Happy finals season everyone! Do not worry, you are not alone. Everyone is stressed out and cramming last minute assignments and if they say they aren’t, then they are lying to you. It’ll all be okay, we (hopefully) all will make it to the other side and be back home for Winter Break sooner rather than later.
Winter Break brings on bowl season for college football that will scatter 39 games across a three week span, but more importantly, the College Football Playoff will be here Dec. 30. The match ups are #1 Alabama vs. #4 Oklahoma and #2 Clemson vs. #3 Notre Dame with the winners playing in the National Championship. People have penciled in Alabama and Clemson to meet for the third time in four years in the National Championship, but not so fast. While I believe Clemson will handle Notre Dame with ease, I think Alabama is in some trouble when they line up against Kyler Murray and his Sooners of Oklahoma. In order to beat Alabama, a team needs a dynamic quarterback and some luck, just look back to Johnny Manziel and DeShaun Watson. The more amazing part about Murray is not that he is a Heisman finalist, but rather that he was the 9th overall selection in the 2018 MLB Draft. He signed with the Oakland Athletics for $4.66 million and will begin his professional baseball career at the conclusion of the football season. The real question: will Oklahoma’s defense be able to force a turnover or two against fellow Heisman Finalist, Tua Tagovailoa and the Crimson Tide offense? I am banking that they will and somehow Oklahoma pulls the upset to advance to the title game against Clemson. Once again, Oklahoma will have a tall task against the Clemson defense, but I’ll take Kyler Murray over freshman Trevor Lawrence and Oklahoma will be National Champions. Boomer Sooner, baby!!
Switching gears now as I finish up my last week or so here at Virginia Wesleyan, it’s been quite a ride and I could not be more grateful for all the opportunities that I have been afforded to being a student-athlete here at VWU. Also being able to have a space to share my thoughts with people through this column with The Marlin Chronicle has been awesome for me to jot down some of what goes on in my head in the world of sports whether five people read it or 100 people read it, I’m just happy that (hopefully) someone found my thoughts entertaining over the last year or so. I think VWU is at a great place right now and is only going to continue to grow as a whole, although it will be nice when the campus reaches the day when there is no construction going on! I am headed back home to Massachusetts, but I know I will always have a home in Virginia Beach to come back to. I am also looking forward to where Marlin Athletics is going with the success of the women’s soccer and softball teams, and with baseball on the rise looking to make back to back NCAA tournament appearances. Being around all the teams in my 3.5 years here has been awesome, I know how hard all the student-athletes work and to see them succeed on the court and field in the upcoming years is going to be awesome.
To my Marlin Chronicle family of past and present, thank you for all the laughs and stressful deadline nights we’ve shared, I’m definitely going to miss it! Keep up the good work. Till next time, Virginia Wesleyan.
Luke Chiasson
lachiasson@vwu.edu