Orange Bowl Champions
It goes without saying that I am simultaneously relieved and thrilled to have survived a tenacious Florida State effort to win the Orange Bowl in 3 overtimes. I was pretty tapped out by the 1 A.M. victorious kick, and far too pent up with tension to go to sleep anytime soon after that.

For those who didn't watch, it was a tough road from the opening kick. In terms of painful attrition, we lost our 1,000-yard rusher, Tony Hunt, on the first offensive play of the game, and later on lost our Butkus award-winning (i.e., the best linebacker in college) player, Paul Posluszny, early in the fourth quarter. Florida State scored 13 points in 80 seconds in the second quarter, and we had to rally to score with 11 seconds left to edge up by one. The third quarter was a tense field-position battle, culminating with our safety to start the 4th. Four kicks were missed between the end of regulation and the 3rd overtime, until our boy finally got it through the upright. An emotionally draining experience, I'm ready to take the knee for a few months.