During the past three weeks, the sights and sounds from numerous football games (both collegiate and professional) have quenched a seven month long drought that has plagued me since the end of the Super Bowl in January.To my fellow football fanatics: our time of year is here and in full gear. As a matter of fact, all I have done the past three Saturdays was watch and listen to numerous football games both on television and radio. Here are some of my thoughts on the past couple of weeks in football.

1.) After listening to the Colonels football team play the Western Carolina Catamounts on the radio on Sept. 11, I felt ithad no reason to be disappointed with the outcome of the game. The 28-7 loss was more of a learning tool than anything else for the young Colonels. Playing the first road game of the season, the Catamounts were a tough challenge for a depth-stricken team like the Colonels. Despite the loss, the Colonels have shown bright spots on the field.

Senior running backs Colt Colletti and David Plaisance and freshman running back Broderick Cole have impressed me with their ferocious, hard-running ability; senior cornerbacks David Willis and Henry Johnson continue to be defensive nuisances to opponents, and senior wide receiver Marcus Richardson is having his best season so far as a Colonel. I expect the Colonels to come out firing on both sides of the ball against Texas Southern on Saturday

2.) After Hurricane Ivan finally moved away from South Louisiana late last week, there have been many complaints from Colonel students and fans about whether or not the Texas A&M-Kingsville football game should have been played or not. When Nicholls officials shut down school due to Ivan last Tuesday afternoon, the athletic department made it known that the game was cancelled. I would have loved to see the Colonels play last Saturday, but I agree with the decision to postpone the game. Although we hate them, hurricanes are so unpredictable and powerful, and no one knew where Ivan was going to go until last Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning. When a hurricane threatens Louisiana, football is, and should be, secondary.

3.) After three games of his tenure as head coach at Mississippi State, I feel an extreme amount of pride when I see Sylvester Croom walking the sidelines. Croom, who is the Southeastern Conference’s first black head coach, is making history every time he leads the Bulldogs on to the field. What I like the most about Croom is that he does what every other average Joe does his job. During Croom’s press conference to announce his hiring, he stated “the only color that matters at Mississippi State is maroon.”

A hard-nosed athlete that played for Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama, Croom will bring a competitive spirit and discipline to one of the SEC’s traditional bottom feeders. I expect the Bulldogs to be one of the SEC’s best teams in the future.

4.) Since the beginning of the season, many big-time college football games have been decided by missed extra point attempts by field goal kickers. If any team in the country knows about this situation, it’s our big brother university to the north, LSU. In week one, they defeated Oregon State in overtime after the Beavers’ kicker missed the game-tieing extra point. On Sept. 25, LSU lost to Auburn because of a missed extra point earlier in the game.

I think football coaches should spend at least 40 to 50 percent of their practice time focusing on the extra point drill. With the amount of pressure it takes to kick a football through a goalpost’s uprights, field goal kickers can instantly become either a goat or a hero. For example, take New England Patriots kicker Adam Vinateri and New Orleans Saints kicker John Carney. Vinateri kicked the game-winning field goal kicks in two of the last three Super Bowls and became a hero. On the other hand, Carney became the “goat of the season” for the Saints after missing an extra point against the Jacksonville Jaguars a year ago. Special teams are just as important to a football team executing out-routes on offense and applying man-to-man coverage on defense.

5.) I think the celebration rule in college football is ridiculous. In the past five seasons on all levels of football, this rule has affected the outcome of many games. Every time a player shows the slightest bit of enthusiasm on the field after a play, the referee throws a flag and it’s a 15-yard penalty. In some cases, these 15-yard penalties could affect the outcome of the game.

As long as the celebration is contained and respectful, I don’t see what is wrong with it. For example, obscene gestures and gimmicks that disrespect the opposing team should be penalized, but I don’t see anything wrong if the players simply hug, dance or jump on each other after making a big play. Football is an exciting sport that should focus on the celebration of the human spirit, which is the element that makes life as we know it worthwile.

Chris Singleton can be reached at [email protected] or at 985-448-4832.