Took the boy to the game today and we sat relatively close to the tunnel the team comes out from.
Some observations:
1. I miss the days of the COTA busses shuttling you in from the fairgrounds. I don't mind the walking or any of that, but I found it easier personally.
2. From the jump, as the teams were warming up, Grambling looked like dudes who will be accountants and chefs and lawyers and whatever, and Ohio State looked like aliens. One thing that REALLY stood out to me is how athletic looking the offensive line is this year.
3. I'm sure it's because we were close to the tunnel, but it seemed like there were about 4 times as many ushers than what there was last year.
4. Pre-game energy was TOTALLY different from what I experienced at the Marshall game last year. The adjustments and crowd engagements were much more high energy. The band and cheerleaders (more on that later
) and crowd interaction people were very front and center. Up tempo music, a LOT of the band playing, sound improvements and a seeming focus on pushing the energy levels up was a huge change. The corporatism that was rampant last season was not in existence.
5. I'm not sure if it translated on TV, but the passing game was SMOOTH. Part of it was Grambling was severely overmatched, but when the first read wasn't there, boom 2nd or 3rd read and throw. Sayin may be the best pure passer this school has ever seen, including Stroud.
6. I was a little worried about the running game at first, but then as I watched, there was a clear emphasis on getting game speed reps for the passing game. I like that.
7. The defense is going to be VERY good if they clean up the tackling.
8. Quad Script Ohios FTW.
9. I swear the 3rd quarter took and hour and a half to play. It felt like every other play there was an injury or a score or a TV timeout or something delaying things.
10. Going back to the cheerleaders, not only was it alumni band day, it was alumni cheerleader day as well. So when the alumni cheerleaders were on the south end, my son, 15 years old and shit, deadass looked at me and said "MILFS". I did something right.
11. Lots of love for the Grambling band and it's well-deserved. They do a LOT of formation movements and stuff and keep up with the sound too.
12. Driving home and weaving our way off of campus, we saw two dudes get out of their cars, swing at each other multiple times, one guy's wife dumped an entire stanley of water into the sunroof of other car (assuming on the other man's wife), and then they said "hey, we're cool", shook hands, and got in their cars and drove off. Fuckin hilarous
