Fiesta Bowl 2011

Our primary purpose for driving to Arizona on New Year's Eve was to watch UConn play Oklahoma at University of Phoenix Stadium on the following evening. We just decided to add the Grand Canyon to the itinerary, despite the additional hours of driving, because we had been meaning to go there for several years.

I can't claim we had been loyal UConn Huskies fans all year long. In fact, I was surprised to learn that the young football program had a team selected for a BCS bowl game. With my UConn-attending daughter Amy coming home for Christmas coinciding with a bowl game within driving distance, I asked her to check prices on campus. They were very high, with hotel and game packages starting at well over a thousand dollars per person.

I did a search online and came across TicketsNow.com, a web site that acts as a broker for resale of tickets. With fees, shipping and tickets for what I would call decent seats but what some might call nose-bleeds, it came to under $40 per ticket, so we took a chance that the site was reputable. It turned out to be a good gamble, although the tickets arrived by Federal Express while we were in Montana, and they were almost returned to sender.

The stadium complex is awesome. There was a sanctioned tailgate party with live music and street food in an open quad lined by restaurants and bars, including Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. When Amy and Jordan went their own way, Julie and I headed to my buddy's place, which was packed.

This made the fourth Margaritaville we've visited, following New Orleans, Jamaica's Ocho Rios and Key West, and despite being nowhere near the ocean, this was undoubtedly the largest and had the most elaborately designed interior, featuring full scale wooden boats with seats and tables, palapas and a seaplane hanging from the sky. I noticed the map painted on the ceiling included the island of Los Angeles sitting in the ocean north of Baja and east of the coastal city of Las Vegas.

After a beer, we headed to the stadium, where we bought hotdogs and a huge Diet Coke on the way to our seats.  We found Amy and Jordan waiting. At the corner of the endzone and a couple of decks up, we had a great view of the movement on the field. We couldn't see the players sweat, but we could watch the game unfold.

If you happened to see the game, you know it was a rather onesided affair, with UConn never really threatening to overtake the Sooners. Our section was on the UConn half of the field, but a lot of red-shirted Okies had taken advantage of the available seats, including one guy in a red Snuggie who was either funny or obnoxious, depending on how you looked at him. One other Oklahoma supporter, a shaved headed guy who must have topped 300 pounds but seemed quite drunk from the outset, staggered up and down the steps a few times for beers until he missed a step once and smacked his head hard.  He got to his feet and staggered away, but he never came back.  If nothing else, it seemed UConn male fans were less inebriated and their female fans more attractive.  Go Huskies!

From the opening kick off, the Huskies looked like they were just happy that someone had asked them to go to the dance. They seemed to forget the necessary steps. On the second play from scrimmage, their running back gained six but ran out of bounds before being hit. Had he dived forward, he might have made the first down. Third and less than a yard, Oklahoma stacked up the line and stopped UConn, something repeated on several plays over the course of the game which could have made a difference.

A kickoff return for a touchdown and an interception for a touchdown kept UConn in the game, and they showed flashes of both offense and defense throughout the game, but too often they failed on third or fourth and one, and then gave up big gainers when it seemed like the Sooners's aggressive offense might be pinned down.

The highlight of the game for me, as a former high school band parent, was UConn's halftime show, which was on an Irish theme. I knew trombonist Jay would have been thrilled that UConn played "Devil's Dance Floor," a song by one of his favorite bands, Flogging Molly.

We all enjoyed the game despite the loss. We yelled for them to go for it rather than settle for a field goal, and lamented that they were unable to gain six inches for a first down. We cheered for everything that went right, and sighed when something went wrong. We high fived touchdowns and enjoyed the food.

Looking at the scoreboard as we munched the Tostitos we found in bags at our seats, it occurred to me that this really was the perfect bowl game for us to attend, as we had eaten a lot of Frito Lay products over the course of our lives, and the sponsor was Tostitos. Lest I miss mentioning this, as you may realize, University of Phoenix doesn't have a football team. The reality of that only sank in for me when it was pointed out by my brother-in-law Brooks. The stadium is sponsored by the college which may have a "campus" in an office building near you, no matter where you live, just like the San Diego Chargers play in a stadium sponsored by Qualcomm.

That night, we stayed at a terrific Marriott Residence Inn just a short walk from the stadium.  It cost more than staying a few miles away, but I highly recommend it if you are attending a game there.  Not needing to contend with traffic or jockeying in the parking lot is worth a lot, plus it has free parking at the hotel.  The interior is beautiful, with a stainless steel-applianced kitchenette to make longer stays comfortable.  Our only regret was that we didn't have more time to enjoy the hotel before it was time to head home.  The combination of hotel and stadium complex make this a great place to take a road trip to watch football.