I'm just gonna start with this: holy shit is everything CHEAP down there!!! Also....a lot of this nobody is going to care about, but, oh well!!!
*** example: 2 PBR 12oz bottles, 2 (full) 2 oz shots of Jamo and a "Grail" (12oz of alcohol)....ONLY $35!!!! Easily - EASILY - $60 in Hoboken/JC. 2 eggs, 12oz bowl of grits, bacon and biscuit: $7.50!!!!
Friday
- woke up 4:45AM, was showered and in an Uber to Newark Penn by 5:02AM and caught the 5:25AM NEC to Trenton. Got picked up by my buddy and his wife and we were off the Floyd, VA about 31-miles SE of B'Burg to our AirBnB. 6 hours 20-minutes flat with 2 stops. Easy-peasy no big traffic issues whatsoever.
- hit the RU gathering at some brew pub in the hills outside of B'Burg. Freakin' BEAUTIFUL spot with outdoor seating, picturesque views and ....corn hole!
- within 5-minutes we meet The Patel Family. Or at least 3/5ths (mom, dad and one of Jai's sisters (I'm leaving names out)) of the family. Hit it off immediately with them as I asked his sister if it truly did take her 3-hours to down a single martini, at the Akron tailgate, or that she was getting refills (it was the former....). So we're all hanging out with @MrsScrew and @RUScrew85 and others and get the lowdown on everything "Patel" which was really, really cool. They're as "RU" as it gets and will be GREAT ambassadors for the program the next 2.5+ years as they already have been!
- highlights included about a dozen extra drink tickets being dumped on our table, too much crumbled blue cheese eating by this guy, a shirtless 60+ year old dude, finding out that "HIMS" truly does work (my head has HOPE again, lol...), how Jai got his name, pics of someone getting changed in the car, and possibly bathroom butt pics. Mrs Screw is now besties with Mrs Patel, I've got a new buddy in Mr Patel, and very possibly a future client or two in the realm of "home purchasing" lol!!! Oh and we got a good "R-U" chant, which was followed by a "go hokies," and then the inevitable "RU Rah-Rah" from the few dozen of so of us inside at the time. NEXT!!!!
- Off to TOTS aka "Top of The Stairs" we go! The "Rail." 2 oz each of Vodka, Rum, Gin, Triple Sec, Bourbon, Whiskey, Sours, Sprite, and Cranberry (basically an old school "Red Death" but no OJ)....guys and gals, once you're ready to do these, put the kids and pets to bed. Seriously. I was in a pretty good place until drinking a couple of these then everything just ....well....ya' know how these things go lol!!! Most of the same people from the RU party were there, plus others, as well as the VT fans and students who started pouring in shortly after we arrived. Found out there's a law in Virginia: NO DRINKS IN BATHROOMS. It's against the law!!!! Met a girl from Manasquan (student) who grew up "hating Rutgers," one fat dude who tried to start trouble "who the **** do you guys think you are coming into OUR BAR??!! Get the **** outta here!!!"....like not cool "fan banter" or "shit talking," but just being a straight-up douche. His buddies pulled him away immediately and apologized. The only 1 of 2 "douches" the entire weekend so that was a good thing. Everyone else, honestly, was cool as ****. Polite, wanted to converse all things football, RU and Jersey, etc etc etc, and our fans were just as polite in return TBH. We were back there....
Saturday
- parking/tailgating scene....there are "pay lots" almost everywhere. Being a 1-stop-shop type of campus, as opposed to RU, this is obviously A LOT easier to do BUT literally every lot turns into "game day" parking of some sort. Didn't notice any student lots/tailgating, but again campus is all-in-one, so probably no need (that being said they're in the stadium so damn early it doesn't matter....). The weird things was....I mean REALLY weird....the tailgates there are very "quiet." Like almost NO music anywhere. That's all!!!
- by 10:30AM, after facing a debacle trying to eat breakfast in town (we'll talk more about this later....), we were back at TOTS with a bunch of others waiting for it to open. Finally they did downstairs @ 11AM and we grabbed a few tables outside where, again, we ran into The Patels lol! They joined the party, the fun began all over again then we took it inside for more "Rails" and more shots!!!!
