2015 College Football Gameday adventures/road trips/etc.

thenavarro

I enjoy the pageantry and camaraderie of college football and rather than clutter up the official college football 2015 thread with a bunch of pics, I figured I'd just start my own thread and those that enjoy pics and sharing, rather than analysis can do that here. Let's see your personal pics and stories from the 2015 college football season as it goes along. All teams and all fans welcome! (Even Wolverines, Trojands, and Buckeye fans!) Let's see pics from your travels, game watch, tailgates, sports bars, etc.

Those of you that know me, know that I love the Fighting Irish, and have some affinity for the Fightin' Texas Aggies as well. My undergrad was ND WAY back in the day, and I currently attend law school at Texas A&M. (law school is in Fort Worth)

In addition to Notre Dame tix this year to the Texas game, I also have ND/Wake Forest tix, the whole home season of Aggie tix, and road tix for Aggies/Arkansas and Aggies/LSU (in Baton Rouge, REALLY looking forward to that one), and I imagine I will probably give in and get tickets to see the Irish in Fenway Park in Boston this year as well, just depends on what the work/school schedule is around that time and will try to fit in a TCU game or two as my son is probably going there next year and it's right down the road from law school. Did I mention I LOVE college football

I decided to take my daughter, Maven, to the ND/Texas game this weekend, so we drove up on Friday and just got back to Texas today. Very fun trip.

About two and a half hours into the drive, I got stopped for speeding in Oklahoma, but as usual, I was completely outfitted in Notre Dame clothes and the trooper asked was I headed to the game, and why did I have a Texas license plate but Notre Dame clothes. Turns out, he doesn't care for the Horns too much and told me since I was rooting for the Irish that he'd let me off with a warning and to slow down and enjoy my trip. Nice guy.

After diversions in St. Louis to teach Maven about the Dred Scott case (yes, I like to work in teaching moments when we travel together as well as fun) and to enjoy a helicopter tour around the area, we spent the night in Chicago (just found out 37 people shot their this weekend, YIKES!) and got up Saturday to head into South Bend.

After eating at my old fav, Bruno's Pizza, we headed to campus for the festivities.

As I enjoy meeting rabid fans, I HAD to have a picture with this UT fan. LOVED his Longhorns and he liked my old school football helmet too.



Had to throw in a couple of campus pics.




Here's a pic of the 2015/2016 National Champs from our seats. We were about 30 rows up, not bad at all.



The squad taking the field



The Horns making their appearance to the delight of their fans. Their fans travelled pretty well, I've heard differing estimates but I'd venture a guess of about 18,000 or so Horns fans. It appears that many Notre Dame fans took the money (surprise, surprise, LOL) and sold their tix to Texas fans.



I bought my daughter and I postgame field access so we and about 8 other people got to make Notre Dame Stadium our personal playground after the game. REALLY AWESOME experience for a Notre Dame junkie.

I couldn't resist striking the Heisman pose at midfield

perkdog

Awesome!

thenavarro

<< <i>Awesome! >>



Thanks, it was a good time. Here's one of the neatest things I like about the pre-game festivities. About an hour and a half before the game, the trumpet players gather in the golden dome (our administration building) and play both the school song and fight song. It brings this big 270 lb man to tears EVERY time. Shortly before a contingent of Texas fans had entered doing "Texas Fight!" chants, but they were quickly shouted down.

Video of the trumpets in the dome

thenavarro

Had to go down to College Station today to pick up my tix for next weekend vs Arkansas.

Passed this neat barn on the way.



And here are some campus pics

larryallen73

Great stuff!

perkdog

THat Aggies barn is seriously cool! I bet some people dont understand the "Gig'Em" thing, the Drill instructor guy on the barn gives out "Gigs" to recruits. I know this because when I went through I got plenty of "Gigs"

orioles93

I went to the PSU-Rutgers game on Saturday night. Great game (for PSU atleast)! It was a long great day of tailgating outside the stadium. We were out there about 12 hours. Stadium had a great atmosphere with Beaver Stadium's first ever Stripe Out. To my surprise it actually worked pretty well! It rained pretty steadily throughout the game, but it was fun nonetheless. Enjoy the picks i snapped throughout the day and game.

Some tailgating throughout the day.





