Ah, do you smell those juicy burgers sizzling on the grill, the aroma mingling with the smoky scent of barbecue ribs on the Big Green Egg at the tailgate across the way?

Can you see the team flags fluttering in the breeze and the kids tossing the football across the parking lot?

Can you feel that rush of excitement and anticipation coursing through your veins?

Can you hear the sound of old friends laughing and clinking beer bottles together to toast a new season? Hey, Madge, can you dig down deep in that cooler and get me one of those cold Miller Lites?

Yes, it’s that time of year once again; time to spread the gridiron gaiety and sing our own sports version of that classic Christmas carol — “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

“There’ll be rivals for beating,

No more Jim Harbaugh cheating,

And 12 playoff teams!

Nick Saban’s retired,

Will Napier be fired?

Which transfer QB is what he seems?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!!”

At long last, football season is here again with Florida State kicking off the college schedule against Georgia Tech in a Week Zero game Saturday in Ireland. UCF kicks off its season next Thursday night against New Hampshire while Florida and Miami will play a pivotal season-opener next Saturday in the Swamp.

The first NFL Sunday is Sept. 8 with the Jacksonville Jaguars going to South Florida to play the Miami Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Bucs hosting the Washington Commanders.

With football season upon us, you know what that means, right? It means it’s time once again for our studio audience to ask questions and seek the sage advice from the “Oracle of Oblong” — better known as the proficient, profound, prophetic Professor Pigskin.

Studio Audience: Professor, first of all, I’d like to give you your props. You picked Florida State to win the national championship last year and, although it didn’t happen, how were you supposed to know that the Seminoles would get robbed by the College Football Playoff Committee? So kudos on that prediction. However, you also picked the Jacksonville Jaguars to win the Super Bowl, and they didn’t even make the playoffs.

Professor Pigskin: Hey, doctors bury their mistakes; I only print mine. Who knew the Jags would fold up like a cheap umbrella at the end of the season? And, plus, I may have just been a year early on that Jags pick. Stay tuned.

SA: Besides the Florida-Miami opener, what other rivalries involving state schools are you most looking forward to — UCF-Florida, FSU-Miami or maybe FSU-Florida?

PP: It’s not even close. I can’t wait for the renewal of the budding rivalry that started last year between FSU’s attorneys and the ACC attorneys in the classic “Grant-of-Rights Grudge in the Sludge.” I’m also looking forward to the matchup between Billy Napier’s lawyers and Jaden Rashada’s lawyers in the inaugural NIL Litigation Bowl.

SA: Speaking of Napier, do you think he can finally lead the Gators to a winning record and save his job?

PP: The Gators have a schedule that’s tougher than trying to fold a fitted sheet. As I’ve said before, I think UF has an eight-win roster with a five-win schedule. I’ll split the difference and say the Gators go 6-6 and Napier is given one more year to prove he can turn the Gators into contenders.

SA: What about UCF? Will Gus Malzahn right the ship after suffering his first losing season as a head coach during the Knights’ inaugural season in the Big 12?

PP: Not only will the Gus Bus get cranked up and start rolling again, but beastly quarterback KJ Jefferson will be a Heisman contender by season’s end. The Knights will go 9-3.

SA: Jefferson will be a Heisman candidate? Professor, I realize you interviewed Ricky Williams recently, but have you also been partaking in Ricky’s new cannabis brand — Highsman? You must be stoned out of your gourd if you think KJ has a chance to win the Heisman.

PP: As the great Carnac the Magnificent might say, “May your Wi-Fi signal be weaker than a Natty Light at an IPA convention.”

SA: Well, let’s move on. I’m assuming you’re predicting Florida State will win the ACC again this season?

PP: Au contraire, mon frère. The ’Noles will take a slight step back this season and finish 10-2 while the Miami Hurricanes will be ACC champs for the first time since they joined the league exactly 20 years ago.

SA: What? Are you saying ‘The U’ is finally back?

PP: I didn’t say that. I said they’d win the ACC, which is akin to picking a hungry dog to win a battle with a piece of bacon that just fell on the floor. From top to bottom, the Almost Competitive Conference is the weakest of the Power 4 leagues.

SA: How do you think the Jaguars, Buccaneers and Dolphins will do this year?

PP: I think they’re all going to win their divisions, and not only that, I think the Bucs will play the Detroit Lions in the NFC championship game and the Jaguars will play the Chiefs in the AFC championship game. And then, just as I predicted last year, it’ll be the Jags and the Lions in the Super Bowl and the Jags will bring the Vince Lombardi Trophy back to Duuuval!

SA: The Vince Lombardi Trophy in Jacksonville? Isn’t that like hanging the Mona Lisa in the Yeehaw Junction Waffle House?

SA: OK, Professor, before you go, it’s become a tradition for you to give us your Rodney Dangerfield public-service announcement as you do every year before the season begins. Do you mind?

PP: Of course not! This is for all you fans out there who will be attending football games this fall. As you’re tailgating, don’t overindulge, don’t get too intoxicated, don’t drink and drive, and don’t be like Rodney Dangerfield, who, before he died, posed for the cover of the annual Orlando Sentinel football preview section in 2004.

“I drink way too much,” Rodney told us back then. “The last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it.”

SA: Thanks, Professor Piggy. One final request: Can you sing us another verse of your song?

PP: Absolutely! Everybody sing along now! …

“Conference realignment’s emerging,

Yet Georgia’s still surging,

And Coach Prime is still brash!

Players rising and falling,

The portal is calling,

With NIL cash!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!!”