Fight On for Ol' SC!

I miss being a car ride away from USC football.  I miss the energy of the Colosseum on Game Day.  I miss the sea of cardinal and gold during football games.  I miss how in LA, you can buy SC gear at even the tiniest of grocery stores or pharmacies.  I miss the tailgating and making random friends in the parking lots, and I miss the smell of the post game dirty dogs. Even if I can't get to the game, I miss WATCHING the Trojans on TV (damn you New York and your 3 hour time difference and lack of coverage of most West Coast sports teams).  And let's face it...I miss USC being eligible for bowl games.

When I found out that the USC Trojans were visiting the great state of New York (ok....so it's actually New Jersey) to take on Syracuse @ MetLife stadium, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be at that game.  This will be the first time I've seen USC play live since moving to New York...I've gone 2 full football seasons without watching my dear Trojans on the field.

As with any college football game, tailgating is a must.  So you can imagine my disappointment when I woke up to tornado warnings and torrential downpour.  The sky was dark and ominous all morning, and up until our commute out to the Meadowlands from the city.  As luck would have it, we didn't get a drop of rain during our entire tailgate.  My dad was in town for work, and stayed for the weekend to come to the big game with us, and my dad is a professional tailgater.  Pops got some big, fat, delicious deli sandwiches for the game and packed a cooler full of everything you could ever want for a good ol' fashioned college tailgate. We even coordinated between some out-of-towners, family friends, and fellow USC alumni, so we had quite a turnout for a USC away game...all the way in New Jersey!

Rockin' the pancho

Cardinal & Gold everywhere!

Even though we were 3,000 miles away from the Colosseum, the Trojan pride was still in full force.  Our seats were amazing and only a few rows up from the field, by the end zone in the impressive visitor's section that was saturated with cardinal and gold everywhere you looked.   During halftime, the storm returned with a vengeance.  We were all instructed to take shelter inside the while the wind & rain pummeled the stadium.  For a little over an hour, we were confined to the inside of the stadium to wait out the storm, and party with other Trojan fans. It looked like a USC home game inside MetLife during the rainstorm, I couldn't have been more proud of the Trojan family that was representing in NY!

It felt DAMN good to have a football program once again.  I'd argue it wasn't our BEST game, and I felt like the Trojans could have dominated a bit more, but our boy Matt Barkley did have 6 TDs...not so bad!  Having a little piece of the Trojan family out in New York made me a little home sick for football season at the Colosseum, but it also made me proud that I am among great alumni and students who had such an impressive showing at a non-conference game against Syracuse.  Football season in America is a very beautiful thing, and I'm so glad I was able to kick it off with a Trojan W, a family visit, and old friends.  FIGHT ON!