Heading into the stadium.


Pregame activities.



Random pics throughout the game.




Student section.


Side of the stadium.

thenavarro

Very cool. Nice stripe out. Did they hand out shirts or did they just instruct people what color to wear by section? How large is that stadium capacity?

After 12 hours of tailgating, could the people still walk ?

orioles93

<< <i>Very cool. Nice stripe out. Did they hand out shirts or did they just instruct people what color to wear by section? How large is that stadium capacity?

After 12 hours of tailgating, could the people still walk ? >>



They just instructed people what to wear based on where your seat was. They have been advertising for it around town and online for a few weeks now. They also handed out flyers with instructions on how to find out your color during the home game last week. Stadium capacity is a little over 106,000. I believe attendance was over 103,00 last night.

Man, we get there at 8 am to start the day of tailgating for every home game. It's a lot of fun but you are quite tired by the end of the day. Especially for the night games.

DrBuster

Hit Athens for the Dawgs/Gamecox. Only have a few pics up but it was a blast. Wound up tailgating in a church lot that was all S. Carolina fans for a couple hours before the game, we were polite Dawgs, ha!













Chubb, Michel, Mitchell and Lambert...might be hard to stop the Dawgs this year.

thenavarro

Wow, that GA stadium looks like a gorgeous place to see a game. Love the foliage around the stadium. Too many places are all concrete. GA played a nice game yesterday. Looks like a lot of good teams this year without ANY great teams. Should make for a fun season to watch.

DrBuster

<< <i>Wow, that GA stadium looks like a gorgeous place to see a game. Love the foliage around the stadium. Too many places are all concrete. GA played a nice game yesterday. Looks like a lot of good teams this year without ANY great teams. Should make for a fun season to watch. >>



Between the hedges baby!!! UGA X has gotta have somewhere to do his duty, ha!

It is a nice stadium, hot as balls for the past couple games though. The sunset was the magic time for the temp, everyone stopped sweating then, ha!

DrBuster

This was the opener game shot from the seats I had. Sea of red. That game was ridiculously hot, even the skinny folks were sweating like us old fatties, ha!






Other side shot, from 2012. Had my nephew going at this game that the reason they throw the footballs back after the field goals/xps is because there's only 1 ball. Bought it all the way until halftime when the teams were warming back up, ha!

thenavarro

Here's one from my trip to U of Alabama in late July. This one was from what is now their band practice field. My understanding is that it's where Bear Bryant used to review his troops on this field. Visited it while stopping to eat dinner with my friend Kirk from this board.

DrBuster

Nice!

thenavarro

Have had a fun Aggie weekend. Yesterday, was my Aggie ring day, I've earned enough law school credits to qualify for my school ring, and it was presented to me yesterday.

Here I am, after receiving my ring, with the First Lady of Aggieland, Ms. Reveille.



Here's my new bling, it's not replacing my Notre Dame ring, so I had it sized for my index finger.



Now, onto the game. A pain in the rear with crowd entry, you'd think by now, AT&T Stadium would have a more efficient entry system:



Here's me and the misses:



A couple pics of the game and fans:





A Texas sized snack:



and the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band:



And the Aggies win in OT. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a single play of the Notre Dame game today, but I did hear they did pretty well and trounced UMASS.

Both my teams still undefeated after week 4. I'll take it. Go IRISH and Gig'em Ags!

thenavarro

Got a great hat for cold weather Aggie games

thenavarro

Yesterday's adventure took me to College Station, Texas where I watched the Aggies have their way with Mississippi State. Over 104,000 in the house, what an atmosphere. The next game I'll be at will be Texas A&M/Alabama in two weeks.

thenavarro

Me and the family went to the Texas A&M vs. Alabama game yesterday. Over 105,000 people there, and on the bright side, the Aggie QB threw for 2 TD's in the first half, problem was, they were to Alabama.

Here is about the best Aggie highlight, them taking the field. The other pic is when we stopped on the way home to watch the Notre Dame vs. USC game at a Pizza Hut in the thriving metropolis of Hearne, Texas. That game went much better

Despite all the Aggies problems in the game, they were still 32 yards away from tying it up late in the 3rd quarter. Bama really wasn't very impressive all things considered. By far the best team I've seen play in person so far this year has been Notre Dame. out of ND, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Texas.

