Ammon was the one snapping the picture, so he didn't make it into the shot. Funny thing about that necklace Nate is wearing. While sitting at Tommy Burger waiting for our food the night before Job looks over at Nate and asks "Nate, is that a choker necklace you're wearing? Aren't those for girls? What's going on man?" Nate looked mortified and explained to Job that it was a gift from someone he met while teaching English in China.
Moving on. Getting to the game turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. We left my house three and a half hours before the game started. I felt that was MORE than enough time to get us there before kick-off. Foolish assumption on my part. We should have left 5 hours ahead of time. There was an accident on the 710 freeway involving a semi that jack-knifed and closed the entire freeway. Unfortunately we were travelling at high speeds in the far left lane when this accident took place only a couple of miles in front of us, so we were unable to navigate off of the freeway before everything came to a complete stop. After idling for 30 minutes I put the car in park, and finally just turned it off. We sat on the 710 for TWO HOURS. Fortunately there was a nice breeze that day. I had my game day binoculars with me so I was able to get out of the car and stand on the side of the freeway and watch the people up in front trying to get the stupid semi out of the way.
When the truck was finally moved out of the way I hit the gas and went flying along as fast as I could. Admittedly freaking out the people in my car. Nate had the driving instructions, but for reasons that are not clear to me he believed we were on the 5 (probably because I just sort of shoved the directions at him without reading or telling him where we were), and that we were looking for the 2. Regardless, let's just say the 710 ended, I cursed and the car fell into silence, and Vanessa (bless her soul) in Ben's car with the aid of the Thomas guide was able to direct us from the 710 South to the 10 back to the 5 to the 2 and then the 134 which by then was so backed up that we again put the car in park (didn't have to turn it off this time) and sat. I think it goes without saying that I was feeling really frazzled by the time we finally got the car parked at least half a mile from the stadium, and were already listening to the first drive on the radio. I bolted from the car and made the guys walk much faster than I think they felt like walking. I made it to my seat with about 10 minutes still left on the clock in the first quarter.
My thoughts on the game:
Max Hall is playing amazingly well for a guy who hasn't taken a snap in four years.
Andrew George is my new favorite player, but I kind of love Austin Collie a lot too.
Our punter is a joke.
PAC-10 officiating is no excuse for a loss when the team completely fails to perform in the first two quarters of the game.
Ben Olson is a liar, and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside everytime I saw one of our guys pound him into the turf.
Ben Olson is also a crap QB with limited mobility, but will probably make the pros and play on a scout team because of his size.
BYU is better than UCLA, statistically out played them, but failed to play four quarters of football, and therefore walked away sans the W.
I was encouraged to see that Anae can make effective half-time adjustments, but wish he hadn't waited until the half to make that happen.
The drive back from the Rose Bowl was thankfully much less eventful than the ride out. If I ever have occasion to return to that nightmarish venue I will leave 5 hours before kick-off. The Oreo did present me with a BYU-Utah '06 commemorative cup because they knew I had attended the game in person, and they felt it would be nice a gift...and they're right it is. In fact, I love it. In '01 Gernaro earned a special little place in my heart when he intercepted Rice's pass to win the game. In '06 it was Harline who secure a little spot for himself in my heart when he fell to his knees in the endzone to catch the TD pass from Beck. Harline and Beck are prominently featured on the side my new cup, so I feel that it was an excellent gift.
It was great to hear that the utes lost to AFA, which sort of salved the wounds from BYU's defeat. Next year in Provo it'll be payback time for UCLA. I'm looking forward to it. Mostly I'm just more happy than I can say that fb season is finally underway. It's the best time of the year. :)
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