For the uninitiated, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Kansas State and Iowa State at the Aviva Stadium might not be the most consequential sporting event you’ve never heard of.
It’s the first game of what is known as “Week 0” of the College Football season in the US. Week 0 is Schrödinger’s schedule, a slate of games which both are and aren’t the official curtain-raisers. Week 1, next week, is the first full Saturday of action in the new season.
Last year’s Florida State v Georgia Tech clash in Dublin had five million American fans tuning in via ESPN as Georgia upset the odds to take the Waterford crystal Aer Lingus College Football Classic trophy back to the Peach State.
For Irish fans heading along to see what all of this fuss is about, here are a few pointers to aid your enjoyment of the occasion.
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College football fans go all-in
In American college sports alumni are ride-or-die behind their alma mater. The 22,000 fans from Kansas and Iowa will be passionate, noisy and will fill the Aviva Stadium – not to mention pubs from Temple Bar to Lansdowne Road – with team chants, songs, colour and craic for the entire game day (and beyond).
This game is kind of a big deal
Kansas State and Iowa are rivals. This is a derby game between mid-western states known for their agricultural output, hence the tagline “Farmageddon”.
They play in the Big 12 conference (something akin to provincial championships in the GAA). The winner of the Big 12 advances to the College Football playoffs to have a chance of winning the National Championship.
Iowa State lost the Big 12 Championship Game last year and missed out on the playoffs. They want to go one better and Kansas State badly want to stop them.
Yes it is ‘stop start’ and you’ll have to buckle in for more than three hours
Even American Football zealots among us have to accept the charge traditionally levelled at the game by the pigskin-phobic. There is an awful lot of waiting around between the fleeting moments of high-octane action.
The average College Football game lasts 3 hours 24 minutes. That includes stoppages in play after the ball goes dead, a 20 minute half-time break, timeouts which both teams are permitted to call and scheduled commercial breaks agreed in advance with broadcasters.
You’ll see around 175 plays crammed in to the 60 minutes of official game time, some of which may only last two to three seconds.
Come for the spectacle, and you’ll stay for the sport
The good news is that College Football teams are past masters at keeping fans engaged between plays.
You’ll experience plenty of razzmatazz at the Aviva with marching bands, acrobats, cheerleaders and other delightfully American sideline diversions including the T-shirt cannon.
You’re rolling your eyes even thinking about it now, but wait till you feel the bass drum reverberate in your chest when the marching bands going and watch yourself transform into a rabid free merch hunter when the first T-shirt flies towards your section of the crowd.
Don’t sweat the small stuff
It takes time to become accustomed to the rhythm of American Football. There’s a lot of detail and arcane language to absorb which, initially, seems impenetrable.
But you don’t need to know what it means when K-State quarterback Avery Johnson is in shotgun on third down with trips right and Dylan Edwards in motion in the backfield.
There will be phenomenal athletes on show, including Johnson and Edwards, two of the most eye-catching players in College Football right now. Iowa State’s quarterback Rocco Becht and running back Carson Hansen are among those expected to do big things on the other side.
In short
The TLDR version is this: The big guys crouching on the line of scrimmage (where the ball is placed to start each play) go to war.
The offense is the team in possession of the ball until they either score, advance 10 yards within the four plays (downs) allowed, turn the ball over, or kick it back to the other team. Their big guys are trying to buy time for their quarterback (the one who takes possession of the ball to start every play).
The defense’s big units want to get to the other team’s quarterback to bury him in the dirt before he can get rid of the ball. The rest is an explosive cocktail of near Olympic-level running, leaping, catching, sidestepping and bone-crunching tackling you will feel right up in Row W.
Drink it in!