....oh yeah, after we ate, we toured what we assumed was the original military part of campus and WOW is that beautiful!!! Felt like I was at Princeton or West Point (more so because of the combination rolling hills/architecture) but had yet to see Lane Stadium. Just a stunning part of campus (which apparently wasn't the case everywhere as we noticed when walking to Lane later on....)
- off we go to Lane Stadium, finally!!!!
- First off, as is the case with most stadium that have undergone major renovation work, the "footprint" for Lane in terms of entrance gates is HUGE. We came in from the opposite corner of our seats and it took a while to get to THAT corner of the stadium. Then ramps, ramps and more ramps to get to the 200's. Now....the waits were HUGE...but me and my boy Andrew (old housemate, drove up from Ashville on game day to meet us)....BUT this was 45-minutes prior to KO so when we got to our seats, 25-minutes out with a 2/3rd's full stadium already, it wasn't that big of a deal.
- Next....PRE-GAME @ Lane Stadium was nothing short of fantastic. I'm a BIG "military band" style kind of guy and while about 1/5the size of TAMU's band this one was just as damn good with their on-field marching. GREAT job cadets!!! Then....of course....ENTER SANDMAN.....while I would have loved to have been there at night for this I'm still glad we played them during the day. That being said.....NUTS!!!! Oh and the stadium was 100% full by the time that went down. As good as it gets by the in-house production team, the bands and the fans!!! BRAVO!!!
- LANE STADIUM Love it. Absolutely love it. You are ON TOP of the field even in the far reaches of the 200's iI felt much closer than in the top corners at SHI due to the "steepness." ! Very, VERY loud and, as noted in another thread, I believe it's due to the "RAC-like" build of the place. All 4 sides are on top of the field. The 2 large grandstands are angled STEEP -probably couldn't build it that way today - and it helps capture the sound inside of all the stadium. Even when the students started fleeing in the middle of the 3rd (I'd say down to about 40% by mid-4th quarter, when their comeback began, still in the stadium) it still got VERY loud the last 10-minutes or so due to the design of the place. Regular fans started leaving, as well, and apparently this is the "norm" at Lane Stadium. They tailgate early, they enter early, but they leave early UNLESS it's a very big game/night game. Day games are "blah" to them (so I was told). Concourses are tight....concessions sucked IMHO....but it is what it is and a GREAT game day experience overall IMHO.
- THE GAME....WE WON....ON THE ROAD IN A VERY HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT....LET THAT SINK IN, OKAY? Now....that being said....we should've won by 20+ and I was, arguably, THE most frustrated person in the stadium - not on the sideline - during the 2nd half. Shit, I wasn't even happy when we left point-after-point-after-point on the field in the 1st half. Probably should've been a MINIMUM of 23-7 at the half and could've been as much as 35-7. 2nd half, welp, I think @RutgersDom laid out my frustration quite well in @Degaz-RU thread lolol!!! You saw it coming...you saw the D - WHICH PLAYED INSANELY WELL THROUGH 3 QUARTERS and let's set the record straight here:
Our D gave up 143 yards in the 1st half.
Our D gave up ONLY 34 yards in the 3rd quarter.
Our D gave up ONLY 320 total yards off offense to a team aeraged 391 per game last year, returned almost its entire offense, was at home and put up 400 YPG prior to Saturday.
....why did I put this in "bold?" Because i think we all need to step back, take a breath, and relax. The D is gonna be fine moving forward. Why? Let's look at ALL THE FACTORS which played into that led to 150+ total yards of offense for VT in the 4th quarter on Saturday:
- Powell, Bailey and Dixon all started for the 1st time this season. Powell and Bailey getting their initial snaps of the season (Flip played 2nd half against Akron, IIRC). I don't think ANYBODY here - @Richie O included -expected these guys to ALL be starting AND put in the # of snaps that they did, this Saturday, just a week or so ago.
- young kids getting reps on D, who got a lot in games 1 and 2, are getting their first true taste of "big boy" college football AND a "hostile environment" all at once
- the heat. YES IT WAS A FACTOR. Anyone sitting on our side of the field can tell you it was BRUTAL for the 1st 3 quarters. Our sideline was in that same sun, even hotter on the field, and from what we could tell (and I looked at pictures) WITHOUT "cool zone" fans.
