All You Need to Know: Alabama Gameday (Part 1)

In case you've been living inside a cave for the past several weeks, Alabama football starts this Saturday. We kick off at 6:00 p.m. against the San Jose St. Spartans. As I mentioned here, I am a huge football fan. I realize that many of you may not have any idea what goes on in Tuscaloosa on a gameday, so I've tried to put together a list of things that might be nice to know. The list ended up being quite long, so I've split it up into a couple of parts. This first part deals with what will be going on before the game. But first, a video to get you excited...



Before the Game

• First of all, a quick word about the gameday congestion in Tuscaloosa...the city will get very crowded very quickly on Saturday. If you know you're going to need anything from off-campus (groceries, etc.), get it Friday! You will not want to be on McFarland Boulevard, 15th Street, University Drive, or any other major Tuscaloosa thoroughfare at any point Saturday.
• Now for a word about parking. As a freshman student living in one of the dorms, you have the best deal of anyone in Tuscaloosa when it comes to gameday parking. All residential lots are guarded by ferocious-looking Transportation Services officials reserved on gamedays. Please realize how big of a deal this is...most off-campus students (myself included) would love to have free parking this close to the game. Hopefully you won't have to leave campus on Saturday (see above), but if you do you'll have parking when you get back.
• If there is one place to be before the game, it's the Quad. Fans will start setting up tents on Friday evening, and many won't leave until Sunday. There will be people with grills, electric generators, TV's, stereo systems, and enough food to feed this college student for a month year. Most of the tailgaters are very nice, and many don't mind if you stop outside their tent to catch part of another game on their big screens.

The Quad on Gameday. Yessir it's packed.

• Big news for this year...the Honors College Assembly will be sponsoring Quad tailgates exclusively for Honors College students! As of now there are still a few detail to be worked out about this, but hopefully everything will be ready in time for the first game. Look for more details on the blog in the coming days.
• The band will warm-up on the Quad beginning about 2.5 hours before kickoff. This can be pretty cool to watch...especially the drum line, which gathers around Denny Chimes. The band will also lead a pep rally on the steps of Gorgas approximately 2 hours before kickoff.
• If you're interested in seeing the football team enter the stadium, check out the Walk of Champions. This occurs about 2 hours and 15 minutes before kickoff at the north entrance to the stadium (the side closer to Reese-Phifer Hall).

Waiting on the team at the Walk of Champions

• The student gate (Gate 31) will open 2.5 hours before kickoff. My suggestion would be to head over there pretty early (say two hours before kickoff). This will mean passing up on a few pre-game activities, but having a good seat is worth it. Also, this will allow you to watch the entirety of the football team's warm-up...which may only be neat to football nerds like myself.

I'll do another post later in the week about what goes on during and after the game. In case you can't tell, I'm quite ready for football.