As the college football season slowly wraps up, so does the fall semester. Usually around this time college students are trying to salvage a grade so they don’t have to drop a class while college and professional sports teams prepare to make a run at post-season play.

It’s also the time to look back and realize how different this semester was compared to previous semesters, and this should be a semester freshmen never forget.

I can’t begin to explain everything that happened this semester, from the two storms that left many displaced and others scrambling to find family and friends, to all of the talk of a possible Saints move and evacuees staying on campus, this semester has had its share of memories.

Never before has any Nicholls semester been affected as much as this one over the course of four months, and for some people it changed their whole lives.

It appears that everything that could have happened this semester did. Whether you were a part of it or not, everyone was affected in some way.

Looking back, I realize how truly grateful I was for sports. Had it not been for sports, we’d still be watching images of the hurricanes on television and hear the words “Time for Action” over and over again.

Maybe it wasn’t good news for Saints fans, but at least we can get away once a week and simply enjoy football.

We all know about LSU, and, yeah, they’re good, but if you want to talk about pride, look no further than here on campus.

For the first time in years, Colonels fans have reason to cheer with the success of our football team. Yes, I said “our” Colonels football team.

It is so nice to know that in the wake of all of the negative news around, the Colonels have found ways to turn everyone’s mind away from what has generally been a rough semester.

I have never seen a classier group of athletes represent a university so well. Their approach to take it one game at a time and not talk about the “p” word shows that our Colonels are in the right state of mind.

Every student on campus has a chance to be a part of something magical this football season, and regardless of the outcome, this season should stick in the back of everyone’s mind simply because it’s been so much fun to be a Colonels football fan this season.

And of course, there are the Saints. What else can I say about the Saints this semester other than “WOW.” The once-promising season has turned into one of dysfunction and confusion. I firmly believe that the Saints will be most remembered this season not for their poor record, but for all of the negativity surrounding them.

In years past I probably could have counted on one hand the number of times a story about the Saints landed on ESPN, but this year something new has come up every week.

It should be interesting to look back years from now and tell stories of the semester that almost wasn’t.

The memories of the semester, whether it be the Saints, Nicholls football, the evacuees or how much better I look in my “sports picks” photo than Geoff, Justin and Clyde, will be everlasting in the minds of everyone on campus.

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all been part of a semester that will go down in the Nicholls and sports history books.