I just wanted to give those of you that have visited OFD over the last few months a quick update on where I intend to go with this thing heading into the season. Taking my college football habit to the next level by turning it into this little project has been several years in the making. For those of you that might be interested in how I got to be such a huge college football fan in the first place my profile at the bottom of the right side bar pretty much sums it up. The short version is that I got an early start and that interest has continued with me as an adult. For the last several years I have participated in what can only be described as a never ending discussion about college football with a small group of friends and family. We have all scattered about the country over the years and as a result that discussion naturally migrated to e-mail. After establishing myself as the primary crusher of inboxes in that group I finally just decided to launch OFD and post all of my two cents here in the event anyone else might be interested in reading it.
I had a good idea what I wanted to do as far as content, but I expected to encounter a relatively steep learning curve when it came to actually building the thing. I did a little homework on the front side, but I generally think the best way to learn something is to go MJ style and "Just Do It" so that is what I did. I am also a big fan of learning everything that you can from those that came before you which I did to the max extent possible. I am very appreciative of all the other bloggers that answered my questions and threw me other advice along the way. Those questions were fielded by several of the bloggers linked on the right sidebar. I particularly owe Subway Domer some beers for all of his advice and assistance. My goal going in was to start this up after the season ended with the hope that by the time this summer rolled around I could focus more on posting and less on what I think of as "maintenance" heading into the season itself. So far I’m okay with how that is progressing. There will probably be some minor aesthetic changes in the next few months and the blogroll on the right side bar will remain a work in progress as I continue to make new acquaintances.
As for the content itself it has generally been in line with what I anticipated it would be going in. Is OFD a Notre Dame Football blog or a college football blog? What I’m shooting for is a little of both. I prefer to think of it as a college football blog with a heavy Notre Dame emphasis. Does it really matter? I’m one of those college football fans that likes to get 2 TV’s fired up on Saturday then attempt to watch every game that comes on. The only exception there is that once the Irish kick off that becomes my sole focus for that three to four (NBC) hour period. I also tend to DVR the ND games so that I can re-watch them during the week. My wife particularly enjoys that practice by the way. Thus far my posts on OFD have followed a similar format. I really enjoy college football in general and like talking about everyone, but being an ND fan I tend to get more into the weeds when it comes to the Irish. Going forward I plan to continue that trend. Whether that comes out to be a 40/60, 50/50, 60/40 split I’m not 100% certain yet but I expect it will fall somewhere within that range just depending on what else I find interesting at any given time and how well I’m able to juggle all of it with the time I have available to comment on it.
Over the next couple of months I’ll try and finish up some more "maintenance" and continue to comment here and there on whatever I find interesting in this dead period that exists between the end of spring practice and Phil Steele Day. I will also be moving Team Whiskey to Northern Virginia this June after a long stint in Pac-10 country. I’ll take a short break around the move and come back up for air with a comprehensive preseason look around the country on the back side. Once the season kicks off I plan to talk about all the big games each week (the ND game is a given), participate in the IBG with Subway Domer and crew, and "The week in news" will continue to be a catch all place for me to comment on the random things going on around the country. In addition I’m always up for experiencing game day in new places so I’m in the process of working out plans to check out a couple of ACC venues, in addition to making a trip back to South Bend. Bowl plans are TBD at this point but I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to catch at least one or two of those as well. Any time I’m going to be in the stands somewhere I’ll have plenty to say about the experience both before and after.
Thanks again to everyone that has visited thus far and I hope you keep stopping by to see what’s going on. As per usual feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email any time.