[7/14/05]

The countdown to kickoff for the 2005 Southern Miss football season sits at 52 days, two hours and 45 minutes.

For fans, coaches and players alike, it won’t get here soon enough.

On Tuesday, more than 3,000 Ole Miss alumni and fans packed the Trade Mart in Jackson to listen to first-year coach Ed Orgeron preach about the upcoming football successes.

Mississippi State linebacker coach Amos Jones played face of the Bulldogs on Wednesday night at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Vicksburg preaching the future of MSU football.

Tonight, also at the Trade Mart, Southern Miss head coach Jeff Bower will kick off the countdown to two-a-days for Golden Eagle players.

It’s a great time to be a football fan and a bad time to be a football fan.

It’s great because the hopes for the upcoming season are filled with promise. Every team, including our own Big Three, are in the same spot national powers Oklahoma and Southern Cal are in – holding national championship dreams. It’s great because the disappointments of a non-conference loss or a key injury to a star player have yet to occur.

It’s brutal because it’s not here yet. Watching the counter on the Southern Miss Web site shrink closer and closer to kickoff is gut-wrenching. Baseball is worn out, the WNBA is akin to watching a cement-tossing contest, basketball is long since over and news that the National Hockey League has reached an agreement to end its strike (yes, they’ve been on strike for a year) just doesn’t get the juices flowing.

Looking at that counter, though, does. Hearing coaches sing the praises of recruits, promise championships and portray such optimism does.

In three weeks, college teams will hit the field for summer workouts. Preseason polls will be compiled and season tickets will arrive in the mail. They’ll look as good as a golden ticket from Willy Wonka. It will make the holder want to strap on the old helmet and run headlong into a pine tree, just to hit something.

Ole Miss faithful will concoct plans to meet in the Grove for buffalo wings, beer and an everlasting supply of Pringles.

Cowbells will be removed from a nine-month hibernation. They’ll be rung a few times just to see if they sound different during the dawn of a new season than at the end of a disappointing one.

Golden Eagle fans will pray that one day the stadium that houses the most consistently good team in the state will be filled for every game.

Fans will tune into ESPN Classic to watch the 1997 game between Michigan and Ohio State – just because it’s football.

It’s the dawn of a new day for college football addicts and the sky is the limit.

Fifty-two days, 2 hours and 11 minutes… Fifty two days, 2 hours and 10 minutes… It’s almost here.

Thank God. It’s almost here.