Observations from Bryant Denny

LHABSOB

LHABSOB

1,000+ Posts
Took my 16 yo daughter to the game. My dad was from Alabama and always said I was named after Paul Bear Bryant so it was cool to attend my first game in Tuscaloosa.

1. Game day atmosphere was buzzing. The "Quad" where is the hub of the tailgating and reminding me of the Grove in Oxford.

2. Alabama just doesn't have much to do as a state like Texas so Game day is like a religious event for their fans. Also much more of a family event than Texas with everyone bringing all their kids.

3. Fans were very cordial and friendly but man the frat boys were turds on par with the College Station crowd.

4. Stadium is large and nothing special upon entrance other than ushers trying to cram their pom poms in your face at every entrance. Man those fans love those pom poms and know the choreographed shakes for every song

5. Last night was a freaking beautiful night for football. Cool sunset, warm but not unbearable.

6. Concessions were blah- nowhere close to DKR

7. Million Dollar Band is good and again the fans shake their pom poms with every song.

8. The sorority houses are lined up right outside the stadium, wow their sorority scene is bigger than Texas. Huge houses. There is a huge old cemetary outside the stadium on the other side. Strange.

9. The game day presentation is very similar to DKR. Loud PA blaring pop and hip hop music.

10. They do a cool thing where they take down all the lights and have everyone use their cell phone lights to choreographed chants. Pretty cool.

11. I've been to a lot of stadiums and games but in the 4th qtr they brought down the lights and cranked up Dixieland Delight from Alabama. The fans sing at the top of their lungs and have some added lyrics about Roll Tide. I know it sounds hokey but it may have been the coolest thing I have ever seen from the fans in a stadium.

12. I was blown away by how much orange was in the stands. I'm not exaggerating when I say 35-40% were Longhorn fans. 50/50 in upper deck. My daughter actually started a loud TEXAS FIGHT chant in 3rd qtr.

13. Their fans were shell shocked. They didn't know how to handle the *** whooping. Our fans were loud and hung around afterwards for a long time chanting SEC and TEXAS FIGHT.

14. Parking SUCKS. We paid for parking in one of their official lots. UT was a 35 minute brisk walk from the stadium and then took another 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

15. 3 lane highway back to Birmingham was bumper to bumper 30/mph all the way back to Birmingham.

16. We're ready for the SEC. Hook Em!!
 
Seemed on tv that you could actually hear the band as opposed to an overbearing PA system, that true?
As has been stated we could even hear our band sometimes on the tv.
 
Very interesting "Paul" !

First of all, aren't you glad you were there to see and experience that EPIC UT win !!!

I suspect bama fans were surprised we travel that well - HF 35 -40% is HUGE!?

Were the Bama fans around you reasonably respectful?

Also suspect they respect us more than aggy fans.... however, you may not been able to get feedback on that perception.
 
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WorsterMan said:
Very interesting Paul !

First of all, aren't you glad you were there to see and experience that EPIC UT win !!!

I suspect bama fans were surprised we travel that well - HF 35 -40% is HUGE!?

Were the Bama fans around you reasonably respectful?

Also suspect they respect us more than aggy fans.... however, you may not been able to get feedback on that perception.
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Fans around us were great. Dad, Mom and 2 daughters (8-10yo) stayed and watched the band through halftime and then Dad turned to Mom and said- “I know how this is going to end and I can’t put up with another half of watching this ****. Let’s get these girls to bed.” And they left. Old Bama fan next to me said- “ that guy clearly wasn’t hear for the Fran and Shula eras”. LOL.

At Bucee’s in Birmingham at 1am, it was like a somber gathering of Bama fans meeting up to drown their sorrows. All the fans there were very complimentary and wanted to talk football with us. “Can we trade QBs?” “Saban bought his $30M home in FL, I wonder if we will make a run at Sark?”

There was an obnoxious group of drunk frat boys 2 rows behind us that started jaw-jacking with me right at the start of the game. After we took the early lead one of them said to me “I’ll be standing right here at the end of the game when we mud stomp your asses by 20+ pts you MFer”. From then it was on like Donkey Kong and we were going back and forth all game. My daughter got a little too caught up in it and was rubbing her eyes at them with the sobbing tears thing after we scored our 2 TDs early in the 4th qtr. I may have even seen her flip a bird at them- don’t tell my wife. With 3 mins to go, she turned around and said “Dad, those cry babies just snuck out of here without even saying congrats”

I will say in our section the Texas Fans were loud and rowdy. I would not have been happy to have a visiting fan base come in DKR and dance around like we were doing. It honestly reminded me a bit of walking out of the Rose Bowl after our Natty.
 
"There is a huge old cemetary outside the stadium on the other side. Strange."

Did they have a buried elephant that could see the scoreboard?
 
