I'm guessing that anyone who actually cared about the outcome of the Orange Bowl already watched the Orange Bowl, so it seems a little silly to provide a play-by-play here on my blog. However, since this blog is partially my own personal journal (made public to the world), I want record my favorite highlights so that years later I can go back and read this and remember my own view of this history-making game and how much fun we had being there!
We actually went to the stadium about 3 hours before the game, planning to meet some friends at the Budweiser tailgate party, where they had live music, food, drinks, games and other random entertainment. The cover charge was $20 a person, but in a lucky turn of events Chad and I walked through what we thought was the entrance, only to find there was no one there to take our money. We finally decided that they must not be charging anything since it was relatively close to game time (it had actually started at like 11 that morning). We later realized that we had just missed the actual entrance and accidentally walked through a random break in the fencing! Our lucky mistake saved us $40 and we were still able to hang out with our friends Robyn and Dan during the pregame. The weather was chilly and it sprinkled off and on, but I had about 6 layers of clothing on so it was actually tolerable being outside!
We headed into the stadium at least 30 minutes before kickoff and watched the team warm up a little and just absorbed the general excitement of the atmosphere. Our seats were in the 6th row, but they were actually looking straight down the goal line, so the view of the entire field wasn't really very good. The stadium never filled up entirely, so we probably could have moved to better seats, but it was kind of fun being that close, plus we were sitting with some friends from Lawrence. The other fun part about being so close to the field is that I really felt like we contributed when it came to making noise on defense! Those of you who know me may or may not know that I can whistle really wicked loud. I'd like to think that I personally threw the Virginia Tech offense off track on a couple of occasions with my piercing shriek of a birdcall. ;)
One of the other cool things about being so close to the end zone was that the Fox Sports pregame show was going on practically right in front of us. Not that we're huge fans of Jimmy Johnson or Chris Rose, but it's always kind of fun to see famous and semi-famous people in person. They were joined by John Riggins, who was one of KU's best running backs ever. In the picture to the left you can see the Fox Sports set just a few rows down from where Chad was standing. Another thing that signaled that this game was totally "big time" was the blimp overhead. None of my pictures of the blimp turned out at all, but it was really cool because not only did it have text ads scrolling on the side, but also an occasional video ad which was somehow projected on its walls as well. It was amazing to see a video screen that was visible so far up in the air!
As the we neared kickoff the seats began to fill up a little more, and thousands of KU fans spread out through our half of the stadium. The two sides were separated pretty nicely, so that there weren't a lot of Virginia Tech fans in our area and vice versa. Even though they weren't rude and obnoxious and drunk and disorderly fans like those we encountered at the Missouri game, I still didn't really want them sitting near us!
The first quarter of the game was obviously pretty thrilling, as our amazing defense had two huge sacks on the Hokie's very first drive. We drove down the field pretty well in our first drive, but then Scott Webb missed the field goal at the end. He's never done very well with field goals when he doesn't get to warm up with a PAT first, so I wasn't entirely surprised. It was obviously hugely disappointing, especially because in person it appeared to be a pretty easy chip shot. As I looked at the stats after the game though, it was actually a 44 yard attempt, so it's not like it was an automatic "make"! Thankfully, our disappointment about the missed kick was quickly squelched by Aqib Talib's interception and 60 yard return for a touchdown. After the touchdown, Chad looked at our friend Terry and said, "That's it--he's definitely going pro now!" Chad was absolutely right about that!
I think that KU scoring first was pretty huge in the sense that it got the crowd so fired up. The KU fans did a great job getting loud and crazy. Unlike the Missouri game, it appeared that loyal traveling Jayhawks actually know when to cheer and when to be quiet!
KU's defense continued to play tough and registered another sack on the ensuing drive, forcing Tech to to attempt and miss a 49 yard field goal. Our next offensive drive stalled out, which brought out our punter Kyle Tucker for the first time of the night, who really had a huge game with some amazingly big (and uncharacteristicly consistent) punts! On the next V. Tech possession, KU had another sack and another interception which lead to an eventual 32 yard field goal from Scott Webb. Like I said, he seems to do much better after having a made extra point under his belt!
