By Mark La Monica
Well, there goes my college football season. Washed away on the first weekend of the season as my Miami Hurricanes decided to forget how to play football in the second half and lost to archrival Florida State on Labor Day Night.
Such a disappointment to have nothing to look forward for the next three months. One loss destroys a college football season. It's quite painful to end a season three hours and 40 minutes after it started. It's quite, quite painful to end it against the Seminoles.
Why Sam Shields chose to drop a pass late in the fourth quarter on third down when he was wide open and the ball was thrown perfectly and he was beyond the first-down marker is mind-boggling.
Miami, for a second straight season, lost its opener to Florida State by a field goal. Miami, for a second straight season, lost its national title aspirations in the opener to Florida State.
The best 'Canes fans can hope for now is the NCAA changes the rules before this Saturday and allows two teams to lose the same game. This way, maybe Texas and Ohio State can both chalk up a loss on the same weekend. Then, we'd need Penn State and Notre Dame to do the same thing.
Otherwise, the 'Canes have no shot at anything except maybe getting a chance to play Florida State in the ACC championship. A loss then for FSU would be more devastating than a loss now for Miami. Of course, there's the little matter of Virginia Tech, USC and those pesky SEC schools named LSU, Auburn and Florida, and my darkhorse pick Michigan.
Oh, the gravity of such a negative start to the season. So many angles to have worry about just to get a chance to be close to the outside looking in. This stinks.
After the game I sent a text message to Hurricane fan friend Fletcher, who was unfortunate enough to be in the Orange Bowl for this awful display of football. It read: "My name is Kyle Wright and I don't know how to read a defense."
His response: Unprintable!
The season is over before it barely began. Oh well, at least the NFL starts soon. Then I can cheer on my Jets and Raiders. Oh lord, this is going to be an awful football Autumn. Maybe I'll just watch reruns of "Entourage" this fall.