General

Road to Game Day: Week 2, Los Angeles

Sep 15, 2008, 2:55 PM UTC

Words by Keith Arnold, whoâ†µis touring the country with his brother Phil as they invade a differentâ†µcollege 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. This weekend, they were in L.A. for the Ohio State-USC game.

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â†µ“The worst part of it,” one pretty Buckeye co-ed told us as she wandered aimlessly around South Central looking for her car, “was that the weather hasn’t even been any good.”â†µâ†µAnd so concludes the “Collision at the Coliseum.” If that’s the best that comes out of Bristol these days, I’m going to be pining for double doses of the Sklar brothers bracketology, mixed in with some “Who’s Now” and Valdosta, Georgia defending it’s crown in Titletown, USA: The Sequel. I saw 15 better taglines being sold by enterprising street vendors in our first hour wandering the semi-mediocre tailgate scene outside the Coliseum. And after that utter beat down, it was more like the Colonic at the Coliseum. Because that certainly looked like an explosive mess spewing from the Ohio State sidelines.â†µ

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â†µIf it wasn’t clear to everyone in the leadup to this game, USC is absolutely legit. Not that we’re ready to hand Pete Carroll the glass football right now, but that certainly was the performance of the year thus far. And any time Mark Sanchez drops four touchdown passes on a team without throwing for 200 yards, you know that the other team got just pumped.â†µ

â†µâ†µWe were actually a little disappointed with the atmosphere around the Coliseum. It was almost as if the Buckeye fans were resigned to their fate, and most of them weren’t very convincing when stating their case for the upset. (Probably because none of them really believed it.) Maybe even Tressel knew they were going to get boat-raced, so he kept Beanie out of it, hoping voters would forget the absolute trouncing and use some revisionist history at the end of the season when assigning the Rose Bowl. â†µ

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â†µâ†µNot to say it wasn’t a good party. Any time you’ve got the Octa-Bong going and a member of the LAPD officiating who wins the chug race, you’re definitely having a good time. Either way, it was a great time, and the night was still young. The best part of the night game on the West Coast is that it’s at 5PM, and even after the atrocious parking and traffic you’re able to get home, shower up, and hit the bars. â†µ

â†µâ†µA good showing by the SC girls, although it’s time to swap out those Leinart and Bush jerseys for Joe McKnight or Sanchez, because this generation of Trojan stars will have USC sorority dad’s reaching for some Just for Men, because these guys are going to be the same kind of rock stars as their predecessors.â†µ

â†µâ†µIf only RTGD won the genetic lottery ... â†µ

â†µâ†µPreviously: Week 1, Gainesvilleâ†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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