A Perfect Day

[TripletDaddy]

I have shared this with a few of you, but for the general group....in SC football, there is what we call "A Perfect Day." A Perfect Day consists of SC winning, with Notre Dame and UCLA losing. There have been about 40 or so Perfect Day's in history. Even though Notre Dame pulled off the win yesterday against what is looking like an increasingly gutless Michigan team, I am going to go ahead and call yesterday a perfect day. In fact, I cannot remember when I have had so much as fun as a college football fan than yesterday.

I know many of you hate SC, so you don't have to read any further. For those that are interested, just wanted to share my experience, a few pics, and some thoughts. I have to spread this post over several posts because there is an 8 pic limit per post, apparently.

My day started at about 4:30AM. GameDay was on hand at the Coliseum and a group of us wanted to be there for it, so we headed out at about 5:15 while it was still dark. By the time we arrived at the set, it was about 6:30....there were already hundreds of SC and OSU fans all over the place. There was buzz and electricity in the air. I told my brother than I could tell that yesterday was going to be a FUN day.

A took some pics as best as I could, but since I had no SLR on me, I did not get any good zooms. I am waiting for one of my friends to zip me a file of his zoom shots. I promised to get some good ones of Herbstreit....my friend got some good close ones, including a shot of Corso picking the Trojans and putting on the breatplate, helmet, and sword.

I was pretty close, as you can see from the pics. But also, you can tell that they keep the crowds at bay. They also put up this huge netting around the stage. The crew told us that years ago, they had some problems in Florida with fans throwing stuff up there, so since that time, they have put up nets. Since we got there fairly early, we were in what I would call the equivalent to a mosh pit....inside the mains security gates. As such, I was free to walk around the inner permiter and look around, take pics, etc..those who arrived late were on the outside of the permiter and were not allowed to get any closer.











I was able to say hello to Desmond Howard (he picked SC) and also Erin Andrews. I can say this much, I saw her from 3 feet away.....she is sorta pretty and has nice cans, but her face is also weird and she CAKES on the makeup. I kept expecting her to pull away the mask and reveal herself to be Hannibal Lecter. It never happened. But, as I said, pretty nice cans, which is the most important thing.

The most interesting aspect of watching GameDay was, by, far, the parade of signs that people bring....and the non-stop effort security and producers make to confiscate them. I would say that for all the signs you see on TV, there is an equal number of signs that are taken away and thrown into a huge pile. And they don't mess around. They bring cops with them....if people start in with the free speech crap, they are taken away instantly. After a few speech protesters get carted away, the fans are much less bold. As a side note, these stadiums are private property, so no free speechy...sorry, ConLaw lovers.

I have included some signs that I thought were especially clever, as well as a shot of the famous Wazzou flag. By far, the biggest celebrity there is the person carrying the Wazzou flag. The guy was very cool and explained how they have a network of alum that are responsible for coordinating and fedexing the flag all over the country. They take it quite seriously and you are only allowed to participate after you have been approved by the network.

On a side note, there was a Utah guy there waving a Utah flag. He said that there is a group of Utah alum that are trying to do the same thing as Wazzou (hacks be damned, all of them).

there were a lot of "Beanie Baby" signs (I thought that was funny) and lots of dumb signs. A few examples:

This one was hilarious:



I told you....huge cans:

[TripletDaddy]

For all you Point Break fans:



Lame and unoriginal:



Herbstreit even got a kick out of this one:



Obey









U.S. & C.....NICE

[TripletDaddy]

Classic and true:



Confiscated almost instantly....hi-larious!



This one was also confiscated....they are very serious about NO political endorsements. Since it had Palin's name on it, it was gone...it even said "Fight On" on one side, but they wouldn't let him keep it. There was also an Obama one that was taken down.



Pic of security guard taking away the Palin sign:



Not a sign, but a group of frat pledges that were required to do this:



After the GameDay crowd dispersed at about 9AM or so, I headed back over to campus to meet up with my brother and his friends and begin the day's festivities. This is one area where Buckeye fans really impressed. They not only showed up for the game in droves, but they tailgated in full force.

There are 2 main areas for tailgating at SC....around the Coliseum and then on campus itself. I am a fan of on-campus.....way more people, bookstore and food courts, easier to get out after the game, etc.. For those who went to BYU, imagine people setting up tents and tailgates on the main quad, by the wilk, down by the testing center, and basically any patch of grass you could find. That is how they do it at SC. My brother's group always sets up by Tommy Trojan, which is a great spot....lots of traffic and the visiting fans always come by to snap a pic of the statue.

One really fun thing about yesterday....as you could imagine, there were TVs everywhere, including sat dishes. Loads of people were watching the BYU game, not because they cared about BYU, but because they wanted to watch the Bruins losing. Word of the score spread like wildfire. You could actually hear groups of people cheering for BYU with each score...and when they missed the field goal, you could hear collective laughing and mocking. I havent seen the BYU game yet, but holy crap, I can only imagine what we did to them. How amazing....59-0. True, fucla sucks this year and is not a great team (neither is Washington)....but still...to hang 59 and hold them scoreless is amazing. You can only beat the teams on your schedule, and BYU really earned major props yesterday for what they accomplished. Later during the game, the scoreboard showed all the Top 25 scores several times. But each time the scoreboard would show the fucla score by itself....and the announcer would emphasize "UCLA.........NOTHING" The stadium went wild every time. It was great. Some people around me were giving lots of respect to BYU..."oh, those are guys have a great QB..." or "they have the longest win streak...they are for real..." etc...RUTS and the shutout really went a long way in the eyes of fans and media alike, so much love and props to Bronco, as well as to all of you who went to the game and cheered on the Cougars. By all accounts I received, LES was ROCKING yesterday.

[TripletDaddy]

By about 2PM, there were thousands of people there. It was really fun. I took a few pics of the crowds and the celebration. I even saw someone carrying around a beer bong with 8 hoses. I had never seen that before. I also went over to Heritage Hall and took a pic of everyone's favorite Heisman.

[TripletDaddy]

2 hours before kickoff, the band marches through campus and stops in front of the administration building and does a mini-concert of about 4 or 5 songs. That is conveniently in front of our tailgate. Afterwards, everyone follows the band down in procession and to the Coliseum. By this time, it was already 5PM and almost time for kickoff.

The game itself was a lot of fun. The Buckeye fans were really into it for the first 4 minutes. After that, they didn't make a sound. When I was in line getting a drink, one Buckeye fan said, "ok guys, we suck.....but at least we're not Michigan." Kind of interesting that no matter which school, I guess you always measure yourself in terms of what your rival is doing.

I sat in two seats during the game....I traded with some folks so that I could sit with my brother for part of the time. Some random pics:

[TripletDaddy]

CONQUEST!



All in all, a really great day. One of the best college football experiences I have had, and truly a perfect day.

[il Padrino Ute]

It was great to see the Ute flag. The guy was strategically positioned so that when the camera was on all three guys, the flag was in the center of the screen in the background.

Awesome!

[MikeWaters]

<yawn>

bunch of frat pussies.

[BarbaraGordon]

No offense, TD, but I think you greatly overestimate our collective interest in this game.

(Kirk is hot, though.)

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

No offense, TD, but I think you greatly overestimate our collective interest in this game.

(Kirk is hot, though.)

Kirk is a good looking dude and fairly tall. He was the only one of the 3 that did not come out to the crowd to shake hands or whatever. Corso ran straight to a portable outhouse right after the broadcast, which I thought was fun.