College football is just around the corner. Take a step or two, turn your head to the left and it's right there, ready to take you captive until the middle of January. The commonly accepted opening day is a week from today, Sept. 3. Most casual fans won't view their first game until Saturday, Sept. 5. Both are technically wrong. In fact, some college teams are already staging intersquad matches against each other.
But the season really begins, in a "make a plate of nachos, grab your favorite beverage, plop yourself on the couch on a Saturday afternoon, flip to ESPN and settle in" way, this Saturday with a doozy of a matchup: North Dakota State at Montana, 3:30 Eastern on ESPN. There's a lot to love about this game. Let's dive right in.
1. It's big-time college football, live, on your television. This feels obvious.
2. If you've never watched a game played at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, here's your chance. Washington-Grizzly Stadium backs right into Clark Fork River and the peaks of Jacobs Island Park, creating one of the most picturesque settings in college football.
The 25,000-plus screaming Grizzlies fans can often sound like four times that amount, with measurements topping 110 decibels.
3. It's Bob Stitt's debut at Montana. Stitt leaped into the national consciousness thanks to a game he never even coached. After West Virginia used an innovative toss play to eviscerate Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl 70-33, Mountaineers head coach Dana Holgorsen credited Stitt with the play. "Every time they ran it, I told my wife, 'Yeah, that's the play that I showed Dana,'" Stitt said in 2012.
Since then, he's been something of a cult figure to some in college football.
Stitt went 108-62 in 15 years at Colorado School of the Mines (106-54 if you exclude a rebuilding 2-8 debut season), an academically-minded engineering school. His teams often ranked among the Division II leaders in scoring and passing; Mines quarterback Justin Dvorak led the nation with 4,287 yards a year ago. Now he gets the keys to one of the biggest programs in FCS.
The Grizzlies finished last season at 9-5, tying for second in the Big Sky and reaching the second round of the FCS playoffs. They enter Stitt's debut season ranked 13th nationally.
4. North Dakota State begins its march for a fifth - FIFTH! - straight national championship. A year ago, the Bison watched head coach Craig Bohl leave for Wyoming and kept right on winning national titles, going 15-1 and edging Illinois State 29-27 for a fourth straight national crown. North Dakota State, who enters 2015 a solid No. 1, is a staggering 58-3 during its remarkable four-year run, including a perfect 29-0 outside the Missouri Valley Football Conference. In fact, the last time North Dakota State lost a non-conference game came at a Big Sky venue, falling 38-31 at Eastern Washington in the 2010 FCS quarterfinals. They haven't been back to the Great Northwest since.
Symmetry? Symmetry!
5. Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer are calling the game for ESPN. Musburger spends his offseason in Montana, which makes him the perfect choice to call this game. The further Brent gets away from the spotlight, the more relaxed he gets. There's a decent chance he wears a hat on camera, and a near 100 percent chance he refers to Stitt as "ole Bobby Stitt" at least four times on Saturday.
6. If you haven't been convinced already, let these hype videos work their magic.
7. It's live college football on your television. Not sure we covered this already.