Dukes Down South: A Trip to the National Championship Day 3
Day 3
Saturday, Jan 7
Championship day was, and remains, an absolute blur but I’ll do my best to make some sense of the chaos for you all. To start, it was an incredibly early game. Because of the ESPN broadcast in the eastern time zone, kickoff in Texas was 11 am. This necessitated getting up at seven to make breakfast (remember, there were 25 of us so making food for everyone was a long process). Beginning to take shots at eight in the morning was an experience I hadn’t had since the last time I went to and survived beach week, and not one I had hoped to ever have again, but exceptions can be made for national championship games.
Tailgating began at nine, and this provided the final confirmation any of us needed that we were going to outnumber the Penguins fans 10 to 1. “Penguins Can’t Fly,” and “Squeal Like a Penguin” signs were out in full force, as were a bunch of recent alumni I had no idea were going to be at the game. My friends and I wandered, stopping by a bunch of different tailgates chatting with people we weren’t expecting to see and toasting to the game. The line on the game was JMU -8, and we were all rightly feeling very confident.
Because it was so early in the morning and people were still just waking up, no major incidents happened at the tailgates. It was about 30 degrees that morning though, so everyone had their liquor jackets on. This game was noticeably different than the typical home game experience. For one, it was sold out and completely packed the entire game. Second, Toyota Stadium was selling beer which JMU as a school policy does not do at any athletic events. Third, all of the attention was on the actual football being played. For one day we felt like a power-five FBS program. I think there is a such a huge opportunity to capitalize on what happened this postseason to propel our national sports reputation forward, but I’ll save the details of that for another article.
Ultimately, the game itself was fairly boring. We went up 21-0 early and never looked back. Khalid Abdullah did what he did all season, rushing for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Bryan Schor didn’t have to do too much even though he is capable of winning a game on his own, and that was thanks to a tough defensive front and overpowering run game. The crowd was delirious after the first TD; there was a full blown party going on after the third. Twice YSU threatened to make it a game, but were shut down on both occasions. Bo Pelini was losing his mind at some of the calls, but the game was nowhere competitive enough for a few holding calls to swing it in the other direction.
With about five minutes left on the clock we all prepared to storm the field. There were no signs that security was going to try to stop this from happening so we all started pushing our way down the steps to the edge of the field. The second the clock hit zero, it was pandemonium. I lost everyone I had come to the game with. Decisions on which direction you were going to walk were made by the crowd as a whole. There was one player I wanted to go see but there was no chance of breaking free from the masses to get there. Ultimately we all just ended up in a giant clump yelling and holding a bunch of the players above us. Eventually everyone made their way towards the stage for the trophy presentation. Abdullah got his MVP trophy, and then most of the players left to go try to let their victory sink in in the locker room. The band was up on stage and played the fight song three times after the ceremony just to cap off the incredible afternoon. “CAN YOU BELIEVE WE JUST WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!?!?!” was pretty much all we could say to each other the rest of the day.
We got back to the house and all took a nap. I got up and tried to retell the experience to my mom to the best of my ability but I couldn’t quite do it the justice it deserves. We went back to the “JMU” bar for the night and hoped to celebrate with the team and the band, but both had headed back to Harrisonburg not too long after the game. We still had a great night though, celebrating the pinnacle of our JMU sports experience. It may not be FBS, but damn did it feel close to what I’d imagine winning the CFP feels like. Being there with a close group of friends of course made it all the better, and we went all out for our last night. Two of us even briefly were kicked out of the bar for reasons we still aren’t sure about, but just as quickly were let back in. As we were apt to do after the game, we overdid it and paid for it the next morning. But just in case you hadn’t caught the whole point of Saturday yet: JMU WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!