ESPN Gameday Flags – Everyone’s doing it?

Happy Gameday Saturday Cougs, as college football on the weekends is now a part of your life for the next, well, 3+ months or so.  Apologies to those significant others out there who may not be “all in” like you when it comes to college football, but they most likely know the drill by now.

Anyway, the Coug flags are flying proudly once again on ESPN Gameday.  I don’t know if y’all caught the broadcast this AM, but Ol Crimson and the gray version were on the scene.

But I have to say for the first time since I can remember when all this started, the WSU flag had company – actually a LOT of company.  Just checking out, I saw the following schools represented:

Clemson
Indiana
Oregon State
Ole Miss
TCU
OK State
Colorado
Texas Tech
Michigan State
Florida State
Purdue
Oklahoma
Alabama

And that’s just what I was able to spot.  I know during the weekly show other schools do it, especially the schools who are playing at the gameday location.  But the random schools, they quickly drop off the following week or two at the most.  But I can’t remember seeing this many different school flags on the show before?  It doesn’t really matter and is completely irrelevant at the end of the day but I know I’ll be curious to see if it continues like the Coug flags and our consistency.

Moving on, a real good read on something that happened at the Rutgers-WSU game from Thursday.  After the fumbled punt, Connor Halliday came on the field where the defense was standing and getting ready for the next possession,  and he was clapping and getting the players fired up.  I definitely remember seeing it, and for a moment I thought that we were somehow going to get possession of the ball based on a replay or a penalty or something and he was going in to the game.  It was strange seeing him out there, I mean it looked like he was going to go into the game at that moment.  But as Cougfan tells it, he was really trying to pump them up and encourage them vs. the “hangdog” looks Leach and company have seen far too often the last few seasons when the going gets tough.

Leadership is tough to define, really.  Some guys do it very quietly and through example and very few words.  Kind of like Derek Jeter here, quiet and confident and consistent but also able to pull someone aside when it’s needed.  Others are emotional to a fault and often times the rah-rah stuff is met with shoulder shrugs and eye rolls, as it can feel a little rehearsed or phony.  I think of watching A-Rod try to do that in recent years, and it’s kind of pathetic to watch.  But watching that moment with Halliday, just for a moment, you could actually see the players look right back at him and respond with positive body language.  They looked like they were believing in what he was saying, even for a quick moment.  It didn’t ultimately work as Rutgers did what they kept doing, and that’s just drive down the field and they took care of business without much resistance.  But I vividly recall seeing Halliday at least TRYING to lead, and providing a role this team really needs now, and that’s a team leader.  Maybe the Halliday of the last few years sulks and smirks and whatever else that he’s done, but not on Thursday.  He also followed up that moment with some biting post-game remarks, things about people needing to buy in and all that stuff.  Good for him to call that crap out, it sounds like it is still a problem that needs to work it’s way out of the program.  If the senior QB sees this happening, well, good for him for calling it out for what it is!

Finally, a rough start for the Pac-12?  First our game Thursday, and now Colorado last night vs. the HATED CSU Rams (by the way after last year’s game and the CSU coach calling Halliday a “f***ing f***ot” during that game, I officially HATE CSU).  Arizona pummelled UNLV 58-13 to pump up the conference and ASU and Utah rolled on Thursday as well, but a 3-2 start with losses to the Big Ten and MWC for a deep conference isn’t exactly the greatest statement on the Pac-12’s prowess.  But I would bet today will be a strong one for the conference overall.

But as Ted Miller said in a Friday mailbag, the conference is hardly perfect.  Scroll down to the second-to-last question and Miller nails it.  The worst-case scenario for every team seems like a very real possibility and despite the preseason hype, there are fears up and down the conference of what could go wrong.

And I think that’s the point for all of us to focus in on right now as Coug fans.  As a sports fan in general, we are always a “prisoner of the moment” and we get caught up in the here-and-now.  The emotion is starting to wear off a bit from Thursday, and the shift will now be towards improving vs. Nevada.  But remember that other schools have issues that will be shown in the next month and in to the conference schedule, and there will be teams we can and will beat this year.  It can all feel like the end of the world when you lose a game you fully expected to win, to get things started on the wrong foot.  But hey, even Oregon State lost their opener to EWU – in Corvallis – last year, and they went on to a bowl season with a team that threw the ball a ton and overcame their flaws.  Who’s to say we aren’t about to do the same thing?  So don’t give up yet.

All for now.  Enjoy your first big-time college football Saturday, and of course, GO COUGS.