Papa Johns Bowl

We had high hopes for the day as we headed south on I-65 to attend the Papa Johns Bowl game in Birmingham, AL to watch USC vs UConn. It was a cold day and we had snow flurries on our way to Alabama. We got to the stadium about 10:15 and it looked like a home USC football game - USC tailgate tents and fans everywhere. It was a fun, upbeat atmosphere. We walked around the Fan Zone then headed back to the van to eat lunch before heading into the stadium. We went into the stadium about 12:15 for a 1:00 kickoff. Both UConn and USC's bands played for pregame. Immediately upon the first USC drive, we knew it was going to be a long afternoon. Like the guy behind us said, "USC brought the fans; UConn brought the football team." It was a terrible day for the Gamecock faithful. USC lost 20-7. On a bright note for me, I enjoyed seeing both marching bands play for pregame and halftime. Seth enjoyed watching and hearing the bands too. The UConn band was directly across the field from us so we heard them a lot during the game. They have an incredible sound. It was cold throughout the game and because the way the team was playing, many of the USC fans started to leave mid-way thru the 3rd quarter. We stuck it out til about 5 minutes left to go in the game and we left too - missing USC's only score of the game. Thankfully the stadium personnel had a great plan in place for traffic flow and it took us no time at all to get onto the interstate to head back home. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for some comfort food for dinner. After getting home, Jenna was checking her email and when she signed onto the computer saw the apology from head coach Steve Spurrier to all the 30,000 Gamecock fans who were at the game. Small consolation but it was nice to hear.