we had a great time.  Have been to the LSU game in BR many times before...at least a half dozen times, maybe more...I wouldn't let some of the negative comments below dissuade you if you've never been. As they say, New Orleans makes its own gravy and that sort of goes for LSU too...it's unique in all of college football and is worth experiencing...just like for so many SEC schools, LSU football is religion, Mardi Gras meets college football...it's tiger striped pants and purple pimp hats with a gold plume...over the top, a circus, a show.  It's a total spectacle. 

I read some of the LSU fans "review" of Gainesville on their last visit...many were complimentary of the noise level in The Swamp but they had little nice to say about the tailgating scene.  The difference is that the party in Louisiana is encouraged by the authorities...they're used to giving a huge bash to the world every year (Mardi Gras) and government officials are a part of it...media outlets are in on it as well encouraging people to get there hours early...official state police crowd estimates by helicopter (a record 180,000 people estimated to be on campus for the Florida game) are widely reported...we spent the hours before the game over near the Maravich Center where a fun band "Cowboy Mouth" (they commented on how lame the crowd was at their recent Tallahassee show which cracked me up) revved the crowd...nearby they loaded up the cage with Mike the Tiger, cajun food was served up in mass quantities like the fair and thousands gathered for the team's arrival and for the band coming down the hill...it's a great scene and though I'm way young, has the unmistakable feel of a bygone era...you could almost imagine Heuy P. Long leading the parade into Tiger Stadium.  I loved it.

The Tiger Bait chant gets old and it's obviously an attempt to intimidate the opponent...it's sort of like Gator Bait, but it's Tiger Bait, right?  LOL It's been celebrated in Sports Illustrated (I think it was on a USC visit when fans showed up to intimidate the team buses, hell they did that two years ago to the Gator team bus according to the papers)....it doesn't bother me except the drunks that get up near your face.  We had some of that but not that big a deal...young and drunk are usually accompanied by stupid, right?  Some folks think clapping the gator jaws together is a similar attempt at intimidation...no big deal to me at least...

The atmosphere in Tiger Stadium was electric but if I was to compare it to the Swamp...no staying power...it's as if they got gassed...the noise didn't last...now their offense probably had a lot to do with it but it wasn't like they were willing the team to victory...I've seen that in The Swamp and it's impressive when it happens...a crowd refusing to lose seemingly transferring that energy to the team on the field...it's like after 12 hours of partying and the initial whooping and shouting, they were ready to call it a night.  Again, it's quite the spectacle....the on field fireworks shrouded the field in darkness for a bit and then the it was time for kickoff...the LSU fans' "review" of Gville seemed to comment a lot about piped in music, but that must be the way it's headed everywhere because between "Baton Rouge"..."Louisiana Saturday Night"..."Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" "Jump Around" and all the typical Ozzy/ ACDC numbers...they did the same thing...I'd say even more.

We found a lot of the fans to be quite cordial...some rolled down their windows on the highway asking about Tebow (one guy said Tebow was a good man in their household) some wished us a safe trip home...some hopeful "see you in Atlanta"'s; of course, heaven help you if you had to wade through a bunch of drunks getting back to your car...we got out fine....not too long a wait...went over the Mississippi wrongly but turned it back around...Louisiana roads seem darker than most other places, why is that?....lol...one last look....Huey Long's capital building lit...the Mighty Mississippi River...the lights of Tiger Stadium still on and a distant petrol plant flame burning off noxious fumes underlighting the low lying clouds...we'll be back in two years Lord willing...