Tide Fans –
A classic matchup between two traditional powerhouses…the plainest uniforms in college football…both schools with legendary coaches past and present…and the largest crowd to ever witness the Alabama Crimson Tide! A great setting for this classic game in Happy Valley, and once again The Tide imposing its will on the Nittany Lions.
My trip north started on Thursday before the game with a nice 6:00am flight. It was still dark outside when the plane took off from Birmingham, but you would have thought it was kickoff with the amount of Bama fans on the flight…it was awesome! I always get a kick out of it when the flight attendants say something stupid like…”Boy there are a lot of Alabama fans on this flight…is there a game or something?” I so wanted to respond…”No, we just all got up at the ass crack of dawn to get on this plane dressed in Alabama apparel…there’s no game we just thought it would be fun!” Instead I just smiled and said…”Roll Tide!”
After arriving in Pittsburgh my father and I headed to the rental car counter…I knew it was a good sign when we found the car and it was red! Little did I know how much time we would spend in this red Toyota Camry…more on that later. After hitting a local sandwich joint, and a quick visit to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we were headed off to our hotel in Altoona, PA. It was about 35 miles south of State College…close as we could get.
On Friday we decided to visit Gettysburg. I am kind of a Civil War history fan, so I was really looking forward to this! It was only about 2 hours away, so off we went. Unfortunately after having dealt with Tropical Storm Lee in Birmingham for several days it followed us up north, and camped out for a while. So, our visit to Gettysburg was very wet, and mostly viewed from the car. If you ever get the chance to visit, you need to, and leave yourself plenty of time…it is huge! You could easily spend 3 days there looking at stuff. I have to tell you about something my dad overheard in the gift shop…it was hilarious! While looking around my dad saw a boy with a confederate soldier hat on…he also overheard the boy’s mother scold him and I quote saying…”What are you doing…take that hat off…we are for the Blue Army” I thought that was hilarious, because we are the ones who get made fun of for having a loyalty to the south! Had the battle been fought that day I’m pretty sure the south would have won…seeing as there were a ton of Bama fans there!
Our plan was to make a dry run to State College after Gettysburg, to get acquainted with campus and find our tailgating spot for Saturday. We made the awful mistake of trying to save a little distance by heading east to Harrisburg to go up and over to State College. This was a 6 hour mistake! Once arriving in Harrisburg looking for our route to State College we noticed some of the streets we needed to access were closed due to flooding…correction…all the streets we needed to get on were flooded! Now, I’m sure there are some nice areas in Harrisburg, but every street we drove down, and every part of Harrisburg we saw made 3rd world countries look nice. Several times while turning around on dead end streets that led to nowhere, I was pretty sure we were going to die! Nervous and irritated we finally turned both GPS systems off and I used my Eagle Scout knowledge and went old school with a map and compass. Pulling over the car, taking a deep breath…we plotted our escape. Thankfully, with a little luck it worked, and we were finally headed back to the hotel in Altoona agreeing to ignore our dry run to State College…we needed food, alcohol and relaxation!
Unfortunately our little trip back was not as smooth as we had hoped! About 30 miles from the hotel there were these signs that said “Expect to Stop Ahead”. Well, we didn’t see any construction or anything so we thought nothing of it. About 3 miles later we were at a dead stop…for about 2 hours. Once the traffic cleared we angrily noticed that we had stopped for no reason. There was no construction, no wreck, nothing…just cars and tons of trucks halted on the interstate! What kind of bullsh*t Pennsylvania highway traffic crap was that?? No clue…everyone just stopped and crawled along…so irritating. My impression of the State of Pennsylvania was not very good after this day…not good at all! So, after leaving Gettysburg we got back to our hotel six hours later! Tired, wet, thirsty, and hungry we finished the day off with a good meal and just a little Jack!
Gameday! We got up early to head to the game, nervous that traffic would suck and we didn’t know where to park. Heading down to the lobby of the Hampton Inn I thought we would be some of the first fans leaving…boy was I surprised. The elevator opened to a sea of Crimson clad fans all taking advantage of the free breakfast! Nervous, I grabbed a banana, two cups of coffee, and we hauled ass out there only making one stop to get tailgating supplies!
As soon as we left my impression of Pennsylvania began to get a little better. The sun actually started to come out, and we had a beautiful and thankfully uneventful drive to State College! The traffic was no issue, and the routing to the stadium was clearly marked with loads of traffic cops helping out! I was really impressed with their handling of game day traffic…they actually do a fantastic job getting people in and out. The Penn State fans for the most part were very friendly and seemed happy we had made the trip. After a few hours of tailgating and walking around it was finally game time! I was pumped and ready for some Tide football!
Let’s take a look at the game:
I thought Bama overall played well, and the game kind of went about like expected. Yes, I was frustrated about several things offensively, but really we played well. I was very impressed with AJ McCarron and how he looked so comfortable out there on a huge stage…he did not seem to ever be rattled, and played really well. His pass to Michael Williams was a perfect bullet…it’s the only way that pass could have worked. What an incredible pass and catch in double coverage…well done! AJ has secured the starting quarterback position in my mind.
I was frustrated about our running game early on…but eventually we banged out some good yards, and I had to keep reminding myself we were playing a pretty good defense. Trent and Lacy ended up with some nice runs. I feel like Lacy was hitting the hole faster when he was in…maybe Trent is still having some little issues with his leg…who knows. Our defense was awesome, minus a few pass plays. We pretty much shut them down when we needed, only allowing one late touchdown that was meaningless at that point. Mark Barron, Dre “Swagga” Kirkpatrick, CJ Mosley all had big games. I swear if Dre had held on to that easy pick six, he would have high steeped it from the 50 all the way in…not caring how cussed at he would get from Saban. Dre is cocky…he better keep up the big plays to go along with his big confidence.
We have some things to correct, and I’m sure Saban and the coaches will work on these, but we have a very good team, and I feel really good about what lies ahead!
I know this post is getting long…just so much to share from this trip! Thankfully Saturday night the drive back after the game was uneventful…and no traffic!
Sunday morning, Sept. 11th we headed back to the airport in Pittsburgh. On our way we were listening to the 9-11 ceremonies on the radio. They rang a bell at 10:03 signaling the exact time when United flight 93 went down in a field near Shanksville, PA. That very same moment we drove by the exit for the flight 93 memorial…it was very surreal. A plane full of heroes had gone down 10 years ago near the very spot we were driving by, sacrificing their lives to save hundreds of other Americans. About 2 hours later we saw Air Force One take off. Politics aside…it is pretty cool to get to see Air Force One no matter who is in it!
Roll Tide, and God Bless America!
Jason