After our defense stopped Virginia Tech once again, our offense came out and drove right down the field with a few key plays from our fellow Salina Central Mustang Jake Sharp. After converting fourth-and-one, Todd Reesing knocked down a bad snap that bounced right back up into his hands. When he avoided the sack and completed a 14 yard pass, my gut immediately told me we would win the game. You can't make a play like that without having a little bit of luck on your side! We scored a few plays later on a pass from Todd to Marcus "the mute" Henry (one of Henry's teammates introduced him that way earlier in the year, and my friend Heather confirmed that he was the quietest person she'd ever met when he came to a party at their house [his girlfriend works at Heather's school] and didn't say more than one word the entire evening!).
On the next drive the defense was unable to stop the VT running back from scoring, which made it 17-7. Thankfully for us, this star player had been suspended the entire first quarter for missing a team meeting or something. On our last possession of the half, we didn't even attempt a hail Mary or anything daring and
instead just ran out the clock, which was kind of lame and boring, but we were still very thankful to go into halftime with a 10 point lead. Although it was a very exciting first half, I was glad for a chaotic halftime show to distract me from my nerves, which were telling me that the second half wasn't going to be as easy as the first half had been! The halftime show consisted of a song--yes, I said a song--from ZZ Top. It was cool too see them live and I really liked Sharp Dressed Man, but seriously, one song?? You put up this huge stage and shoot this big intro video and enlist about a gazillon high school girls to dance and then play ONE song? Really, ZZ Top? Really.
The second half was obviously more exciting, but unfortunately in stressful sort of way! Our first drive of the quarter went nowhere, and then VT ran our punt all the way back for an 84 yard touchdown. We went three-and-out on our next drive, but thanks to a huge 62 yard punt by Kyle the Hokies had poor field position. Unfortunately, they drove right down the field anyway, thanks in part to a pass interference penalty on us. It felt like our luck had run out when their QB threw up a jump ball right in front of us, which got batted around and ended up laying on their receiver's leg and getting picked up by their tight end in a "look what I found" situation. Since we didn't have the luxury of a replay, it looked like the ref just made a terrible call. Chad emailed our friend Bill and asked if it was actually a catch. Bill's response: "Unfortunately it was. We're leaking oil." Things did seem to be completely falling apart for us! Thankfully, Joe Mortensen made possibly the most important play of the day when he jumped up to block the VT field goal attempt that would have tied the game!
Both offenses punted on their next drives, and then in another huge play of the day KU set up to punt on 4th-and-10 right at mid field. They faked the punt and RB Brandon McAnderson threw a (not very good) pass to a sophomore WR named Micah Brown who I don't remember catching a pass all season. He was so freaking wide open it was awesome! Todd completed the next pass to bring us inside the five yard line, but then on the next carry Brandon fumbled, which we couldn't really see at all because it was on the opposite end of the stadium. The next thing we knew we'd gotten a penalty, but we never really knew what had happened. Apparently the guy who recovered the fumble got a personal foul for 15 yards. Then there was a holding penalty and Reesing threw an interception, which would indicate that our oil leak hadn't exactly stopped!
Thankfully, the Hokies ended up having to punt, but then we went 3-and-out and punted as well. Another big punt by Tucker pinned them back inside their 10, and then Justin Thorton picked off a VT pass and ran it back to the 2 yard line! Todd scored the touchdown fairly easily, putting us back up by 10 in the 4th quarter. There was still a lot of time left (like 11 minutes), but when V. Tech's drive was cut short by a Mike Rivera sack, I was so excited and screamed so loud I thought I'd hemorrhaged my vocal cords! It felt like my throat was bleeding!
