In this three part series, A Blogger, Idiot takes you on the road and behind enemy lines as he follows the Washington Huskies football team on its mission to return to prominence.
(I was originally going to call this series "The Football Diaries," but I decided that sounded too contrived)
Friday, August 29
The morning sun is out in San Francisco as I leave for a short day in the office. All reports are that the sun will follow me all the way into Oregon - a drive that I expect will consume the better part of nine hours.
2:30 PM - I wrap up my day's work and head to the car. I'm anxious to beat the holiday traffic out of the metro areas that loop the Bay. Forty-five minutes later, though, I'm caught in a devastating snarl outside of Fairfield, where the outside temperature is over 110°. Overheated vehicles litter the sides of I-80. This holdup will ultimately set me back about two hours.
5:00 PM - I exit onto I-505, which will take me to I-5, where I will spend the remainder of the drive. I've only been on the road for a few hours, but already I'm slipping into dementia. Luckily, I have Wilson to keep me company. We've passed several cars with Oregon plates, and Wilson slyly flipped all of them the middle lace.
8:45 PM - With the silhouette of Mt. Shasta burned into the fading twilight in my rearview mirror, I cross into the wilderness known to the locals simply as "Oregon." Four hours later, after a stop for dinner in Medford, I arrive at the safehouse in Eugene.
Saturday, August 30
It's difficult to explain to a non-football fan the thrill that immediately follows waking up on a Saturday in the fall. This particular Saturday is the season opener, so I've been looking forward to it for months instead of just days.
10:00 AM - My compatriots from Seattle won't be arriving until mid-afternoon, and I find myself pacing around the house uneasily while ESPN begins coverage of another game in the background. I make a trip to the local Safeway to buy breakfast* and am unprepared for the level of discomfort I feel amongst the legions of Ducks fans already out and about.
3:00 PM - Nathan, Ian, and Brian arrive. I play an outrageous practical joke on them by hiding in the corner of the living room with a lampshade on my head.
6:00 PM - We convince a cab to drive us most of the way to the stadium (it would have been about a one hour walk otherwise). Kickoff is at 7:00.
7:00 PM - Let it begin, let it begin!!!!
In contrast to Husky Stadium, whose monstrous grandstands loom like sphinxes over Lake Washington, Autzen Stadium is a very intimate venue - close to 60,000 fans pushed to the brink of the playing field, with sightlines to the Klamath foothills should the action in the game become a bore. Autzen was named one of college football's 40 best stadium experiences by The Sporting News (and before kickoff, the Phil-Knight-funded athletic department revealed its new 85' wide LED scoreboard/video screen, the largest and best looking of its kind in the Pac-10).
First quarter - The noise in Autzen reaches a crescendo and holds for the opening acts of the game. The Ducks reward their fans by jumping out to a quick 14-0 lead, while Washington's young players on both sides of the ball look rattled by both the noise and the speed of the game.
Second quarter - By virtue of two drives that succeed purely on the basis of penalty yardage and broken plays by the defense, Washington claws back to 14-10. Our run game roughly resembles a motorized scooter trying to power through a concrete wall, our defense has been shaky, and special teams looks like a bad experiment, so adjustments will have to be made at halftime if we are going to stay in this one.
Third quarter - Rather than make said adjustments, the Huskies begin to unravel. The defense continues to employ its apparent strategy of "be confused," and after several big plays (and no response from our anemic offense) the game has become a rout.
Fourth quarter - Oregon isn't about to stop the bloodletting. As we file out of the stadium, I officially terminate my faith in Ty Willingham and his staff (my ex-landlord wrote a story on this topic today). This result - a 44-10 loss to our biggest rival, and in a game for which we had eight months to prepare - is unacceptable. My perpetual optimism about the direction of the program is being eroded by the fear that we may in fact remain in the gutter for years to come.
Sunday, August 31
10:30 AM - Goodbye, Eugene. My next visit will not come a minute too soon. Wilson and I don't speak much as we begin the long trek back to California.
2:15 PM - I make a pit stop in Weed, CA. Black Butte, an active volcano, is in the background of the photo below. Later, a short distance down I-5, I veer off once more to inspect the Castle Crags, which I noticed on the journey north several days earlier. While searching for interesting vantage points to see the crags and their surrounding wildlife, I am vigilant about the threat of a bear attack.
8:00 PM - I arrive in San Francisco, too weary and hungry to dwell on the events at Autzen.
There's more to tell about the trip, more football analysis to spout, but there are better places and times for that than here and now. Next Saturday's game in Seattle looms large for the future of the program. Meanwhile, the next installment of this series comes after the USC game in Los Angeles on October 1.
*It's football season, so breakfast = chips and hot dogs.
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