Tennessee (SEC) 2009

College:  Tennessee (SEC)

Year:   2009

Games:   Tennessee 31 South Carolina 13

Rating:  8 out of 10

Cost:  Low

Tickets:   Difficult

Stadium:   Excellent

Description: This is how I feel about this game:

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: How tall are you private?
Cowboy: Sir, five foot nine, sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Five foot nine? I didn't know they stacked shit that high! You tryin' to squeeze an inch in on me somewhere, huh?
Cowboy: Sir, no sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bullshit. It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your momma's ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress! I think you been cheated! Where in the hell are you from anyway, private?
Cowboy: Sir, Texas, sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Holy dog shit! Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks?
Cowboy: Sir, no sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Are you a peter puffer?
Cowboy: Sir, no sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I'll bet you're the kinda guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you.

  

Knoxville is an excellent town, this was a night game on Halloween during Tennessee’s only decent year in recent memory but we got CHEATED……by the weather.  It rained like hell the entire day, so I want to go back once UT is decent and it’s a goddamn nice day out because I think this would be one of the best spots to see a game….especially a BIG game.  I will say this, overall we’ve been very fortunate regarding weather.  Out of 30 plus games this is the only one I can think of where the weather impacted the game in a negative way.  Here’s hoping Butch Jones can right the ship there because you have the potential of a Nashville weekend with a UT game tossed in to sweeten the pot = as good of a weekend one can have in the United States of America.

Misc: Well we saw a game during Lane Kiffin’s one and done Tennessee season.  I heard an awful rendition of “No Rain” on the way to the game down by the river.

Don’t Miss:  The riverfront before the game
If you want to make it part of a bigger trip:  Nashville is three hours away.  Blacksburg is 4 hours east and they always play at least one Thursday night game a year.  The Smokey Mountains are just south of Knoxville.  Three hours from Atlanta.

Avoid:    Shitty weather

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolus, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=293042633

Virginia Tech (ACC) 2009

College:  Virginia Tech (ACC)

Year:   2009        

Games:   North Carolina 20 Virginia Tech 17

Rating:  7 out of 10

Cost:  Moderate

Tickets:   Easy

Stadium:   Lane Stadium was pretty old, in need of a renovation. Nothing special about it, but the campus itself is very pretty and well put together.  

Description:  Honestly, I went to this game expecting the Virginia Tech experience to be one of the best and walked away a little disappointed.  It’s not bad by any stretch, but it’s just kind of boring.  The crowd wasn’t anything special, the tail gate wasn’t anything special, the stadium was pedestrian, there wasn’t anything going on after the game.  I mean, fuck, we left early we were so bored (and we missed a comeback by UNC).  Most of the places that one travels to in life can be summed up as follows:  I’m glad I went but I’m in no rush to go back.  This is exactly how I feel about VT.   

Having said all this there is absolutely no excuse not to see a game here because its location is perfect for a Thursday/Saturday “Two Birds With One Stone”.  As stated before if you really want to catch all of the great college atmospheres out there you need to take advantage of the Thursday/Saturday set up.  VT embraces the Thursday night games and usually plays at least one a year, sometimes two.  It is in a really beautiful area of the country (Shenandoah Valley – not sure if the campus is actually in the valley but it’s close by).  You can pivot this pretty easily with Tennessee, West Virginia and any of the schools in the Carolinas.    

Don’t Miss:  Thursday night games are their calling card, walk through the center of the campus
If you want to make this part of a larger trip: You are more or less in the Shenandoah valley, you are two hours from Charlottesville and Skyline Drive.  Three hours from Knoxville and the Smokey Mountains. Four hours from Morgantown, WV.

Avoid:    Trying to find your way around that campus without a map or GPS handy. You might end up looking like you are stalking the University President.

Attendees:  Bones, Polychronopolus, Dave

Game Recap:  http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=293020259