I went ahead and sold my ND/Wake Forest tix in November, as my son will be having his last high school regional concert the same day and I probably shouldn't miss that (at least according to my wife ). Oh well, that just means I can go to a couple of bowl games.

I've got tickets but will probably skip the next Aggie home game against Mississippi (I think) as I want to go to Austin that day instead to meet Mike Tyson. In November, I'll be going to A&M/Auburn, and A&M/LSU in Baton Rouge.

thebaseballcardkid

Awesome. Keep the post coming. They are very well enjoyed.

royalbrett

MSU-Purdue game from a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty miserable weather, I think the temp was in the upper 40s, and the sprinkles started at kickoff, and developed into a steady rain shortly after. MSU almost let this one get away, but I was not there to see the end, it was just too wet and cold, so we left at halftime.



Took my son, and it was his second ever MSU game attended. It was my 6th or 7th time, even though I only live 12 minutes from the stadium. On a side note, it continues my streak of never having to pay for a MSU football game ticket (I get tickets from friends/family that they couldn't use).

thenavarro

Originally posted by: royalbrett
On a side note, it continues my streak of never having to pay for a MSU football game ticket (I get tickets from friends/family that they couldn't use).

No better college football, than free college football! Nice pics.

I've been to Spartan stadium one time myself. I think it was 1992 when the Irish played there.

Mike

royalbrett

Originally posted by: thenavarro

Originally posted by: royalbrett
On a side note, it continues my streak of never having to pay for a MSU football game ticket (I get tickets from friends/family that they couldn't use).

No better college football, than free college football! Nice pics.

I've been to Spartan stadium one time myself. I think it was 1992 when the Irish played there.

Mike

It looks like the Spartans and Irish start playing each other again next year. Looking forward to it. That 2013 loss still stings, possibly kept us out of the championship game.

thenavarro

A good weekend for the Fightin' Irish. Utah got shellacked by USC and Golson and FSU got beaten by GT. Makes the Irish's road for the playoffs a bit easier. Will be interesting to see if Baylor can withstand the loss of their QB like ND has done with 7 (I think, might be 8) key players including the QB injured so far. I won't be using my Aggie tix next weekend as I'm going to Austin to meet Mike Tyson instead lol

thenavarro

I did pickup a killer mask to wear to the ND bowl game.

DrBuster

Ha, nice! Everybody needs a luchador mask or 2.

orioles93

Nice mask, love it! I went to the Penn State- Maryland game in Baltimore at the Ravens stadium this past weekend. Great game, lots of fun, unique atmosphere and experience. Unfortunately I did not take any photos.... but I was in the upper deck anyways! Looking forward to the Halloween game next week against Illinois and then the (hopefully night time start) game against Michigan in November.

thenavarro

Here's some neat pics of the field for Notre Dame's "home game" Saturday at Fenway Park. Not my pics, they came across my FB wall from a ND group. Although ND currently sits 4th in the CFP rankings, I think the conference cartel might keep them out or hell, they might lose as far as that's concerned, BUT, if they hold on, and win the 1st round, I've got airline tix, hotel accomodations, and game tickets for the Championship game already. Regardless of what happens, has been a fun season so far.

null

baseballfan

great pictures!





Go Irish!!!

seebelow

cool msu and nd pics...please cont to post....you all going to msu vs osu?

thenavarro

Am currently at TCU Baylor game. Scored great seats on about the 40 but they just evacuated the seating areas and are in a delay.

thenavarro

thenavarro

Had to cancel all my reservations for the National Championship game due to the incompetence of the Irish last weekend, but now have Fiesta Bowl tickets Always MUCH cheaper to get game tix in advance then to wait until ND is announced in a game, then it freaking skyrockets the ticket price. If they end up in Atlanta instead, I dont know if Ill go there or not as I was there just a couple months ago and it didn't make a big enough impression on me to return so quickly, but who knows, it beats watching on TV.

thenavarro

thenavarro

thenavarro

For the Buckeyes fans.

thenavarro

This game is a beating so far but Ohio State's band just put on one hell of a performance that includes an "animated" guy playing a guitar. Very cool

sparky64

^^^^^^

Awesome pics!