College Football
Home Team: Bowling Green Falcons
Visiting Team: VMI Keydets
Venue: Doyt Perry Stadium
Game Time: 3:30 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi
Game Recap | Box Score
There was a time--granted, it was mostly time spent living in Bowling Green, but not entirely--when I rarely missed a BG football game. That being the case, it's a little hard to believe that this was my first time back at Doyt Perry Stadium since two games (including the Boise State game) in 2009.
Really, it was just luck that we were able to come to this one. We came to northern Ohio last night for Brandi's alumni cheerleader night at Clyde High School. When I saw that BG's home opener was today, their first game at the Doyt under new coach Dino Babers and his "Falcon Fast" philosophy, I grabbed some tickets so we could be there to see it in person.
Now, I travel to Toledo at least once a month for work, so I drop into BG from time to time, but it had been a while since Brandi had been in town or on campus. That being the case, we decided to make a day of it, and it was awesome (more or less--more on that later). We came into town around noon and scoured around for a parking spot--which, between the game, the Black Swamp Arts Festival going on downtown, and a bunch of other events happening on campus, was harder than it sounds. We found one partway between campus and downtown and hoofed it over to Mr. Spots for a Philly cheesesteak lunch. It was awesome as usual, a literal taste of the days when we lived in BG.
From there it was back to campus, where we stopped at the Union to browse around the bookstore for a while. Then we meandered through campus, checking out old haunts and new buildings, on our way over to the stadium for the game. We had to venture over to the east side to pick up our tickets at will call, which took no time at all, and then we were finally in the stadium for the first time in five years. The Doyt is now one of the few college football stadiums to offer beer, so we grabbed a couple and headed up to our seats.
It's kind of funny, given how much I love going to Troy games, but I had actually forgotten how much I love going to BG games. The sheer spectacle of a college football game really makes the trip worthwhile, whatever the outcome of the game may be. It was a beautiful day, and we had so much fun being on campus and reliving old memories, and when the band took the field to play the alma mater, I found myself momentarily overwhelmed. That was followed by the national anthem and a flyover by a WWII-era bomber, which was really cool.
And then there was the game. After much hype, I finally got to see "Falcon Fast" in action...and I loved it. This is the way football should be played. Run a play, line up, snap the ball, run another play. It's awesome. It was also interesting to see James Knapke in action, starting at quarterback for the first time in place of Matt Johnson, who injured his hip in the first game at WKU and is likely out for the season. Knapke didn't need to do much, as the running game was in fine form and VMI was obviously overmatched from the start, but I thought he looked pretty good. He'll get a much stiffer test next week when the Indiana Hoosiers come to town.
Then, as the third quarter was winding down, this happened.
The truly startling thing, for me, was just that I had never seen anything like this from a BG fan before. I know all fan bases contain all types of fans, but in all my years of going to games, this was honestly the first time I had seen such jackassery from a BG fan. So that was incredibly disappointing, and we ended up leaving early because of it (I told Brandi later that I would have rather just found another place to sit--there were plenty of open areas by then), but the game was well in hand, so it was all good.
And aside from that, it really was an awesome day. Hopefully it won't be another five years before we make it back again.
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