Looks like Craig Way was in the same traffic as us after the game. We actually just drove straight to ATL and took a 6a flight back to Chicago. Flights in/out of Birmingham were 4x flights to ATL.

 
LHABSOB said:
There was an obnoxious group of drunk frat boys 2 rows behind us that started jaw-jacking with me right at the start of the game. After we took the early lead one of them said to me “I’ll be standing right here at the end of the game when we mud stomp your asses by 20+ pts you MFer”. From then it was on like Donkey Kong and we were going back and forth all game. My daughter got a little too caught up in it and was rubbing her eyes at them with the sobbing tears thing after we scored our 2 TDs early in the 4th qtr. I may have even seen her flip a bird at them- don’t tell my wife. With 3 mins to go, she turned around and said “Dad, those cry babies just snuck out of here without even saying congrats”
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I have a 13 year old going-on 31 daughter. Can you teach me how to raise mine like yours?
 
havoc7701 said:
I have a 13 year old going-on 31 daughter. Can you teach me how to raise mine like yours?
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Havoc- I could write a novel on the things I have learned from trying to raise 2 young women (my other daughter is 15 yo). Our 21 yo son who is at Purdue failed to prepare us for the challenges of raising girls. I actually went to therapy for it a few years ago because these 2 were driving me crazy and it that therapy I had some breakthroughs about parenting.

1. Quit trying to impose my will, thoughts and beliefs on these 2 young ladies. Allow them to grow into things themselves. While I thought I was guiding and protecting them as a dad, I was actually smothering them. The “because I said so” and “I am the dad so that’s just how it is” way that I was raised wasn’t working. It hurts to sometimes see them fail and make wrong decisions but they respect me for loving them and allowing them to find their path.

2. Remember teenage girls not adults. I had to change my expectations that they would also be reasonable and rational like adults. Their lives are driven by bouncing hormones and emotions and I need to remember they are more fragile children than adults.

3. I had to change my concept of “winning”. I always wanted to “win” arguments and debates with them. My idea of winning was we are going to hash this out until you agree with me and acknowledge that you agree with me. That wasn’t winning- that was bringing turmoil into our house. Now I view winning as- this disagreement we had didn’t turn the house upside down and while I am confident I was still right, I just had to swallow it and move on. It’s the choose your battles so to speak.

OK- more that you wanted I am sure but something I am very passionate about. It’s still tough, but I have a lot more peace as a father of these 2 girls than I did 3 years ago!
 
LHABSOB said:
Havoc- I could write a novel on the things I have learned from trying to raise 2 young women (my other daughter is 15 yo). Our 21 yo son who is at Purdue failed to prepare us for the challenges of raising girls. I actually went to therapy for it a few years ago because these 2 were driving me crazy and it that therapy I had some breakthroughs about parenting.

1. Quit trying to impose my will, thoughts and beliefs on these 2 young ladies. Allow them to grow into things themselves. While I thought I was guiding and protecting them as a dad, I was actually smothering them. The “because I said so” and “I am the dad so that’s just how it is” way that I was raised wasn’t working. It hurts to sometimes see them fail and make wrong decisions but they respect me for loving them and allowing them to find their path.

2. Remember teenage girls not adults. I had to change my expectations that they would also be reasonable and rational like adults. Their lives are driven by bouncing hormones and emotions and I need to remember they are more fragile children than adults.

3. I had to change my concept of “winning”. I always wanted to “win” arguments and debates with them. My idea of winning was we are going to hash this out until you agree with me and acknowledge that you agree with me. That wasn’t winning- that was bringing turmoil into our house. Now I view winning as- this disagreement we had didn’t turn the house upside down and while I am confident I was still right, I just had to swallow it and move on. It’s the choose your battles so to speak.

OK- more that you wanted I am sure but something I am very passionate about. It’s still tough, but I have a lot more peace as a father of these 2 girls than I did 3 years ago!
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The largest difference between sons and daughters is when sons move on after high school they gradually remove themselves from the family bank. Daughters never mentally move away and retain rights to the family bank.
 
That's a good summary. I think it would be cool to have a home/home with OU-UT once every decade or so just so each fan base would get a look at the relative gameday atmosphere.

Nice win. I thought Bama was going to old school run the ball. That QB is not a great passer of the ball. QE was a great passer of the ball Saturday night. I was impressed with the UT OL.
 
HAVOC,

My daughter is the first female born into my family in 61 years. Best advice I can send you is that the single most vicious animal in the universe is a seventh grade girl, followed closely by an eighth grade girl. Lord knows I had no idea, but He brought me through it.
 
Thanks for posting. Think I will have to get myself there for the first conference battle!

No need to admit around here that you are named after Bear Bryant. I'll still think of you as named after something like Paul from the Bible.
 
LHABSOB said:
12. I was blown away by how much orange was in the stands. I'm not exaggerating when I say 35-40% were Longhorn fans. 50/50 in upper deck. My daughter actually started a loud TEXAS FIGHT chant in 3rd qtr.

