ACC Kickoff: I’m learning so much about football!

What are you thinking? It’s the question of the day at the types of events, like the 2019 ACC Kickoff, that I’m working this week.

Uh, I dunno.

Seriously, I don’t. Know.

What, you’re expecting insight, because I stood a few feet away from a coach and two of his players and heard them talk about their teams?

Everybody is 0-0 and full of hope. Even the new guy at Louisville, Scott Satterfield, fresh from App State, thinks he can motivate his team into doing something special.

I did like how Satterfield conceded that he hadn’t watched game tape from Louisville from last season, because it was pretty bad.

Last season was last season. Immaterial. Like that approach.

That kind of optimism permeates preseason sports events like the Kickoff.

Anybody can catch lightning in a bottle, and not just the athletes and coaches.

I’m typing this column in a media workroom full of grizzled veterans who should know better, flanked by young upstarts who think themselves the next Ring Lardner.

OK, they don’t know who this Ring Lardner is, but anyway, they assume they’re a few keystrokes away from dropping Woj Bombs.

Radio row, just around the corner, is populated by the Next Jim Rome, the Next Dan Le Batard, reality check, though, and they’re really just Current Working Second Jobs to Pay Rent Because This Radio Gig Pays Bupkus.

But, hey, maybe they get Dave Clawson to say something witty that gets the attention of a blogger at Deadspin, and they’re on their way.

Maybe Clawson gets his roster of two- and three-stars to line up right against Clemson, and Wake goes back to the Orange Bowl.

Stranger things have happened.

I admire the optimism, even if I don’t precisely share it myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m having loads of fun.

I just don’t think I’m actually learning anything about the upcoming football season that I will be able to impart to the folks back home.

OK, I did learn, last night, that the Two Bryces – Perkins and Hall – are ubercompetitive. I watched them play cornhole against each other for more than an hour, unwilling, or unable, to concede to the other that the other was the better man.

At throwing beanbags into a hole.

That kind of thing may just translate to the field, and make Virginia the favorite in the Coastal.

Mark that down.

If you’ll excuse me, then, I’ve got more coaches and players to stand in front of to listen to.

Column by Chris Graham