st and 10 from our own 32. That is when the fun starts.

A PRO FOOTBALL NOTE…

I did pay a little attention to the NFL Hall of Fame Game last night in Canton, Ohio between the LA Chargers and the Detroit Lions. In earnest, I was more interested in the Canadian Football League week 9 matchup between Calgary and Ottawa. I rarely miss a game that league plays.

I’m still sore at The Pro Football Hall of Fame not enshrining former 16-year Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson. He deserves to be there. Look up what former teammate and former football announcer Bob Trumpy has to say about Ken Anderson.

I have yet to step foot into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have driven past it. I know I have been through Canton eight times. But, yes, I am that stubborn. Not unlike my feelings for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nearby Cleveland. The Moody Blues finally were inducted in April 2018 after being eligible for 25 years. I got there two months later to look at their display and say, “It’s about time.”

When I was 7 years old, all I wanted was this guy’s autograph.

At age 17, I marveled at how he patiently stood there and signed for EVERYONE asking. He didn’t leave anyone behind. This picture was taken 40 years ago. Ken Anderson is in my Hall of Fame. I hope I finally visit The Pro Football Hall of Fame one day.