13. Their fans were shell shocked. They didn't know how to handle the *** whooping. Our fans were loud and hung around afterwards for a long time chanting SEC and TEXAS FIGHT.
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I really hope you get to see some footage of the end of the game. You could hear the band really clearly on ESPN. When the team gathered in the endzone and they started Eyes, wow. Even while they were interviewing Ewers and Sark, it was loud and clear.

I was surprised at the turnout from our folks. On TV it looked like burnt orange was sitting in the lower levels around the entire stadium. There was a statement made Saturday night, but not just by the team. Our band and fans left an impression too.
 
LHABSOB said:
Havoc- I could write a novel on the things I have learned from trying to raise 2 young women (my other daughter is 15 yo). Our 21 yo son who is at Purdue failed to prepare us for the challenges of raising girls. I actually went to therapy for it a few years ago because these 2 were driving me crazy and it that therapy I had some breakthroughs about parenting.

1. Quit trying to impose my will, thoughts and beliefs on these 2 young ladies. Allow them to grow into things themselves. While I thought I was guiding and protecting them as a dad, I was actually smothering them. The “because I said so” and “I am the dad so that’s just how it is” way that I was raised wasn’t working. It hurts to sometimes see them fail and make wrong decisions but they respect me for loving them and allowing them to find their path.

2. Remember teenage girls not adults. I had to change my expectations that they would also be reasonable and rational like adults. Their lives are driven by bouncing hormones and emotions and I need to remember they are more fragile children than adults.

3. I had to change my concept of “winning”. I always wanted to “win” arguments and debates with them. My idea of winning was we are going to hash this out until you agree with me and acknowledge that you agree with me. That wasn’t winning- that was bringing turmoil into our house. Now I view winning as- this disagreement we had didn’t turn the house upside down and while I am confident I was still right, I just had to swallow it and move on. It’s the choose your battles so to speak.

OK- more that you wanted I am sure but something I am very passionate about. It’s still tough, but I have a lot more peace as a father of these 2 girls than I did 3 years ago!
Click to expand...
Brilliant, good advice that matches my real-world experience of the 10 & 13 yo parenting.
 
1. You raised your daughter right! :hookem:

2. How were the Bama fans after the beat down outside of stadium?

We had a watch party at my daughter and son-in-law's house. Had two tv's going with Tech game. Tech game ended after ours. When Tech threw the pick 6 I almost jumped out of my seat, but caught myself.....told my wife, I better be respectful to daughter's Tech friends. Immediately after my daughter shouted..."It sucks to Suck! :lmao:

It was a glorious night! I still have an erect.......uh excitement. :hookem:
 
What I have learned from this is to book an Airbnb in Tuscaloosa far out in advance and make it a long weekend. That traffic sounds insane. No thanks!
 
ViperHorn said:
The largest difference between sons and daughters is when sons move on after high school they gradually remove themselves from the family bank. Daughters never mentally move away and retain rights to the family bank.
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Please impart those pearls of wisdom to my 2 sons. For whatever reason(s), I’ve evidently failed in getting that point across.
 
WorsterMan said:
Wow, tell us about your son!!?

Are the horns recruiting him?

I assume you have been a good father and made it CLEAR he is forbidden from taking visits or considering aggy or ou!?
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We really haven't had those discussions, but he knows lol.

Yeah he's a good little athlete...5'9 168, so we'll see where he ends up. He is being contacted by small schools, but only a Jr, so we'll see. He played class 6A last year but this year he decided he wanted to play with his little brother at a private 6-man school. His brother is a miracle baby so a lot smaller, but they're tight. He only got released to play sports last year. He has a heart of a lion though (been fighting all his life), so big brother wanted to play with him. I couldn't say "no". They're having fun, thats good enough for me, but I told him playing 6-man was the end of recruitments, but a coach just yesterday in Kansas invited him for a visit, so he still has a shot I guess. :hookem:

You can check him out here......

 
LonghornCatholic said:
We really haven't had those discussions, but he knows lol.

Yeah he's a good little athlete...5'9 168, so we'll see where he ends up. He is being contacted by small schools, but only a Jr, so we'll see. He played class 6A last year but this year he decided he wanted to play with his little brother at a private 6-man school. His brother is a miracle baby so a lot smaller, but they're tight. He only got released to play sports last year. He has a heart of a lion though (been fighting all his life), so big brother wanted to play with him. I couldn't say "no". They're having fun, thats good enough for me, but I told him playing 6-man was the end of recruitments, but a coach just yesterday in Kansas invited him for a visit, so he still has a shot I guess. :hookem:

You can check him out here......

Click to expand...


I always assumed you were white! Damn your kid has moves. Hes like Darren Sproles! KSU recruiting him?
 
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