College Football Road Trips: Florida (SEC) 2017 **Milestone game

College: The University of Florida

Year: 2017

Game: LSU 17 Florida 16

Rating: 7
Cost Index: Average
Tickets: Easy, there were plenty of tickets available

Stadium: The Swamp (Ben Griffen Hill Stadium)

If you want to make it part of a larger trip: Jacksonville, Tampa, Florida State
Don't Miss: A Tom Petty tribute between the third and fourth quarter

Avoid: The heat, try to hit this one in November. Florida should not have day games in September or October

Attendees: Bones, Park League

This was my first MILESTONE game: I've now seen a game at every SEC campus. There are a couple of SEC spots I want to go back to, I also need to check out the Florida Georgia game and the SEC Championship but this was a nice milestone to hit.

Pre-game: Newsflash....Gainesville is fucking hot! We weren't prepared for it so we didn't do a whole lot before the game. We came in a couple of days before for the Patriots @ Buccaneers game and hung out in Tampa/St. Pete, that was a little easier as we were staying by the beach. We fucked up our ticket search for the Patriots game and didn't get in, so there will be no write of up Raymond James stadium.

Gainesville: The campus itself is beautiful. Really nice setting, the trees with the Spanish Moss creates a serene atmosphere. There was definitely more to see than we had time for, when I go again I'll get off campus and see downtown Gainesville. I think that's a little more my speed.

If there was one weekend to be in Gainesville for me personally it was this exact weekend, given that Tom Petty died earlier in the week. I'm a huge fan of his, and the stadium singing along with "I Won't Back Down" at the end of the third quarter was a fitting tribute.

Our stay was at the Reitz Student Union hotel. It was worth it as it was about a 5-10 minute walk to Ben Griffen Hill Stadium.

Game: The atmosphere was average. I know neither team is considered great but I would have thought there would have been a little more energy. The heat might have had something to do with it, I have no idea why anyone would live in that area without access to a beach.

Neither of these coaches can coach offensive football worth a shit. They look like high school teams out there. This, more than anything else, is leading to the degradation of SEC football.

The game was close but it was not what I would consider exciting. It's only been a couple of weeks and all I can really remember is that LSU won because Florida missed an extra point. Kind of fitting.

Stadium: The Swamp is ok, certainly not what I would consider a classic stadium. It's very middle of the road. It wasn't horrible or anything but there wasn't really anything that stood out about it either. This about sums up how I feel about Gainesville.

Post Game: Florida suffers from the same problem Iowa does in that it's too big for the surrounding town. I was surprised to see that the University of Florida has 50,000 students. I knew it was big, but didn't know it was THAT big. We had to wait an hour or so to eat, did have pretty good pizza at Piesanos. On the way home we saw a student passed out against a bench with his pants down and his franks and beans hanging out. We debated taking a picture of the poor bastard, but thought the better of it as I would not want someone taking a picture of me in that state.

I guess given the choice between Florida and Florida State....I'm a Florida State guy. I would give Florida another shot in the distant future, as far as returning in the near future I would have to have friends that want to go.

Some observations not related to on field play: