Great Gridiron Getaways
By
DAN ACKMAN
The living room couch can be a fine place to spend an autumn Saturday afternoon. College football is on display and any chores can wait until Sunday, when the mechanized professional version of the game takes control of the dial. But for those whose souls are overtaken by a damp, drizzly November (or September or October), here are five road trips to glory, where the college-football fan can escape for a week and, thanks to a day-long drive between the stadiums, see two of the best games of the season.
Trip One: From USC at Ohio State to Nebraska at Virginia Tech
The season gets under way in force on Sept. 12, and right away the University of Southern California Trojans (ranked fourth by the AP preseason) face the sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in a game that by rights should be played on Jan. 1 or even for the national championship six days later. The game will feature this year's quarterback phenom Matt Barkley for the Trojans against last year's all-world freshman Terrelle Pryor for the Buckeyes. Though last year USC beat Ohio State badly, this year the game will be at the Ohio Stadium in Columbus with more than 100,000 fans on hand cheering for the home team.
From Columbus head south; it's just over 300 miles to Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, Va. Take time for a detour to Charlottesville, where you can visit Monticello, before heading to Blacksburg to see the seventh-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Virginia Tech beat Nebraska last year on the Cornhuskers' home turf. But Nebraska has been rebuilding, looking to regain their status as a national contender. The Hokies, likewise, will be looking to re-enter college football's top tier, which they occupied in 2007. While the game will be at 66,233-seat Lane Stadium, Nebraska travels with Husker Nation—certain to turn a large section of the stands into a sea of red.
Trip Two: From Auburn at Tennessee to Florida at LSU
It's unusual that neither the Auburn Tigers nor the Tennessee Volunteers are nationally ranked this preseason and rarer still that both teams are coming off losing seasons. But none of that should matter on Oct. 3 when 102,000 fans cram into Neyland Stadium on the banks of the Tennessee River as the Southeastern Conference schedule kicks into gear and as both squads seek to regain their rightful places in the football universe.
From Knoxville drive 10 hours through the heart of Dixie to Baton Rouge. Or you can extend the drive a bit with detours in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., and Vicksburg and Natchez, Miss. However you get there, the University of Florida Gators-Louisiana State Tigers game is a shining star on the college-football schedule. The Gators come into the season ranked first in the nation, and the game is in Tiger Stadium at night.
"At night something spooky happens in that stadium; it's a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience," says Spencer Hall, who writes about the Southeastern Conference for the Sporting News. Over the years, the spookiness has usually accompanied a win for the LSU Tigers, ranked No. 11 this preseason. But defending national champion Florida is a squad that fears no evil.
Trip Three: From Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas to Texas A&M at Texas Tech
The Oct. 17 University of Oklahoma Sooners-University of Texas Longhorns game, known as the Red River Rivalry and played on a neutral site at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, is listed in "The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live" by Robert Tuchman—and for good reason. Both teams are perennial powers, and the game dates back to 1900, when Oklahoma was still a territory. This year Texas and Oklahoma are ranked second and third, respectively, in the nation heading into the season and both boast Heisman Trophy hopefuls as quarterbacks. This year's game fixes to be as critical as last year's, when Texas, then ranked No. 5, upset the top-ranked Sooners 45 to 35, only to see Oklahoma land in the national title game.
From Dallas head west to Lubbock. But detour south first so you can travel through the Texas Hill Country, stopping off in the Odessa area for a high-school game on Friday night. Texas Tech is far from everywhere, but under Coach Mike Leach its Red Raiders play one of the most entertaining brands of football anywhere. The game time for the Oct. 24 contest against the Texas A&M Aggies has not been set yet. But let's hope it's at night, because football after dark in West Texas is mythic stuff.
Trip Four: From Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville to Florida State at Clemson
This 94-year-old rivalry is known for a pregame party that continues during the game and well after. But the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, as it is known, is also serious business. The Oct. 31 game between the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the University of Florida Gators is a border war between two of the top football states in the nation, and the Southeastern Conference title will probably be on the line as well.
From Jacksonville, Fla., travel via Savannah, Ga., with a possible diversion to the coastal islands of Georgia, to Clemson, S.C. There, on Nov. 7, the Clemson Tigers will host the Florida State Seminoles. While the conventional wisdom is that the best football and the most rabid fans are in the Southeastern Conference, not the Atlantic Coast Conference, the 80,000-plus fans who regularly cram into Clemson Memorial Stadium would disagree.
Trip Five: From California at Stanford to Utah at Brigham Young
After more than a century, the annual "Big Game" between the University of California and Stanford (Nov. 21) remains an intense rivalry between arguably the two top universities on the West Coast. The academic competition between the students makes the competition "pretty bitter, pretty personal," says Vittorio Tafur, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. The game also produced "the play," perhaps the most famous ending in football when Cal returned a kickoff in the final seconds of the 1982 game through the onrushing Stanford marching band.
From Palo Alto head across California and Nevada to Utah and the Wasatch Mountains. The game between Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, just 44 miles apart, is dubbed "the Holy War," though there are Mormons on both sides. This year both the Brigham Young Cougars and the Utah Utes are ranked in the top 20 heading into the season, with Utah coming off an undefeated season just ahead of its downstate rival. Both teams are hoping to earn bowl championship series bids, giving each team added incentive, if any were needed, to win the war.
