Greetings from the beautiful Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. I just arrived at the hotel, a little more than 31 hours until Sunday’s Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl kickoff between the Kentucky Wildcats and Clemson Tigers.
Cam and I have been granted the fortunate privilege to blog Sunday’s game from LP Field, so I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and action from Sunday’s bowl game, UK’s fourth consecutive bowl appearance and third in Nashville in the last four years.
To be honest, not quite sure what to expect over the next two days. I’ll be headed over to LP Field soon for the official bowl news conference at 2 p.m. CT. Barring any unforseen problems with the Internet connection over there, we should have a live blog from Rich Brooks’ portion of the news conference.
As expected, there is a sea of blue in Nashville. Most fans are expected to stay downtown closer to the field, but the lobby at the Opryland Hotel was flooded with UK fans. The bell hop that lead me to my room said there are a lot of Clemson fans at the hotel but called them “rude.” His words, not mine.
The team is staying at the same hotel as us, but there will probably be little interaction with them from this point forward since we’re just a day away from game time. The team has been practicing down here since Wednesday and reportedly went to the Tennessee Titans game Friday night as kind of a Christmas present.
The actual hotel is nothing short of amazing. Beautiful in every sense of the word. The best way to describe the mammoth atrium and conservatory is an indoor jungle with a hint of New Orleans mixed into it. I don’t get blown away by sights very easily, but this place has certainly captured my attention.
My one warning if you ever stay here is don’t go alone — anywhere. This place is colossal. The desk assistance had to draw me a map just to show me where my room was.
Anyway, I need to put the rest of my stuff away before the news conference at 2 (3 p.m. ET). We’ll have more on the live blog once we get over there.
