And It Teases You For Weeks In Its Absence

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Gallows humor was the best I could do last year. After the Toledo game, I quipped, "Nothing left to do but burn it down for the insurance money." And it felt like something was missing, like it did after The Horror. We weren't mathematically eliminated from a .500 record, but the team didn't look like it was even close to making that happen. It was only grim determination that kept me in my seat through the whole Northwestern game, that microcosm of a miserable season.

But nobody gave up. Frozen hands gripping the football, a saturation bombing campaign from Juice Williams, and an overmatched team struggling through a more than respectable first half against Ohio State only to give way to the inevitable. They'd play on.

And now we have a chance to begin anew. The moment before kickoff is often the sweetest of the year. The possibilities aren't quite endless, but they might as well be. Anything can happen before that first whistle, but only one thing will. It's the moment I'm most prone to wild, unchecked optimism. The cold, rational part of me was saying "6-6" in the offseason, but it's hard to keep myself restrained now. I can't wait for football to be back.