re: Let's talk about the volume of Kyle Field...

I've been to Death Valley for two games, the 1988 and 1992 games against A&M. '88 was a night game and '92 was a day game. First, the 1992 game was a big disappointment. Death Valley was an average big college stadium... nothing more.

The 1988 game was something else. We were surrounded by groups of drunk coonasses yelling "Tiger Bait" the entire walk from the car to the stadium. I was 16 years old and wondering just how drunk these people were (like, was I in physical danger).

I watched people carrying in huge coolers unchecked (which I realize no longer happens). The entire place reeked of Bourbon. We had the had questionable fortune of sitting in the end zone, directly below where the 2nd deck began. The fans above us were dumping drinks on us the entire time. And yes, it was very, very loud.

I grew up in Beaumont, TX, only 30 miles from Louisiana, and I loved LA. In high school, if we needed beer for a party, we would drive to Hebert's convenience store in Vinton, and stock up. Mr. Hebert would always greet us "How are things at Kelly High School, boys?"

What I don't know if your average coonass realizes is that that shite doesn't fly outside of Louisiana. The Baptists run Texas. If you are publicly intoxicated at Kyle Field, they will throw your arse in jail. If you dump your drink on someone at a game, they will throw your arse out of the stadium. Even if you're in maroon, the other Ags will show the cops who you are. If you're drunk when that happens, then you will spend the night in the drunk tank.

Kyle Field will never have that element of "What's going to happen when you get 80k people together (I haven't been to LSU post expansion), and they're all as drunk as humanly possible?" Frankly, I'm glad that it won't. If you go to a game at Kyle Field as a visiting fan and don't start shite, you will generally be treated very well. I think that's a good thing.

I remember a few years back. It's probably been close to ten years by now. Auburn played at LSU, and there were wide spread reports of the kinds of stuff that I experienced back in 1988. Skip Bertman issued an apology to Auburn and promised that things would change. I've often wondered if they have.

Oh, and I've been to the 1991 baseball regional and the 2004 baseball super regional at the old Alex Box, and it's nothing like football. LSU fans are some of the most gracious baseball people I've ever hung out with.