On crowd noise, the ‘Hope Foundation’ and Kirk Herbstreit
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When the ‘snap clap’ doesn’t work
Before the season, there was plenty of talk about how sophomore and freshmen on 2021 rosters began the season having never played on the road in a sold-out stadium. Now that we’re five weeks in and conference play has begun in earnest, you can see how much it costs to gain that experience. Florida benefitted from the home crowd when the Gators nearly upset Alabama. On Saturday night at Kentucky, the Gators got upset in large part because they committed 15 penalties, eight of them false starts. I know the “clap snap” has become popular in the pistol offense, but if the quarterback has to run right up to the line to shout an audible to his linemen, I’ve never figured out how anyone can expect the linemen to react in unison to a clap of the hands five yards behind them with the crowd roaring like a jet engine.
Here’s to the dedication of the Hilinskis
It is a testament to the dedication of Mark and Kym Hilinski and their devotion to their son Tyler, who ended his life three years ago, that College Football Mental Health Week already has sunk deep roots. More than 60 schools across all divisions are participating in the initiative launched by the Hilinski’s Hope Foundation to prioritize mental health among student-athletes and remove the stigma from those suffering. The foundation expects at least a couple of hundred student-athletes from across the country to attend a 45-minute online seminar today to promote good mental health. Most of their teams wore helmet stickers last Saturday and had their fans raise three fingers at the start of the third quarter (Tyler wore No. 3 for Washington State). For more information, check out https://www.hilinskishope.org/cfb-mental-health-week
Herbstreit book worth a read
Speaking of good mental health, if you haven’t read “Out of the Pocket,” the book that Kirk Herbstreit wrote with Gene Wojciechowski, you are missing a revealing, informative book about life as a college football player and as a member of the ESPN College GameDay team. The highs are there, but the book is at its best when Herbstreit discusses the lows. He struggled growing up. He struggled as a quarterback at Ohio State. He didn’t dab makeup on his scars. Turns out Herbstreit is a human being like the rest of us. That’s the most redeeming quality of the book.
