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College Football

Cool field-rushing moments in SEC history

Glenn Sattell

By Glenn Sattell

Published:

Though probably none of them rival the Cal-Stanford “The band is on the field” game from 1982, the SEC has had its moments of frenzied fans rushing the field in jubilation over their team’s big victory. From the Bluegrass Miracle to Kick Six, the conference has had its share of cool field-rushing moments throughout its history.

Win or lose, it appears that Kentucky leads the league in field-rushing.

It didn’t even faze hysterical Wildcats fans, nor Kentucky players who had already doused head coach Guy Morriss with the traditional Gatorade bath, that LSU Marcus Randall completed a Hail Mary pass to Devery Henderson to pull out a seemingly impossible 33-30 victory in 2002, in Lexington. They had already spilled onto the field and were hanging from the goal post when LSU won the game.

Five years later, Kentucky fans got their revenge when the Wildcats treated a Commonwealth Stadium crowd to a triple-overtime victory over No. 1 LSU. Current UK quarterback Drew Barker, in grade school then, was among those who rushed the field.

Field-rushing is always sweeter when it’s done in revenge. Ask any Auburn fan who made their way to the Jordan-Hare Stadium turf on Nov. 30, 2013, after Auburn’s Chris Davis returned Alabama’s failed 57-yard field goal attempt 109 yards to win the Iron Bowl.

Unfortunately, because of injuries incurred during many postgame field rushes, the SEC was moved to implement hefty fines for such postgame celebrations. In May 2015, those fines increased dramatically, starting at $50,000 and growing to $250,000 for continued offenses, AL.com reported.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told AL.com that the previous penalties, which started at $5,000, weren’t an effective deterrent. History was on Sankey’s side.

Kentucky was hit with fines three times in a one year period. From Nov. 4, 2006, when Kentucky fans rushed the field after a victory over Georgia, to the Sept. 15, 2007 rushing of the field after the Wildcats beat rival Louisville, and finally the Oct. 13, 2007, aforementioned revenge victory over LSU.

Wildcats fans have a field-rushing history. Commonwealth Stadium was stormed in 1997 after Kentucky posted a 40-34 victory over Alabama. It was only the second time Kentucky had beaten the Tide and first since 1922.

More recently, Kentucky fans rushed the field in 2010 after a victory over No. 10 South Carolina and head ball coach Steve Spurrier. It broke a 10-game losing streak to the Gamecocks. That cost the program $25,000, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

A 26-game losing streak to Tennessee ended in 2011 with a 10-7 victory and a subsequent flooding of fans onto the field. The SEC fined the Wildcats $50,000 for that one, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Kentucky was fined $25,000 in 2014 after fans rushed following a victory over South Carolina.

Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Missouri have been fined $25,000 for second offenses, but most SEC schools were fined $5,000. Missouri was fined twice, once each for the rushing of Faurot Field upon clinching SEC East titles in 2013 and 2014.

Only five of the SEC’s 14 schools — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Texas A&M — have not incurred fines since the policy went into effect on Dec. 1, 2004, according to AL.com.

In fact, Alabama and Florida fans never rush the field. Their fans take a “been there done that” attitude towards big victories. They’ve had plenty of experience with that.

LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri and you guessed it, Kentucky, each incurred fines in 2014 after fans rushed their football fields following victories.

“There’s only so much security you can put out there,” LSU athletics director Joe Alleva told AL.com. “You can’t have armed guards and horses out there. I hope our fans and all of the fans in the league will realize it’s all about safety. It’s all about the safety of the players and the fans to stay in the stands and hopefully they’ll comply with that.

“I think schools will do more, but there’s only so much you can do. You can’t build a wall around the field. You can’t put up barbed wire. You can’t have horses and guns out there. There’s a line of how much you can do.”

I can vouch for that. As a proud field-rusher myself, I can safely say that there are times when the crowd is going to rush the field and there isn’t anything that can be done about it. The crowd knows it, the teams know it, and the administration knows it.

Such a time was Dec. 1, 2001. That’s when LSU defeated Auburn 27-14 in Tiger Stadium to win its first SEC West title. Fans piled onto the field by the thousands and security didn’t try to stop us. They couldn’t have if they wanted to. It was a mob scene. It was Mardi Gras on a football field.

As fans ran and screamed seemingly aimlessly onto the surface of Tiger Stadium, I made my way toward the middle of the field. One fan knelt near mid-field, pocket knife in hand, and dug a small swath of purple-painted natural grass that I would guess was part of the Eye of the Tiger.

I couldn’t be sure if that’s the exact spot he picked to carve out his slice of memorabilia. The mass of humanity quickly left you unaware of your exact location.

I was never in the Boy Scouts; I wasn’t prepared for such delicate surgery. In a much more crude display of fandom, I simply reached down and pulled a random handful of the generic green grass and stuffed it in my pocket. It’s no longer green today, but it still holds a prominent place in its own small case on display in the man cave.

Was it dangerous? Probably. Is it an insurance nightmare? Yes. But it’s a thrill every football fan should have the opportunity to experience safely at least once in their lives.

Glenn Sattell

Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.

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