Diary of an SEC Road Trip

by Skip Anderson

For the football teams in the NCAA, at least five of the 11 regular season games take place at stadiums other than their own. For the players and coaches, such road games can be a distraction from preparing for the game. For the support staff who plan the trips for the Vanderbilt Commodores, getting 70 players, 11 coaches, trainers, cheerleaders, student managers, media liaisons and radio broadcast crew to the hotel, fed, to the game and back again can be a Herculean task. Earlier this month, the Commodores traveled to Birmingham, Ala., for their first away game of the season.

On the Road -- Friday, 2:15 p.m.

Wearing matching black-and-gray warm-up gear, the players boarded four busses along with their coaches. With linemen as big as 6 foot, 7 inches and 332 pounds, the 70 players are afforded room to stretch out. For the 38 people on the fifth bus, called the "catch all" by longtime football secretary Edwyna Griscom, stretching out is not a priority.

After arriving at the hotel, the players and coaches spent the remainder of the evening in team meetings and meals. The players were fed twice prior to mandatory lights out at 11 p.m.

Pre-game -- Saturday, 7 a.m.

The players were up by 7 a.m. Some went to get ankles and wrists taped. Others joined head coach Robert "Woody" Widenhofer in a hotel conference room for a voluntary chapel service at 7:15, conducted by Lance Brown, a volunteer Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative authorized to work with students by the Vanderbilt Chaplain's Office.

"Before you go, hug a couple of people," instructed Brown.

As the players ate breakfast, Luke Wyatt, the team equipment manager, loaded a rental truck with case after case of Gatorade and audio/video equipment for taping the game. The truck is the same one that, on Thursday, Wyatt and his staff loaded the players' pads, uniforms and shoes and drove to Birmingham. The truck was unloaded into the stadium's visiting team locker room Friday morning, where a private security officer stayed with the equipment until the team arrived the next day.

The players arrived at Legion Field shortly after 9 a.m. to find their uniforms, pads, helmets and other gear in their personalized locker space. As usual, their locker assignments were determined numerically by their jersey numbers. While the players spent the next hour suiting up, a flurry of activity was taking place around the stadium.

In the press box, Joe Fisher, the "Voice of the Commodores," reviewed pre-game information from the radio broadcast booth as the technical crew established the broadcast signal. Just outside the press box on a narrow ledge high above the spectator seats, Chad Thompson, a senior majoring in communications, set up a video camera to tape the game for the coaching staff. Under the direction of Rick Dixon, video coordinator, Thompson and two other students tape each game. In accordance to NCAA rules, copies of the tapes must be on the first flight Sunday morning to the next opponent.

On the field, two audio technicians set up the coaches' communication headsets as well as the telephones used by the coaches in the press box area to speak with the players during the game.

The Game -- Saturday, 11:28 a.m.

Widenhofer offered words of encouragement in the locker room before dispatching the team to the field. The players exited beneath the word "WIN," which someone had spelled out with masking tape above the door.

Seconds later, sophomore cornerback Rushen Jones hurried back into the locker room, pointing to the helmet on his head. No words were exchanged as an equipment manager inserted a pump needle into the top of the helmet and inflated the protective lining to Jones' satisfaction.

During the game, student managers patrolled the sidelines with paper cups full of Gatorade and water.

"The flavor is arbitrary," said senior Rob Trimble. "But the managers don't really like the purple [Gatorade], because it stains our fingers when we dip the cups."

Trimble and his peers also provide support to head trainer Tom Bossung and his eight assistants, five of whom traveled to the game. It is Bossung who evaluates injured players and decides whether or not to allow them to reenter the game.

Down by three points at halftime, the team was divided by function: defense to one end of the locker room, offense to the other. The coaches used this time to relate adjustments to their strategies to the players. The jargon is unintelligible to the layman.

"Pass 38, straight back to the H."

"Just like we ran it, 38-9 slant, but this time we're going to flip it around, re-flip the wing, come off the 137 trap..."

Players with bumps, cuts or bruises sought medical attention from the trainers.

"Where's Molly?" said a player in search of an ice pack. Molly Malone is one of five female trainers on staff.

"A lot of these guys won't tell you if they're hurt," she said. "So we spend a lot of time carefully watching them on the field."

With six minutes before the start of the second half, Coach Woody made clear what he expected from the team. With heads down and arms up, the team huddled around Widenhofer.

"1-2-3 Win!"

With that, they stormed out of the locker room.

As the game clock wound down, droves of security officers entered the field and stood between the fences and the playing surface. In the tunnel leading to the locker room, players tossed their helmets into two large bins on wheels. Their uniforms went into large plastic cans partially filled with liquid stain remover where they would soak during transit. Widenhofer addressed the team, identifying areas he expects improvement before next week's game against Ole Miss.

"We're going to have a good football team before this is all over with," he said. "We have eight games left, and one bowl game."

Post-game -- Saturday, 2:30 p.m.

Photo by Neil Brake
The Commodore football team travels with coaches, trainers, cheerleaders and support staff for road games.

As players gave interviews and showered, Widenhofer held a post-game press conference. Equipment managers stacked shoulder pads and packed cleats into individual compartments of a 5-foot-tall hinged box. Managers were on the field packing the coach's communication hardware and loading up the first aid and equipment-repair gear.

The players, coaches, cheerleaders and staff were each handed a brown bag lunch and a drink as they boarded the bus. With the help of the police escort, the caravan was on I-65 bound for Nashville in little more than one hour after the end of the game.

Back in Nashville, the team went their separate ways until 3 p.m. Sunday, when they reconvened to go over the game tape and begin preparation for their next opponent, the University of Mississippi Rebels.

Gridiron Trivia
* The team observes a mandatory lights out rule at 11 p.m. the night before a game.
* Media relations personnel update real-time game information to the University's Web site from the press box.
* Officials select eight balls to use during the game from each team's practice bag and mark them with a colored pen. The balls are identical, except each team has its respective logo branded into the leather. Brand new balls are rarely, if ever, used in game.
* The Alabama State Police provide an escort for the caravan from the Alabama border to the hotel in Birmingham, to the game on Saturday and back to the state line following the game. This tradition dates back to the days of legendary Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.
-- Skip Anderson