......anyone thinking that the D wasn't drained in that 4th quarter, when VT was having their way with us for those 2 TD drives, is nuts. Look at those stats again:
Our D gave up 143 yards in the 1st half
Our D gave up ONLY 34 yards in the 3rd quarter
....then after 3 quarters of being beat down by the sun we give up 152 or in a single quarter?
Com'on guys....you're all fairly smart and most of you have some common sense ....our D (and ST's giving up long punt return) didn't suddenly just start to "suck." Let's be real. That 3-quarter sun beatdown HAD to have had an affect on the guys (both sides of the ball) while VT was in the shade THE ENTIRE GAME on their sideline. IIRC we finally got shade on our side, and the team down on the field, about the middle of the 4th quarter (could be a little off there, however....). Mind you....they're getting the crowd behind them as well at this time, so....put this game at night, at SHI, and we run away with it in the 4th, DESPITE all the points left on the field earlier, IMHO.
(EDIT:
Let me add one thing about VT:
Tutten was on a mission. Playing his home state school (from Paulsboro), scoring 3 TD's, and getting to and around the edge every single time. His quickness played a HUGE role in their comeback.)
Anyway....FAMILY....this team came together, sucked it up (was out of the sun) and did what it had to do on O (Athan-to-Strong), ST's (Patel) and D (Longerbeam), after VT tied things up in the 4th and that....THAT....is ALL THAT MATTERS (along with, I believe, no new injuries or aggravating of old ones???)!!!
OUR FANS....WOW....WOW AND WOW!!!! We showed up, we showed out, and we KICKED ASS!!! WE WERE RED, WE WERE LOUD and WE WERE PROUD!!! So many new faces, so many old faces, so many I hadn't seen in a while and, YET AGAIN, major "KUDOS" go out to @RutgersRiotSquad!!!! WELL DONE GUYS and GALS!!! I'm not going to start tagging other posters because, well, don't want to insult the ones I forgot/forget/etc LOL!!! But GREAT seeing all of you at the bars, tailgates and in the stands!!!
Saturday night....welp, that was a debacle, so I'm just gonna end things here because I don't want everyone else to go through what we went through, tying to get a drink let alone eat, the next 3.5 hours. Ugh.
All-in-all a GREAT weekend with GREAT friends and a GREAT win!!!!
*** example: 2 PBR 12oz bottles, 2 (full) 2 oz shots of Jamo and a "Grail" (12oz of alcohol)....ONLY $35!!!! Easily - EASILY - $60 in Hoboken/JC. 2 eggs, 12oz bowl of grits, bacon and biscuit: $7.50!!!!
Friday
- woke up 4:45AM, was showered and in an Uber to Newark Penn by 5:02AM and caught the 5:25AM NEC to Trenton. Got picked up by my buddy and his wife and we were off the Floyd, VA about 31-miles SE of B'Burg to our AirBnB. 6 hours 20-minutes flat with 2 stops. Easy-peasy no big traffic issues whatsoever.
- hit the RU gathering at some brew pub in the hills outside of B'Burg. Freakin' BEAUTIFUL spot with outdoor seating, picturesque views and ....corn hole!
- within 5-minutes we meet The Patel Family. Or at least 3/5ths (mom, dad and one of Jai's sisters (I'm leaving names out)) of the family. Hit it off immediately with them as I asked his sister if it truly did take her 3-hours to down a single martini, at the Akron tailgate, or that she was getting refills (it was the former....). So we're all hanging out with @MrsScrew and @RUScrew85 and others and get the lowdown on everything "Patel" which was really, really cool. They're as "RU" as it gets and will be GREAT ambassadors for the program the next 2.5+ years as they already have been!
- highlights included about a dozen extra drink tickets being dumped on our table, too much crumbled blue cheese eating by this guy, a shirtless 60+ year old dude, finding out that "HIMS" truly does work (my head has HOPE again, lol...), how Jai got his name, pics of someone getting changed in the car, and possibly bathroom butt pics. Mrs Screw is now besties with Mrs Patel, I've got a new buddy in Mr Patel, and very possibly a future client or two in the realm of "home purchasing" lol!!! Oh and we got a good "R-U" chant, which was followed by a "go hokies," and then the inevitable "RU Rah-Rah" from the few dozen of so of us inside at the time. NEXT!!!!
