Rice bowl game in Fort Worth

DW and I went to Fort Worth for the bowl game versus Air Force. I mentioned several things to my children but I left out one important thing. WE WERE ON THE FRONT ROW. We were right in front of the offensive line group meeting. We could practically reach out and touch them. I imagine the coaches had to tame their speech because if they raised their voices we could hear them. So they mostly whispered. I tried not to eavesdrop but I did see the players sneak a look at us to see if we were listening. Amon Carter stadium on the TCU campus is a very old, very traditional stadium. Ninety percent of the seats are between the twenty yard lines. The stands are very close to the field. There is a very thin sideline. Amon Carter stadium was made in a time when football was a much simpler game played by a few players and a few coaches. There was no need for space for water girls, section meetings, remote headsets and TV cameras.

Which brings me to getting into the stadium. I assumed there would be parking. Well I left late thinking parking would be simple. I was trying to avoid being out in the freezing cold with nothing to do except wait. Well, that was a mistake. We did not get into our seats until the second quarter. First the access to the stadium is nil. We entered by a small road and Google maps recommended a small back way in which I did not see until I passed it. But many probably expected parking and got confused when they just got shunted through. We should have known when we got close to the zoo and saw a few people had parked there and were taking a walk down the same road we were on. They were going as fast as we were. We finally ended up driving past the stadium and after trying to find legal parking on campus we parked in the neighborhood several blocks away. We had a good 3/4 mile walk and on campus had to cross several vacant fields. TCU is a sprawling campus.

Imagine our surprise when we pulled out our tickets and found we were on row A. I was still in denial until I got to the seats. I thought we would be too low but not really. Sometimes the chain gang sticks blocked us a little but that was no problem. I enjoyed watching the official crew techniques and the chain crew as well. We were a section of Rice fans with the rest of the stadium a smattering of Air Force fans. We were at about the 30 yard line. When play was on our side the players crowded in front of us we could see them talking to one another. The coaches acted composed even after bad plays. I wondered if they would have actually so casual if we were not so close to them.

The Rice team dominated the line of scrimmage so it would have been a surprise if we had not won. We did 33-14 but the score remained close most of the time due to 5 or 6 fumbles in the first have and several errant passes in the second. There were enough great throws and runs to make it exciting and give us the victory. I heard a lady reporter on the radio say that "Rice thrashed Air Force 33-14". That about sums it up because of the domination at the line of scrimmage.