Ahhh, can you feel it in the air? It's time for football and area teams are all geared up for their season openers this weekend.

As if to give us another reminder Mother Nature put a bit of a chill in the air last week just to get us all in the right frame of mind. To put it simply, I'm excited. In fact, I'm really excited!

Jacksonville High School will open up, as they have for several years, against Weaver, at Weaver.

Now Weaver has had the upper hand over the Golden Eagles the last few years but I can feel a change coming.

Not only is it the first game of the season and the team is pumped up, but Jacksonville is sporting a big offensive line and they have a fast new quarterback in Jackson Pearson and two big, strong running backs in Cordero Little and Stephen Waters.

The defense isn't too shabby either. Waters will be playing at defensive end along with fellow senior Zach Shadoan who will be playing in his first varsity game. Knox Newell and Randy Wood will be at defensive tackle and the Pearson brothers (Jackson and Forrest) will be handling the defensive end responsibilities. Jack Whaley is hitting harder than ever at safety.

Not only do the Golden Eagles want to start this season out with a win, but there is added incentive adding fuel to the burning fire for an opening game win. It seems that last year, when Weaver opened the season with a win over Jacksonville, one of the Weaver running backs, who I won't name, was interviewed about the win and he said something to the effect of, "the win wasn't that big of a thing because Weaver always beats Jacksonville."

Wow! Let's suffice it to say that some things are better left unsaid because this Eagle team remembers that interview and they are out to prove that they aren't just going to roll over and let Weaver chalk up another "easy" win.

JCA will be on the road to open up at ASD. The Thunder lost some key players to graduation and don't have as many numbers this year but I hear that Matt Crook is doing a good job at quarterback.

Pleasant Valley lost a slew of seniors to graduation last year and will be rebuilding in several key positions. The Raiders will open up against Ohatchee and it should be a good one.

On to JSU. Will the off field problems ever cease? A couple of weeks ago I wrote the JSU football preview that appears in the paper today. Since then, senior quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, on the Walter Payton Award watch list, has been suspended for the first game against Georgia Tech for team violations.

This doesn't help a team mentally prepare for a game when already the team is hurting from having to forego post season play.

Sophomore Marques Ivory will step in at quarterback for the Gamecocks opener.

Head coach Jack Crowe has high expectations for Ivory as he announced at the JSU Media Days that he wants to get Ivory as much playing time this year as possible.

It looks like he is going to get his chance.

JSU's Carnell Clark and Alexander Henderson have been named to the Preseason All-American Team by College Sporting News.

Keep an eye on these guys.