Finally got time to sit down and write something about the weekend. When traveling from west to east, most of the flight options are either early morning or red eye, and I wanted to get home on Sunday at a time other than 11 p.m., so I booked a 5 a.m. flight on Sunday. I pretty much went from the game, back to the hotel for a couple hours, and then over to the airport. I nodded off every few minutes on the plane, but those seats on Southwest are so cramped I don't see how anybody could ever get comfortable enough for a legitimate nap.
I made a long post earlier last week about my Los Angeles travels. I had never been to California before, so I felt I should incorporate an L.A. excursion.
San Francisco was beautiful and sunny on Friday. Clear views from the Golden Gate after you went to the far side to look back upon the city. As everybody said, it was a good 20 degrees cooler than other areas just 10 miles south. On Saturday, much more dreary and cloudy. I did take up the suggestion to drive in the areas surrounding Muir Woods. Holy smokes, those cliffs are the real deal, one wrong move driving and you're pretty much plummeting to your death. I'm assuming that has to have happened at one time or another.
Didn't make the Giants game on Friday night as I was already tired from the long day of travel, but did at least drive by the stadium a couple times earlier that day if that counts, LOL. I'm sure there was more to do around San Francisco, you probably need to stay down there for a couple days to get the full feel of everything.
Is there a valid reason for why gas prices in California are so much more than the rest of the country? I was paying $3.60 per gallon around LA. Today I filled up near UCF for $1.97.
On Saturday, drove through Oakland near the Coliseum (A's and Raiders) and Arena (Warriors). What a dumpy-looking area. A stark contrast from the other side of the bay. Saw some thuggy looking Raiders fans milling about. There were already some tents of merchandise set up outside the stadium. Is there any good reason why Oakland has a MLB team when San Francisco has a super popular club across the bay? Same could be said for the Raiders and 49ers, meanwhile Los Angeles doesn't even have an NFL team anymore (though if rumors are true, will have another soon enough).
After that quick drive, headed over to Berkeley to see Cal. Was hoping to get near the stadium as they were hosting San Diego State in the early afternoon. Unfortunately, most of the campus is shut down on game day, you need a parking pass to get any closer. And there was really nowhere to park otherwise without paying. I just wanted to check out the surrounding area, but it was impossible. I spoke with Jimmy Skiles who actually did get over there, he got a pass from a Cal employee and checked out the first quarter. He said the crowd was very laid-back and non-engaged with a super small student section. Kind of similar to Stanford. Football on the West Coast isn't anything like the South.
Palo Alto is about a 25-minute drive south from the SFO airport area (and the airport area is maybe 15 minutes south of downtown San Fran). I saw the campus on both Friday and Saturday. It really is beautiful. On Friday, somehow I missed the main entrance on Palm Drive. That is very cool. Might be the best campus I've ever seen.
Some tailgating action, but nothing super elaborate, at least from what I saw. Usually just families with a picnic table next to the car.
The stadium is in a "bowl" - basically you enter at the top of the first level. The exterior concourse is tree-lined - definitely not like you're in a stadium. You then enter through a tunnel to get to the actual stadium portion. The stadium seats 50,000, but it honestly felt a little smaller than that. All of the seats appeared to have fantastic views, the upper deck seats hover right over the field. The seats between the 30s appeared to be chairback, while other areas were bench back.
The listed attendance was a sellout, but it was anything but in actual attendance. The stadium was what I'd call "fullish," meaning there wasn't like an entire empty section, but there were wide swaths of open seats, a row or two here and there, plenty of room to spread out. The good thing about being a red team with red seats is that the empty areas don't stand out (as opposed to aluminum). Stub Hub prices were dirt cheap. You could buy visitor sideline tickets for under $10 just a few rows up.
Jimmy Skiles made a comment to me that one of their employees indicated their season ticket base was older, but I'm not sure I saw that when I walked the perimeter. I saw all ages and demographics, really. Lots of families with kids. Hippie, academic types (i.e. old dudes with ponytails). Young hipster types. A few people that probably were Raiders fans (had neck tattoos) but honestly not many of those types.
They only got loud a few times. The fans were definitely upset about the officiating though, that might have generated the most reaction. The student section was quite small and not particularly engaged. They were pretty much just standing and sitting there. Most of them appeared to be socializing with each other and not watching the game.
The UCF crowd was quite large for an away game. I'm sure some may have been West Coast alums, but I recognized a lot of Florida faces and Dungeon members in the group. I'm guessing that maybe the crowd was around 1,500? There were fans in pretty much section of the visitor side. There were even a couple UCF fans in the student section. Stanford bystanders indicated the UCF crowd was as vocal and boisterous as any team that's come in there, and probably more so. It doesn't seem like other PAC-12 schools travel particularly well.
My highlight of the game: During the second half, after the game was clearly out of reach, Erik Kohler saluted Bruce Miller in front of the UCF section who gave him a standing ovation. I spoke to Bruce for a few minutes before the game. He was graciously accepting every photo request, and not just from UCF fans, plenty of Stanford/49ers fans came over too. He said he lives down in the Santa Clara area, which is where the team has been based for a few years since moving from Candlestick. He says he can be fairly anonymous down there. He knows his red beard sticks out, but he says it's a very "techie" area where a lot of fans are just not that into football. However, every time he travels into the city, he's constantly mobbed. He was super excited to be able to attend the game which is only possible because they played Monday night at home. Latavius wanted to be there, but the team was on lockdown in the hotel the night before their game.
As for the game, I didn't initially notice Justin got hurt. I saw him walking past with the team doctor and trainer towards the locker room, realizing that it can't be good. Initial reports from sideline bystanders was that his fingers were "mangled" and bleeding, potentially a compound fracture. Then someone said later that it wasn't a compound, just a finger issue with bleeding. I'm still a little confused on what the actual injury is, GOL was quite vague about it and didn't really deny that it wasn't broken.
Although Tyler Harris was listed second on the initial depth chart, that flew in the face with everything I was hearing about the backup competition. Schneider at some point, I'm assuming since the FIU game plan began, started to take reps at No. 2 while Harris was moved to scout team. Both were warming up during that defensive series and then we realized Bo was going in.
Much has already been said about the game. While the defense certainly had issues in the second half, they played a great first half in which they got zero assistance from the offense. You have to score points. Same deal as the FIU game. I know the defense is never up to GOL's high standards, but you won't many games scoring 14 as they did against FIU. I know there's a built-in excuse for the difficulties against Stanford though. As expected, the WRs showed their inexperience by dropping way too many balls.
All in all, a fun trip. UCF fans have had some great travel opportunities following the team the past few years between Ireland, San Francisco and Arizona, not to mention Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Memphis, St. Louis, etc. Places like El Paso are also underrated.
I definitely wouldn't mind another California game to have another excuse to get over there.
