So, last weekend at Sports Authority Field, the University of Colorado lost to Colorado State University.  Going into todays game at Folsom Field against Sacramento State, I was expecting to see the PAC-12 wanting blood.  It was the first time I had stepped foot on a college football field in almost 10 years.  I was coming off a good Rapids game on Wednesday, finally happy that it looked like my 7D focusing issues were over, but this was a tough game for me, and it started off not being able to find my parking spot.  Pulled into the parking area, ask the attendant where lot 204 was, and he said around the corner, nope, 205, ok, after doing three U-Turns, I finally found it, and grabbed my gear and headed to the stadium, which I did not have a clue which way to go.  Finally found the media entrance, and a nice CU Football employee took me to the media room where I picked up my PAC-12 vest and sideline pass.  This is where things started to go wrong for me.  There was food in the media room, and so I had an hour before the game, so I dove right in….hamburgers were not cooked through, and the hotdogs were barely warm.  But there was ice for the soda fountain (At the Great Alaska Shootout, we stopped getting ice after UW won in 2004).  I head down to the field, going through the Field House, and fight my way through the crowd.  I find a perfect spot to shoot from, no one in front of me (No PAC-12 sound or camera guys, no one) start setting my camera settings up and a guy comes over and says I have to move.  Huh?  Oh, Ralphie the Buffalo is going to run over me if I stay here….So I relocate over to the end of the field, behind the end zone, right next to the Sacramento State cheerleaders.  Doesn’t sound too bad, right?  Still no one in front of me, until two cops come over and stand right in front of me, I shift a little to get a view of the field, and here come the officials, standing right in front of me, I had no clear view of the buffalo coming out of its pen.  I really wanted a shot of the buffalo and the CU flag running behind it.  No go..I ended up with a shot of Ralphie running to his trailer.

Please head to my take of this game on the Cal Sports Media site.  You will have to log in (login info at the top of the Cal Sport page) and look for “NCAA Football 2012:Sacramento State vs Colorado SEP 08”

So, I got a couple shots of Ralphie, not the shots I wanted, but thats ok.  But then I realized I was hot.  Crap.  I forgot sunblock.  At least I stuffed my CamelBak with ice, but no sun block…and I was now shooting into the sun.  Great.  I went back to some focusing issues shooting into the sun, but I am pretty sure they were my fault.  I will do some more testing later.  Anyway, CU was going away from me, and had the ball to start the game.  I could have worked my way over to the gate and run down to the other end zone, but I would have missed a lot of the first quarter because I was pretty well locked into where I was, and then, here comes the PAC-12 sound guy, with that big disc thing, and the PAC-12 Network official (the one that calls the media timeouts.  So, I was kind of locked in, with 14 points being scored by CU in the first quarter.

Finally after giving up 14 points, Sacramento State started to work their way towards me.  And it was worth it, kind of..

While they were working their way towards me, the Buffs were playing pretty good defense.  And then it started to fall apart for Colorado.  Sacrament State started to work their way down the field and finally got on the board with a touchdown pass bringing the first quarter to a close with the Buffaloes leading 14-7.

Then the teams switched halves, and CU was coming towards me, but I could not get a clean shot of their only touchdown in the second quarter.  But, Sacramento, now going away from me, would tac on 17 points in the 2nd quarter, taking a 24 to 21 lead over the Buffs into the locker room at the half.

At half time, I headed up to the media room to cool down.  By this time, I was sunburned, my ice had melted in my CamelBak, and I was frustrated.  I downloaded my first half shots and headed back down, but this time I went to the other side of the field, where all the scoring was in the first half.  That was a mistake.  All the second half scoring was at the other end of the field.  A touchdown from CU (giving them a 28 to 24 lead after 3) and hard defense kept Sacramento off the board in the third quarter, but in the fourth, the Buffs could not get on the board at all.

Sacramento State was able to hit a 31 yard field goal to trail by 1 point while I was burning up at the other end of the field.  Then, after a bunch of timeouts, and the clock down to 1 second left in the fourth, Sacramento hit a 30 yard field goal to win the game 30 to 28.

One nice thing that happened in the second half, during a TV time out, I had the cheerleaders stand right in front of me….

So, I head home, sun burned, my CamelBak now filled with hot water, and I start to edit my photos for Cal Sport Media, and I turn on the UW Huskies and LSU game, to watch my Dawgs fall to the number three team in the country, 41-3.  Yes, 9 of the 12 Pac-12 teams won, but 41-3?  Really, come on Huskies….

Photos from this game are available for MEDIA USE ONLY through Cal Sport Media