Honoring Corso

College football is filled with traditions, from Play Like a Champion Today, lighting the torch in the LA Coliseum, to Michigan Ohio State.  But there is definitely one college football tradition that pretty much every single college football fan can agree they like.  It doesn’t matter what team you like, the conference your allegiance is aligned with, or what part of the country you live in, this tradition starts off your college football Saturday.  The most amazing thing about this tradition is that it doesn’t even happen at a football stadium, it happens outside of the top game of the day, where Lee Corso puts on the head gear of whatever team he picks to with that headline game.

This tradition started in 1996 when Corso picked Ohio State over Penn State by putting the Brutus Buckeye head on to end the broadcast.  After that day, a new tradition was cemented into the college football time.  Now everyone just waits for that moment when Corso will pick a mascot, stick it on his head, and do that goofy little wave.

One of the best thing about the headgear tradition is the gamesmanship involved with it.  Corso is a natural actor and exciting personality, and his headgear predictions have become more and more of a production.  Every week Corso looks for a way to top the previous prediction like firing off guns, or jumping more into a campus tradition, or throwing away the mascot hear he is not going to pick.  While always new and exciting, the pick always feels the same.  Headgear is the ultimate action to finish the College Game Day show and allow for the kickoff of the noon games.

Traditions come from many different places, and sometimes they are the weirdest things like a grown man putting on a mascot head to end a television show.  Naturally this one feels just right, and that is the thing about traditions, once they feel right we need to embrace and heighten them.  I love headgear; it is just perfect beginning to a college football game.  This past Saturday Lee Corso celebrated his 200^th headgear selection, and this is a day to honor what is great about college football and traditions.  Thank you Lee Corso, and I look forward to many more exciting and different headgear selections!

Tradition

I love college football, and while I love the game and the X’s and O’s my true love comes out of the pageantry and passion that is displayed each and every Saturday.  On an every deeper level I love the traditions that comes out of each individual school.  These traditions are unique and special, and every school does it in just their own way.  I have been lucky to travel to many college football venues across the country, and one of the best places has always been my home team Penn State.  Success with Honor and doing in it the right way starts in Happy Valley, and I think this video displays that very well.

While it is hard to create special traditions, and most of the ones we are familiar with are decades old, these are the things I always try to instill.  Putting the environment into place where honest deep felt traditions can flourish, is what puts specific places over the top.  When I move to a place or work at an institution, they need to have traditions and honors I believe in.  Hopefully within my time there I can honor the traditions already in place and create some new ones!

Review of the New Blue

Artist Rendering of the New Blue Zone

Since I was out of town for Penn State games the past couple weekends, Saturday was the first time I was in Kenan Stadium for a football game since the upgrades were added.  I have been a season ticket holder at UNC for the past three seasons, and have been looking forward to the new additions.  When they first introduced the concept of the Blue Zone, putting a large building with all club seats to complete the east end zone I was a little skeptical.  I did not believe the new section added aesthetically to the stadium and if all club seats were a good idea.  So I was excited to get into the stadium and get a feel for what the new stadium would look like.

I don’t consider myself an ultimate authority on football stadiums, but it is one of my favorite parts of college football.  I grew up in Big Ten territory, and going to Penn State, but I have also attended games in four different ACC stadiums, an SEC stadium, and three Pac-12 stadiums.  With that Kenan was never one of my favorite places to see a game, the atmosphere was always somewhere in the middle, but aesthetically the stadium was beautiful.  But I can say with the recent additions, North Carolina has taken some great steps to improve their football atmosphere.

One of the best developments to the stadium was the addition of two large scoreboards in each end zone.  These high definition boards add an amazing element to the game.  While there used to be a pretty large video screen before the new addition, the board was not very aesthetically pleasing, and it was not easy for all seats in the stadium to view the screen.  These new boards give every seat in the stadium an easy view of the new scoreboards, and the high definition screens are beautiful!  While the Blue Zone’s club seating does not add a noisy fan base to the east end zone, it does improve the decibel levels in the stadium.  This occurs because the whole stadium is fully enclosed for the first time.  The Blue Zone is one tall building which acts like a huge dam holding back all of the fan noise. 

While I was originally not in favor of the look of the new Blue Zone, seeing it in person has really changed my mind.  I think it fits in well with the stadium, and it is a nice way to add in those very lucrative club seats everyone in college football is clamoring for.  The best part of the new addition is the brick walkway which creates a full concourse around the whole stadium.  The new concourse is very beautiful, but it also greatly improves the pedestrian traffic in and around the stadium.  Especially after the terrible detours with all of the construction last year, the new foot traffic patterns in the stadium are amazing!

Overall, I think Carolina has done a great job upgrading their stadium.  While the stadium was always really beautiful, this upgrade has increased that quality.  I also think it improves the sound and fan experience in Kenan.  The only problem is now we need to get more fans into the stadium.  For the opening game of the ACC slate, the game was pretty sparsely attended.  I know it was chilly and slightly rainy, and people are mad Butch got fired, but we need to get fans into the stadium.  Come enjoy the new Kenan, and support a team that has a fighting chance to make some noise in the ACC!

Cannot White Out the Passion

The 2008 Footbal Poster calling Penn State the Greatest Show in College Football, and featuring a White Out!

This weekend I traveled to Pennsylvania to attend the Penn State versus Alabama football game.  College football is one of my favorite sports to watch and talk about, and definitely my favorite one to attend in person.  While the actual game is exciting, one of my favorite parts of the experience is the tradition, rituals, and passion exhibited by fans.  I always hope to bring full levels of passion to the things I commit too, and when I am at a college football game the feeling of passion by the athletes, coaches, and fans is such an energizer, and a reminder of what pure passion looks like.

Alabama and Penn State are in the top ten of football programs with huge well traveling fan bases and a long tradition of excellence to back it up.  Last year I was lucky enough to attend this rivalry game in Tuscaloosa, and thoroughly enjoyed the Tide’s return trip to Happy Valley.  It was great to see close up the similar tradition of fans tailgating, playing traditional hard nose football, pride in legendary coaches who go about things the right way, and positive respect for each team.  Watching both sets of fans treat each other with so much respect was an amazing thing to behold.  This is what every sports rivalry should embrace, respect and honor of each other, followed by a hard fought game to find a victor.

I have been to numerous games at Beaver Stadium over the past 14 years, and this was probably the second must pumped up I have seen the crowd.  After a reshuffle of the seats, a move in the student section, and a recent push to bring more fun to pregame and during game elements, this was the second loudest I have seen the stadium.  Being a part of a throng of 107,000 people screaming their lungs out, and singing along to songs that have been played for over 100 years is such an adrenaline rush and a humbling experience.  It is always fun to be a part of something that has existed long before you were around, and something that will exist long after you are gone.  But the only way for those things to continue is to bring passion to them in the present, something that definitely occurred on Saturday.

This weekend helps me bring passion back to my everyday life.  It’s a reminder that I need to be committed and passionate about the things that I am involved with.  This energy and excitement is the thing that pushes organizations and businesses forward.  It does not take 107,000 people wearing white and jumping up and down to show passion.  It can be a few people pushing a good idea forward, but it is that same energy, excitement and passion that will make initiatives successful!