Brandon had a big 28 yard run on the next drive with lots of shorter carries by Jake, and we drove all the way down the field before KU was stopped at the 21. On fourth down, we chose to go for the touchdown instead of having Scott kick another field goal, since Scott's not always consistent from that distance. I think he would have made it, since he'd warmed up with several extra points, but there was also a good chance we could have scored a TD. Unfortunately we didn't, which left the door open just a crack for the Hokies. They drove right down the field and scored with just 3 minutes left in the game.
We knew all we needed was to work the clock and get a couple of first downs and the game would be over, but I was still so nervous that someone would fumble in that short amount of time! Thankfully, we recovered the on-side kick and had great field position. Todd threw a pass to Dexton Fields for the initial first down, and then Brandon had a few more short carries (taking good care of the ball), getting the second first down with just a few seconds left on the clock. We were on the VT one yard line, and we could have easily taken it into the end zone in those final seconds for another score. In a show of class, KU took a knee and ran out the clock, as if to say, "In your face, Hokies! We don't need no stinking points!"
I can't even begin to explain the joy that we felt in those final seconds when we knew the game was over. The sick with worry feeling in my stomach changed to a sick with excitement feeling! I had to fight back the tears--I was just so happy and so proud of our team. As the crew set up for the presentation ceremony, Celebration by Kool and the Gang rang out and everyone sang along. The crowd was ecstatic and the team was elated! It was such a wonderful moment I tried to capture it with some video.
We actually went to the stadium about 3 hours before the game, planning to meet some friends at the Budweiser tailgate party, where they had live music, food, drinks, games and other random entertainment. The cover charge was $20 a person, but in a lucky turn of events Chad and I walked through what we thought was the entrance, only to find there was no one there to take our money. We finally decided that they must not be charging anything since it was relatively close to game time (it had actually started at like 11 that morning). We later realized that we had just missed the actual entrance and accidentally walked through a random break in the fencing! Our lucky mistake saved us $40 and we were still able to hang out with our friends Robyn and Dan during the pregame. The weather was chilly and it sprinkled off and on, but I had about 6 layers of clothing on so it was actually tolerable being outside!
We headed into the stadium at least 30 minutes before kickoff and watched the team warm up a little and just absorbed the general excitement of the atmosphere. Our seats were in the 6th row, but they were actually looking straight down the goal line, so the view of the entire field wasn't really very good. The stadium never filled up entirely, so we probably could have moved to better seats, but it was kind of fun being that close, plus we were sitting with some friends from Lawrence. The other fun part about being so close to the field is that I really felt like we contributed when it came to making noise on defense! Those of you who know me may or may not know that I can whistle really wicked loud. I'd like to think that I personally threw the Virginia Tech offense off track on a couple of occasions with my piercing shriek of a birdcall. ;)
One of the other cool things about being so close to the end zone was that the Fox Sports pregame show was going on practically right in front of us. Not that we're huge fans of Jimmy Johnson or Chris Rose, but it's always kind of fun to see famous and semi-famous people in person. They were joined by John Riggins, who was one of KU's best running backs ever. In the picture to the left you can see the Fox Sports set just a few rows down from where Chad was standing. Another thing that signaled that this game was totally "big time" was the blimp overhead. None of my pictures of the blimp turned out at all, but it was really cool because not only did it have text ads scrolling on the side, but also an occasional video ad which was somehow projected on its walls as well. It was amazing to see a video screen that was visible so far up in the air!
As the we neared kickoff the seats began to fill up a little more, and thousands of KU fans spread out through our half of the stadium. The two sides were separated pretty nicely, so that there weren't a lot of Virginia Tech fans in our area and vice versa. Even though they weren't rude and obnoxious and drunk and disorderly fans like those we encountered at the Missouri game, I still didn't really want them sitting near us!
The first quarter of the game was obviously pretty thrilling, as our amazing defense had two huge sacks on the Hokie's very first drive. We drove down the field pretty well in our first drive, but then Scott Webb missed the field goal at the end. He's never done very well with field goals when he doesn't get to warm up with a PAT first, so I wasn't entirely surprised. It was obviously hugely disappointing, especially because in person it appeared to be a pretty easy chip shot. As I looked at the stats after the game though, it was actually a 44 yard attempt, so it's not like it was an automatic "make"! Thankfully, our disappointment about the missed kick was quickly squelched by Aqib Talib's interception and 60 yard return for a touchdown. After the touchdown, Chad looked at our friend Terry and said, "That's it--he's definitely going pro now!" Chad was absolutely right about that!
