As we enter the month of September, many sights and sounds can be observed and appreciated as Mother Nature prepares for autumn:

Young school children scampering to yellow school buses with lunch boxes in tow; the last month to enjoy the green foliage before the leaves change color in a most beautiful fashion, the sight of new (and old) college couples strolling around Lake Laverne, gazing lovingly into one another’s eyes…ahhh…

Oh, yeah, we forgot one treasured tradition:

Romping, stomping, hard-hitting, in-your-face, tear-your-guts-out-and- leave-’em-on-the-field, smash-mouth, blood-boiling, kick you square in your ass and leave you for dead football!!!

Tomorrow night, our beloved Cyclones take to the newly-minted grass field in Cyclone Stadium against the University of Wyoming. And we will win.

Are you gonna be there? Or is the library calling your name, you weenie?!

This is the year things really turn around for the ”Clones. We know, we know, you’ve heard this one before. Almost every year we’ve heard it, in fact. And we’ve almost always come up short.

We’ve been the laughingstock of the Big Eight. Barry Switzer made fun of our football program not once, but twice on national television during his first year as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. We’ve even had a good laugh at our own expense.

Those days are now gone.

We’ve got Dan McCarney. We’ve got Troy Davis. We’ve got Ed Williams. We’ve got Darren Davis. We’ve got an enthusiastic, young defense ready to cut its teeth on its Big 12 opposition.

There’s only one thing missing: 50,000 screamin’, rantin’, ragin’ cajun, hell-raisin’ scarlet and gold Cyclone fans to ignite the team and inspire absolute football-themed insanity in Ames on Saturday.

It’s the start of a new tradition at ISU: a winning tradition. Are you gonna be there? Do you have what it takes to be there?