UKFootball Schedule 2010

When I went and picked up my football season tickets from the Joe Craft UK Historical Museum, I could hear the stadium swelling of crowd noise, I could see the near-unidentifiable players running around as I sat in row Nosebleed, I could taste the (non)alcoholic beverages of the tailgate.

And I looked through the home game schedule, I could feel my excitement level stay exactly the same as when I was learning about hybrid molecular orbitals about 13 minutes prior.

Starting with Western Kentucky, the Rivalry that Isn’t, and Akron (which happens on my friend’s birthday, and he couldn’t ask for a bigger celebration than watching a blowout in Commonwealth with 70,000 other people who are NOT turning 19 that day), and a relatively bland SEC slate (although it could turn out well…more on that in about three paragraphs), then Charleston Southern, and finally Vanderbilt to cap off the first perfect season in UK history (nah, probably not.)

Of course, all will be forgiven if new Vandy head coach Robbie Caldwell performs his old job at midfield before the game. Hint: he got cows artificially preggers. The man makes babies.

Now, the home schedule isn’t UK’s fault. The cupcake non-conference schedule has been in place my entire lifetime,* and the SEC schedule rotation just happened to fall kind of weird this year. UK plays Auburn, Georgia and the Gamecocks at home this year. Not exactly the juiciest opponents to get amped for — although UK football’s newest video might be the cure, if you enjoy oddly put-together videos of players repeating phrases and performing synchronized chest beats — especially compared to some schedules from recent years.

Still, those three games could end up being fantastic games to attend. All three are expected to be close games, as the three teams seem to be in down years. And in the SEC, that three-game stretch could well be the “swing games” of the year — the ones that end up determining just what bowl UK plays in and how successful the season is. While we won’t see any bible verse eyeblack-wearing quarterback go down, HARD, or see any future Heisman winner (at least I don’t think those teams have any Heisman guys), the impact those games will have on the SEC standings will make for a good attendance experience.

But here’s the great part about it. The home schedule may suck, I may not be expecting to witness a once-in-a-lifetime event (such as the destruction of Tim Tebow), ESPN Gameday may not be coming to any of those games.

And yet here I am, preparing to sit through a potential rainstorm to watch UK play a team that has lost 21 straight games, ready for some “First down, Kentuckyyyy,” ready for some Randall Cobb.