Legendary cartoonist / “life coach” Charles Schulz, via Linus Van Pelt, reminded us “There is no heavier burden than a great potential.” Schulz should be the featured speaker each year at the I Wanna Be A Big Time Football Coach convention. Aspirants need reminding that their chosen path is both lonely and fraught with many perils. Just ask Les, Lane….. and a certain ruddy-faced Marine.
BUT FIRST: This was BobLee’s Annual Moricle Weekend. Blondie and I motor westward to Camel City and The Moricle Suite @ Deacon Towers @ BB&T Field.
Does our parking pass get us close? We pass a spot reserved for Coach Grobe a ways back. A very short stroll to The Gold Lobby and a chauffered elevator ride to “the 5th floor”. Did I mention that between the car and the elevator two members of the BB&T Hospitality Team have greeted us BY NAME and hugged us?
Stepping off the elevator into The Moricle Suite is akin to Norm entering Cheers except the assembled’s cry is “BobbbbLeeeee & BLONDIE”. Actually it’s “BLONDIE….. and that tall guy with the beard”. Indeed, “everybody knows our name” at The Moricle Suite @ BBT Field.
As we enter, Jim is already giving his personal chalk talk to the group. Jim? Oh, that’s “Coach Grobe” to you non-Moricle-types. Jim comes up and gives them an inside look at the day’s game plan. Ron (Wellman, silly) is there as well as Mike The Yankee Pitcher and the Deacon Club executive staff.
The Moricles are the crème de la crème of Deacon loyalists. A loyalty proven over numerous generations and reproven each year with a check lots bigger than even an annual tuition at the quaint little school they all love. This was our 4th or 5th Moricle Weekend and the friendliness and hospitality gets more bountiful with each year.
Ron (Wellman, silly) always wants to know some deep inside tidbit that only BobLee knows. We joked about Bubba & The Goofy Helmet Brouhaha. Ron accepts he is now my co-Favorite ACC AD…. sharing that pedestal with Bubba The Real AD.
This year’s visit included meeting Carl The Lawyer and some guy named Nathan Hatch. This guy Hatch ingratiated himself to me by saying he and Bubba were good buddies at Notre Dame back in the 90s. Yeah, sure Nathan. Bubba has gone on to be A Real AD and Nathan ended up with a gig as President of Wake Forest….. or so he says. Rumor has it Nathan was VERY instrumental in the Notre Dame / ACC Deal …… VERY instrumental. Seemed like quite a good egg and he laughed at my jokes so I’ll believe what he says.
The Deacs defeated what’s left of Doug Flutie U 28-14. Mike The Yankee Pitcher says the Deacs ALWAYS win when Blondie and I arrive for our annual visit. They keep records of such at The Moricle Suite.
A most delightful way to spend a Fall Saturday. Thanks Zeno! You are a special friend!
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Meanwhile across the fruited plain of BCS Football….. the chaff and the wheat begins to separate. Guys named Les (Miles) and Lane (Kiffin) weren’t loved as much come Sunday morning as they were twelve hours earlier. And over to the Fairgrounds in West Raleigh….. weeeelllll. Add Carter-Finley to “the Halls of Montezuma & the Shores of Tripoli” as places where Marines have found themselves embattled.
I saw maybe 5-6 plays of Hoos Demolish Wuffs on the flat screens at Moricle World but what I saw was enough to tell me the long knives are officially unsheathed on The Brickyard. Last week Gio let loose the first disgruntled knee-jerkers of FireAnotherStateCoach.com. The number of unhappy jerking knees went up considerably this past Saturday.
It hasn’t reached the stage where TO’B wears a disguise when he goes to 7-11 for a Big Gulp. FrauYow has not assigned an intern to start TO’B’s car each morning…. yet. But history shows that once Wuff-blood lust gets beyond that cross-eyed 5% that is perpetually constipated, it can spread quickly among for-real human fans.
When ya start hearing “…..but he runs a clean program and builds character”….. Uh Oh! That is akin to that girl with an overbite and overly large feet who “has a great personality and sews her own clothes”. Lose to Grobe’s Deacs and Frau might issue the dreaded Vote Of Confidence.
Is it true that Frau has asked Coach Gott to stand beside TO’B on the sidelines so a crazy with poor aim won’t dare risk a shot? I know where they can get enough Kevlar to outfit the entire staff, if necessary.
The backroom boys @ Amedeo’s are “liking” Bobby Petrino and Jon Gruden’s Facebook pages. And, of course, the We (heart) Bill Cowher yard signs will be sprouting up. Wuffs On The Warpath are nuthin’ if not predictable…. and oodles of fun to watch.
It’s not like Tom can say something quippy to regain Lupine love. “Quippy” isn’t TO’B’s forte. Wake, Clem, and Doug Flutie U stand between TO’B and Christmas In Shreveport. If “that punt” had just hung up about another .5 seconds….. ahhhh, what mighta been. Tuff Bidness!
Tuff Bidness Indeed….. just ask Les The Mad Hatter in Baton Rogue? Or Lane Son of Monte on the floor of The Coliseum. For TO’B the annual “burden” is 8-10 Ws including “the hated rival”. For Les and Lane it’s BCS or Bust. Both “busted” Saturday night.
The Kelly Boys (Chip & Brian) keep rolling along. Brian needed leprechaun luck to stay in the hunt. Chip’s Ducks scored a bazillion against Matt The PreSeason Heisman Guy.
The Swamp People ain’t too happy with “that whozit that replaced Urban – who, incidentally in un-freakin-defeated in The Horseshoe”. At Auburn, Coach Wonderful has turned out to be a One-Cam Wonder while St Nick loses one game every five years, maybe. On Rocky Top, Vince’s boy Derek has two chances to survive and “slim” is fading fast.
Between the Hedges, Mark Richt will Win Ten and finish 5th or 6th AGAIN and so what? Spurrier has won more games in the past five years than the ‘Cocks had won total in the previous fifty years….. but now their expectations are much higher. Tuff Bidness.
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Back amongst The Moricles….. they do love Jim and Ron (Wellman, silly) and enjoy their 5-6 maybe 7 Ws each year. ….. a realistic “potential” neither great nor a heavy burden.
Did I mention that The Moricles have their very own Chocolate Wunderfall. How cool is THAT!
But regardless, I intend to be right’cher one way or t’other when all the chads are counted. AgentPierce assures me he will be too.
