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November 12, 2003

by Jared Bean

From the Parking Lot and the Field:

First, loyal readers, I offer another apology. A busy week prevented me from making last week’s deadline. The column would have been fun to write, after the way the Penn State team played against Ohio State. Now that game, and the feeling of pride that accompanied it, seem like a distant memory. It’s a tale of two weeks.

Ohio State Saturday:

Some days are just perfect. Ohio State Saturday was one of them. It was November 1st, a time when the fall chill is usually giving way to the bitter cold of winter. Not that Saturday. Ohio State Saturday was in the high 60s, and we were wearing t-shirts. Old friends returned to the tailgate, everyone was feeling jolly. The tailgate went off without a hitch. There was the perfect amount of food, the right number of people, and everyone expected good things from the day.

At the stadium, the beginning of the game was perfect. Dusk began to fall on Beaver Stadium and a crowd that finally showed the enthusiasm and energy, for which it was known, ignited the passion of the team. The Penn State Football team played like it should of all year long. Passes were being caught, the offense was moving the ball, and the defense played inspired and emotional football for the first time all year. Everything had the feel of victory. Unfortunately, the storybook ending to that game was rewritten by a few questionable calls here, a few plays there, and that perfect day evaporated into the cool night. But there was something at the end of that day, that the team, the coaches, and the fans had not had since August, and that was hope. It was the best feeling fans had after a loss (and a few beers) in a long time.

Fast Forward to Northwestern Saturday >>

The question of how quickly hopes can be dashed was answered on a wintry day in Evanston, IL. What was an almost perfect day, just seven days before, had turned cold and brisk. And so had PSU’s fortunes turned. The Penn State football team was supposed to feel like this was the opportunity to get back in the win column. They were supposed to turn things around. They were SUPPOSED to WIN!

But they didn’t. And they took another step back. And now, for the first time ever, the stadium cheer at Beaver Stadium can be heard like this. WE ARE…TWO and EIGHT. WE ARE…TWO and EIGHT.

This week, for PSU fans was a tough one. This is something that 99% of us had never felt. It was Football Depression, and it was contagious among the NittanyNation. A friend of mine asked me a question this week as we were discussing our depression over the outcome of this season. She basically said, how could this team, with the same coaches go from a good team last year, to this bad team so quickly? It is a simple question that so many have asked, but to which there is only the most complicated of answers.

You can blame the players. We lost a lot of great talent. You can blame the coaches for not preparing the team enough. Heck, you can even place some of the blame on the fans for not supporting the team enough in their time of need. Many in the NittanyNation have blamed Joe Paterno. And he has deserved criticism. But what is the real answer, no one knows, and no one can explain it.

At this point in the year, with two games remaining, I’ve started my annual ritual of looking back at the season and replaying it in my mind. As painful as that is, it’s the only true way for me to develop thoughts and ideas on what needs changed. Perhaps that’s what the coaches and returning players need to do in order to return to the time was most of those Saturdays were ‘perfect’ Saturdays.

From the Road:

On another note, we are honored to have a report from the road game to Iowa. Dr. Matty Frank, Penn State Alum, and current Iowa State Assistant Professor, attended the game and represented the PennStateTailgate.comers on the road. Here is his report:

The Central Iowa Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association put together this trip to the PSU/Iowa game. For $75/person, you got a charter bus ride, food and drink and a seat at the game. About 44 people in all went on the trip. The bus left Des Moines at 5:30 in the morning. Being a 45-minute ride for Ami and I from Ames, our alarm clocks rang out at 3:30am. Picture one starts with sunrise on the bus. The trip to Iowa City took about 2 hours. Then, we sat in a line of traffic for about an hour. Traffic management seems to have evaded the folks in Iowa City. We were surprised to find that the stadium is located right in the heart of campus, so tailgating is spread out all over the place. We ended up parking our bus along a road and set up between the bus and sidewalk. Next door is a field where Iowa tailgaters had their tents. They seem pretty into tailgating but since it is all spread out, it does not have the same atmosphere as PSU. The tent nearest to us had a portable fire ring with a real campfire. About 6 people on our bus brought hot breakfast casseroles, which went well with a cold Rolling Rock, and then another cold Rolling Rock…. It was a bit chilly out, so it was nice that they brought whole box of beer cozies.

We grabbed a picture of the lions rolling in on the buses. Next is a shot outside of Kinnick Stadium. This stadium is damn old and holds only about 65,000. We snapped a couple shots inside the stadium showing warm-ups, a “meeting” of the opposing cheerleaders, and other random shots, including JoePa. At half time I headed out to the concourse to “recycle some beer”. That adventure took the entire half time and 10 minutes into the 3rd quarter. This stadium has only one ramp level into the seats and when you get to the concourse, you find a mob (no line to speak of) standing outside the bathroom entrance. This takes up an area of about 40’ by 12’ feet deep. I did not see a sink in the “trough” filled bathroom, so I assumed washing hands was frowned upon. We did not eat anything at the stadium, especially since I spent my free time shifting from foot to foot standing with my pee-buddies on the concourse level.

We had plenty of fun at the game, mainly because the blue band was one row in front of us and really entertaining. The game, well, we don’t need to talk about that anymore. Fans in the stadium were not too bad. There was one 350-pound Hawk fan who would yell angrily at us every now and then, but I don’t think he was very happy about much in life anyway. There was a pretty good crowd of blue in our corner. Our group of 44 was all together, so we had a great time.

After the game, we fired up a portable Coleman propane grill that produced some damn good brats and dogs. On a stove was a pot of the best pork barbeque. (In general, you can’t beat the barbeque out here; I think Texas has some competition). There was enough beer and food to serve 100. Good thing, because the 20+ blue band stopped in to play at our tailgate. The blue sapphire put on a great show on the sidewalk and the band played for a good long while. We must have been the big PSU tailgate, because they never left! They hung out on the grass at our tailgate for about 45 minutes, until I guess they had to pack up. The Iowa tailgaters were really friendly to us. One of them asked our group to come over to their tailgate to help sing “happy birthday” to a 30 year old Hawk fan.

The ride home on the bus was half rowdy and half sleeping. That is, the back half of the bus tried to empty out the coolers while the front half passed out. We were in the middle of the bus, so we slept, then woke to someone laughing, then slept some more. There was a PSU trivia contest on the bus with door prizes. Upon arrival back in Des Moines, we all had paw print magnets stuck on our cars. In all, the organizers of this trip were really great and we hope to go with them in the future. Every game, they meet at a bar and grill in south Des Moines to watch on satellite.

Well, we hope you all make it out to Iowa some day. If you are planning a trip, we are in Ames, home of the Iowa State Cyclones; at least one team that the Lions could beat this year.

Reporting from Iowa,
Matt and Ami Frank

Until next time…GO STATE!

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