Yesterday I headed up to Evanston for the Northwestern – Penn State game at Ryan Field. If you’ve never seen a game at Northwestern I recommend it. It is by far the smallest stadium in the BIG TEN which means you’re going to get much closer to the actual game than in any other stadium. Not to mention tickets to Northwestern games are by far the cheapest and easiest to get.
It was a pretty solid game until the fourth quarter when Penn State’s offense finally clicked with Daryll Clark throwing a 53-yard touchdown pass and Evan Royster breaking a 69-yard touchdown run.
* Side Note:
* Being that it was Halloween Dan went as a Blind Referee:
Yesterday I headed down to Champaign with some friends for the Illinois – Penn State game at Memorial Stadium. Penn State managed to get back on track and win 35-17. I must say it seems like Juice Williams has been playing since Antwaan Randle El graduated from Indiana, seriously… he has to be in grad school at this point.
The weather was wet and cold but not nearly as bad as last year when I was in Champaign. We setup a decent tailgate considering the last minute planning. A good time was had by all.
I traveled to Ohio this weekend for the USC game. As you well know by now the game ended as most recent big time Ohio State games. It was pretty hard to swallow. The game felt like it was in hand the until about five minutes to go. Then, as Texas last year, it slipped away.
I’ve never sat on top of the rotunda near the snipers so that was cool experience. Besides a couple of guys stealing our seats the view was great. There were probably six thousand USC fans in Ohio Stadium and many more on Campus.
There is a precedent for Presidents weighing in on College Football; some successful and disastrous.
1905: Teddy Roosevelt calls Harvard, Yale and Princeton to a White House summit to address the violence in the early game.
1969: Richard Nixon attended to the Texas – Arkansas game and declared the winner the National Champion after the game before the polls were released the next week.
*** Penn State was 22-0 at the time and had just won the Orange Bowl so for the President to ‘declare’ a national champion by presenting a plaque to the Texas team after the game didn’t sit too well with Joe Paterno:
“I don’t understand how Richard Nixon could know so much about college football in 1969 and so little about Watergate in 1973.” Paterno, said in June of 1973.
Here’s to hoping for a playoff, I’m in the plus one category myself.
Today a caravan of people traveled the 2 plus hours to Champaign, IL for the Ohio State – Illinois game. Considering this was the second 11am kickoff in two weeks it was much easier to get up this week than last but that probably had a lot to do with the lack of Cosby Sweaters.
We made it down to Champaign where we utilized Emily’s parents parking spot right across from Memorial Stadium in the “Loyalty Circle”. Our spot was next to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s but it seems the Colonel decided to sit this one out.
The game went about as well as the Northwestern game. Pryor was spot on, Wells’ toe is the only way to tackle him and Ron Zook is a great decision maker.
Our seats were pretty good but as you can see from the pictures we were slightly obstructed by the Illini bench. We had some what of an incident when a bunch of drunk douchebags showed up directly behind us. They were all gun-ho for about 10 minutes and then two of them passed out. About 10 minutes later one of them vomited on themselves.
I adhere to a strict rule when attending sporting events:
If you vomit, you leave.
It’s pretty simple and I believe Civilization hinges on upholding this standard. After telling the guys who were with the offender that he’d have to go they decided otherwise. Nick and I decided that we’d have to get the usher. Needless to say the issue was resolved when the Illinois State Police got involved.
* As a side note this is the second time in as many days that I’ve been at a sporting event where some one has thrown up in the seats behind me.
On Saturday Nick, Emily and I headed up to Evanston for the Ohio State – Northwestern game. The game started kind of slow but Ohio State pulled away early in the third quarter. Terrelle Pryor could consider this his breakout game after some of the touchdown passes he threw. Northwestern’s game planned consists of the Quarterback Draw and the punt.
Saturday night I went to my first football game of the year, Penn State at Wisconsin, I was able to add another notch in my BIG TEN stadium belt by visiting Camp Randal Stadium for the first time. The game was a blow out from the second quarter on as No. 6 Penn State rolled to another victory. The above picture is of Penn State’s Derrick Williams as he returned a punt for a touchdown in the third quarter.
*After hearing bad things the last two weeks about Wisconsin fans in Madison I’d have to say it was a cake walk. The only thing (and I stress the only thing) that happed to us was a random middle finger at halftime to which I respond by asking: ”Really? A middle finger?”.
After some extensive research this past week I have come up with some interesting facts regarding Georgia’s football program. This research was spawned by my total disdain for the SEC‘s complete lack of traveling outside of the South to play a football game. I don’t understand how a team from the SEC, particularly Georgia, can stake a claim to being one of the best teams in the country without every leaving their region. Historically SEC teams don’t play outside of the South but Georgia takes this even further. In their entire history Georgia has only played 34 regular season games and 1 bowl game outside of the South. Their last game played outside of the South was 43 years ago at Michigan. Let me say that again: 43 years ago.
The Last 5 times Georgia has played a regular season game outside the South:
1965 Georgia at Michigan
1960 Georgia at Southern California
1957 Georgia at Michigan
1953 Georgia at Villanova
1952 Georgia at Pennsylvania
How is this possible? From this point on I will refer to the Georgia Bulldogs as merely a ‘regional football power’.
Julie and I added to the list of Big Ten stadiums I’ve visited on Saturday by seeing the Indiana – Penn State game this weekend in Bloomington. For it being Indiana Football the game was a rather competitive. Indiana made a late rally but still came up short 36-31. Nearly all of the points in the game were scored in the opposite side of the stadium where our seats were. That side of the stadium is a construction zone (literally there’s a bulldozer and re-bar everywhere) and there is no net for behind the goal posts. So everytime a field goal or an extra point is scored the ball just sails into a dirt and then some kid goes and gets it. Classic Indiana.
Five reasons I now know Indiana is known as the Land of Mellencamp:
The IU band insisted on playing Mellencamp’s greatest hits between plays.
I actually heard Jack & Diane on the radio while in Indiana.
The open end of the stadium is literally a dirt pile.
When I tried to call a cab in downtown Bloomington the operator asked “What town are you in?”
Sucking on a chili dog indeed.
Google Maps: Big Ten Stadiums:
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So far, so good. I only have Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota left on my list. Bloomington was about 4 hours from Chicago (compared to the 2 hours it takes to get to West Lafayette) so we made it into an overnight trip.
Needless to say this has been the most dynamic College Football season of recent memory. From Michigan and Notre Dame starting 0-2 to South Florida sitting at number 2 in the first BCS Poll. Not only is USF in the top 15 but so is Boston College, Kentucky, South Carolina and Kansas. What is going on in College Football?
Of course I found the only USF fan in Illinois this weekend siting next to me at the bar. This man guaranteed to me that USF would roll throw a Big Ten schedule and would beat Ohio State by 20 points ala Florida. If this guy didn’t have the grip of a coal miner I might have been able to sway him more. I guess we’ll see when they face off against Syracuse and Pittsburgh… but I digress.
And to top off the week I watched Vinny Testaverde throw a touchdown pass in High Definition. Is this even possible. I wonder if Vinny is available for flag football games? Here’s to hoping the Ol’ Ball Coach wins the SEC.
