Now that it is officially too late to drop Rattler Football Fan 4101 from my course load, I may as well stick around and learn something from the professor, Rubin Carter, and the rest of my co-eds.
The first month of class was going to tell me how important the final two months of the course would be. This being the fifth time I’ve taken the course, I wasn’t expecting much because three of the first four times, my outcome was decided before November. Every class appears exciting freshman year, even if the Rattlers were 7-5 that year. Thankfully, things seem different this year.
Finally, there is a semblance of visible pride glowing from football players. The Monday following the Rattlers’ dramatic 25-22 overtime victory over Tennessee State, many football players proudly wore their Atlanta Classic jerseys, and Carter was seen just outside the cafeteria enjoying some well-earned ice cream.
The three-game winning streak the Rattlers are on can be attributed to the only facet of football that truly stands out on the stat sheet, special teams. Wesley Taylor earned his second consecutive Atlanta Football Classic Most Outstanding Player award.
Statistics may lie, but the scoreboard sure does not. FAMU may only be 3-2, but its final six games are winnable.
South Carolina State – the next team on the docket – is not the team last year that made boots out of the Rattlers. Hampton has to come to Tallahassee, and anything is possible against Bethune-Cookman.
All three games will be played in a friendly environment, so there is no reason for a seat to be empty, especially against the SCS Bulldogs and Hampton Pirates. Last year, only an embarrassing 15,177 spectators bothered to show up. That is unacceptable, Rattlers.
Fans cannot ask Taylor, Albert Chester or anyone else on the team to come up with last-minute heroics if the only people they are playing in front of are Julian White and the Marching 100. This is not evolutional theory or rocket science. Again, this is Rattler Football 4101; how hard could it be? There may, just slightly, be a correlation between rowdy fans and victories. Usually there are tolerable excuses for why students did not get into a specific class, but those are about as useful as expecting a MEAC team outside of Tallahassee to win a playoff game.
There are no tests and quizzes in the Rattler Football courses. Buying a book is completely unnecessary, classes are once a week at convenient times and though the class is offered only in the fall, enrollment is always open.
Class begins Saturday promptly at 6 p.m. in Bragg Stadium. Try not to be late. I’m trying to learn.
Will Brown is a senior newspaper journalism student from Rockledge. He can be reached at wwbrown19@yahoo.com