- Off to TOTS aka "Top of The Stairs" we go! The "Rail." 2 oz each of Vodka, Rum, Gin, Triple Sec, Bourbon, Whiskey, Sours, Sprite, and Cranberry (basically an old school "Red Death" but no OJ)....guys and gals, once you're ready to do these, put the kids and pets to bed. Seriously. I was in a pretty good place until drinking a couple of these then everything just ....well....ya' know how these things go lol!!! Most of the same people from the RU party were there, plus others, as well as the VT fans and students who started pouring in shortly after we arrived. Found out there's a law in Virginia: NO DRINKS IN BATHROOMS. It's against the law!!!! Met a girl from Manasquan (student) who grew up "hating Rutgers," one fat dude who tried to start trouble "who the **** do you guys think you are coming into OUR BAR??!! Get the **** outta here!!!"....like not cool "fan banter" or "shit talking," but just being a straight-up douche. His buddies pulled him away immediately and apologized. The only 1 of 2 "douches" the entire weekend so that was a good thing. Everyone else, honestly, was cool as ****. Polite, wanted to converse all things football, RU and Jersey, etc etc etc, and our fans were just as polite in return TBH. We were back there....
Saturday
- parking/tailgating scene....there are "pay lots" almost everywhere. Being a 1-stop-shop type of campus, as opposed to RU, this is obviously A LOT easier to do BUT literally every lot turns into "game day" parking of some sort. Didn't notice any student lots/tailgating, but again campus is all-in-one, so probably no need (that being said they're in the stadium so damn early it doesn't matter....). The weird things was....I mean REALLY weird....the tailgates there are very "quiet." Like almost NO music anywhere. That's all!!!
- by 10:30AM, after facing a debacle trying to eat breakfast in town (we'll talk more about this later....), we were back at TOTS with a bunch of others waiting for it to open. Finally they did downstairs @ 11AM and we grabbed a few tables outside where, again, we ran into The Patels lol! They joined the party, the fun began all over again then we took it inside for more "Rails" and more shots!!!!
....oh yeah, after we ate, we toured what we assumed was the original military part of campus and WOW is that beautiful!!! Felt like I was at Princeton or West Point (more so because of the combination rolling hills/architecture) but had yet to see Lane Stadium. Just a stunning part of campus (which apparently wasn't the case everywhere as we noticed when walking to Lane later on....)
- off we go to Lane Stadium, finally!!!!
- First off, as is the case with most stadium that have undergone major renovation work, the "footprint" for Lane in terms of entrance gates is HUGE. We came in from the opposite corner of our seats and it took a while to get to THAT corner of the stadium. Then ramps, ramps and more ramps to get to the 200's. Now....the waits were HUGE...but me and my boy Andrew (old housemate, drove up from Ashville on game day to meet us)....BUT this was 45-minutes prior to KO so when we got to our seats, 25-minutes out with a 2/3rd's full stadium already, it wasn't that big of a deal.
- Next....PRE-GAME @ Lane Stadium was nothing short of fantastic. I'm a BIG "military band" style kind of guy and while about 1/5the size of TAMU's band this one was just as damn good with their on-field marching. GREAT job cadets!!! Then....of course....ENTER SANDMAN.....while I would have loved to have been there at night for this I'm still glad we played them during the day. That being said.....NUTS!!!! Oh and the stadium was 100% full by the time that went down. As good as it gets by the in-house production team, the bands and the fans!!! BRAVO!!!
- LANE STADIUM Love it. Absolutely love it. You are ON TOP of the field even in the far reaches of the 200's iI felt much closer than in the top corners at SHI due to the "steepness." ! Very, VERY loud and, as noted in another thread, I believe it's due to the "RAC-like" build of the place. All 4 sides are on top of the field. The 2 large grandstands are angled STEEP -probably couldn't build it that way today - and it helps capture the sound inside of all the stadium. Even when the students started fleeing in the middle of the 3rd (I'd say down to about 40% by mid-4th quarter, when their comeback began, still in the stadium) it still got VERY loud the last 10-minutes or so due to the design of the place. Regular fans started leaving, as well, and apparently this is the "norm" at Lane Stadium. They tailgate early, they enter early, but they leave early UNLESS it's a very big game/night game. Day games are "blah" to them (so I was told). Concourses are tight....concessions sucked IMHO....but it is what it is and a GREAT game day experience overall IMHO.
