By Chris Macaluso
Special to LSUSports.net
A massive party erupted in New Orleans in the waning hours of last January 4 when the LSU faithful took their wave of purple and gold out of the Superdome and into the French Quarter to celebrate the Tigers’ first football national championship in 45 years.
That party, with all its inebriated elation, sights and smells spilled over to the LSU campus Saturday morning as the ESPN Gameday crew set up shop to welcome football back to Baton Rouge and introduce a few thousand Oregon State Beaver fans to South Louisiana on opening weekend.
Many fans donned wet, muddy clothes and sopping shoes like badges of courage after spending the night on the Parade Grounds dodging passing rain showers in anticipation of the morning’s live broadcast. All of the 4,000-5,000 fans wiped dripping sweat from their brows.
“It’s really hot out here,” said Beaver fan Steve Rice, who flew into New Orleans Thursday night with a group of friends from the West Coast. “I’ve never seen anything like this. The only time I ever drink a beer before 10 in the morning is when we play Oregon at home, and yesterday morning. These fans down here are unbelievable. Everybody’s been very nice to us. It’s really hot.”
Heat has never deterred the “enthusiastic” Tiger fans from showing up in earnest. But there’s something about Gameday coming to town that inspires LSU fans to take their support to that mythical “next level” coaches speak about so dramatically.
LSU student Nathan McIntyre spent the night under a tent behind the Gameday set. He and 20 or so of his friends welcomed the morning by cracking open cans of seemingly innocuous orange soda. Hanging from their tent was a bag of oranges.
“This is what we’re going to be tasting in January, baby,” said McIntyre, in a bold prediction that LSU would earn the chance to defend its national championship at the Orange Bowl, this year’s BCS championship game.
When asked if that same bag of oranges would travel with he and his friends throughout the season, McIntyre replied: “Well until they start to get nasty and rot and grow fungus on them. Then we’ll throw them away.”
McIntyre then emphatically added, “but we’re going to wear the same damned drawers until LSU loses.”
That makes a lot of sense. After all, rotting fruit is much more disgusting than wearing the same underwear for weeks on end.
Of course, Tiger fans and Beaver fans had differing opinions about the outcome of the approaching game. Some thought it would be dominated by defense. Some believed Oregon State would be able to pass the ball at will. Some thought LSU would simply roll over the overmatched Beavers. But all united in a carol of boos when USC highlights from last season played on the large projection screen.
“I hate USC,” Rice said. “We put up 600 yards on them in the second-to-last game of the season last year. We could have beaten them. They’re not that good.”
The ongoing debate over last season’s national championship wasn’t the only controversy voiced Saturday morning. Jason Ferguson, a native of the state of Washington who is now living in New Orleans, stood out in the sea of purple and gold and the pond of orange and black with a maroon Washington State University flag atop a 30-foot pole.
Ferguson’s one-man re-enactment of the protests at this week’s Republican National Convention was inspired by what he and a small group of Washington State graduates throughout the country consider the biggest travesty in college football.
“Gameday won’t come to Washington State so we bring Washington State to Gameday,” Ferguson said.
He said his flag will be waved at every ESPN Gameday site throughout the country this season. Once he’s finished using it for his peaceful resistance in Baton Rouge, he’ll sign it and send it along to the next Cougar revolutionary.
“You want Gameday to come to Washington State then build a stadium that holds more than 50,000 people,” said one eavesdropping Tiger fan.
Ferguson sort of smirked and went back to his waving.
The crowd erupted one final time as Gameday co-host Lee Corso predicted an LSU victory before donning the Mike the Tiger mascot head. Fans then dispersed to continue their mental and physical preparations for kick off less than six hours away.
A large dog wearing a No. 13 Corey Webster jersey and sign around its neck reading “I need a ticket” was tied to a pole near the Parade Grounds. With all the excitement and unbridled expectations surrounding this game and this season, he may be waiting for that ticket for a long, long time.