I'm still in Berkeley for another day (I've got a midnight flight tonight; hooray!), but here are my thoughts so far.
-Great college town. Beautiful campus. Good bars. Nice people. All of which I pretty much expected.
-Gorgeous stadium. It's basically a smaller, more scenic version of the Big House. Very impressed. But man, those rows are super-narrow. I'm 6"1' and I was struggling not to knee the people in front of me the entire game. Luckily, they were OSU fans, so they didn't mind. I know they've renovated it to make it safer in the event of an earthquake, but man, if that place ever needed evacuated, it would be an absolute mess.
-Holy shit, it never ceases to amazes me how well we travel. Scarlet and gray everywhere in Berkeley before the game, and the stadium was at
least 50/50, possibly more. Got a couple of a
Stadium O-H-I-Os going, which was fun. (I wish I could take credit for that Vine, but I can't.) Cal's student section tried unsuccessfully to drown us out, which was amusing.
-Cal's got a pretty good band, but I was astounded by how little they played during the game. Our band plays constantly, reacting to every significant play, as do most B1G marching bands. Are all Pac 12 bands this quiet? I can't imagine, since I've seen USC's, so I know they're not. Get into it, Cal Band.
-Oski is such a wonderful little weirdo. It's kind of hilarious to see him prowl the sidelines the entire game. I was hoping to see a bit of playful sparring between Brutus and Oski, but it never materialized.
-As for the game, most of what I could say has probably already been said. The D continues to be a huge concern, but since it was our first road game and Jared Goff is legitimately great (future NFLer, no question; maybe the Browns will draft him), I'm not going to freak out or anything. Cal is going to have a rotten season, obviously, but their O is definitely capable of pulling off an upset. I'd love to see them give Oregon a scare in a couple of weeks.
So all in all, a fun experience. Thanks, Berkeley!