- THE GAME....WE WON....ON THE ROAD IN A VERY HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT....LET THAT SINK IN, OKAY? Now....that being said....we should've won by 20+ and I was, arguably, THE most frustrated person in the stadium - not on the sideline - during the 2nd half. Shit, I wasn't even happy when we left point-after-point-after-point on the field in the 1st half. Probably should've been a MINIMUM of 23-7 at the half and could've been as much as 35-7. 2nd half, welp, I think @RutgersDom laid out my frustration quite well in @Degaz-RU thread lolol!!! You saw it coming...you saw the D - WHICH PLAYED INSANELY WELL THROUGH 3 QUARTERS and let's set the record straight here:
Our D gave up 143 yards in the 1st half.
Our D gave up ONLY 34 yards in the 3rd quarter.
Our D gave up ONLY 320 total yards off offense to a team aeraged 391 per game last year, returned almost its entire offense, was at home and put up 400 YPG prior to Saturday.
....why did I put this in "bold?" Because i think we all need to step back, take a breath, and relax. The D is gonna be fine moving forward. Why? Let's look at ALL THE FACTORS which played into that led to 150+ total yards of offense for VT in the 4th quarter on Saturday:
- Powell, Bailey and Dixon all started for the 1st time this season. Powell and Bailey getting their initial snaps of the season (Flip played 2nd half against Akron, IIRC). I don't think ANYBODY here - @Richie O included -expected these guys to ALL be starting AND put in the # of snaps that they did, this Saturday, just a week or so ago.
- young kids getting reps on D, who got a lot in games 1 and 2, are getting their first true taste of "big boy" college football AND a "hostile environment" all at once
- the heat. YES IT WAS A FACTOR. Anyone sitting on our side of the field can tell you it was BRUTAL for the 1st 3 quarters. Our sideline was in that same sun, even hotter on the field, and from what we could tell (and I looked at pictures) WITHOUT "cool zone" fans.
......anyone thinking that the D wasn't drained in that 4th quarter, when VT was having their way with us for those 2 TD drives, is nuts. Look at those stats again:
Our D gave up 143 yards in the 1st half
Our D gave up ONLY 34 yards in the 3rd quarter
....then after 3 quarters of being beat down by the sun we give up 152 or in a single quarter?
Com'on guys....you're all fairly smart and most of you have some common sense ....our D (and ST's giving up long punt return) didn't suddenly just start to "suck." Let's be real. That 3-quarter sun beatdown HAD to have had an affect on the guys (both sides of the ball) while VT was in the shade THE ENTIRE GAME on their sideline. IIRC we finally got shade on our side, and the team down on the field, about the middle of the 4th quarter (could be a little off there, however....). Mind you....they're getting the crowd behind them as well at this time, so....put this game at night, at SHI, and we run away with it in the 4th, DESPITE all the points left on the field earlier, IMHO.
(EDIT:
Let me add one thing about VT:
Tutten was on a mission. Playing his home state school (from Paulsboro), scoring 3 TD's, and getting to and around the edge every single time. His quickness played a HUGE role in their comeback.)
Anyway....FAMILY....this team came together, sucked it up (was out of the sun) and did what it had to do on O (Athan-to-Strong), ST's (Patel) and D (Longerbeam), after VT tied things up in the 4th and that....THAT....is ALL THAT MATTERS (along with, I believe, no new injuries or aggravating of old ones???)!!!
OUR FANS....WOW....WOW AND WOW!!!! We showed up, we showed out, and we KICKED ASS!!! WE WERE RED, WE WERE LOUD and WE WERE PROUD!!! So many new faces, so many old faces, so many I hadn't seen in a while and, YET AGAIN, major "KUDOS" go out to @RutgersRiotSquad!!!! WELL DONE GUYS and GALS!!! I'm not going to start tagging other posters because, well, don't want to insult the ones I forgot/forget/etc LOL!!! But GREAT seeing all of you at the bars, tailgates and in the stands!!!
Saturday night....welp, that was a debacle, so I'm just gonna end things here because I don't want everyone else to go through what we went through, tying to get a drink let alone eat, the next 3.5 hours. Ugh.
All-in-all a GREAT weekend with GREAT friends and a GREAT win!!!!
I CAN NOT WAIT FOR FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!
*** pics to come
*** pics to come
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