One of the many reasons I love college football

No - this is not about the Gators whipping up on Hawaii on Saturday! Though as a side note, I will officially go on the record and say that Tim Tebow will not win back to back Heisman's but I believe the Gators will be playing for the National Championship in Miami this year.

What I saw last night, late into the night is what separates college football from the NFL. The pure passion and enthusiasm of the kids playing the game and the coaches coaching these kids.

In case you missed it, last night Tennessee traveled to Los Angeles to play UCLA and their new Head Coach Rick Neuheisel, who happened to have once starred as the QB at UCLA. In his first season as coach, Neuheisel has seen his top 2 QB's go down with season ending injuries before they could ever take a snap, so they have turned to a kid who transferred from a smaller program. Last night they were up against a very good and aggressive Tennessee Defense and in the first half the young QB showed that he was overmatched, throwing for 4 interceptions. Asked at halftime what he told his young QB, Neuheisel said that he threw 4 interceptions in his first game too but things turned out ok. The second half was a complete turnaround and the kid led UCLA on a go ahead drive with 6 minutes left in the game. In what turned out to be a spectacular last 5 minutes, Tennessee had a great drive of their own to retake the lead with about 2 minutes to go. Out comes the UCLA offense again and what do they do? Drive the ball down Tennessee's throat through the AIR and grab a 3 point lead with 27 seconds to go. Of course, the story does not end there, Tennessee finds a way to get in field goal range and they send the game to overtime. It's almost 11:30 last night and I am exhausted but here I am, rooting for the 'wrong' guys. Every fiber in my body says I should be rooting for the SEC and the team we play in 2 weeks but I just can't do it. The story of this kid and the coach are too compelling for me. In the end, UCLA wins and the celebration was awesome to see.

It was the sort of game that no team 'deserved' to lose but someone had to. It was also what college athletics are all about. You will never see that passion on a professional football field or in the stands.

Clemson fans are probably wondering what it will take to get their coaches to draw that kind of passion from their kids (OUCH!)