#23 Louisville

Louisville, KY

Cardinal Stadium September 17, 2017 Clemson 47 – Louisville 21 (ESPN Recap)

This trip became a reality purely due to Hurricane Irma keeping me on the road for an extended period of time. Spent the week going from Utah to SF to Chicago to NYC, and while in NYC decided to pull the trigger on flights and a ticket down to Kentucky to see Lamar.

When I landed on gameday, the Uber driver asked me if I had been to Louisville before. I answered no and he told me that I needed to go to a distillery, the Louisville Slugger factory, and eat BBQ in addition to attending the game. Considering I was going straight to hotel then tailgate and leaving on a morning flight, I told him I don’t think I was going to make it to all of those destinations.

I was hoping for a repeat of last year’s epic battle at Clemson between Lamar and Deshaun Watson, but unfortunately the Clemson defense had other plans. There were a few runs and a few throws that made the trip worth it, despite it not being a signature performance for #8. My favorite run came back on penalty (video below) which with his 64 yards he had, would have put him over 100 rushing. Still got to see the Heisman winner play live, which keeps the streak alive at three (with Marcus Mariota and Derrick Henry). I hope he repeats, but this game will hurt his chances.

Grabbed endzone seats after making some new friends drinking bud lite and playing cornhole in the parking lots of the stadium. Kelly Bryant did his thing on offense and I lost my small bet on the home team +3 by a mile. The cheerleaders and dancers were very attractive in the Ville. I’ll have to come back to drink whiskey, eat BBQ, and play with baseball bats another time.