“It’s Saturday Night…in DEATH VALLEY!!!”
Boy, it sure was. I had to separate the game section of the column from the “experience” of the game. It was truly amazing. Years after being in the student section, it’s been hard to recapture that feeling that resurfaced Saturday Night. But the crowd always seemed loudest in the student section when you were a part of it. These days, I don’t have season tickets, so I’m a ticket vagabond. Roaming around from game to game getting tickets from whomever I can. I’ve sat in just about every part of the stadium since I graduated in ’99. I lucked into a ticket against UF getting to go with a friend of my wife’s. And the seats we sat in Saturday were just great. They were in the Southeast corner of the stadium even with the end zone just east of the visitor’s section in the lower bowl. A great place to be on a Saturday night. Almost directly opposite from where the students sit and a couple of stones throws away from the opposing Gators. We got there early enough to see Mike VI make his first trip around Tiger Stadium. I got to hear Pregame which is always special. And I’m not gonna lie, the Alma Mater even got to me a little this time. By the way, I love the fact that the band plays both verses now (I might’ve mentioned this last year). But before all of this, the teams warmed up and when Florida broke warm-ups they gathered in the middle of the field and collectively stomped on the “eye.”
That’s just Florida being Florida. I expected nothing less. A little sand in the face before the fight starts, Gator style.
But as we got closer to kickoff the electricity was unbelievable. The whole weekend had the “big game” feel to it, but now it had the “THE game” feel to it. The crowd was energetic and loud. They rode the roller coaster just like the fans watching on tv in this emotional tug-o-war. They suffered every low as the Tigers fell behind by 10 points three different times. The crowd also played cheerleader and reveled in every high trying to will the Tigers to a win. My wife’s friend (and also a devoted reader of this site) reminded me of something I wrote a while back:
“There’s a moment when Tiger Stadium turns into “Death Valley.” Like a switch being turned on. Well that happened Saturday night. In fact, it happened a lot. The reason was the switch kept going off too, like a bored 8 year old with ADD was going crazy with the Tiger Stadium/Death Valley switch. The game started and it was on, they’d score and it was off, we’d make a big play and it was on, we’d miss a field goal and it was off.
But between all the flipping, something incredible happened. At the 7:49 point in the 3rd quarter, LSU scored after being down ten to make it a three point game and the action on the field had halted because of the tv timeout. It was a rallying point for this team. This is our chance to get back in this game. And then “it” happened.
Minutes before this 7:49 point, he guy behind me, headphone in ear, announces that Stanford beat Southern Cal. I asked him to repeat that as it seems I misunderstood. He repeated what I thought I’d heard. He seemed nice enough, but I didn’t believe him. That couldn’t be right. Then another guy around us confirmed the man’s apparent lie. Wait a minute… if two people say it, it’s gotta be true right? I was way more interested in our Tigers than those stupid Trojans at the time. And after we scored and my mind had a little time to settle I thought, “even if we do lose, I’ll be glad USC lost.”
Back to 7:49/3rd quarter. In a crowd that just had their spirits lifted a little, public address announcer Dan Borne’ would take the mood from cautiously optimistic to pandemonium apesh%t crazy. He did it with these words:
“Final score….Stanford 24…..USC 23!”
Which was apparently code for, “On my signal, unleash hell!”
And that’s exactly what happened. Let me start by saying that I watched the entire CBS broadcast on Sunday and it in no way did justice to the scene. I’m very afraid it was one of those “you had to be there” moments.
It was the one of the loudest and definitely the longest sustained roar I’d heard in that place in all my years. It was crazy. It came in waves too. You were there going “Wow, this is the loudest this place has been in a long time….no wait now THIS is the loudest it’s been… no wait this is freakin crazy.”
I fully expected the place to come apart and crumble I kid you not. Also I’d never seen the players on the sideline go bonkers like that (You like that? I brought back “bonkers”). Everyone in purple and gold had been injected with new life. And I may be in the minority on this but I don’t think it was all about USC losing. It was definitely the accelerant that started the blaze but it didn’t keep it going. My take on the whole thing was that collectively every Tiger fan in the place thought “If Stanford can beat USC anything can happen including turning this game around. The mighty west coast Goliath had fallen, and now there was nothing stopping us from being number one. We will turn this around!”
And while I’m screaming like the other 90,000 maniacs, I think that every visiting Florida fan must be thinking one of two things:
1) How will I ever clean this urine out of my jorts…?
and
2) We’re not getting out of here alive.
It was truly one of the best moments I’ve experienced in Death Valley. The switch was definitely ON at that point. But to the Gator’s credit, they took the ensuing possession and scored another TD. That’s when I really thought it was over. I thought any team that could withstand that onslaught of noise and insanity was invincible. Kudos to you Mr. Meyer and Mr. Tebow, you just took our hardest punch and you’re still standing. But not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, I forgot the same thing the Gators did: There’s still one round left in this fight.
Being down ten again was tough, but as the fourth quarter rolled on, I began to think we could pull this out. The defense made some big plays and then on 4th down Flynn finds Byrd in the end zone and we’re back to 3 down. Good lord, it’s antacid time!
But that was just the beginning. The defense got the ball back and that began “the drive.”
An 8 minute plus lesson taught to Urban Meyer courtesy of Les Miles and his combination of cojones and smashmouth football. It was the finale of the roller coaster ride when my goose bumps got goose bumps. Fourth down attempts, measurements, time ticking by, all of it making us crazier by the second. I probably lost a couple years off my life that night.
If 7:49 in the 3rd quarter was a noise marathon, it’s sprinter cousin was Hester crossing the line into purple paint. Somebody check a seismograph in Howe-Russell will ya?
As we all know there was a little over a minute for Tebow and co. to break our collective hearts, but it didn’t happen. Chad Jones and Chevis Jackson knocked the ball to the turf and I think I regained those two years back on to my life. It was our night and the switch was left ON.
I don’t know if it’ll be that way in two weeks when Auburn comes to town and I can guarantee it won’t be like that for La. Tech or Arkansas, but what happened in that stadium Saturday night is why we are Tiger fans. It’s why we spend the money, it’s why we clear our weekend calendars in the fall, it’s why we take pride in being one of the most feared places to play. You don’t, scratch that, you can’t get this in other places. Not in Norman or Knoxville or Tuscaloosa. Not in Auburn, or Columbus or Madison or College Station. Not in Athens, Gainesville, Ann Arbor, Oxford, or Austin. And definitely not in Los Angeles.
Call it the “magic”, call it “Death Valley” or whatever you want to call it. But just a warning to all the opposing teams and fans that enter, we call it “home”. And on Saturday nights, there’s no place like it.
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