"College Game Day" In Tuscaloosa

Can you pick out the old man in the student section?   The one wearing a Circle J Dairy hat and crimson magellan shirt.   Haha, I was excited to come see the boys, but watch a good SEC matchup of Bama against Vanderbilt.   The boys had work the prior night, with their new parking team member, Noel.   And they had gotten me a ticket to the game.   They got to see the ESPN College Game Day crew set up the night before, and the game day crew also brought them some breakfast the next morning.   But they left for bed around 7AM, about the time I was waking up to make it over in time to see the last hour of gameday.

I arrived early around 9AM, and parked about 10 blocks from the stadium in a parking garage I saw was free to the general public.   Fortunately there was about 5 spots left when I arrived, so I grabbed one, and began the long hike to campus.   Once there, I immediately went over to the Gameday setup, where I missed the Chemical Engineer messing up the Pat McAfee kick for tuition.   But this is also the game where he just let Kirk Herbstreet throw the ball thru the goalposts winning that young lady alot of money.   

As for me, when I arrived, you could not get close at all, but I did see the full Gameday crew, probably most excited to see Nick Saban and Pat McAfee.   But while I could only see them way in the distance, the guest picker Theo Von walked out to a stage very close to where I was standing to pump up the crowd.   He was pretty funny and later picked Vanderbilt over Bama, only because their plane was his ride home.   He also picked the Mississippi Bulldogs in their game that week because he was a big Jerry Clower fan.   

After gameday, I walked over to the Student Center, found a chair, and quickly passed out for an hour.   Davis called me when he woke up and I got us some ChickFilA before the game.   Davis is always now in full Bama gear and is completely loving being on campus.   We met up with Sam, Noel and Ronnie at the parking garage, then made our way to the super secret worker gate entrance, where we all got to be in the lower bowl (Sam let Davis use his official ticket).   I have probably now been in this stadium almost as many times as Davis Wade in Starkville.   

The game was really fun, and really close, looking for a long time like it would be a repeat of last years loss for Bama.   But they started doing well around halftime.   Shortly after halftime, I decided to go to the restroom, and when I returned, I was completely lost in a mass of young college kids.   It was like a movie, watching an old man climb stairs completely lost...I think I heard some of the students asking "Hey, who lost their Dad?   He looks scared to death".   And finally, I heard my name called.   Ronnie was on the end of the row and watched me walk right passed him.   He was calling me the whole time, but probably also embarrassed by the old dude that can't hear on a good day stumbling up into the unknown.   I almost gave him a hug when I got back down to him, but instead, just made my way back to my seat next to Davis...and right behind Bama Catholic.

I knew that I had to get a head start on these 100,000 fans, so as soon as Bama kicked a field goal to go up by 9, I hugged Davis, Sam and Noel, and ran out of the stadium with 4 minutes left in the game.   There must have been some other big plays, as the ground shook a few times when I was outside the stadium, but I took off running the full distance back to the van.   And while I was one of the last 5 cars in that garage, I was the first one out, first one back on 59, and arrived back at home within 1.5 hours.   Another fun day of football in Tuscaloosa.