Football Review: 2009 Outback Bowl

This is a really odd post, normally this is a movie or DVD review, but today, I had a very unique experience: my first EVER bowl game.  Because of the graciousness of a friend (Thanks KK!), I got to the Outback Bowl here in Tampa, FL.  It was a gridiron battle of SEC and Big 10, which this year was the South Carolina Gamecocks (SEC) and Iowa Hawkeyes (Big 10).

My day began at 7:15am.  Kickoff was at 11:30, but there was supposed to be a huge pre-game show featuring both university’s bands, a fly-over by the Marines, and sky divers delivering the game ball.  This was not a pre-game that I wanted to miss!  Sarah-Irene and I picked up our friend Michelle, and headed down to Raymond James Stadium.  After picking up KK, we parked and headed into the pre-game festivities!

We luckily met up with the USC Band and got to walk alongside the drumline.  It brought back a TON of memories and I called my mom and let he listen to the drummers for a while.  I don’t get to spoil my mom much, but when I can, I do.  We headed in to the stadium and found our seats.

Let me just say that I LOVE the “Ray J” – Raymond James.  There’s just something about being in a football stadium with palm trees INSIDE the stadium!  As we got settled in the standing area, near the pirate ship, we found out a little bad news…NO fly-over, NO skydivers…  The weather was just TOO windy for the planes and personnel to be safe.  But there was the USC and Iowa bands PLUS 100 dancers dressed like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz…  More from them later, the game is about to begin…Let it begin, Let it begin!!!

So we found out seats…in the middle of the Iowa faithful and NO, we were not rooting for the “Hawks”.  We had a little trouble finding section 206, but eventually, we got the right row and seats.  We were about even with the USC end zone and goal posts, really cool seats and free.  The only real bad part was we had a crew of college guys from Iowa and they were a “little” annoying… Thanks “Notre Dame Guy”, I missed a ton of plays because of you, sit down and let everyone else watch the game, huh?

That game was good, if you like watching the Big 10 whoop the crap out of the SEC…which I don’t.  For all of you in South Carolina…man, that game sucked.  BAD!!!  The final score was Iowa 31, USC 10….Thanks Steve Spurrier, I have another reason to loathe you…  The half time shows from the two college bands were fine, but it was the band made up of 25 bands from all around the US and their color guards that I loved.  I mean, come on, 75+ drummers AND featured twirlers!!!  YES!

After half time, we wandered around to visit Dave, Michelle’s husband, who was working the event as a caterer for the press, cool gig.  He was working his can off, and loving every minute of it.  We saddled up to the food court on the other side of the stadium to grab a bite and a drink…and the REAL fun began.  I will include pictures, they are all the commentary they need…trust me.

All in all, Outback did a great job of hosting the Bowl, but I am disappointed in the NO Fly-over and NO skydivers.  Also, I am a little disappointed that USC didn’t show up, but hey, Georgia won, so all in all, it was a GREAT day!