College Football is officially right around the corner

Every year, Texas football coaches repeatedly echo how the annual Texas High School Coaches Association Convention marks an unofficial start, at least in their minds, to the football season. [Sign up for Inside Texas for $1 then get 50% off your first year!] Pretty much every head man shared that sentiment yesterday, when 13 coaches lined the stage of the FBS head coach roundtable. Steve Sarkisian had said earlier in the day that, “I always say this when I come to coaches school. This is kind of, to me, the kickoff to football season, which is exciting.” This weekend, in particular, felt like a substantial jump from the offseason to the preseason, at least in the minds of college football fans. While THSCA continues to roll around, the start of this week marks two major events: the end of the World Cup, and the start of SEC Media Days. The world’s game captivated masses of Americans, even the ones who are rarely, if ever, tapped into soccer at the club level. The collective eyes of a nation have been trained on NBA/NHL Finals, the College World Series and the World Cup for multiple months. But sports are reaching a crashing stop, with just regular season baseball and mid-season PGA Tour events to follow. As the Cup ends, the SEC begins their yearly shindig in Florida, and we’ve already heard from the likes of Brent Venables and Eli Drinkwitz on the stand. If it hasn’t become obvious yet, football is right around the corner. “Even though we don’t really start until August 5, I think it’s our first practice. But I’ll leave here Thursday. I go to SEC Media Days and get to talk about our team, and it starts Monday. It’s a four-day event, and then we’ve got about another week, and then we go to training camp,” Sarkisian said. “And so this is always kind of that time of the year when it just is the reminder that football’s here, right? It’s kind of in the air. It’s an exciting time.” Texas fall camp is just two weeks away, and the momentum building into a monster season feels stronger and stronger as we get closer. Texas fans know that football is coming when we have Paul Finebaum calling this year a championship or bust. It’s officially football season when Arch Manning is called overrated one week and a Heisman favorite the next. Did you realize that the first game of the season between North Carolina and TCU is just 40 days away? Texas’ opener is in seven Saturdays. The Ohio State countdown is beginning to resonate for Longhorn fans. The most faithful and headline-hungry fans never took off with Longhorn portal, recruiting and spring practice dominating the offseason. But now it’s time to welcome back those who really ramp up their fandom as August rolls around. It’s good to be back, and we’re just getting started here at Inside Texas.