MajorMike
09-29-2008, 10:36 AM
http://www.troytrojans.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=87288&SPID=10377&DB_OEM_ID=17200&ATCLID=1591971
Sunday, September 28
Home again, home again...jiggity jig! It seems almost impossible that I, along with 150 of my closest friends, were on the tarmac in Oklahoma City waiting to board our Jet Blue charter plane around midnight last night and then magically I was in my own bed only four hours later. Chartered air travel is a wonderful thing.
Treatment should get started here in a few minutes and we'll take a tally of the wounded ones. I don't expect any major surprises to the injury list, as everyone was walking and talking quite well after the game. There were probably some wounded egos and bruised pride, but last I checked, I don't have much remedy for those type of battle wounds. A little compassion tempered with some tough love and we'll be ready to go again, I'm sure of it.
We made it through another game seemingly unscathed. One season ending injury on the field after four games is par for the course and we'll keep our fingers crossed that statistics don't make fools out of us in the next eight.
My thoughts on Oklahoma State are fairly simple. I think our special teams did a fantastic job of recovering from last week. It was a nice showing by punters, kickers, and field goal kickers alike.
Sam Glusman is flawless on the season. Way to go, Sam! Will Goggans and Michael Taylor both averaged over 60 yards in punts and kick-offs, respectively. Nice job, special teams...except for the double-take fake punt from OSU in last night's game that caught us off guard. Who'd of thought they'd line that up twice in a row? Definitely not me.
The facilities were nice, as you would expect with over $100 million recent contributions from boosters and donors. With all that money, I wished they would have added about 10 more feet to the sideline though. It was a very 'up-close-and-personal' mixture of players, fans, media, coaches and other random sideline observers.
It was definitely the most closely confined sideline I'd ever experienced. If there was an upside to that, it was that I didn't run a mile during the game last night trying to see about everybody. I was actually able to watch a good portion of the game. And since I added a little extra to the morning run since missing out last week, I was thankful in the end for the close proximity of it all.
Although the temperatures are supposed to be cooling off now that fall is officially here, we're still battling the mercury during game time. It was very warm in Stillwater last night and hydration is still an issue with some of our guys. Of course, it doesn't help our efforts to counteract the rising temperatures since we seem to blow the breakers at every stadium we visit with all the power requirements of the fans, cool shirts, and other electrical equipment we take on the road.
It doesn't look like we'll be getting a break in the next week or so either, with trips to south Florida, Texas, and Louisiana looming on the horizon.
One thing that stood out in my mind, as well as others in the travel party was the fact that EVERYONE in Stillwater was wearing orange yesterday! EVERYONE in orange: people at the hotel, gas stations, shoes stores, restaurants - servers and patrons alike. It was the largest crowd in history at that stadium with over 52,000 in attendance and they all wore Oklahoma State gear. It makes me glad our school colors don't have orange in them - or green for that matter - but it was impressive to see all that orange in the stands.
And, once again, crowd participation was at a maximum. The most impressive fans were in the west end zone. (And no, I didn't make a mistake about the direction of the end zone. The OSU stadium runs east-west, not north-south. It has something to do with prevailing winds.) They imitated the Count from Sesame Street after each of the first downs and did a good job of keeping a running tally of them. Between that and those dang guns and cannons they kept shooting off, for no apparent reason might I add, they were into the game until the very end.
Stillwater definitely has a passion for their football. Maybe there's not much to do in a small town in the Midwest on a Saturday evening...maybe there's not another big football school in driving distance from them. Whatever the reason - I applaud them for supporting their school and student-athletes. It got me thinking it would be nice to look up from the sidelines of the Gallery and see Cardinal and White TROY gear all over the place. Just a thought. A girl can dream, can't she?
We'll be on the road again for the next few weeks and then back to the Gallery on October 18. By then, I'll have already started daily practice coverage of Men's Basketball and will be keeping a suitcase packed ready for travel with them as well. Should be an interesting upcoming month or two. I'll be hoping for lots of wins between the two teams!
