Whew, what a game! I was excited to see the triple option ran well, but I didn’t know that it was going to be ran to the tune of 542 yards! It was “Black Out” night and from what I saw online it was a pretty hyped up game. Through the first quarter I could tell pretty quickly that it was going to be crazy game.

I was laughing to myself when I saw the story about Paul Johnson come out and how he despises Louisville’s defensive coordinator. Check that story out here. It’s a good one.

If you want, check out the gaudy box score here. I can’t stop looking at it and chuckling to myself due to the back story. Enough with that stuff, I am going to bring you an inside look at what I saw and did during the game. Hopefully this is a different perspective and one that you’ll enjoy!

Here was my view as I was walking into the stadium. I received a parking pass for Lot A, which is a public parking lot. There were a ton of tailgaters and I arrived about 45 minutes until kick. I left Crawfordsville, Indiana at 3PM thinking that I would arrive about an hour with change before kick, but traffic threw a wrench into those plans. But nonetheless, I was here and ready to go.

I went to Gate 7 to pick up my credential and I was into the stadium and headed up to the press box to grab something to eat before the game and wander around. These were the first pictures that I took in the press box from where I was sitting.

After taking these pictures I decided to go and grab some food. They had a salad bar, a pasta bar and a drink station that had Pepsi products. Later in the game, they sat out popcorn and cookies. Here are some of those pictures.

Along the back of the press section, they had pictures of players who made it to the NFL from Louisville. Those were cool to see.

Soon after taking these pictures the game started so I was off to my seat. At the half I walked to the front of the press box and went out onto the balcony that media members were allowed to use. There were a few cameras out there and just some random people standing about. I took a few pictures from this spot. One of the pictures is on the walkway. To the right you can see the press box where I had come from. The stairs were the ones that I used to get down there.

It was a pretty long halftime so I went down to the concourse and decided to walk around a little. Over to my right there were a ton of people standing all night long and I wanted to see for myself what that was all about. There were a ton of beer vendors there and everyone was just having a great time. The press box was on the shorter side of the field and has a white roof. I took a few pictures as I walked around and then before I headed back to the press box, I stopped on the suite level and took some pictures from the balcony/walkway to the press box.

After the game was over I took a few random pictures of the press box area where I was. The first is the label that they sat out for me. The second was a view of what was directly behind me. The tables are there so that media members could sit and eat and do work if they wished. Then a picture of the entire media seating and a close up of the tables and food spot. The last picture is of the suite, but empty so you can see a little more.

I then ventured out to take a TON of pictures of the stadium from a ton of different angles. I love looking at pictures of stadiums and this was really fun kind of just walking through an empty stadium with the ability to take pictures of whatever I wanted.

You can see the entrances to the seating from the concourse. Below is what they looked like up close and the next picture is what they looked like as you were getting ready to walk through. The last picture is right outside the tunnels. I have never seen gravel in a stadium, I wonder why its there?

I figured most people were cleared out of the suite area so I walked back up and stuck my head in a few suites that had doors open. I asked a cleaning lady if it was okay I took pictures of them from the hallway and she said it was. Here are a few of the suites as well as the suite label for the Papa John’s suite which I thought was hilarious.

I felt like I should start heading out so I took one more lap around the concourse and they were replaying the press conferences on the video board. I took a few pictures of the screen, a picture of the Johnny Unitas statue and a picture of the area where everyone was drinking beer earlier, which had cleared out greatly.

AS I was leaving I found a few signs that I thought were good pictures. Some stadium information and some cheap beer. Like, dirt cheap. Then two more pictures as I was heading out the gate.

I saw the “Cardinal Walk” where fans come into the stadium from all the tailgating areas. So I had to go over there and take a few pictures. That was a really cool thing to see. I would assume it would give people goosebumps to walk under before a big game. The first picture is right after you walk out of the tunnel and then the following are pictures as I work my way to the parking lot.

To cap my night, one final picture of the stadium from my car and a picture of the stadium and a picture of the final stats. The press were able to log on and follow along with real time stats a few minutes ahead of the ESPN broadcast.

And with that, I left for Indianapolis. I had a 7:30AM wake up call to get over to Cincinnati to cover their homecoming game. Look for that tomorrow. I had a ton of fun doing this. If there is anything I can do better, let me know. Share this article, it would mean a TON to me. If you want to get your comments to me faster, my DM’s/mentions are open on Twitter (@masonhasher). I want to thank Reddit CFB for letting me do this and u/Honestly_ for letting me get into his good graces and taking a chance. I met some really cool people, turned some people onto Reddit, and hopefully gave you a closer look at Cardinal Stadium.

Below is my album of all the pictures that I took on the day as I could not fit them all in here. One change in pictures that I am going to make going forward is only taking horizontal pictures. The vertical pictures seem wonky. If you have any suggestions as to how I could better provide these pictures let me know! Otherwise, I am going to stick them in here like this again, but using horizontal images only.

Here is the complete gallery of pictures.

Be on the lookout for Tulane vs. Cincinnati tomorrow night!