Reflections on my trip to LSU-ARK

A little background first... I grew up in Louisiana in a family full of hardcore LSU fans.  My parents had season tickets so I went to countless games when I was a kid, but I hadn't been to one in over 10 years.  I went to Baton Rouge to visit family for Thanksgiving, and my uncle offered us tickets to the game against Arkansas.  It meant I would miss watching the Texas vs. A&M game, but I figured we couldn't pass up a chance to see the Tigers at home, especially with a #1 ranking, and McFadden coming to Bayou country.

General impressions:  The stadium has had a bit of a makeover, but still has the old-school looking scoreboard and a tiny video screen (compared to Godzillatron).  In overall size it didn't seem to be bigger than DKR to me, but the capacity is higher right now - I think they squeeze people in tighter.  The Tiger band is great, they could teach a few things to the Longhorn band.  They played a bunch of different songs throughout the game, and got the whole crowd singing along and waving hands up and down (although "Living on a Prayer" may have been a poor choice).  Tailgating at Texas may be serious business, but I give the edge to LSU on that one, too.  As one t-shirt put it, "Tailgating in Baton Rouge - We May Not Win 'Em All, But We've Never Lost a Party."

Our seats were in the north end zone where the LSU players run out of the tunnel, 11 rows up.  Here's a shot I took with my phone of Darren McFadden (#5) running a play right in front of us:

As for the game, after a slow-going first half, it turned into an exciting affair.  McFadden is the real deal - LSU's defense just couldn't stop him all day.  He took a lot of direct snaps, maybe 1 out of every 3.  It made me think a lot about using Chiles in that kind of role, with Colt still taking the reins in passing situations.  LSU had a couple of big plays late in the game that got called back due to penalties, and that probably ended up costing them the game.  It was the first overtime game I've seen live, and the intensity was unbelievable.  It just seemed that neither offense was going to be stopped.  But, of course, LSU came up just a little bit short when Flynn threw that INT (again, right in front of us).  The crowd was absolutely stunned.   I resisted the urge to heckle Perilloux as he exited the field, because I was afraid my uncle might not give us a ride back if I did.  Flynn did leave the field during the 2nd half and in between overtimes, but came right back out - I don't know what was wrong, but he didn't appear to be injured to me.

I was probably the only one there in burnt orange... I got a lot of funny looks walking around before the game, and a couple of intrigued comments ("Texas?  TEXAS??  What's he doing here??").  I even got heckled by an Aggie fan at an intersection earlier in the day, yelling "Break 'em off" out of his car.  (My uncle: "I didn't know we had any of them here.")

I picked up a portable radio that included TV signals, so I was able to listen to the ABC broadcast audio of the Texas game.  (Sure made me miss Craig Way).  It was pretty depressing listening to that while watching LSU lose.  I just have one question:  Why didn't Mack go for an onside kick there at the end?  It was probably too late at that point anyway, but it seemed like that gave away the last chance.  Or maybe I misunderstood the announcers.

A couple of other things:

•  There's definitely not much love for Saban down there.  I heard from somebody who "has it on good authority" that Saban hates being at Alabama.  Also, I don't get the impression that LSU fans would care if Miles goes to Michigan.  Some of them are hoping for it.
•   I talked to somebody who is at the high school where Rivals 100 DE Chase Clement plays (he's #100).  I asked him why Texas wasn't on his list, and he told me that they don't think he's as good as everybody else seems to think, although he's really good at the HS level.  But Les Miles and Saban were both on their campus last week checking him out.  (BTW it's pronounced "CLAY-MONT")