Photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice

Up until a few months ago, the only Ziggy I knew was a persona created by David Bowie. Turns out the real Ziggy doesn’t play guitar. He plays football.

Georgia Tech cheerleader. Photo by Jeff Benedict

I’m on a downtown street corner in Atlanta, about a block from historic Bobby Dodd Stadium. It’s Saturday afternoon, sunny and warm. Mormons from all over Georgia are heading to the BYU-Georgia Tech game.

Washington State football coach Mike Leach (Photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice)

I’m writing this post from the air. It’s a Sunday morning and I’m on a plane from Spokane to Seattle. Last night I was in Pullman for the Cal-Washington State game. It ended at 11:09 p.m. Pacific Time. By then every other college football game in America was over. This game was last, making for a very late night in the land of wheat fields and cattle ranches.

T. Boone Pickens (courtesy of T. Boone Pickens)

I spent the weekend with T. Boone Pickens, one of the wealthiest men in America. He made his fortune in oil and gas. Nobody knows energy like Boone.

But the college football world knows him as the booster who made the largest single gift to an NCAA athletic program in American history – $165 million to Oklahoma State back in 2005. The money built the finest facilities in the country and helped propel Oklahoma State to one of the best teams in the country last year.

Fall is here and I’m writing a book about college football. That means practically every weekend I’m in some college town taking in a game. Last weekend I was in Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus. Rival BYU was in the house, amidst a sea of red t-shirts that said things like: “I freaking hate BYU.”

This story is about overcoming.

Last week I was in Utah, profiling Mike Leach, the head coach at Washington State University. His team kicked off the college football season on ESPN against BYU in Provo. They got beat 30-6. Tough start. But you can’t keep a good man down.