I think that KU scoring first was pretty huge in the sense that it got the crowd so fired up. The KU fans did a great job getting loud and crazy. Unlike the Missouri game, it appeared that loyal traveling Jayhawks actually know when to cheer and when to be quiet!
KU's defense continued to play tough and registered another sack on the ensuing drive, forcing Tech to to attempt and miss a 49 yard field goal. Our next offensive drive stalled out, which brought out our punter Kyle Tucker for the first time of the night, who really had a huge game with some amazingly big (and uncharacteristicly consistent) punts! On the next V. Tech possession, KU had another sack and another interception which lead to an eventual 32 yard field goal from Scott Webb. Like I said, he seems to do much better after having a made extra point under his belt!
After our defense stopped Virginia Tech once again, our offense came out and drove right down the field with a few key plays from our fellow Salina Central Mustang Jake Sharp. After converting fourth-and-one, Todd Reesing knocked down a bad snap that bounced right back up into his hands. When he avoided the sack and completed a 14 yard pass, my gut immediately told me we would win the game. You can't make a play like that without having a little bit of luck on your side! We scored a few plays later on a pass from Todd to Marcus "the mute" Henry (one of Henry's teammates introduced him that way earlier in the year, and my friend Heather confirmed that he was the quietest person she'd ever met when he came to a party at their house [his girlfriend works at Heather's school] and didn't say more than one word the entire evening!).
On the next drive the defense was unable to stop the VT running back from scoring, which made it 17-7. Thankfully for us, this star player had been suspended the entire first quarter for missing a team meeting or something. On our last possession of the half, we didn't even attempt a hail Mary or anything daring and
instead just ran out the clock, which was kind of lame and boring, but we were still very thankful to go into halftime with a 10 point lead. Although it was a very exciting first half, I was glad for a chaotic halftime show to distract me from my nerves, which were telling me that the second half wasn't going to be as easy as the first half had been! The halftime show consisted of a song--yes, I said a song--from ZZ Top. It was cool too see them live and I really liked Sharp Dressed Man, but seriously, one song?? You put up this huge stage and shoot this big intro video and enlist about a gazillon high school girls to dance and then play ONE song? Really, ZZ Top? Really.The second half was obviously more exciting, but unfortunately in stressful sort of way! Our first drive of the quarter went nowhere, and then VT ran our punt all the way back for an 84 yard touchdown. We went three-and-out on our next drive, but thanks to a huge 62 yard punt by Kyle the Hokies had poor field position. Unfortunately, they drove right down the field anyway, thanks in part to a pass interference penalty on us. It felt like our luck had run out when their QB threw up a jump ball right in front of us, which got batted around and ended up laying on their receiver's leg and getting picked up by their tight end in a "look what I found" situation. Since we didn't have the luxury of a replay, it looked like the ref just made a terrible call. Chad emailed our friend Bill and asked if it was actually a catch. Bill's response: "Unfortunately it was. We're leaking oil." Things did seem to be completely falling apart for us! Thankfully, Joe Mortensen made possibly the most important play of the day when he jumped up to block the VT field goal attempt that would have tied the game!
Both offenses punted on their next drives, and then in another huge play of the day KU set up to punt on 4th-and-10 right at mid field. They faked the punt and RB Brandon McAnderson threw a (not very good) pass to a sophomore WR named Micah Brown who I don't remember catching a pass all season. He was so freaking wide open it was awesome! Todd completed the next pass to bring us inside the five yard line, but then on the next carry Brandon fumbled, which we couldn't really see at all because it was on the opposite end of the stadium. The next thing we knew we'd gotten a penalty, but we never really knew what had happened. Apparently the guy who recovered the fumble got a personal foul for 15 yards. Then there was a holding penalty and Reesing threw an interception, which would indicate that our oil leak hadn't exactly stopped!
