USC vs. Stanford 2012

Posted by Nicole

Well… things don’t always goes as planned when it comes to sports. If you are following college football, you might already know that USC did not beat Stanford last night, and that’s okay. We played well and the overall game experience was a blast… that’s all I could have asked for (…though it would have been nice to have also won).

A couple hours before the game started, Lauren and I wandered around the Stanford/USC tailgates in the parking lots and eventually found the greek area.

Three Stanford frats joined together to put on a huge tailgate- complete with lots of music, energy, and school spirit. It’s kinda cool how all the students are friends regardless of which team you are rooting for (at least at the tailgates).

To get the full idea…

The roof of that U-Haul on the right was starting to collapse. Turns out Stanford sure knows how to party!

Amidst the crowds, I ran into Hanah and we posed for a quick photo.

And then, our other roommate, Allison, showed up!

It was so lucky that we all found each other in the sea of cardinal, white, and gold.

Lauren didn’t find any of her friends, so she just took a selfie.

We only hung out at the tailgate for a bit longer and then ventured into the stadium. Where’s Waldo Lauren?

We had fantastic seats in the front row of the upper level of the student section (woah, that was a lot of prepositions). Within minutes of sitting down, the USC “Spirit of Troy” band started to entertain the crowd.

Their ease of formations never ceases to amaze me… as a dancer you appreciate that kind of stuff. They even spell out “USC” and “Trojans”!

Some other benefits of sitting in the USC student section: the band was right below us, the songgirls and spirit leaders were on our corner of the field, and the Trojan spirit was outrageous!

When the team ran out onto the field, everyone’s energy lifted and we were ready for the game to begin!

We donned our “fight on” signs, and Lauren’s cast conveniently solidified her pride ;)

The teams were neck-and-neck for the first three quarters. It was kind of frustrating because we all had high hopes for this game and things just weren’t working in our favor… that, or we weren’t playing to our full potential.

After three quarters, Lauren and I left the student section to go meet up with our Mom and David. They were seated on the opposite side of the stadium, and it was interesting to get a different view of the game. Although the variety was nice, their seats were in the heart of the Stanford fans. Stanford pulled ahead in the last quarter to 21-14, and things just weren’t looking good for USC. The last few minutes were intense, but we managed to keep relatively positive.

…Smiling helps. In the end, USC didn’t pull off a miracle interception or touchdown, and Stanford beat us (by one goal) for the second year in a row. Attitudes weren’t too happy on the way out, but I can’t really stay sad when I’m around family…

So… yeah. We didn’t win, but that’s okay. There are many more games in the season and a 2-1 record really isn’t that bad. I think USC had a great fan base at this away game and we showed our pride and support for the team regardless of winning/losing.

Next weekend, we are playing Cal. We’ll see how that goes!

- N