For what it's worth, the whole Mora departure, player opt out saga has left me feeling disconnected from the team. The butt whooping at Fenway didn't matter because it really wasn't a butt whooping of the team that I followed all season. The departures now don't matter. The recruiting and commitments do matter, but at this point, I just don't care that much about them.
In a way, that's a good thing because the Candle era will start with a clean slate. Unburdened by the expectations of the two prior seasons. I'd love to see Cam back, but I'm not expecting it to happen. I'm also not expecting it not to happen. I just don't care.
For me at least, part of what makes college football enjoyable is the continuity and watching guys develop year to year, watching guys who played together become a unit. In this era of de facto free agency, where every year you've practically got a new team, it's just harder to care. Don't get me wrong, I'll be all in and watch Coach Candle build his team. If they are successful, I'm sure I'll get sucked in.
But here's the difference, if they aren't successful, well, at least as of today, I don't care very much. It used to be that are bad seasons made me miserable. I'd still watch the games, but they were actually unpleasant to sit there and power through. Again, as of today, I just don't care. Effectively the powers that be have gutted everything about college football that made it great and unique and have left us with a watered down semi pro league.
That's where I'm at right now. We'll see what happens as the team comes together.