Top O’ The Morning To Ya! Penn State vs. UCF in Dublin, Ireland
By Jerry Levi
What a way to start the college football season in 2014 but in ‘football tradition rich’ Dublin, Ireland at 830 in the morning. Tradition rich in terms that they’ve been playing ‘footie’ at Croke Park for over 100 years, just not the American variety. The Irish kick their footballs around on a ‘proper football ground’ of course but have made way for their American friends from across the pond and our version of ‘serious football.’
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So what’s to be expected and what has the people riled up before the Nittany Lions and Knights meet at 830 a.m.? First of all there’s so many logistics that might be put in jeopardy by an active volcano in Iceland?! At last check both teams had made their way safely to Dublin but air travel might’ve been cancelled if Bardarbunga (name of said volcano) had erupted, sending Penn State and UCF officials scrambling for a place to play stateside.
The ‘other’ volcano set to erupt was the fact that the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship between Mayo and Kerry ended in a draw this past Sunday. What does that mean on a normal Saturday in Dublin? That a rematch was supposed to happen this coming Saturday between the two but Croke Park is booked for the Penn State vs. UCF game. What else does that mean for local Irish football supporters? That they’ll have to travel close to two hours away to Limerick to watch the Mayo vs Kerry semifinal, a decision that has many an Irishman up in arms. In relative terms, it would be like having a cricket match in Washington D.C. in prime time when say Alabama was to play USC in a kickoff classic.
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Betsided
So what can we expect on the field? First year Penn State Head Coach James Franklin trots out 7 returning starters on offense and defense from last year, including sophomore QB Christian Hackenberg, who threw for nearly 3,000 yards last season. All in all Penn State is expected to win between 7 or 8 games for their new coach Franklin, who was the head coach at Vanderbilt from 2011 to 2013.
On the other side of the field are George O’Leary’s Central Florida Knights. What’d they do in 2013? Oh just went 12-1. Won the American Athletic Conference. Beat heavily favored Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. Had the 3rd Pick in the NFL Draft in QB Blake Bortles. To say 2014 is anticlimactic even before the first game would be an understatement. The Knights can answer that call beginning in Dublin Saturday morning. They’re expected to finish behind Cincinnati in the AAC and a win here would gain them the confidence they need.
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With the First Pick
The real story though is the game itself. Do the Irish see the game the same as we do? Of course they don’t. Sure they’ll go to a rugby match between Cork and Belfast but they see the American version of football as ‘boring’ and ‘not enough action.’ But surely there are some football fans in Dublin right? At last check there were still plenty of tickets to be had for the local 1:30 p.m. kickoff in nearly all of the sections. There will be the obligatory uttered by many a Dublin youngster, “Da, what’s a Nittany?” “Didnae ask me son. I dunno.”
Maybe if they had the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the ‘Proper English’ Harvard Crimson with a free ‘pint o’ Guinness’ with every ticket, that might’ve riled up the locals to want to come and watch our ‘boring game.’ Irish vs. English. An oblong ball being tossed in the air. Free pint. Maybe if enough of us stick around after this is over with, we can have a ‘proper footie’ afterwards. As for us Americans, it doesn’t get any better to not have to wait until noon for ‘our’ football to start.