Much of the groundwork for the Trojans’ trip to Virginia in August gets taken care of during a two-day advance expedition in May. Come along for the ride…
By Ben Malcolmson
USCRipsIt
PeteCarroll.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When the Trojans take the field here on Aug. 30 to open their season against Virginia, a job that started about four months earlier will be coming to a close.
That’s because director of football operations Dennis Slutak and executive assistant Morgon Fraser did much of the preparation for the cross-country trip during a jam-packed two-day logistical scouting expedition on May 5-6, when they bounced around Charlottesville to finalize the details on the lodging, food and transportation — just to name a few — for the Trojans’ game at Virginia this fall.
The advance trip is a huge part of a process that will allow the Trojans to fly in, play a game and fly out — with many activities in between — flawlessly and without a hitch come Aug. 28-30.
“It’s so advantageous to know where you’re going and what you’re doing, to know the schematic of the area,” said Slutak, who goes on an advance trip like this before each season’s out-of-conference away game. “There’s so much more comfort in coming on one of these trips because it allows you to a certain degree to be all-knowing. If someone comes to you with a question, you know the answer or you know people who know the answer.”
Find out what it takes to plan and prepare for the Trojans’ road trip to the season-opening game at Virginia on Aug. 30 through this snippety look at USC’s two-day logistical scouting trip on May 5-6:
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Though Slutak and Fraser headed to Charlottesville in early May with very few set-in-stone decisions regarding the team’s trip there in August, at least they came armed with the Trojans’ travel plans for the road game.
With a scheduled departure for 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, USC will charter two 757s — one will carry the team and administrators, while the other will carry the band, cheerleaders and athletic department supporters — and plan on landing at petite Charlottesville-Albermarle Airport around 9:30 p.m. local time that Thursday night.
Then immediately after the game on Saturday, Aug. 30, the Trojans will bus directly to the airport and fly back to L.A., meaning the team will be in Charlottesville for only two nights.
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When deciding where the team will stay for its trip to Charlottesville, Slutak didn’t have many options. After all, it’s a small college town of only about 40,000 people.
“We’re the only hotel big enough to hold a football team, except for the one where UVa stays on Friday nights,” said Charlottesville Doubletree sales manager Amber Kemper, who coordinates the accommodations with all the visiting teams that play at Virginia.
“This is a unique town — there are only two [large] hotels here,” the hotel’s general manager Mark Hucek said.
Every visiting team for years has stayed at the same hotel the Trojans will be bunking up at come Aug. 28, Kemper said. The only exception is when Richmond plays at Virginia, since the Spiders bus in on game day from their campus, which is only about 70 miles down the road from Charlottesville.
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The Trojans will be ruling the roost at their Charlottesville team hotel.
Come the final few days of August, the Charlottesville Doubletree Hotel will switch from lodging for businessmen to a USC headquarters of sorts. Not only will the 80-plus players on the traveling roster and 20-or-so coaches and football staffers be staying at the hotel, but the Trojan Marching Band, athletic department supporters and USC administrators will be calling it their home on the road.
“You all have the whole hotel — you and the fan club,” Kemper said to Slutak. “There are no open rooms.”
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Kemper, Slutak and Fraser went ballroom-to-ballroom Monday morning, with Slutak giving detailed instructions on how each room should be laid out for the team meetings and eating areas. With separate rooms needed for offense/defense meetings, athletic medicine, dining and pre-game chapel and mass, Slutak tries to duplicate the room layouts that USC uses before each game. After all, the Trojans are men of strict routine, no matter if they’re in L.A. or Virginia.
Kemper was seemingly unfazed by the daunting requests, which included specific chair layouts and room configurations.
“Same specs as everybody else,” Kemper said with a shrug, referring to the numerous visiting teams her hotel has hosted.
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The Trojans’ team hotel will look just like home when the team arrives in August.
The hotel staff will be decked out in USC gear and the hotel will be festooned with cardinal-and-gold banners and decorations, all in an effort to make the Trojans feel at home, Kemper said.
“We might not want to leave,” Slutak joked after hearing about the slice of hospitality.
But it’ll just be another random road team for the hotel, since the staff and lobby will be decorated in the colors of Virginia’s next opponent just a week later.
“You know who we have ties to?” Hucek, the general manager, said with a smile. “Whoever is in town that weekend.”
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As difficult as it is to plan for a humongous traveling party like the Trojans will have in Charlottesville, it gets even harder when considering all the special requests a team of 100-plus coaches and players has.
Slutak, who’s so meticulous and perfection-driven that he calls himself “obsessive,” went through a laundry list of unique needs with the hotel staff, rattling off things like a color printer (for the offense’s ever-changing call sheet used on game days), extra coffee (“we’re a big coffee-drinking staff,” Slutak said) and having loads of Gatorade chilled and ready to go throughout the team’s 48 hours at the hotel (hundreds of bottles will be shipped from USC a few days before the trip).
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From the “just in case” files: Slutak and Kemper discussed security for the Trojans’ stay at the hotel. Slutak said the team always travels with at least two plain-clothes security guards, while Kemper assured him the hotel will keep an eye on activity in the hotel throughout USC’s stay.
“It’s more of a proactive measure than anything else,” Slutak said.
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Considering the rigorous demands of hosting a hotel full of Trojan players, coaches and fans, you’d think it would be a challenging task.
Not so, general manager Mark Hucek said.
“It’s not that difficult,” Hucek told director of football operations Dennis Slutak. “If we just do our job, it’s not hard. We’re here to help you guys.”
