UTES TAKE THE BIG HOUSE!!!!

Caution: This post was written by Jake Johnsen. As such, be prepared for a lot of Ute talk as this entire post is about my trip to Chicago and The BIG HOUSE in Michigan

As many of you know due to my wifes incessant reminders, I love college football, particularly the Utah Utes. Well this past weekend I got to take a dream sports trip to watch my Utes invade Michigan Stadium and rip a victory from their grimy little hands! We decided to go through Chicago so we could go see a Cubs game. I have always wanted to go to historic Wrigley Field to see a game there. So my father, brothers Jason, Josh, Jonas and myself took this trip. I know what you're thinking: "That's a lot of man beef in one tiny mid size SUV"... And if thats what you were thinking, you are spot on. We had a Jeep Commander with a 3rd row, which was developed to fit a small teenage girl, not one of us, very sizeable men indeed. It was actually quite hilarious to watch each of us take a turn cramming our fat butts back there. It was like watching a grizzly bear curl up inside a honey pot. Anyway, we made it through. 1st thing we did was go to the Sears Tower. Here is a picture of myself on top of said tower.





As you can see in the background right over my right shoulder is Soldier Field, where Da Bears play. I love stadiums if you cant tell. In fact I have a top ten list of stadiums I have to visit before I die. Coincidentailly Wrigley Field AND The Big House were both on my top ten list.

Here we are at Wrigley.





It is such an awesome and historic place. It is crazy because its in the middle of this residential neighborhood. You are driving through a regular old neighborhood with houses and apartment complexes and then BOOM, there it is. It is amazing. As soon as it appeared out of nowhere I almost started to cry. Yes I am a man. I can admit when I get emotional. Last time I cried, and I mean had a good hard cry, let it all out, was when Utah lost to Kentucky in the 1998 Final Four. So it had been a while. Blasted stadiums do this to me all the time.

Freakin Wrigley Field, that’s all I gotta say. In this pic you can see the famous ivy walls behind me.

After said Cubs game, we went and got some authentic Chicago Pizza at Ginos East. It was delish.

Now, the real reason for this trip. All this cute baseball stuff was neat and fun, but this was all about football. A real mans game. I have always wanted to go to the Big House. We were so excited that we got there several hours early and waited for the gates to open. Once they did, my fat little brother and I sprinted to the top of the stairs and I was the first person inside the stadium. The very 1st one. My brother was 2nd, sucka.





I am sure it was quite a site, two large rotund fellas motoring up the steps and into the stadium. I am sure we looked like a couple of kool aid men going at it. Good times.

The whole Big House experience was awesome. 108,000 people crammed in there was a cool thing. My beloved Utes played well, especially in the 1st half where the dominated these boys from the Big 10 outgaining them nearly 3 to 1 in total yards. 2nd half, well that’s another story. Michigan tightened up its D and held us to only a field goal. But we still came out of there with a win. On our march to our 2nd Fiesta Bowl in 4 years we took care of business. It was a fun trip and Im gald we won.


PS BYU sucks and I hate them