MEMPHIS -- Is it premature to say our Hogs own the Liberty Bowl? Um, yes. We've come through twice since 2010 and won both times, but there were those two stinkers in the 1980s. Hmm.
Notwithstanding, no fan base beats ours when we descend on Memphis. Arkansans trucked the Hernando de Soto bridge New Year's weekend to join brethren in the Bluffs, ballyhoo on Beale Street and promenade the Peabody. We called the Hogs inside Automatic Slim's and outside AutoZone Park. When it was all over but the football, we packed Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The overwhelming majority of the estimated 61,000 sported the cardinal red Jan. 2.
And what a beautiful day, more fall than winter by the numbers, about 50 degrees at kickoff, though there was a January bite in the air.
Some die-hard tailgaters arrived early and threw bags and grilled meat. Inside the stadium the toothiest tickets were the barbecue nachos (which, curiously, look so much more delicious than they taste), and corn dogs slathered with yellow mustard.
It was the kind of restive, festive atmosphere perfect for a hometown whuppin', and our hot Hogs, winners of six of their last seven, didn't disappoint.
So let us say it here first that next year, it's give us Liberty, or give us ... something farther south. New Orleans, maybe? Dallas?
-- Photos and story by Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 01/10/2016