It?€™s finally here. Game week. I thought I wasn?€™t sleeping any during preseason camp, and now I?€™m going to be so excited and nervous that I?€™ll really not get any rest!

But it?€™s going to be great to see Zoe in her little Demon cheerleader outfit Saturday night when we open the season here against a very good Jackson State game. I can?€™t wait to run out through the purple smoke with our team.

The first game is always the most important. You?€™ve been practicing against each other for six months, working in offseason conditioning, going through spring ball, working out through the summer and going through preseason camp. Finally you get to the first ballgame and emotions are extremely high.

I really do believe the old coaches?€™ line about a team making its?€™ greatest improvement between the first and second games. Once you see yourself on tape against another team for the first time, you really understand the techniques you have to use. Actually, it?€™s probably easier going against another opponent -- now, don?€™t take that wrong -- because you see your defense every day and you see your offense every day and you don?€™t get a true picture of how you?€™re going to deal with different schemes and situations. After you?€™ve played somebody, especially a good program like we?€™re seeing this year in Jackson State, as coaches and players we?€™ll get a much better idea of what we?€™ve gotten done so far and areas where we need to improve right away.

I have great memories of the opening games when I was playing quarterback for the Demons for Coach (Sam) Goodwin. My first game in Turpin Stadium (in 1986) stands out.

We were playing Delta State, a Division II team, and I was a true freshman. We were struggling, barely ahead at the half. I never anticipated playing. It was a driving rainstorm all day. Coach Goodwin came in for halftime, and I?€™m sitting in the back of the locker room with John King and some other freshmen, and we?€™re just shooting the bull waiting to see what?€™s going to happen, not worrying about much. Then Coach Goodwin tells me I?€™m starting the second half.

We go out and we ended up beating them 29-10. My first college pass, I?€™ll always remember, they could have called an easier one. They called a thin post and I must have bounced it 10 yards in front of Al Edwards. I was just so glad I got rid of it. The very next play, Kenny DeWitt goes about 70 yards for a touchdown, and the next series I hit Al for about a 40-yarder, and we were on a roll. It was a little nerve wracking, for sure.

I can?€™t think of a team I?€™ve been around as young as this one, with 53 guys who have never strapped on a purple helmet in a game for us. In 1996 when I was an assistant at McNeese, we lost a lot of veterans because of academics and we were playing a lot of inexperienced guys. We went 3-8 and lost six of them by a combined 1:32. We were leading all those games and got beat in the fourth quarter. It could have easily have been an 8 or 9 win season, but those guys didn?€™t know how to win yet. The very next year we went to the national championship game with mostly the same players.

So what do I expect from a team this young in the first game of the season? If things are going good, young guys are going to be fine. But if things go bad, you really don?€™t know what to expect. You can?€™t measure somebody?€™s heart and how much they?€™ll battle and how well they?€™ll deal with adversity and frustration. It?€™s a two-headed monster that probably makes me as nervous as anything going into this game.

You try to read your team. There?€™s a feel that you get as a coach, and honestly, sometimes your feel isn?€™t right. There?€™s probably going to be more nervousness in this group. I don?€™t know if it will be a very vocal group. You almost can see in their eyes that going into game week, their emotions are getting more intense, because they?€™re realizing they?€™re accountable now. For these young players, they?€™re realizing, ?€œthese guys are depending on me to do my job,?€ť and sometimes that scares young players half to death. Now, once they get over that anxiety, then it?€™s an issue of which way they?€™re going to go. It?€™s like attitudes -- you choose it, and it?€™s whichever way you want to choose. You can be positive and aggressive and have a winning attitude, or you can be tentative and timid and negative. Which do you want?

What advice can I give them? What will I tell them? The game?€™s an emotional game. There are 60 minutes, and there?€™s going to be a lot of ups and a lot of downs on offense, on defense, in the kicking game. If we get one thing out of them, it would be to just play hard for 60 mintues. Not 59. We?€™ve worked on Victory and Hail Mary?€™s more the last two weeks, because you never know when those situations may arise and you have to perform in the last minute to win.

If it happens, Saturday night against Jackson State or somewhere down the road, we?€™ll be ready and have some confidence because we?€™ve worked on it and we should know what to do. That?€™s got to help, especially so with the puppies we?€™ve got out there going into this season. The other thing that will help us is coming out first on our field, with our fans and our band in the stands. It?€™s going to be exciting.

We work all year for 11 or 12 Saturdays in the fall. Now it?€™s time to see if our work has been good enough.