Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 2:08 am
Football season is over
Bobby and Hank Hill digest their Longhorns’ heartbreaking loss to the Cornhuskers:
Bobby: Is it OK that I feel like I don’t want to live anymore?
Hank: Yes, that’s normal.
ATLANTA — During warmups, my dad and I settled into our upper-deck seats at the dome here, anxiously awaiting kickoff of one of the biggest games of the past few college football seasons. Our Gators had come out in all-white outfits, including an untraditional white helmet they had worn the previous week as part of a Nike promotion.
“The good guys,” a guy behind us commented. Maybe. But you know what they say about good guys and where they finish: maybe not last but certainly not first.
All the hope of closing the 2000s as undeniably the team of the decade left as the Orange and Blue faithful started filing out of the Georgia Dome early on in the fourth quarter. It still stings a week later, and it will for a while. I still get upset thinking about Florida’s last near-Rose Bowl: the 2001 season, which was derailed by Tennessee. The Gators and Volunteers were supposed to play the week of 9/11, but after the attacks, of course, the game was postponed. So the No. 2 Gators met the Top-5 Vols in early December instead. UF lost the game, lost the SEC East, didn’t get to Atlanta and didn’t get to Pasadena. So we settled for the Orange Bowl, which ended up being a rout over Maryland and, as it turned out, Steve Spurrier’s last game.
After the loss to Tennessee, Spurrier, being who he is, said in that drawl, “It was a good year, but we didn’t win anything so we’re very disappointed.”
Apropos, I thought. But like in 2001, we can say, well, there’s always next year. But this time around, we have to make an addendum: but there won’t be another No. 15.
i obviously like the title.