SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Red skies in the morning, writers’ warning. The sunrise over Camelback Mountain was beautiful Friday morning – a bright array of red and yellow splitting the two-humped mountains just to the south of where UConn coach Randy Edsall and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops had their press conferences. It’s the final day of regular access to the coaches, who will now spend the rest of the afternoon with their teams at University of Phoenix Stadium for walk-throughs before the players are left to their own devices on New Years’ Eve.
It’s been a long week in Arizona, no doubt punctuated early by the travel woes. It will only get tougher the next two days. It will be an early morning Saturday with the festivities planned all day, including a story we’ll be working on regarding UConn fans who are tailgating. If you have any plans for the game – or a free burger or two to offer – send us an e-mail and we’ll try to make it out to where you are.
Then it’s the game itself – the reason why many of you are reading this. With an 8:30 p.m. start back home, it can be difficult at times to work through a coherent series of thoughts and get it all wrapped together and sent in to appear in the paper the next morning. We’re frantically pounding away at our keyboards, racking our brains, trying to make some semblance of what’s going on. Sometimes you submit the story and you’re satisfied. Other times you want to pull your hair out at an inability to do justice to what you just saw. With this being undoubtedly the most important game ever for UConn, putting it in context is already quite the challenge.
I stopped by the team hotel last night to work on a story on the fans who were coming out for the game and talked to Tim Willman Sr., the father of the defensive tackle of the same name. He told a story of going out for breakfast earlier that morning and seeing a few Missouri fans who were leaving after Tuesday’s Insight Bowl. In past years, the fans may have scoffed at UConn. No longer, he said. “We’ve arrived.”
That’s been the prevailing attitude of many on the team the past couple of days. But it takes sustained excellence to truly matter, and whether or not UConn can do that is another issue. Coach Randy Edsall touched on that at his press conference this morning, saying that the players have worked hard to be rewarded to play at a game like this.
If only we’ll be able to write about it just as well.