Is It September or November?

There was a noticeable difference in climate change when myself and the other 70 or so members of ETBU's football contingent stepped off the plane yesterday in Minneapolis. What had been a typical humid, muggy morning back in Texas just a couple of hours earlier had turned into a brisk, windy, cloudy and chilly midday up here in the land of 1,000 lakes.

Lunch followed at a nice little place just outside Minneapolis, Old World Pizza, where the business stayed open late after lunch to serve the Tigers, well, old-fashioned style pizza. You wouldn't think a place could serve up enough pizza and mozzerella to a bunch of large, hungry college football players, but we were in and out of the place with guts busting in about an hour. Hats off to Old World.

Then it was a two-hour bus ride to La Crosse, just across the southeast Minnesota border in Wisconsin. Straight to the stadium, a crisp hour-long walk-through, then back to the hotel for supper catered by Olive Garden. The guys had a team meeting -- first with coaches, then closed-door players only -- before shutting it down for our first night on the road in 2010.

Woke up this morning to 45 degree temperatures. Yes, it is September but it definitely feels like late November back home. Funny thing is most people up here say this is very normal for this time of year in the land of cheese curds. Having seen highlights of games played on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field in Green Bay -- which is less than a couple of hours northeast from La Crosse -- I really don't doubt the locals.

I don't know how the Tigers will play Saturday night. This program has lost eight straight season openers, and digging out of an annual 0-1 hole has become more than tiresome. There is a huge monkey on the backs of these Tigers, and without any added motivation I can tell you this particular group of players is weary of carrying that particular weight and would love to shed it tonight. We will see.

It's been a great trip so far. It would become downright nice as a Texas sunset with a victory on the way home. Go Tigers!