Forgive us if we're too loud.

"So forgive us if we’re too loud. It’s hot here.

We may not win.

But we love the way we live and

We are LSU."

-Matthew J. Wynne

Alas, football season is upon us again. It's the first time in four years that I'm not excitedly clutching my precious student tickets, planning out my attack of the student gates early tomorrow morning to ensure I get a seat close enough to spit on the field. I'm a little bit sad, just that I won't be sitting with 93,000 of my closest friends cheering on my boys in the greatest stadium in the nation. Man, that LSU football just gets in your blood, right? I know it's in mine. What is it about 12 guys on a field tossing a weird shaped ball back back and forth that just gets us so pumped? I'll never understand it, and I'm okay with that. But I just love LSU. Even with the scandal surrounding the 2011 season, that place is my Alma Mater and I will hold it close to my heart for the rest of my life.

You want to find someone passionate about LSU {or the south in general}? You should meet my friend Matt. That kid loves the Ole War Skule more than anyone I've ever met. And it's not necessarily in an obnoxious, overly-vocal, painting your face purple and gold, rub-you-the-wrong-way way {although he does/has done all of those things}. Matt loves LSU in the most eloquent, deep way I've ever experienced. Every now & then he posts these awesome facebook notes that make you nod and amen and remember just how much you love LSU {and also make you wish he'd start a blog...cough, cough.} So with his permission, here's a couple of my favorite excerpts:

"Moreover, I recognized a feeling deep down in my gut, something I’ve felt in so many cathedral-like stadiums. I closed my eyes, and the familiar thoughts sent me rushing months into the future, longing for a tailgate that ascends from simmer to burn, for the chills that always come in the moments before kickoff, for the comfort of hearing the breezes rustling the campus oaks after the game is finished. My mind took me back to a stadium. It was only April, but I longed for September."

-Cheers from Baton Rouge

"I’m still the same guy though. Still the same kid who, at 9 years old, decided I wanted to go to LSU after watching us beat #1 Florida. I never even applied anywhere else. Other people might’ve had other plans, but not me. It was always LSU. I knew it was always going to be like this. People might think it’s kind of silly to have a dream just to go to a certain school. But those same people probably don’t understand me or the people I have met and grown to love here. Some days I’d just be working in Tiger Stadium and I’d hear the chimes sound from across campus. I always stopped what I was doing just to listen to that beautiful sound. For the past four and a half years the chimes have rung out for me, ticking away hour after hour of the best years of my life. This is a wonderful place that can get in your blood and stay there forever. LSU isn't just my team or my school...it’s my soul."

-Farewell, Ole War Skule

"I love seeing other students sporting khakis and an SEC haircut and realizing our fathers looked just like that a quarter of a century ago. Then there are those special nights in Death Valley. I love how it brings people together like no other time of year. Just wearing the right colors incites strangers to toss you cold drinks like ten-yard slants. How it can make you feel so close to so many people all at once. And somehow the relationships are still special with the people you only see at tailgates seven days out of the year. No amount of time or distance the rest of the year can separate those special bonds that happen during the lunacy of the fall. We are all one family held together with purple and gold glue, just trying to have a good time and forget all the negative things that have affected our lives and our state. Sure, tomorrow we’ll crawl back into the concrete jungle we live in, but today…we are immortal."

-Cheers from Baton Rouge

You get him started on LSU and the kid writes like Shakespeare. But I guess that's what happens when you're truly passionate about something. His writing gives me goosebumps every time and has brought me to tears more than once. I like to think he's expressing what the rest of us don't always have the words to say. That we know it's a little crazy, but we just love this place.

Geaux Tigas!

{Another good read on LSU is this article, if you're not LSU'd out yet.}