In response to my question about Tailgate at Tuesday's media luncheon, David Cutcliffe recounted an experience he had at LSU when he was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. The vignette includes references to cattle prods and Kool-Aid--that is, you must read it. Wacky? Yes. Entertaining? You bet. We'll work on getting the audio clip up, but here's the transcribed excerpt:
I can tell you Tiger Stadium at LSU, it's got a first-come, first-serve student section. When you go in there, when I knew it was serious, was when I walked in... you ride on the bus about two hours and a half before the game. And you come out of the tunnel, and right as you come out of the tunnel, there's a big tiger in a cage. As soon as they see you, you're the head coach walking in, they take a cattle prod and they hit that tiger. That tiger hits that cage, and you jump pretty good when you're not really ready for it. I kind of learned, I was a veteran after a while. Then you go out and I look up at the stands, and the student section's drinking a lot of Kool-Aid, and they're partying. Then I look up there, and there I am up in the stands with them, in some kind of form, and I'm on fire. So there were a lot of people having fun in the stadium-now, I'm not asking them to drink lots of Kool-Aid in the stadium. But there's a lot that can go on in the stadium that's a lot of fun and a lot cleaner than what I'm hearing about Tailgate.
--by Ben Cohen
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