Five hours north from LA.
Levi Stadium – beyond impressive, but for 1.3 billion it should be. Pretty much everyone parked in the biggest lot, Green Lot #1 and there was still plenty of space in that lot and also several others around the stadium so when the stadium sells out, there should be ample parking. There was also a Valley Transit light rail station virtually right in front of the stadium. The approach to the stadium had lots of handicapped parking and a little further from the doors, the corporate parking spots. The signs in front of the spots were all familiar dot com companies (Cisco, Sun Microsystems, etc.). The inside contained a really nice grass field. The seats rose on a steep angle and I bet when the place is full it is loud. The entire upper ring was not used for this game. It appeared even the seats low in the EZ were high enough off the field to provide decent sight lines. It did not appear to have a bad seat in the house. Two large score boards that were nothing special. I sat in the lower club seats that are between 30s on each sideline and allow access to the special clubs and food courts. The food court was cafeteria-style and had stations for grill, Mexican, pizza, vegan/veggie, salads, BBQ, sushi, packaged sandwiches, drink bar and a killer desert bar. The prices weren’t that bad, a burger cooked to order/fries/drink was $12. The food courts were on each side of an enclosed glass concourse between 30 yard lines that looked onto the field. You could get a table next to the glass and watch the game without going outdoors. Lots of bars to get drinks, the drink lines were nil. I can’t speak for the non-club areas, but I’m sure the concessions were nice there too. If all the club seats had been filled, the restroom capacity could be dicey at half since there were two restrooms for the lower club sections with only around 15 urinals each. I was in the VIP club section between 45s. I was told the VIP seats for 49er games require an $80,000 personal seat license per seat, which does not include the price of tickets. My only complaint was they did not display the stats anywhere during the game. If you are a stats junky, that was a major bummer.
Crowd – I perceived there were a few die hard UCLA fans, but they mostly seemed to be younger people who was there because it was “something to do”. I pegged the ratio at 60% us, 38% them, and 2% no affiliation. For instance, there was a couple with their kid a few rows down decked out in full Miami Hurricane gear, go figure. The UCLA folks got somewhat loud after the score to go 21-7, but were fairly quiet and uninspired most other times. It was 40 degrees at KO and the UCLA cheerleaders had tank tops and short skirts on. I thought that was ill-advised and they went in at 1st Q and put on warmups. Our 19K or so fans were decently loud the whole game. I suspect the 33K attendance may have been one of the smallest crowds NU has played for in a long time.
The game – I watched the tape twice since I got home and the broadcast does not convey even remotely the ass-kicking NU laid on the Bruins. Carter, Morgan and others were laying vicious downfield blocks on the DBs you couldn’t see on TV. On those runs that looked like 1-yard runs that turned into 5-yard runs, the pad-popping all up and down the line was impressive. It was obvious by the play, the body language and the general “feel” our guys came to play. UCLA played some spirited ball too, but I could just tell we wanted it more.
Riley stood off to the side like an inanimate Buddha for most of the first half, but starting with the ejection, he got spun up and had a couple outbursts after that. One was on the punt return when our guy on the ground got mugged and another was when we ran the reverse Tommy made a good block on and Riley wanted a hands to the face or a personal foul or something. Phillip is flat out nuts. He was raising his arms for crowd noise and firing up the players on the sideline. I couldn’t tell if Langs was on the sideline, I think he was upstairs. Cross appeared to get hurt near the goal line at the end of the half. He appeared to be hurting in the second half, which is why I suspect Ozigbo got more carries.
The officiating was bad all over, which is what you get I guess when you play in a bowl like this. Besides the obvious blown ejection and the missed facemask, there were a lot of other gaffs. When NU had it 3rd and 12 in the 3rd Q before we kicked the FG, TA threw to Moore who did not make the line to gain, but the official spotted the ball a yard past the first down. Good for us, but not right. There were several times the down marker didn’t have the correct down displayed and the ref had to go over and correct it. I know holding isn’t called anymore, but some of the UCLA holds were beyond ridiculous.
Trophy presentation – I hope five years from now “the Bridge Trophy” won’t be HCMR’s only claim to fame. Gerry returned to the field for the presentation. The guy who asked Riley and Armstrong questions at the trophy and MVP presentation was somewhat brutal: “Mike, you lost a lot of close games this year, were you worried you would lose this one at the end too?” Mike, you took over a new team and had some tough times this year, there was danger you could have lost the locker room?” “Tommy, you had some interceptions this year that may have cost games, how did you get ready mentally for this game?”
Overall impression – The players played hard and looked as if they were having a lot of fun. Even when down 21-7 I didn’t see any bickering or hung heads. The interaction of the staff and players on the sideline looked comfortable. Before this game I thought there might be a fair number of transfers after the season, but I don’t think so now, I think transfers will be minimal. Between the win, the way we won, the apparent good feeling around the team, and the way Collins/Riley handled Collins declaring, this was a great end to a disappointing season and it appears this is now Riley's team.
