Goal: To thoroughly experience gameday at every FBS college football stadium. STADIUM COUNT: 113/134
September 4th would be a day of many firsts for me. Among those included my first Mountain West Conference game, my first time seeing California, and above all, my first double-header day. This game in Colorado Springs required early alarm bells as kick off commenced at ten in the morning. Following the Cal/Air Force contest, I would be driving up I-25 toward Boulder to be a spectator for the in-state hate fest between Colorado State and Colorado.
Wisconsin fans poured down I-65 aiming for Nashville and their team’s appearance in the Music City Bowl. Auburn fans had a shorter path to travel and consequently, their fan base outweighed the red and white. The home of country western tunes hosts this bowl game with intense enthusiasm and the city comes alive as the contest is played on New Years Eve.
There are many beautiful bowl destinations to imagine following your team to – Miami, Pasadena, Tampa, Detroit…er, Detroit? Yes, the industrial wonderland of Michigan is home to the Motor City Bowl, a game that has not yet even reached adolescence appeared pitiful compared to most of the historic post-season venues.
So much change is developing around Camp Randall Stadium. The historic venue has been undergoing an expensive face-lift intended to expand capacity over 80,000 while adding more luxury press boxes. Can the new changes bring good fortune in the final regular season game? Invitations to New Year’s bowl games hung in the balance as the final conference week commenced. Iowa and Wisconsin only share around one hundred miles worth of border, but it’s enough to develop a sincere hatred for one another. Today’s game only intensifies the discord because the winner gets grabs at a prestigious bowl berth. With both teams coming off convincing victories, confidence saturated both sidelines almost as much as the chilly fog that enveloped Camp Randall Stadium.
There must have been a deliveryman between quarterback Jim Sorgi and wide receiver Lee Evans because everything Sorgi sent, Evans received. The student section bowed down to Evans as though he achieved deity status with his school record five-touchdown performance. Backup tailback Dwayne Smith packed in a career day with three scores of his own, but his efforts seemed overshadowed by the mystical receiving skills of Lee Evans.
Nothing flashy in this game. In fact, flashy was traded for abysmally embarrassing. Homecoming in Evanston created a party in the stands for those proudly wearing purple. The conspicuous red that penetrated the stadium hoped to quiet the celebration. However, the teams on the field aided in conveying the monotony.
Purdue opened their highly anticipated season with a mind-bending loss to lowly Bowling Green. The Badgers absorbed a similar fate with an early season stumble against struggling UNLV. It would have been difficult to imagine College Gameday, ESPN’s premier pregame show, coming to Madison on month later to broadcast live before the Boilermakers and Badgers prepared to duel on the field. Sure enough, the show’s celebrated hosts, Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit descended upon Wisconsin because of the astounding resurgence that propelled these two teams into the top fifteen.
Eleven years ago, I was fortunate enough to witness the Badgers upset Ohio State at Camp Randall Stadium. The weather in Madison that day was chamber of commerce quality. Ever since that momentous victory, Wisconsin has had four opportunities and failed each time to defeat the Buckeyes at home. Each one of those losses took place amidst dreary, cold, and uncomfortable weather. Is it possible that the conditions outside serve as a harbinger for the outcome of this game?
The Fighting Illini are a team two years removed from their Big Ten title, but playing like they never left the basement. However, the energy around Memorial Stadium has not fizzled. Dusk drew over the sky for this early evening contest and the late day sun glinting off the columns around the stadium provided the perfect setting. Both bands marched in down the main drag of the campus offering a pregame battle by pounding out fight songs and marching in stellar cadence. Illinois’s tradition rich playing grounds were stoked for this conference opener.
At the conclusion of this game, my brother turned to me and said, “Well, they scored on the first play and the last play and the Badgers roughed ‘em up in the middle.” Simply stated, this is true. After last week’s complete break down against UNLV, Wisconsin’s fans appeared forgiving as they crammed Camp Randall to capacity. The Badgers looked ready to atone for their errors and take out all aggressions on the baby blue from tobacco road. North Carolina and their followers stood out more than any other team I have seen enter this stadium. Their unique, yet well known shade of blue popped out from the bright red reflecting off the sunny skies in Madison. There was a good contingency from Chapel Hill and their team’s 0-2 start hardly seemed to faze them.