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What I’ll Miss About Wyoming Football

Cowboys football and what will be missed this year.

Contact/Follow @MWCwire

No Bronze Boot, no P5 teams

College football, at least in the Mountain West Conference, is not going to happen this season.

Whether or not you believe that the decision to postpone the season was a political move, or that it was for reasons pertaining to health, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that on September 5th, the day the season was supposed to start, no fans will fill the stadium, there will be no marching bands, no pageantry, no football.

College football, in a lot of respects, is an American tradition unlike any other. Fans both young and old, townie and student, sit and take in a spectacle which has connected generations for decades, and that spectacle isn’t going to happen this year.

I suppose that in these times of unprecedented change I should consider myself lucky. What if the only thing that worries me is a sport getting to be played or not shouldn’t worry me. Yes, football is a sport, it is a game and doesn’t <em>really</em> matter in the grand scope of the world, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t miss it, dearly. So in the spirit of the original start to the season quickly approaching, I thought I would think of the things that I will miss most this college football season.

The Atmosphere

In Wyoming fall Saturdays are a reunion of sorts. I’ll miss the fans, from all corners of the state, who have come to Laramie to watch the Cowboys play. I’ll miss the former students who have come back to reminisce about their college years and who have bright the next generation of poke fans with them.

I’ll miss the older fans, who have stuck with the team through all of the tough years of losing seasons. I’ll miss the kids in the area near the south end zone playing football with an overpriced novelty ball, pretending that they were the ones for whom the crowd roared.

I’ll miss the camaraderie, which only comes from shared heartbreak and jubilation. Most of all I think I’ll miss the atmosphere of a stadium filled with fellow fans on a warm fall day, the gameday gold, the football.

Tradition is something that sets college football apart from other sports, and I’m going to miss sharing in them this season. I am going to miss the band playing “Ragtime Cowboy Joe”.

I’m going to miss the “Beer Song”. I’m going to miss Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” playing as the Cowboys take the field, following the brown and white paint horse leading the charge. I’ll miss all of these traditions that have become a part of my weekend life in the fall.

Football

It seems almost self-explanatory, but I’m going to miss watching the actual football games this fall. There’s something to a crowd roar after a great play that can’t be described, that feeling of excitement that only sports can elicit. I’m going to miss the Cowboys besting a ranked opponent and having the student section rush the field.

I’m going to miss Sean Chambers throwing the ball while scrambling. I’m going to miss watching Xavian Valliday break off a long run. I’m going to miss the Cowboys defense stifling a rushing attack. I’m going to miss reliving the game the next day, reading up on stats and game logs to see what the nation has to say about the performance of my favorite team.

I’m going to miss these things because I’m going to miss football in Laramie this fall. I know that the Mountain West has reported that a spring season is going to happen this year, but for now, I, and a whole lot of other people, am left to sit and wait. I hope football returns next fall as scheduled because there really is no other experience like a college football game at War Memorial stadium.

For now, all I can do is sit, ponder the “what ifs”, and think about what, and why, I’ll miss losing something that has always been there.

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