Road Trip

I was there! But I'm originally from VA and live in NYC now, so it's not like I traveled across the country to get there.

I wish our fans dressed more like the UVA fans. We looked like slobs.

I was less impressed. The campus is certainly interesting, but I found the whole experience to be a little amateurish. Their replay TV was minisicule, the announcer took the first quarter off, and what was up with the "fly by?"

Then again, I may be a little spoiled. Last year, I went to the Oregon and Nebraska games. Going to Autzen is a really interesting experience, and Nebraska fans are the nicest people on the planet. UVA? Eh.

55-19:
Welcome to the south!Please keep in mind that there's a lot of envy, jealousy and hostility towards the west/California. To make matters worse the USC FB team is definitely superior to theirs and that is a mighty bitter pill for them to swallow. It's almost like two different cultures.

I'm actually still in Virginia and have had a great experience so far. First let me say, from my layover in Dallas when I switched to a plane that was well represented by Cardinal and Gold - I have been impressed by the Trojan Faithful who have made the trip.

As far as my gameday experience:
Unsure about how long the trip would be we arrived about three hours early for the game and parked in a structure about two miles from the stadium. The city has a free trolley that quickly took us over to the campus, so if there was traffic we missed it.
We also weren't sure what to expect from the Virginia fans on the trolley but they started up a nice conversation asking about our trip and actually recomended a few restaurants and sights to see while we on our trip.

The campus was a nice little place and the walk across "The Lawn" was probably a lot friendlier that what visitors experience making the Trojan Walk. A lot of BBQ and drinks were shared to passerbys fans of either team by Virginia tailgaters.

We ate with a couple of Trojans who invited us to sit at their table inside the stadium. They are some of the alumni that are luckily able to travel to many of the road games and agreed that the Southern Hospitality was impressive (opposite of what you find in Oregon, which they say has the worst fans). They also told us that the intimacy of the game and town was nice, but nothing like the grand-scale events that are trips to South Bend.

The stadium only has bench seating but they rent out chairs that have cushions and backs. Five dollars and you just leave them at your seat after the game and someone picks them up later. At the end of the game you could tell where the Trojan Fans sat, apparently the Virginia fans don't use them.

We were sitting on the other side of their version of the Peristyle, under which Scott mentioned the students sat on a grassy knoll. So being so far from the student section here's where our experience was probably different from the Trojan Fans who sat on that end.
The Virginia fans around us were great. They didn't expect anything but a Trojan blowout and said they'd be happy just to see their team score once.
There were a few boos when the Trojans took the field but the only angry ones were when a girl who ended up with one of the point-after balls had to throw it back to an official on the sideline.

At halftime we had conversations with the people around us who explained the "hoos" tradition of women in sun dresses and men in dress shirts, shorts and ties. Just as the people on the trolley, they recomended a few place to eat and visit.

The crowd noticably thinned half-way through the 4th, but they stuck around much longer than the fans of any other team I've seen get blown out.

Too tired and beat down from the heat we skipped the walk back across The Lawn and took a cab back to our car. We were told that the fans were just as courteous on the way back across the lawn but can't say as we didn't make the trip.

All in all, the only negative thing I saw that day was the USC fan wearing the black and gold jersey. He wasn't behaving poorly, he was just wearing that damn jersey.

So that was part of my experience at the game. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe/hopefully a majority of fans had a good time with Virginia folks a well.

Fight On

I have to agree with Sam. Several of us from the London club flew in for the game and we found the UVA fans to be very friendly. They seemed shocked that people would make the journey out from CA (which seemed to impress them more than telling them we came from the UK) —sort of reminded me of the reception we got at the Kansas State game a number of years ago. At the pre-game tailgates you could see orange and blue amicably mixing with cardinal and gold in the parking lots. We were offered all sorts of food and drink by UVA fans. The stadium was a great place to watch the game, with good vision from the upper deck although I do have to agree with the previous poster that the video board and the sound system was rather weak. BTW: I thought it was kind of lame that UVA mic’ed up their band. The one killer was the heat! How do people live in those conditions? I was sweating through my spooner while sitting still. I can’t imagine what it was like down on the field. All-in-all it was a great experience, UVA fans are very classy.

I had a great time. In fact, I met more Trojan fans and alumni out here than I've ever met on any of my trips to ASU or Cal or Stanford. They don't call us the Trojan family for nothing.

I made the two hour drive from WV and linked up with a buddy and his friends about eleven. While tailgating, our party grew larger by the minute. I only knew one guy there before the day, but by the time we made the mile-long walk to the stadium, seemed we were a hundred strong. Inside the stadium, it didn't matter that I was sitting off to myself. I was very impressed with how well we traveled that day. By the middle of the third, I was moving around the stadium, making my way to the band.

On another note, I'm stationed at the VA/WV border, and there is a huge difference between UVA fans and WV fans. UVA fans were very quiet about this game. WV fans run their mouths everytime I'm in my USC gear, which is pretty much daily. I'll be back in my native Southern California in Nov, but I'd love nothing more than to travel out to Morgantown and see us smack around the 'Eers in the near future.

Free parking at a football game. Wow. The parking situation was problematic, since there was no way to tell which parking lots were full, and no one to direct you to parking. It also wasn't clear how far (or which way) the stadium was from the parking lots. It was a bit a hike from where we parked, and not great weather for hiking. Nice stadium, though. We had the worst seats imaginable, and they were no worse than our seats in the Coliseum. I lieked the grassy knoll for students. I still don't get the 'Hoos thing. And Auld Lang Syne? Fun trip.

We went and had a great time. The little town is very cute, but I have to say I don't think the bars and restaurants were ready for such an crowd. We hit a couple great places and then did the "walk the lawn" thing. That was fun, save for a couple obnoxious, drunk kids (I know, weired sight at a college football game), but overall the UVA faithful were very nice. I was warned before we went down about the dress of the students, so there was no surprise there. I don't agree that USC people should dress like that. I think Mr. Jefferson would understand given the culture amongst the USC family.
Get ready for a much different crowd (think Oregon fans with a real football tradition) back at the Coliseum in a couple weeks. See you all there.

I was there, and it was great, except for the weather. Pulling into town just before game time, we saw a nasty thunderstorm dropping black straight down from the sky, and thought, "I hope that doesn't hit us during the game." By the time the score got to 21-0, we were wishing for that storm. A cloud. Anything. It was only in the low 90s, but it seemed hotter than the '98 Purdue game. Everyone was soaking their free Wahoo Rally Towels and using them to cool their necks and faces.

The game itself was pretty awesome, and the Virginia fans were right up there with Nebraska fans and Notre Dame fans when it came to sportsmanship (and quietly leaving early, too). Good folks live and go to school there in Charlottesville.