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Saturday, September 17
Game day! The UCLA/Oklahoma game had a 12:30 local start time. With a 30-45 minute drive to the Rose Bowl from our hotel and wanting to get a taste of the tailgating atmosphere, we headed out about 8:30 in the morning. Tailgating at a UCLA game is unparalled. There is so much open area that surrounds the stadium, something like 50 acres of grass and golf course. The greens are roped off, but you can park anywhere. They have parking attendants to keep things orderly, but there are easily 30,000 cars parked around the stadium. People have their own tents set up with grills, TVs, card tables, football and frisbees being thrown around all over the place. The Rose Bowl itself even has an area with games and former players signing autographs. Cheerleaders walk around letting you take pictures with them, as Mike did. Mike even got his picture taken with former Bruin and San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Bono.
The game was finally getting ready to start so we headed for the stadium. Rant writer and Point/Counterpoint producer Aveosmth met us at the game. Knowing Mike as gonna be more focused on the UCLA and OU cheerleaders and searching the crowd for the next Rant Girl of the Month, KP was looking forward to talking football and strategy with fellow Bruin fan, Avery. Obviously, for the two of us, the game was awesome. UCLA played great, especially QB Drew Olson and the Bruin defense. The undersized and relatively young defensive line held Heisman Trophy candidate and increasingly frustrated Adrian Peterson to 52 yards rushing on the day. On a strategy note, it was very curious why the Sooners opted to continue running to the outside instead of the running up the middle of the Bruin defense. The middle was/is supposed to be a definite weakness. It seemed that Oklahoma underestimated the speed of the UCLA defense. Oh well, victory is victory! As expected, the UCLA win jumped the Bruins back in to the Top 25 while plummeting the Sooners out for the first time in four years.
After this game we headed across town to the USC/Arkansas game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. From one historic venue to the next! The Rose Bowl plays host to the BCS Rose Bowl every year, the Granddaddy of them All, as well as Super Bowls, World Cup soccer and the occasional Olympics. The Coliseum, or Mauseleum as it’s affectionately known, has played host to Super Bowls and the 1984 Olympics. Going to this game, none of us, Mike, KP, Avery or KP’s nephew (who joined us for this game but not the UCLA game), expected Arkansas to win. But, neither did we expect the onslaught that occurred virtually immediatley! After paying $60 to park, yes, $60 freaking bucks!, we walked across the street to the stadium. Apparantly, the LA Coliseum is not in a very secure part of Los Angeles. As a guy we met in a Subway restaurant said, “You can park on the street, but don’t expect your car to be there were you get back.” So, we forked over the three twenties to have our rented Impala behind a gates and fences. At the stadium, our seats were nosebleed, but with a great view nonetheless. We sat at the opposite end of the famous columns, so we could see the retired jersey of Trojan greats of the past.
The crowd is incredible! Loud, large, raucous, drunk….everything you would expect in a night game watching the number one team in the country play. The game was over by the first quarter. As most of you Ranters are already aware, the Trojans scored four touchdowns on their first eight offensive plays. 28 points on eight plays!? They only needed about 1 and a half minutes to do it, also. Amazing! Even from our 89th row seats in the south end zone you can see just how fast that offense is. Reggie Bush is incredible on TV, out of this world live. We are now conviced that the USC offense could score points on an NFL defense like Houston or Detroit or Cleveland. Seriously. We left at halftime fully satisfied with our experience at the Coliseum. Beating traffic and getting up very early for the flight to Oakland outweighed watching the rest of this blowout. We dropped off KP’s nephew at his car and then Avery at his car. The dude walked about three miles to take advantage of the free parking. Guess he wasn’t too concerned about whether or not his car was gonna be there or not (it was, and intact as well). Avery is a quality individual. Both Mike and KP can say they’ve met a friend, not just a guy that writes for the site.
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