Five Years of Saturdays Feed My Soul: My Journey Through College Football
- Gareth Evans
- Apr 12
- 5 min read
It all started with a question: "Why aren't I brave enough to follow my passion and start writing?".
Five years ago, with lockdown in full swing and time on my hands, I decided to stop procrastinating and answer that question by launching Saturdays Feed My Soul.
This started as a blog that’s grown from a simple idea into a full platform for my escape into analysis, storytelling, and discovering traditions within college football. I wanted to dig into a game that, while thousands of miles away, had completely captivated me. Not just the plays or the scores, but everything around it—the rivalries, the rituals, the pageantry, and the people.
Five years ago, in the first article I ever posted, "Where It All Starts", I wrote: “This is my journey, from across the pond, into the American college football phenomenon contested in front of colourful, partisan crowds, either on hot southern Saturday afternoons in the SEC and Big 12 or on blizzards in the ACC, Big 10 and Pac-12. Those Saturdays feed my soul.”
That piece laid the foundation for what I hope this blog will become: a home for anyone—especially fans like me inside and outside the U.S.—who finds themselves obsessed with college football for reasons they can’t quite explain.
"College football to me was almost like a secret, multidimensional sheet under the blanket of the NFL. Teams wear bright colours, have crazy fans and nicknames like the Longhorns, Tar Heels, Spartans and Crimson Tide. The more I learned, the more I became hooked. It was exhilarating to watch."
Covering College Football, From Traditions and Interviews to the NFL Draft
Over the last five years, I've explored iconic traditions from Paul Bunyan’s Axe—“the prize for the winner of this (Wisconsin vs. Minnesota) great rivalry, a six-foot long axe, the handle of which records the winner of each contest”—to the beautifully bizarre Wreck Tech Pajama Parade, an annual reminder of one of the greatest pranks in college football. I've always believed the culture around the game is just as important as what happens between the lines.
One of the most satisfying aspects has been the interviews. Speaking with former players, college football professionals, analysts, and fellow fans has added a richness to the blog I never anticipated.
My first interview gave me the chance to talk to Chuck McDonald, Lead Game Producer for FOX Sports College Football. The opportunity to pick the brains of a man who had been immersed in college football for twenty-five years was almost too good to be true. His love of the game was inspiring and he shared his love of the great traditions and rivalries and what it was like to work with the late, great John Madden as a producer in the NFL.
I've been fortunate to spend time speaking to Daniel Shirley, Senior College Football Editor for The Athletic on a few occasions. Daniel has been so generous with his time and kind enough to join me on a few occasions, discussing headlines of the season, mock drafts and sharing some writing tips.
For a man who loves watching The Masters, has been to the Indy 500 and baseball playoff games, he confessed that "there's nothing better in my sporting life that I've been to than walking on a college football campus." His enthusiasm is boundless and he's also been both co-host and more recently a guest on the Across The Pond College Football podcast, which I'll get to shortly.
Donnie Fletcher’s journey, for instance, from Glenville High School to Boston College to the NFL, stands out. Reminiscing about a game-winning interception against Notre Dame, a team that tried to recruit him, he told me: “I haven't felt that feeling, I don't think ever in life, to be able to be in that moment at that time on national television against this team. It was an overwhelming experience”. It’s those human stories that give the sport so much of its meaning.
And then there’s The NFL Draft. Every spring I’ve pulled together my notes and tried to break down which players could translate to the next level in mock drafts. It’s like trying to read tea leaves—except the leaves run 4.4 second 40-yard dashes and bench 225lbs like it’s nothing.
Speaking to college football analysts like Ian Cummings, then NFL Draft Analyst for Pro Football Network, showed me the level of detail and framework he adheres to in examining the different traits of players in specific positions. The forensic level of process and science he applies to draft analysis was eye opening.
Watching College Football in Person
There is nothing better than writing about something you've witnessed or experienced first hand. Having fed my appetite watching the URI Rams in an exchange year at the University of Rhode Island and then a game at Virginia Tech years ago, which inspired the article "Skipper", I've since been able to travel to the U.S. and experience SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten football in person, and write about it.
Saturdays Feed My Soul has now featured in-person write-ups of some fantastic games my wife Amy and I attended on a fantastic trip to Texas where we mingled with passionate fans at ESPN's College Gameday, before watching Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide narrowly defeat the Texas Longhorns in Austin. A week later, we were in College Station, home of Texas A&M, watching the Aggies and the famous "12th Man" beat the Miami Hurricanes. Both games were played in front of over 105,000 fans. Incredible.
Experiencing college football at the Rose Bowl, watching a very good Oregon team beat UCLA was a bucket list item ticked, and we hope to make more memories with a planned trip to Alabama and Ole Miss later this year.
Following My Dream
I never set out to create a brand or grow a following. I just wanted to write about something I loved, from my point of view, and finally do what I dreamed of. Starting Saturdays Feed My Soul has also led to co-hosting a podcast, Across The Pond College Football, thanks to James Scott, who gave me that break to initially present with Rebecca, then Daniel and now Tony Boston, who is great fun to present with. A massive thanks to him too for him and Kayla for continuing to back the podcast.
I've also now become a paid freelance writer, thanks to the College Sports Network who have given me the opportunity to contribute articles in my spare time and continue learning the art of becoming a proper writer.
Over five years, Saturdays Feed My Soul has become more than a blog. It’s become part of a community of people who love this entertaining sport. It’s people who tune into the “Across the Pond” podcast each week. It’s readers who spend their time reading my articles, send emails or write comments saying they've related to or enjoyed something I written. Most importantly, it's become an essential part of my life, that I have to find time for.
What I’ve learned is that college football isn’t just an American thing. It’s a universal story played out in stadiums and talked about in bars, articles and on podcasts and television screens. It’s about belonging. And whether you're in Austin, Texas, Blacksburg, Virginia or Twickenham, England, you can feel that.
Looking Ahead
The game is changing. NIL, conference realignment, AI in recruitment—college football’s next five years will look very different from the last. And Saturdays Feed My Soul will keep evolving too.
But some things won’t change. I’ll still write about obscure traditions. I’ll still spotlight voices from across the game. And yes, I’ll still overthink the Draft every April.
Thanks for being part of the ride so far. Here's to what’s next—and to another five years of letting college football, and Saturdays, especially, feed our souls.
— Gareth Evans
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