The time I woke up for opening season game day to find out I went to game day before.

Virginia-Auburn game 1998. It was the opening game of the season. We all know that feeling of opening game day. The long wait in the off-season. The expectations and anticipation over the never ending summer. Virginia was our opening opponent. I was sure we’d win, it was just a matter of how much. I just wanted us to pad the score and stats so we’d make headway with the national media. The morning of game day, to my horror I awoke in a deshelved state. I was on a mattress in my fraternity house, broken glass and blood was on the floor and I was de-panted. To further my horror I noticed it was only 1 hour to game time. PANIC....would I miss game day? No time to pre-party? I rushed into the hallway of the fraternity house and ran across an apparent straggler. I said “has everyone left already?!”....I received a puzzled and listless confused expression. “The game...aren’t you going?”...it was at that time the straggler understood me. He told me the game had happened the day before. That I had actually attended the game with a date. That my date cried as I slept in vomit and urine. That a concerned state trooper asked about my well being and was told “I was napping”. That not only had auburn lost but that we failed to score. 19-0. I can’t explain to you the feeling of being in complete denial only to have the memories flood back. I’ve never taken an opening season loss so hard...and never will again quite frankly. These AD’s that schedule these ridiculous out of conference games for the opening game bear the brunt of the responsibility. Incompetent scheduling.