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Regularly on the “Top 5 places to live” lists, Charlottesville has a population of only 40,000 and is nestled in the rolling green hills of central Virginia. The campus — properly referred to as “the grounds” by locals — is dotted with classical columned buildings, including Scott Stadium, the Cavaliers’ home football field. All told, it’ll be an idyllic location for the 2008 season opener.
“This is a great, great place,” said Hucek, who recently transferred from Phoenix to Charlottesville because of its quality of life.
The rolling hills of central Virginia are home to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia.
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Following the extensive planning at the team hotel, Slutak and Fraser hopped in the car and estimated the bus route to Scott Stadium on game day (the police escort will ultimately decide the team’s route) and ended up at the stadium, where they met Mike Stroud, the Virginia athletic department’s assistant director of facilities and operations.
Stroud gave Slutak and Fraser a tour of the visiting team’s locker room, which was renovated in 2000. It’s new, nice and clean — and air-conditioned, which will come in handy when it’s in the 90s and humid on game day this August. Seventy-five lockers and a separate coaches’ locker room will provide the Trojans with plenty of space on Aug. 30.
The in-the-booth coaches take a special passageway to their box near midfield, going on a private elevator just steps from the locker rooms, which are located in the south end zone of the newly remodeled 61,500-seat stadium. It’s a far cry from the men-of-the-people Coliseum, where the coaches take golf carts through the main concourses to get to their box high above the field.
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The USC cheering section will be in the southeast corner of Scott Stadium, Stroud said, which will give the Trojan fans a neat view of the columns above the grassy knoll on the north side of the quaint stadium.
It’ll also give USC a unique sound advantage, Stroud said, since the Trojan Marching Band’s tunes will be projected out into, and amplified by, the stadium bowl. The Virginia band, on the other hand, plays on the east sideline, meaning only the west side of the stadium hears the music loudly, Stroud said.
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Next up, Slutak and Fraser went on a scavenger hunt all across Charlottesville looking for a high school field to host the Trojans’ 45-minute practice on the Friday morning before the game. The field needs to be concealed (the team ran into some issues in Omaha last year when a huge crowd turned out to watch the strictly closed practice) and have natural grass to mimic the turf at Scott Stadium.
Slutak and Fraser narrowed it down to three options, and within the next few weeks, Slutak will make his final decision on the location, with Coach Pete Carroll’s advice, and then complete the necessary paperwork.
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Tuesday morning was set aside for finalizing the details with the bus company. Only problem: Quick’s Bus Company was located in Staunton, Va., meaning Slutak and Fraser had an 80-mile roundtrip car ride in front of them.
Why not just pick up the phone and call Quick’s instead of journeying through the green hills of central Virginia?
“I like meeting people face-to-face instead of trading paperwork back and forth,” Slutak said. “You put a face to a name. I guess it’s sort of an old-school way of thinking.”
The trip also gives Slutak a chance to see first-hand the buses that the team will be traveling in and check whether the buses have DVD players or VCRs, so that the proper movie format is brought for the bus rides.
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Slutak and Fraser received the star treatment from the employees at Quick’s Bus Company, who gave them a tour of the fleet’s newest buses after a warm welcome from “Moe,” the office dog. The team and its traveling party will utilize six of the company’s sparkling new coaches for the entire 48-hour stay in Charlottesville.
Moe, the office dog at Quick’s Bus Company, welcomes the Trojan traveling party.
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On the 45-minute drive back to Charlottesville, Slutak made a call to Sergeant Michael Blakey of the University of Virginia Police Department. The two discussed police escort plans for the team both on game day and the days prior.
The Trojans use police escorts on the road and in L.A. to alleviate traffic issues and ensure that the caravan of buses stays together when traveling.
It’s an exact science, too, as Blakey told Slutak it will take the team precisely 12 minutes to get from its hotel to Scott Stadium on game day.
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Though Slutak, for the most part, is a one-man show in preparation for a trip like this, people like Xavier Sauzo make Slutak’s job much easier.
An employee of the team since the 1970s, Sauzo, or “X-man,” helps coordinate the team security and police escorts on the road. He also assists in setting up the chapel service before a road game by finding a priest from the local parish.
“X-man finds priests in places I didn’t even know had priests,” Slutak joked.
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Southern hospitality was in full force throughout the USC advance trip. Both strangers and business associates, who all spoke with a soft and soothing southern twang, were extremely helpful and welcoming during the expedition, giving Charlottesville and its surrounding area a very small-town feel.
“Everyone here is as pleasant as can be,” Slutak said. “We don’t want to leave.”
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USC’s journey here in August will be a cross-country road trip to a far-off town, but Slutak said he’s at peace with the preparation process because of the compact nature of the town of Charlottesville.
“One of the biggest variables on any trip is the time to travel between places,” Slutak said. “But the farthest you’re going to drive here is 5½ miles. You won’t get lost because everything’s so close and easy to get to.”
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Only 28 hours after arriving, Slutak was back at Charlottesville-Albermarle Airport, about to board his flight out after completing all the preparatory work he had planned to do.
The accommodations with the hotel, food, transportation and more had been neatly and productively checked off, one by one.
Months ahead of kickoff, the logistical preparations were essentially all done.
A modern-day miracle? More like a perfect example of exceptional planning.
• Ben Malcolmson is the Director of Online Media for USCRipsIt/PeteCarroll.com. You can contact him at Ben@PeteCarroll.com.
