Words by Keith Arnold, who↵is touring the country with his brother Phil as they invade a different↵college campus each Saturday during the football season. They’ll be reporting back in this space with their various adventures. You can also keep tabs on their vagabonding over at RoadtoGameDay.com.
Road to Game Day: A Two-For-One Weekend in Morgantown and Columbus
Last night, they were in Morgantown for the Auburn-West Virginia↵game. Tomorrow, they’ll be in Columbus for the Penn State-Ohio state↵contest.
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↵↵You should never get too excited about winning an auction on eBay. Sure, you get whatever it was that you really wanted, but that just means you were willing to pay more for it than everyone else. Yet last night I was throwing fist rockets like Tiger Woods on the back nine when I locked in our tickets for the big game at the Horseshoe tomorrow. After buying tickets on game day in almost every place we’ve been this year, I probably jumped the gun on sale price, but I didn’t want to get to Columbus without a ticket and find myself in an arms race. Because after eight weeks of buying tickets for the best game of the week, we don’t have too many arms left. ↵↵While the game in Columbus between the Buckeyes (who we will have seen three times now) and Penn State (our first time seeing the Nittany Lions) will be big, we spent last night in Morgantown, West Virginia, watching beleaguered first year coach Bill Stewart’s Mountaineers beat up on the Auburn Tigers. During the preseason, this was the most anticipated Thursday night game of the year, yet last night, it was simply two unranked teams playing in the shadow of the World Series. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to get to Morgantown ... come at your own risk. Morgantown is by far the most picturesque place we’ve been this year in terms of natural beauty and landscape, but there hasn’t been a student body or fan base in general that’s been as trashy. If I didn’t know Kevin Federline was from Fresno, I’d have guessed he was from Morgantown. ↵
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↵Wandering around town, most of the people were nice, helpful, and had that backwoods Southern accent that you’ll take directions from (but definitely not a ride), yet get them within 500 yards of the stadium and they are raving, maniacal lunatics. (I’d try to write a censored version of what I heard, but the top row of the keyboard only has so many symbols.) I’ve been to Blacksburg, so I’ve seen 20,000 rabid southerners dressed in their best camouflage hunting jackets, so I’m not scared of gun owning football fans. The people of Virginia Tech seem like foreign dignitaries compared to the crowd in Morgantown. I didn’t know it was even possible to feel sorry for Auburn fans, but outside the stadium, where drunkards old and young took turns berating anyone resembling a person, I found myself trying to help old and confused Auburn fans to the relative safety of their seats. ↵
↵↵Tickets, which months ago were among the most expensive in school history, were everywhere. We could’ve gotten into the stadium for 20 bucks total, but after finding seats 8 rows up and on the 25 yardline, we decided to pay face value and enjoy the best seats we’ve had all year. This was also our first game where we could get a solid visual on Erin Andrews, who apparently is some sideline reporter that people think is kind of pretty. Judge for yourselves. ↵
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↵↵After visiting Morgantown, it adds a new level of appreciation to the Rich Rodriguez fiasco. You know those guys with the girlfriend who is kinda hot but absolutely crazy? I’m talking Left Eye Lopez, burn down your house over a pair of Reeboks crazy? That’s West Virginia fans. And there is no clean breakup with West Virginia fans. So Rodriguez probably knew that no matter how he did it, the people were going to revolt, curse him for the rest of eternity, and brand him an enemy of state. So he didn’t really care if he had to get his hands dirty because if you’re breaking up with West Virginia, it’s going to get plenty messy anyway. Good luck, Bill Stewart. You’re going to need it.↵
↵↵We’re getting to Columbus today, hopefully picking up our eBay won tickets, and looking forward to being back in civilization ... Or at least a civilization where Penn State and Ohio State fans seem normal. ↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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