On Saturday afternoon around 4 p.m., an exhausted Mitch Barnhart walked into the press box. Bleary-eyed and hoarse, Mitch checked in with every media member set up to see if they needed anything. He finally smiled as we praised the stadium and all the new features.
“It’s been a long time in the making,” Mitch said.
Yes, it has. Growing up, I always loved Commonwealth Stadium because it was Kentucky’s stadium, and quite honestly, the only major one I visited. It got slightly more impressive when they bowled in the end zones in 1999, but as I’ve traveled around over the years to other stadiums in the SEC and in the pros, it has become painfully clear that Commonwealth lacked any kind of character.