By William Qualkinbush.
By William Qualkinbush.
College football has become more about tomorrow than today. Surely I’ve ranted about this before.
Recruiting matters just as much, if not more, than the contested game. Every win is only as important as the quality of performance, because why enjoy a win if it wasn’t good enough to beat the next team on the schedule? Protecting the future has become more important than winning the present.
These are pitfalls that await all fans, and I succumb to them on a regular basis just like everybody else. I hate it, but it’s true.
I sympathized with fans who said they weren’t going to the Russell Athletic Bowl because of who the quarterback was. I understood the level of frustration with the offensive malaise that seemed to plague Clemson when Cole Stoudt was at quarterback.
I get where everyone was coming from, even if I disagreed. To me, fandom isn’t about the likelihood of a satisfactory result. We call those “bandwagon fans”, a label nobody wants but one actively pursued by those who base their investments solely on the chance to win or lose.
Fan appreciation now has preconditions, which is fine. Collegiate athletics is big business, so all of those pitfalls I just listed—the notions that turn our attentions away from the thing immediately in front of us—take precedence.
Then, something happens that gives you a chance to come back to the things that matter. Tomorrow doesn’t matter anymore. Winning doesn’t matter anymore, although surely that plays a role in the narrative.
It’s simply about pure, raw, unfiltered, unbridled appreciation. Those are the moments when the present smacks you right in the face.
I got smacked when Dabo Swinney called timeout to let his senior defenders take a bow midway through the fourth quarter. I got smacked again when it happened on offense.
It was the moment in which Deshawn Williams says it hit him that his college career was over. It was the moment I realized the greatness in front of me.
I could list the accomplishments of this senior class, or you could read Kaila Burns-Heffner’s piece on it. She sums it up perfectly.
The chance to bring Cole Stoudt to the sideline to a chorus of cheers was fine, particularly considering the way he played. However, honoring one of the best defenses in school history—and the best in the nation in 2014—was a must, and the response of the players was fun to watch.
Every player getting a standing ovation in that moment was integral in the success of this season, a rebuilding campaign that resulted in a fourth straight with double-digit wins. None of those players will be back next season, creating a void that will be tough to replace.
Leadership is gone, production is gone, experience is gone. That’s the primary storyline for 2015 on defense.
But as the fans cheered and applauded, recruiting and rebuilding and developing and growing and maturing—in essence, the process of shaping tomorrow—didn’t matter. It was all about the here and now, if even for a moment.
We don’t get to do that much in sports these days. We won’t get to do it with that group of players ever again. That’s what made it special.
God Bless!
WQ