Here I sit in San Antonio International Airport, with a few thousand fellow Iowans, waiting to come home. The blueberry scone I'm eating is more like a slab of blueberry-flavored shoe leather. I guess that's the reason they have a sign at the city limits here saying "If you're here for the scones, you're a dope who shouldn't be here. Have a tamale instead."
I covered a lot of mediocre college football this season. Sometimes it happens. But the season-ending Alamo Bowl was a terrific game, packed with momentum shifts, great plays, curious plays, and plenty of reasons for fans of both sides to be pleased with their teams. In my job, that's all you can ask or want from a game.
I pretty much stayed off the Riverwalk for most of the last few days. That's where the thousands of migrating Hawkeyes gathered. I did hear that some Iowa fan forked over $500 in a piano bar to have the Iowa fight song and "In Heaven There Is No Beer" played over and over. And I believe it. Because as I was finishing a late-night meal on that Riverwalk Saturday, a group of eight Iowa fans paid their check and then one of them hollered "One last time!" And they sang "In Heaven There Is No Beer'' as they left the restaurant. After they left, the wait staff looked at each other and smiled, shaking their heads. I hope they got tipped well.
After Iowa got rubbed out at Minnesota in mid-November and both teams finished 6-6, Alamo Bowl CEO Derrick Fox told Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta that it didn't matter. If the Hawkeyes were still available when the Alamo made its pick, Iowa was coming to San Antonio. While Purdue took next to no fans to Orlando's Champs Sports Bowl and Minnesota didn't exactly pack the place at greater Phoenix's Insight Bowl, Iowa once again flooded its bowl location with money-spending travelers. What does that say?
What does it say when someone puts an inflatable Herky the Hawk on the balcony of their 22nd-floor hotel room in downtown San Antonio? What does it say when actor Matthew McConaghey, a Texas fan, shows up for the Longhorns' national-title game last season, but can't be bothered to attend the 'Horns appearance in the Alamo Bowl?
Excuse me, I just spotted Eva Longoria and have to go say hello. Happy New Year, and don't eat bad scones in 2007.