Just a thought-

I first started to “really” follow Tech football my frosh year at the school in 2001. I had always known our school to have a decent team, but UT and A&M were the dominators in the state in terms of football. This was okay with me, as I came from a high school team that won zero games my senior year in a class 5A high school.

I always liked being the underdog in most games, and pulling off tough wins that made you feel proud to be victorious. I would pride myself for being the main one of my friends that followed our team win or lose, and could spit off certain stats or answer questions not too many seemed to care about. As years past, from 2001 to 2007, I remained in close contact with a lot of Tech friends and still remained the Texas Tech football guru out of our group.

Then the 2008 season came around, all my friends that were once only cheering when we won the big-time games became “uber” fans in this magical season. They were once screaming how we “sucked” every down, and “stunk” every play. Now they cheered our own made-up favorite drunken chant “we don’t lose because we’re not losers”. It was a grand time in my life; I would travel from town to town with an entourage of six or more. We would fly into the cities, rent hotels, and hold our guns up high. I was no longer the guru, but an equivalent as an expert of Tech football with them all. We would debate for hours, and foresee predictions.

Since this 2009 seasons first two losses, my entourage has only made one game. They no longer travel from town to town with me. They have stopped chanting drunken cheers for our team, and have once again started to tell me about us “sucking and stinking”. I am no longer an equivalent fan and expert of the team, but once again the guru of our group.

Now tell me, because I have this glimmer of hope that is on the rise. I feel something special rumbling about this next season and don’t want to be excited prematurely, but I feel 2010 will once again reconnect my friends and I to new travels and adventures. My question is, are we going to be winners again in 2010? Or was 2008 just a fluke? I believe we will have the power, strength, and talent to win it all; but maybe just maybe, as I learned from my high school football team, some things just aren’t meant to happen.