Julian Hayes' Texas Bowl Journal
Dec 27 | Football
Rutgers freshman wide receiver Julian Hayes chronicles the Scarlet Knights' trip to the Texas Bowl, reporting each day on the team's daily activities in Houston leading up the inaugural Texas Bowl vs. Kansas State on Dec. 28 at Reliant Stadium.
Today was a real focused day with it being the eve of gameday. We had a 9 a.m. wake-up call this morning and then 9:30 a.m. breakfast. After that we went right into meetings.
I got a little time to relax late in the morning before a group of about 15 of us went to the DePelchin Children's Center. We met with a bunch of the kids there and signed autographs and took photos with them. It was fun. There were some real funny kids there. Chris Paul-Etienne had the children there sign autographs for him. It was nice because you really got to interact with the children. They showed us some of their dance moves and everyone had a great time.
When we got back from that, we walked into our hotel and there was nothing but red everywhere. All the families and fans have packed our hotel creating a great Rutgers atmosphere. The hotel staff has been good to us all week. The only bad thing with all the people around was the elevators took a lot longer today. I ended up walking up 14 flights of stairs, it was much easier.
We headed out in the afternoon to Reliant Stadium for our final walk-through before the game. It was much different then the other day when we went to the Texans-Colts game because we were actually on the field. They had it all painted for the game. The Rutgers end zone looked nice. The first thing I noticed was the roof was open. I didn't know they could open the roof. It was cool with the roof open but they said they aren't sure whether it will be or not for the game. We took a team photo when we first walked in and then got to workout a little bit on the field.
From Reliant Stadium, we traveled back to downtown where they hosted a Rutgers pep rally in a park right in downtown Houston. When we pulled up, all you could see was red. They had music and everything. The place went nuts when we walked in. It was really cool to see all these Rutgers fans in Houston. Eric Foster got them all going with his famous chants before we left to go back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel, there were R's everywhere on the sidewalk. It was cool to see. We went straight into our team dinner when we walked back in to the hotel.
When we got back to our room, we had another bowl gift on our beds. Today we got Texas Bowl watches and a belt buckle. The watch was in a circular package and my roommate Shamar Graves thought it was hair grease. The watches were really cool though and the belt buckle was unique.
I relaxed for a little bit before a team meeting later in the evening. I picked up a snack later on and headed back to my room for the night. It was lights out early tonight and a focused day throughout.
The game is finally here tomorrow. This is my last journal entry for the Texas Bowl. I hope you enjoyed reading about all our activities in Houston. I have enjoyed everything and sharing the happenings with everyone. The whole trip has been fun. It took my mind off missing Christmas with my family.
If you are not here in Houston with us, make sure to watch the game tomorrow night and cheer us on.
Go Rutgers!
-Julian #18
