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September 22, 2004
Tennessee 30 Florida 28 = Best Game Ever
This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the best game I had ever been to at Neyland stadium. I also brought my camera!
I get in free to every home game because I work in the Knoxville Girls' Soccer Team's concession stand. The good part is I only have to work before the game, and at half time, so I get to go watch the game. No seats, but hey, its free!
We usually arrive 3 hours before the game, and its cool because the stadium is practically empty. I got some pics of the stadium empty. It's impressive.
the traditional checkerboard endzone
the field and the jumbo-tron on the far end
the luxery boxes
At the concession stand, I am usually in charge of drinks. It's a hard job just to keep up with the demands on Coke. Fortunately I had a piece of good news when I got to the stand. They didn't need us. So we were in the stadium early and free of responsibility!
the stand I work in
From here, we headed to a ramp that went along the gate where the "Vol-Walk" takes place. This is where the streets are lined with fans and the players walk down to the stadium. It's simply amazing.
you can see the L-shape through which the team proceeds.
the Pride of the Southland Marching Band warms the crowd up
the team was proceeded by these harley-mounted cops
this mascot was behind the cops
The camera I was using had an awesome feature that took 5 continuous shots...I took some of the flag guy waving the flag.
the team was led by the head coach, Phillip Fulmer
you can pick out the players as the people who are wearing suits
this player gets a hug from an obviously enthusiastic fan (maybe mom?)
more players making their way
running backs coach, Trooper Taylor
he's probably more excited than any player.
We went inside the stadium to find a friend of ours, John Warren. He managed the concession stand I work in last year.
he's working the sidelines now, he was in charge of the visitor's mascot
Ice Creap...lol
After seeing John, we headed to the end of the stadium to watch the band enter.
the band is on the right, preparing to march into the stadium
the lead of the band
the flag corps
left, right, left, right, left, right...
a sea of orange
After the band made its way in, we headed over to sit in the stands and watch the teams warm up. I took another continuous shot of the kicker kicking field goals.
I thought this reflection off of my dad's glasses looked cool
After a while, the teams got dressed and continued warming up, afterwards, they hyped up in a huddle.
Go Vols!
boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
After that the teams headed in until before kickoff. Soon the band began its pre-game show.
the drum major and the drumline
they marched down the field
then marched back the other way
formed a U on top of a T
marched downfield and formed the "Power T"
came back and spelled USA while playing "Stars and Stripes Forever"
They then formed a hollow T with the base at the locker-room tunnel and the top going from sideline to sideline. The moment culminated when the team ran through the T to take the sideline. The crowd goes crazy at this point.
led by that flag-waving mascot and cheerleaders
players and coaches making their way
I wish I could explain just how exciting this is, when all the crowd is roaring and the stadium is shaking and your team is taking the field just before the biggest game in the regular season. I wish I knew what to say to make everyone reading this feel the way I did when I was there experiencing the whole thing.
I didn't really get any pictures of the football game action, I was far too into it to be concerned with shooting pictures.
It was such an exciting game. I'll re-cap the ending. Florida scores a touchdown and extra point to go on top 28-21. We get the ball and go downfield and score a touchdown. With our kicker, the extra point is always a sure thing...we thought. He had never missed one out of 50 in his college career, but this would be his first. The score was Florida winning 28-27 with 3:25 remaining on the clock. We stopped Florida and they punted to about our 40. Our frosh Quarterback, Eric Ainge threw two good passes to move the ball downfield. We had no timeouts so we had to spike the ball. Out kicker came out to kick a 50-yard field goal. This was his chance to redeem himself. He kicks it, and from the yardline, it appears short, but it's not. It's good! The whole place goes crazy and the stadium feels like its in an earthquake, and its so loud. There were six seconds left on the clock but that didn't matter. We just had to kick to Florida without letting them get to the endzone. We did and we won. It was the most exciting game I've ever been to. I could not believe what took place that night.
Posted in Sports By akijikan at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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