Ohio State Upset

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you know that the most exciting moment of 2016 was when Grant Haley returned a blocked field goal 60 yards for a touchdown with 4:27 left on the clock, leading Penn State to upset Ohio State, the then no. 2 team in the nation.  If you were at the game, you know exactly how intense the atmosphere was and the resulting riots downtown.  Being in the band was no exception.

However, the weekend of October 22 wasn't just exciting for the band because we were playing Ohio State, but College Marching was coming to get the full Blue Band experience.

College Marching Bands (usually just called College Marching) is an online presence started by several Penn State grads that report on all things that have to do with college marching bands.  Over the years they have amassed over 100,000 followers, which was a huge opportunity for the Blue Band to get more exposure.  They broadcast all of our rehearsals live on their Facebook page and tweeted pictures of rehearsal so that people all over the world could experience a weekend with the Blue Band from the comfort of their own living rooms.  But, they would expose everything, including our mistakes.  And we knew that, which is why our pregame performance was the best of the season!

The College Marching guys arrived in University Park on Friday afternoon and stayed with us through the win on Saturday.  Broadcasting every single rehearsal to an audience of more than 100,000 people was about as intense as it sounds.  Not only that, but this was the game we performed our halftime show memorized.  Usually we don't memorize halftime shows, but we decided to perform the halftime show we were supposed to play during the Minnesota game that got rained out, and since we were already very familiar with the music and drill, we figured we'd take it up a notch and memorize it!  The Carnegie Show was also arguably the most difficult show of the season, not only because we memorized the music and drill in less than two weeks, but also because it was the most difficult to play.  We performed the Overture of 1812, which everyone knows, so it was imperative that we absolutely nailed it (which, if you check our videos on Facebook, you'll note that we did), or else the thousands of people following College Marching and the millions of people watching the game on prime time TV would know we messed up.

One great part about the Ohio State game was that it was a night game, so we got to sleep in!  But, although the sun was shining, it was quite the blustery day.  We put our "triangle tees" (the t-shirts the Blue Band gets every season) over our sweatshirts and jackets which made us look a little more stocky than usual, but hey, more intimidating, right?

L to R: Allison Ruman, Rachel Cooper, Celeste Watson-Martin

If anything will make you throw up from nerves, it's performing a marching band show in front of literally millions of people.  Most of the time I was way too nervous to even play.  I was just trying to make sure I went the right places at the right time.

The actual game was pretty intense, too.  In all honesty, no one was really expecting the team to win, but as the game neared its end and the score was still pretty tight, we all got a little more anxious.

Then, the play of the century happened.

4:27.  I still remember that moment.  Grant it, I probably know the least about football in the country, but when a play like that happened, even I knew it was a pretty big deal.  The energy in the stadium was just indescribable.  Everyone was screaming.  And when we won...truly the best moment of my life.  I remember seeing everyone storming the field and I was beside myself (partly because I knew it would take the better part of an hour before everyone cleared the field which meant we didn't have to perform a post-game show).

Storming of the field at the 2016 PSU vs. OSU game

And of course, variations of this photo was everyone's profile picture for the next several weeks:

L to R: Elise Grovanz, Allison Ruman , Rachel Neff, Luke Nugent

It's safe to say that everyone had the time of their lives at this game, and College Marching was so excited they had the inside scoop on this weekend.  Next year the game is played in Columbus, and there are rumors that the Blue Band will travel to that game, and you better believe the outcome will be exactly the same, if not better.

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