First I'd like to apologize for my lack of football knowledge- I have yet to see Stanford win a football game, so I can't say they've really convinced me to become a fan. But I'm willing to be optimistic about this year- it's our last chance.
The first football game of the year is always a good time, because you never know what's going to happen. Yesterday was not only no exception, but everyone who went had positive hopes. The first seven minutes of the game for which we kept UCLA scoreless we were thrilled with every play (except perhaps T.C.'s fumble). For the first half of the game (for which I was there), the student section roared with every complete pass, every rushed yard, every defensive stop (although those admittedly happened far less often).
"I learned we had a football team today."- Jim Harbaugh, as quoted in the SJ Merc. From my corner of the stadium, a few rows behind the less-optimistic band, we felt the same way.
Unfortunately, our cheering sucked. If the yell leaders were there, I didn't hear them. It's been so long since we won a game that it seems as though we've forgotten all of our cheers, except "Let's go Stanford" and the keys for the kickoff... which I have never understood. The kicker is not a dog, and we are much louder yelling than shaking keys. Oh well.
The best photo of the afternoon was taken with pre-school friend and college nemesis (not quite) Courtney (left), my UCLA ridiculous sports counterpart:
Seeing one half of the game is quite unsatisfying, however, and I'm looking forward to seeing the entire SJ State game in two weeks.
~Alex
From London:
The concept of American football hasn't seem to have caught on too well here yet, even though the NFL is coming in a couple months. I couldn't find any sports bar here that was going to be showing any games live this weekend so I sat in and listened to KZSU. Even though I couldn't see anything, there seemed to be a lot that could have been taken from this game. Number 1, the coach didn't give up on his players and vice versa. Number 2, we scored 17 points against a solid defense and could have had more. Number 3, we were still in the game into the 4th quarter. Who knows what would have happened if we would have recovered the onside when we were down 14? The defense still has some work to do, but I'm looking forward to seeing(er...listening) to what we can do against San Jose St. on the 15th. 2 1/2 weeks until the glorious return for the Oregon game.
~Albert
From Singapore:
Thank god for KZSU. Kickoff was at 3:30am Singapore time and despite just getting back from Macau the previous night, I knew that I couldn't miss the first game of the Harbaugh era. I was also able to tune in to the women's volleyball game against Minnesota during half time. Sure we lost the football game but as numerous sources will tell you, there were lots of positives and I'm one to be optimistic about our future. I'll be back in time for San Jose St.
~Zhihao
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