Levi Stadium – beyond impressive, but for 1.3 billion it should be. Pretty much everyone parked in the biggest lot, Green Lot #1 and there was still plenty of space in that lot and also several others around the stadium so when the stadium sells out, there should be ample parking. There was also a Valley Transit light rail station virtually right in front of the stadium. The approach to the stadium had lots of handicapped parking and a little further from the doors, the corporate parking spots. The signs in front of the spots were all familiar dot com companies (Cisco, Sun Microsystems, etc.). The inside contained a really nice grass field. The seats rose on a steep angle and I bet when the place is full it is loud. The entire upper ring was not used for this game. It appeared even the seats low in the EZ were high enough off the field to provide decent sight lines. It did not appear to have a bad seat in the house. Two large score boards that were nothing special. I sat in the lower club seats that are between 30s on each sideline and allow access to the special clubs and food courts. The food court was cafeteria-style and had stations for grill, Mexican, pizza, vegan/veggie, salads, BBQ, sushi, packaged sandwiches, drink bar and a killer desert bar. The prices weren’t that bad, a burger cooked to order/fries/drink was $12. The food courts were on each side of an enclosed glass concourse between 30 yard lines that looked onto the field. You could get a table next to the glass and watch the game without going outdoors. Lots of bars to get drinks, the drink lines were nil. I can’t speak for the non-club areas, but I’m sure the concessions were nice there too. If all the club seats had been filled, the restroom capacity could be dicey at half since there were two restrooms for the lower club sections with only around 15 urinals each. I was in the VIP club section between 45s. I was told the VIP seats for 49er games require an $80,000 personal seat license per seat, which does not include the price of tickets. My only complaint was they did not display the stats anywhere during the game. If you are a stats junky, that was a major bummer.
Crowd – I perceived there were a few die hard UCLA fans, but they mostly seemed to be younger people who was there because it was “something to do”. I pegged the ratio at 60% us, 38% them, and 2% no affiliation. For instance, there was a couple with their kid a few rows down decked out in full Miami Hurricane gear, go figure. The UCLA folks got somewhat loud after the score to go 21-7, but were fairly quiet and uninspired most other times. It was 40 degrees at KO and the UCLA cheerleaders had tank tops and short skirts on. I thought that was ill-advised and they went in at 1st Q and put on warmups. Our 19K or so fans were decently loud the whole game. I suspect the 33K attendance may have been one of the smallest crowds NU has played for in a long time.
The game – I watched the tape twice since I got home and the broadcast does not convey even remotely the ass-kicking NU laid on the Bruins. Carter, Morgan and others were laying vicious downfield blocks on the DBs you couldn’t see on TV. On those runs that looked like 1-yard runs that turned into 5-yard runs, the pad-popping all up and down the line was impressive. It was obvious by the play, the body language and the general “feel” our guys came to play. UCLA played some spirited ball too, but I could just tell we wanted it more.
Riley stood off to the side like an inanimate Buddha for most of the first half, but starting with the ejection, he got spun up and had a couple outbursts after that. One was on the punt return when our guy on the ground got mugged and another was when we ran the reverse Tommy made a good block on and Riley wanted a hands to the face or a personal foul or something. Phillip is flat out nuts. He was raising his arms for crowd noise and firing up the players on the sideline. I couldn’t tell if Langs was on the sideline, I think he was upstairs. Cross appeared to get hurt near the goal line at the end of the half. He appeared to be hurting in the second half, which is why I suspect Ozigbo got more carries.
The officiating was bad all over, which is what you get I guess when you play in a bowl like this. Besides the obvious blown ejection and the missed facemask, there were a lot of other gaffs. When NU had it 3rd and 12 in the 3rd Q before we kicked the FG, TA threw to Moore who did not make the line to gain, but the official spotted the ball a yard past the first down. Good for us, but not right. There were several times the down marker didn’t have the correct down displayed and the ref had to go over and correct it. I know holding isn’t called anymore, but some of the UCLA holds were beyond ridiculous.
Trophy presentation – I hope five years from now “the Bridge Trophy” won’t be HCMR’s only claim to fame. Gerry returned to the field for the presentation. The guy who asked Riley and Armstrong questions at the trophy and MVP presentation was somewhat brutal: “Mike, you lost a lot of close games this year, were you worried you would lose this one at the end too?” Mike, you took over a new team and had some tough times this year, there was danger you could have lost the locker room?” “Tommy, you had some interceptions this year that may have cost games, how did you get ready mentally for this game?”
Overall impression – The players played hard and looked as if they were having a lot of fun. Even when down 21-7 I didn’t see any bickering or hung heads. The interaction of the staff and players on the sideline looked comfortable. Before this game I thought there might be a fair number of transfers after the season, but I don’t think so now, I think transfers will be minimal. Between the win, the way we won, the apparent good feeling around the team, and the way Collins/Riley handled Collins declaring, this was a great end to a disappointing season and it appears this is now Riley's team.
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