Nerve Endings Firing Away

It has been almost a month and three games into the season; I hadn’t been inside the roaring Kyle Field at College Station. Sometimes voted as one of the best college football atmosphere on game day, Kyle Field inspires a sense of awe whether you are outside looking up toward its huge ramps or inside looking down in a daze from the third deck. Of course, it isn’t the biggest football stadium in the country, but it certainly can be the loudest. Ticket prices can be astronomically high especially for conference games but I was determined to go for a game before the season drew to a close. With a limited 6 home games this season, I bought 2 tickets for the first conference game against Baylor University. Now, this game was marked out as a revenge game since A&M surprisingly lost to an unranked Baylor last year at Waco. Thanks to a campus auction website, I was able to lay my hands on two student tickets until I realized that Ash didn’t go to TAMU. After unsuccessfully trying to sell them off and save myself $70, we just decided to try our luck.

Ash refused to palm off someone else’s ID to enter. Honestly, I wouldn’t risk it either.
Thankfully, we got a guest label attached to her ticket for an additional $30. Now, I know why football is such a money spinner in college. The plaza outside the stadium was teeming with Aggie fans and awash with maroon and white, the university’s colors. We managed to squeeze our way into the fast-filling stadium and find our place. We had pretty good seats; in the second deck near the 30-yard line — not too bad for a last-minute buy-out.

Those familiar with Texas A&M will know that this place is all about traditions. Everything that is done especially regards football has been done for time immemorial. The first tradition, students stand for the entire game! Ever since the 12th Man, E King Gill stood in readiness to replace his tiring teammates on the field in 1922, all Aggies stand for the games to show their solidarity with the team. But for us, standing for almost four hours in scorching sun in temperatures that rose to the high 90s was energy sapping by itself. Of course, the traditions do not end there. During Aggies offense, the crowd falls silent but as Aggies take defense, the stadium erupts in loud continuous screaming as if to distract the opponents. They continue screaming even as the clock stops when the ball is out of play or during a time-out. Once they say, the fans continued screaming during a time-out and the timeout lasted 7 long minutes. Of course, I too joined in but soon after I sensed my voice going hoarse, I let the fervent Aggie fans continue.

Aggies also have what no other college in the nation has, yell leaders. Five guys are enlisted each year to act as the yell leaders and they give the cues for the cheers so that everyone in the stadium sings or screams out the same cheer in unison. And they have quite a number of cheers. Yell leaders have special hand signals that they use to intimate what cheer is coming. The end result — almost 80,000 fans screaming the same challenge — Beat the hell outta Baylor. The effect can be deafening and one has to be in the stands to experience that. Heck, they even have Yell Practice to; practice their yell before the game. Usually they hold their yell practices the midnight before the game. Once out for a night stroll, Ash and I walked into the brightly lit stadium to see almost 10-20,000 Aggies practicing the yells.

The halftime had one of the best marching bands displays I have ever seen. I remember our school NCC drill practice. When the PT sir gave the command, Daayen Muud — half the school turn one way, half the other. It used to be a pathetic show of discipline. But the Fightin Texas Aggies Marching Band performed by the Corps of Cadets is somewhat of an experience. Perfect coordination and amazing march tunes makes you wonder how the hell they got it so perfect. The Baylor band, after doing their thing just stood there transfixed.

The game? Well, for all it was worth, the Ags did manage to sneak out a win in overtime. In my opinion, we hardly can claim to be TU’s chief rival if we continue to play this way. It was a game full of missed opportunities and Reggie McNeil, considered to be the top choices for the first round NFL picks next year performed below par. Two interceptions to a pathetic Baylor defense is no excuse. To our relief, the Baylor offense sucked pretty badly too as they repeatedly failed in the end zone and even failed to kick the field goals. This was by no means a revenge game. The Aggies have to lift their game a notch if they have plans of making a serious impression at the national level.

More pictures from the game can be seen here.