So, this blog has quickly become an update on the sporting events I’ve attended in the past week – mostly because that’s what I’ve been able to arrange my free time around.  Saturdays in September mean afternoons in Manhattan.

This past Saturday was an interesting one, indeed.  When we left Kansas City around 8:00am, we had noted that there was a 40% chance for rain all day.  We grabbed the new KSU ponchos we purchased several months ago – and hoped we wouldn’t need them.  As we passed Topeka on the interstate, the skies began to look very ominous – yep, rain was definitely ahead of us.  A quick look, however, on the radar app on my iPhone showed the activity was all north of Manhattan.  Maybe we’d get out of this without getting wet.

The temperature was great – 55 degrees – perfect football weather.  6 plays (and just barely 3 minutes) into the game, it was suspended due to lightning in the area.  The fans were instructed to leave the stands – we quickly headed up the stairs to a covered area at the top of our section.

The skies began to look very weird.  The picture above was posted on Facebook by a friend – that’s really what it looked like.  Here’s the picture I took from the area we were standing:

We finally scored a field goal halfway through the 3rd quarter.  Finally something to cheer, but still losing.  This was supposed to be the game that took us to 4-0 at the start of the season.  Linda commented that it was our just reward for the announcers commenting continuously about going 4-and-oh!

The 4th quarter provided enough drama to make up for the lackluster first 3 quarters.  A few long passes, a touchdown, field goal (and a missed field goal by UCF) got us back in the game.  With only several minutes left, we were down by 3 – needing a field goal to tie.  With some good ol’-fashioned nose-to-the-grindstone football playing, the Wildcats marched all the way down field and scored the winning touchdown with just over 20 seconds left.

The UCF quarterback was awesome – reminding me a lot of Michael Bishop and the other KSU quarterbacks of old that were able to pass and run.  I’m glad we were able to finish with more points at the end of the game – our offense and defense didn’t match at all.

Here’s hoping we play a WHOLE LOT better on October 7 when we host Nebraska University for a Thursday night ESPN game – the last time we play Nebraska as a Big XII opponent.