The Best Weekend Ever

Mizzou celebrated its 99th homecoming last weekend but the weekend brought a lot more excitement than the normal Greek house decorations, and skits. For the first time ever ESPN's College Gameday visited Columbia. For years I have watched this popular pregame show religiously. As soon as I learned that Gameday was coming to Mizzou, I pleaded KOMU to let me cover it. Chris Gervino granted my wish. He Instructed me to do a package on the behind the scenes work of the show.

I could barely contain my excitement last Friday when I interviewed the entire Gameday crew. They answered my questions amazingly and are probably the best interview subjects I have worked with, especially compared to Gary Pinkel monotonous soundbites. I filmed the majority of my package on Friday and had nothing to shoot during the actual show. However, I woke up early on Saturday to watch the show from the press area. I arrived at 7:30 to the packed show and watched my second live College Gameday. Freshman year, when Mizzou battled Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship with the Tigers one win away from a birth in the national championship game., I drove to San Antonio and watched Gameday from the steps of the Alamo. However, this Gameday experience exceeded the first. I watched the majority of my favorite show the photo deck and watched as Lee Corso dawned the Oklahoma mascot a head. A decision he would later regret.

The best part of the experience was chatting with Chris Fowler. I have idolized Fowler because he lives my dream. He went from being a kid from Colorado with a dream to anchoring one of the most popular sports shows in the country. I asked him how he reached this level. He responded by encouraging me to make sure that I do not settle on my first job out of college. This experience can only be described as total awesomeness.

My great weekend continued when I covered the game itself against Oklahoma. The crowd was unlike anything I have ever seen. 71,000 people, shoulder to shoulder hungry for a win; hungry to end the years of faltering in big games, and faltering against Oklahoma.

The 71,00 fans cheered their Tigers as they pulled off the biggest upset in school history and if they conquer the Cornhuskers Saturday they will have a great chance of restoring the magic of that 2007 squad. The most challanging part of the weekend was not rejoicing when the Tigers won. I tried to contain my excitement but know I was grinning like I had just won something. Inside I jumped for joy and rushed into the center of the field to congratulate the players. However, I had to remain somewhat professional. The emotion I felt after that win and after that weekend is the way I wish I felt everyday when I wake up in the morning. I felt as good as anyone could possible feel. I had the best weekend ever.