GO TROJANS!
Alyson
Sunday, September 28
Home again, home again...jiggity jig! It seems almost impossible that I, along with 150 of my closest friends, were on the tarmac in Oklahoma City waiting to board our Jet Blue charter plane around midnight last night and then magically I was in my own bed only four hours later. Chartered air travel is a wonderful thing.
Treatment should get started here in a few minutes and we'll take a tally of the wounded ones. I don't expect any major surprises to the injury list, as everyone was walking and talking quite well after the game. There were probably some wounded egos and bruised pride, but last I checked, I don't have much remedy for those type of battle wounds. A little compassion tempered with some tough love and we'll be ready to go again, I'm sure of it.
We made it through another game seemingly unscathed. One season ending injury on the field after four games is par for the course and we'll keep our fingers crossed that statistics don't make fools out of us in the next eight.
My thoughts on Oklahoma State are fairly simple. I think our special teams did a fantastic job of recovering from last week. It was a nice showing by punters, kickers, and field goal kickers alike.
Sam Glusman is flawless on the season. Way to go, Sam! Will Goggans and Michael Taylor both averaged over 60 yards in punts and kick-offs, respectively. Nice job, special teams...except for the double-take fake punt from OSU in last night's game that caught us off guard. Who'd of thought they'd line that up twice in a row? Definitely not me.
The facilities were nice, as you would expect with over $100 million recent contributions from boosters and donors. With all that money, I wished they would have added about 10 more feet to the sideline though. It was a very 'up-close-and-personal' mixture of players, fans, media, coaches and other random sideline observers.
It was definitely the most closely confined sideline I'd ever experienced. If there was an upside to that, it was that I didn't run a mile during the game last night trying to see about everybody. I was actually able to watch a good portion of the game. And since I added a little extra to the morning run since missing out last week, I was thankful in the end for the close proximity of it all.
Although the temperatures are supposed to be cooling off now that fall is officially here, we're still battling the mercury during game time. It was very warm in Stillwater last night and hydration is still an issue with some of our guys. Of course, it doesn't help our efforts to counteract the rising temperatures since we seem to blow the breakers at every stadium we visit with all the power requirements of the fans, cool shirts, and other electrical equipment we take on the road.
It doesn't look like we'll be getting a break in the next week or so either, with trips to south Florida, Texas, and Louisiana looming on the horizon.
One thing that stood out in my mind, as well as others in the travel party was the fact that EVERYONE in Stillwater was wearing orange yesterday! EVERYONE in orange: people at the hotel, gas stations, shoes stores, restaurants - servers and patrons alike. It was the largest crowd in history at that stadium with over 52,000 in attendance and they all wore Oklahoma State gear. It makes me glad our school colors don't have orange in them - or green for that matter - but it was impressive to see all that orange in the stands.
And, once again, crowd participation was at a maximum. The most impressive fans were in the west end zone. (And no, I didn't make a mistake about the direction of the end zone. The OSU stadium runs east-west, not north-south. It has something to do with prevailing winds.) They imitated the Count from Sesame Street after each of the first downs and did a good job of keeping a running tally of them. Between that and those dang guns and cannons they kept shooting off, for no apparent reason might I add, they were into the game until the very end.
Stillwater definitely has a passion for their football. Maybe there's not much to do in a small town in the Midwest on a Saturday evening...maybe there's not another big football school in driving distance from them. Whatever the reason - I applaud them for supporting their school and student-athletes. It got me thinking it would be nice to look up from the sidelines of the Gallery and see Cardinal and White TROY gear all over the place. Just a thought. A girl can dream, can't she?
We'll be on the road again for the next few weeks and then back to the Gallery on October 18. By then, I'll have already started daily practice coverage of Men's Basketball and will be keeping a suitcase packed ready for travel with them as well. Should be an interesting upcoming month or two. I'll be hoping for lots of wins between the two teams!
GO TROJANS!
Alyson