2008 Woodie Awards
Thursday Night Lights
Amado Ortiz
Issue date: 9/1/05 Section: Sports
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Football is king in the deep-south and no one knows that more than the state of Alabama. Tonight's season opener has all the ingredients for a major motion picture. The game can easily be coined Thursday Night Lights in honor of H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.
Just like Bissinger's book turned into a major film, the Gamecocks are hoping their season opener turns out exactly according to the script.
Paul Snow stadium will be the setting of a highly anticipated thriller show-down between the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and the Furman Paladins in the season opener for both teams.
The game will be televised by College Sports Television and DirectTV (channel 610) and both teams have been picked to win their respective league. Furman (Southern Conference) comes in ranked second in the preseason Sports Network Division I-AA football poll and earned 21 first place votes and JSU (Ohio Valley Conference) is ranked 20th respectively.
The plot thickened after the Gamecocks were beaten by the Paladins in the first round of the playoffs last year 49-7. ""Furman is a tremendous challenge for us. They had a poor game when they played James Madison or they would have won the national championship, said Head Coach Jack Crowe. "
JSU hopes that the home-field advantage will make the difference in the rematch. The Gamecocks replaced Paul Snow's natural playing surface with an artificial playing surface by ProGrass.
The Gamecocks also will debut new look uniforms to go with the new playing surface. The road white jerseys feature red stripes in the sleeves and the red numbers are outlined in black. The home red jerseys feature white stripes in the sleeves and the white numbers are out-lined in black.
"We felt like the students our a big part of this program," said Athletic Director Jim Fuller. "The students asked for a Thursday night game so we wanted to accommodate the students."
Just like Bissinger's book turned into a major film, the Gamecocks are hoping their season opener turns out exactly according to the script.
Paul Snow stadium will be the setting of a highly anticipated thriller show-down between the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and the Furman Paladins in the season opener for both teams.
The game will be televised by College Sports Television and DirectTV (channel 610) and both teams have been picked to win their respective league. Furman (Southern Conference) comes in ranked second in the preseason Sports Network Division I-AA football poll and earned 21 first place votes and JSU (Ohio Valley Conference) is ranked 20th respectively.
The plot thickened after the Gamecocks were beaten by the Paladins in the first round of the playoffs last year 49-7. ""Furman is a tremendous challenge for us. They had a poor game when they played James Madison or they would have won the national championship, said Head Coach Jack Crowe. "
JSU hopes that the home-field advantage will make the difference in the rematch. The Gamecocks replaced Paul Snow's natural playing surface with an artificial playing surface by ProGrass.
The Gamecocks also will debut new look uniforms to go with the new playing surface. The road white jerseys feature red stripes in the sleeves and the red numbers are outlined in black. The home red jerseys feature white stripes in the sleeves and the white numbers are out-lined in black.
"We felt like the students our a big part of this program," said Athletic Director Jim Fuller. "The students asked for a Thursday night game so we wanted to accommodate the students."