LIVINGSTON – ‘Patience is a virtue’ is a phrase that has been traced as far back as the year 1377 and poet William Langland. It is also said to be one of the ‘Seven Heavenly Virtues’.

The thing is … Will Hall doesn’t like to wait.

“We are starting the season a week later than everybody else, so we have really had to be patient, which is hard for us,” Hall said. “We are an extremely impatient program. To have to sit and wait that extra week has been hard.

“We reported on August 11 and we are just now getting to play, so we are almost a month into this thing before the first game,” Hall said. “Still, I believe that will give us energy and effort come Saturday.”

Given that teams often take on the personality of their coach, it goes without saying that Hall’s team probably isn’t a very patient group either, but it is a group with 21 seniors and 44 upperclassmen that have been around long enough to find a silver lining behind most dark clouds.

“Sure, we wanted to be playing last week, but at the same time the extra week gave us an opportunity to get better as a team. I know we got better as a defense,” senior safety Robert Jones said. “You know what they say, offense sells tickets and defense wins championships.”

Usually an extra week means extra time to prepare, but Hall and his staff aren’t exactly sure what they are preparing for since the Panthers have a new coaching staff in 2013. Things that happened in last season’s 44-0 victory over CAU aren’t of much value this time around.

“Since they are a new coaching staff and it’s the season opener there is limited preparation because you aren’t really sure what they are going to do,” Hall said. “It’s like walking into a dark room and then somebody flips the light on.

“You don’t really know your surroundings until that light switch is flipped on,” Hall said. “We know they are going to play with 11 players on each side of the ball because that is the rule, but we don’t know much past that.”

Kick off for Saturday’s game is set for 11 a.m. at Tiger Stadium on the UWA campus. The game will be televised by GSC-TV LIVE Network, which includes ESPN3, CSS, CST and MediaCom outlets.

ESPN 104.9 and www.espn1049.com will carry the radio broadcast with James Hardy and Hunter Gibson calling the action. Tickets are available by calling (205) 652-3784 or by going to www.uwaathletics.com and clicking on the ‘Ticket’ tab.