Thankfully, the Hokies ended up having to punt, but then we went 3-and-out and punted as well. Another big punt by Tucker pinned them back inside their 10, and then Justin Thorton picked off a VT pass and ran it back to the 2 yard line! Todd scored the touchdown fairly easily, putting us back up by 10 in the 4th quarter. There was still a lot of time left (like 11 minutes), but when V. Tech's drive was cut short by a Mike Rivera sack, I was so excited and screamed so loud I thought I'd hemorrhaged my vocal cords! It felt like my throat was bleeding!
Brandon had a big 28 yard run on the next drive with lots of shorter carries by Jake, and we drove all the way down the field before KU was stopped at the 21. On fourth down, we chose to go for the touchdown instead of having Scott kick another field goal, since Scott's not always consistent from that distance. I think he would have made it, since he'd warmed up with several extra points, but there was also a good chance we could have scored a TD. Unfortunately we didn't, which left the door open just a crack for the Hokies. They drove right down the field and scored with just 3 minutes left in the game.
We knew all we needed was to work the clock and get a couple of first downs and the game would be over, but I was still so nervous that someone would fumble in that short amount of time! Thankfully, we recovered the on-side kick and had great field position. Todd threw a pass to Dexton Fields for the initial first down, and then Brandon had a few more short carries (taking good care of the ball), getting the second first down with just a few seconds left on the clock. We were on the VT one yard line, and we could have easily taken it into the end zone in those final seconds for another score. In a show of class, KU took a knee and ran out the clock, as if to say, "In your face, Hokies! We don't need no stinking points!"
I can't even begin to explain the joy that we felt in those final seconds when we knew the game was over. The sick with worry feeling in my stomach changed to a sick with excitement feeling! I had to fight back the tears--I was just so happy and so proud of our team. As the crew set up for the presentation ceremony, Celebration by Kool and the Gang rang out and everyone sang along. The crowd was ecstatic and the team was elated! It was such a wonderful moment I tried to capture it with some video.
We stayed and watched the presentation of the Orange Bowl and the presentation of the MVP to Aqib--I loved his comments about people no longer being able to say we haven't played anyone good. So perfect! We got so little respect for the media throughout the season. I think Lee Corso alone must have picked against us a good 5 times this season! Even the Orange Bowl officials apparently didn't think we were going to win--they'd set up the presentation stage facing the V. Tech side of the stadium! It was so great to know that all of those naysayers were having to eat their words, not to mention those whiners from Missouri who thought we didn't deserve to play in the Orange Bowl in the first place!
During and after the presentation ceremony, the players threw oranges into the crowd and interacted with the fans before heading to the locker room. As people took pictures and slapped hands and cheered them on, the Fox post game show was getting ready to start, with Chris, John and Jimmy getting back into position on their stage. Suddenly a couple of the players jumped onto the stage and started hamming it up for the camera behind the news desk, and pretty soon at least half of the team was crowding around the talent trying to get onto TV. I'm guessing they weren't even filming, but it was still pretty funny because the analysts were practically getting mauled and didn't even seem to mind. The 'Hawks were just so excited they were like little kids! I took some more pictures and a little more video (you can see all our pictures here), and then we started the trek through the parking lot to find our car. It was already 12:15 at this point, and since we were planning to get up early, we headed straight back to the hotel and hit the hay after an exciting day!
We were especially thankful for KU's victory because, as some of our friends have already heard, the rest of the trip was pretty hellacious. But that's a story for another day!
2 comments:
Kimberly:
I would like to personally thank you for discombobulating the VT offense with your wicked loud piercing shriek of a birdcall whistle. We could not have won without your efforts.
-Coach Mangino
What a hoot!!! Of course you did it, dear!!!!
All things said and teased I enjoyed reading the game again, even if I didn't here your shriek...I was jumping and yelling...mom
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