Student Union

Here at Student Union, we are getting excited for the upcoming college football season!  We have spent the entire summer preparing for our 2nd football season as a site. We’ve been working with our contributors to bring you the most authentic voice directly from campus. This season we are losing the tie and letting our hair down. Think more “beers with buddies” rather than “term paper.” This season we will be running 100% original content with a growing stable of talented writers. In a few words, it’s is gonna be lit. Also…we are Iowa grads and we coming for that ass (again) B1G West.

We are also excited for more Gusgasms. Here is what our Contributors are looking forward to:

Erik Oakley
“Saturdays are for the boys.” Well, only if the boys are down with watching college football for ten plus hours every Saturday from late August through the new year. Luckily, even if your “boys” aren’t into that, you have some boys following along with every snap at Student Union. As a Penn State fan, it can’t get any more exciting. A new offensive coordinator, one of the best young backs in the nation, and I will hopefully no longer spend the duration of their games looking like this…

But anyways, the preparations have begun. Teams have started camp, fans are dusting off their tailgate essentials, and students are scoping out the best deals for solo cups. Championship dreams are alive and well for about 127 of 128 FBS schools, Kansas already knows their season is over. So, break out your beer-stained boat shoes, get ready to “throw five”, and settle on in because class is in session.

Seth Berland
One thing that doesn’t excite me is the number of times I will be watching Gunner Kiel get injured every game. However, nothing can beat the sweet smell of burgers and Natty at tailgates and then walking into a sold out student section at historic Nippert. (Also can’t beat the fact that Xavier fans finally go into hibernation during football season.)

Chris Schneider
I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday than waking up at the crack of dawn to consume outrageous amounts of beer and grilled foods with fellow college football fans before going wild cheering for your favorite team. There truly is nothing else like college football with its upsets, trick plays, and of course botched punts. 😉

For these reasons and plenty more, I am beyond stoked for the season to start. To all of my college football diehards out there…cheers!

Luke Maiers
Wake up on a Saturday morning at 4:30, still feeling the affects from the previous night, crack a beer, and scream “IT’S GAMEDAY! TIME TO TAKE THE WEST! GO HAWKS!” I’m ready to hear Back in Black play and see the players emerge from the tunnel as I get goose bumps. I’m ready for the passion on the faces of Hawkeye fans everywhere. But most importantly, I’m ready for my team to go pound on their opponent and to let the chant, I-O-W-A, ring throughout all of Iowa City!

Brooks Hepp
Mark Dantonio hanging up in the middle of a Fox Sports radio interview because he felt disrespected gets me pumped for another year of chip on the shoulder football from MSU. Biggest Dantonio move ever.

Allen Collins
Wait, don’t tell me college football season is at my door step already. Since it is inching closer, I must now ask a few questions. Bob Stoops, are you listening? “Big Game Bob”, at least that’s what some crazy person used to call you and now it’s stuck in my Crimson and Cream crazed mind. Are you gonna crush my Sooner born and Sooner bred dreams and make me Sooner dead faster than the Lord intended? I’m excited for what Fall 2016 will bring from OU, what worries me is late December and January ’17. I’ll be on the edge of my seat all year, yelling the thoughts every “my dad coaches high school football” grad assistant wishes he could on the sideline. As one Sooner fan, I speak for us all, Bob, bring us a national title. That 2001 crystal ball (which you should probably cut in half and send part of it to that cheater John Blake) is getting duller every day. Do better “Big Game.”

Brendan Smith
This is the year. Finally, glory will return to USC football. We have (hopefully) found the right coach. The Sarkisian debacle is in the rear-view. As the season inches closer, our optimism increases, hoping, praying, for a year in which USC remains relevant after two months of the season. Right or wrong, we await with anticipation, not even knowing who our quarterback will be, and once again, assuming a Pac-12 championship. Long gone are the days of Matt Leinart handing the ball off to Reggie Bush or LenDale White, but the expectations of a national championship have not yet departed. Clay Helton, if you are reading this, my only piece of advice is do not, under any circumstances, take any recruiting advice from Pete Carroll. Good luck.

Connor Sprague
Although Cal Poly’s football team doesn’t quite inspire the wild fans and thrilling parties that Power 5 football teams do, college football season is always an exciting time of year. Whether it’s watching All-American golden boy Christian McCaffrey tear up the Pac-12 or a dark-horse contender rise up and upset boring old SEC mainstays like Alabama, LSU or Florida, college football season is always a hell of a ride. Saturday’s during September, October, November and December mean a beer with some buddies, a date with my ageless hand-me down couch and a respite from the grind of studying. Nothing beats those Saturdays, well except maybe a nightlong run of dominance in beer pong, but nonetheless the college football season is relatively unrivaled as a source of excitement on campus.

Austin Brown
Needless to say, it has been a horrible offseason to be a Baylor fan. I do thoroughly look forward to Seth Russell proving the haters wrong as he goes full FU mode for the next 5 months. I also look forward to January 2017 when Baylor snatches Tom Herman from Houston, because Houston isn’t allowed to have nice sports things.

Other things to look for in the Big 12 is 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield (chalk it up now) terrorizing opposing defenses and my favorite moment of every season when TCU ends their playoff hopes off a Gary Patterson coaching gaffe (going for it on 4th down against Baylor, going for two against Oklahoma etc.) Also Mike Gundy has a mullet and is ugly.

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Yup…it’s football season.