Has any regular season game in recent memory meant as much to the program as the one that awaits us on Saturday night?
The train is derailed. It can be put back on track, but it sits perilously close to the edge of a Kliff. Lose to Tech, and the season is headed south.
As dramatic as that sounds, Hog fans can be forgiven a little apocalyptic ranting. After all, the last three years have seen us weather a ride not recommended for children under 14 or those with heart conditions.
Remembering, faintly perhaps, that this is just college football after all, a simple game played by teenagers and young men, and that the results of one game shouldn't send anyone into a tailspin of clinical depression and all-out media boycotts.