When Irish eyes are smiling!

In the prophetic words of the great Herm Edwards “Hello, we play to win the game! That’s the great thing about football”. Herm’s words of wisdom were echoed throughout the hallowed cathedrals of College football on this 3rd weekend of the 2013 college football season.



The Tailgate maintained a low profile at world headquarters for the day, testing out the new wireless cable box to enjoy more games at once. I was joined by college football fanatic “Mountaineer McCool” for the Notre Dame and Stanford games. Tailgate Amy said I finally met my match as she witnessed McCool and me going toe to toe like two heavyweight boxers in a battle of knowledge of football De College! Sister Patsy’s Chinese chicken wings (See recipe on the side bar) and assortment of other healthy snacks such as cheese and chips and dips (pure man cave ensemble) and Fosters, “It’s Australian for beer” in the keg. Too many good games on for me as I will note below.

Around the country - Another kicker, another loss as Cal went down in flames to OH – IO State in Columbus in a game they should have won. What is it with kickers this year? See below for more on the subject :) .In the Randy Edsall Bowl, his old team UConn bested his current team the Terps. The Terrapin faithful feel as though they have an Edsol not an Edsall with the perfect politician hair they so coveted. Hey Maryland, Ralph Friedgen is tanned, rested and ready should you get the urge? 



2012 Edsall Bomb



The 1958 Edsol Bomb!

It was good to see Boise get a win with their new regime led by Danville Boy Joe Southwick. Although it was only Miami of Ohio, the boys on the blue turf made great strides in notching their first win in the post Kellen Moore Era.

The Boise girlz doing their pre game ritual!

Reports of the demise of the Pitt Panther football program were a bit premature as they pulled off a shocker at Ketchup field over VA Tech who are being called the Chokies after their performance in the Steeltown. UCLA goes to 3-0 for the first time since John Wooden led them to his last National Championship. Could they win the battle of LA this year? Why would I think that? Could it be because USC got the snot clobbered out of them on the Farm in Palo Alto? And Barkley’s Heisman chances took a big hit. No, again like I said I will not blatantly pick on USC or SUC this year even if they were ranked # 2 in the country and favored by 9 points and lost to a team that barely beat San Jose State.

As much as the talking heads and empty suits on ESPN wanted the Florida – Tennessee game to be epic in nature, it was not. An average Florida team beat a bad Tennessee team in Rocky Top in a battle for two coaches trying to stay off the unemployment rolls prior to the November election. Alabama proved itself again with an emphatic beat down of the Razorbacks in Fayetteville. Rumor has it that Bobby Petrino was spotted riding his hog with a little piglet on the back heading back to sooooo weeeeeeeeeeee land. Tyler Wilson was none too happy with his team’s effort or lack thereof.


Coach Petrino in action!

The Tailgate just received confirmation that the Colorado Buffaloes have applied for and have been denied for permission to play Division 2 for the rest of the season. Division 2 official have criteria of competiveness that the Buffs do not meet after getting thumped badly by Fresno State. What was I thinking when I laid out my live Tailgate Schedule this year when I chose to attend a Colorado Home game in October? I feel somewhat like Don Knotts in the 60’s classic Como – Horror flick the Ghost and Mr. Chicken where he has to spend the night in a house of horrors to win a bet. Tailgate Tony who will be going to that game with me inquired recently about how we were going to get tickets for that game…and I chuckled. Now the question is, who will pay me to go into that house of horrors to watch such bad product? I am a brave man but will only go so far!

In other action keep your eye on K State as they have one of the most exciting players in CFB in QB Collin Klein. Big game next week against the Sooners. In TCU’s Big 12 debut they served up some horned frog bbq to Coach Charlie Front Butt Weiss and the Jayhawks.

Just wrong in too many ways

Just 2 years removed from a Cam fueled National Championship, the War Eagle faithful at Toomers corner in Auburn, AL are calling for a regime change and ouster of Lane Kiffen’s twin brother Gene Chizick. ULM almost had their 2nd win in a row over an SEC club as War Eagle nearly escaped with a 3 point win in OT. BC traveled to Evanston, IL to take on the Mensas from Northwestern and got schooled on Ryan field in a game where a field goal kicker actually did his job! Army loses a close one to NIU at home 41 -40 and Navy was sunk in Happy Valley as the Kittens get their first victory post Jo Pa. Tailgate Brian allegedly attended this game with a friend. But since he did not send pictures as he claims his camera didn’t work, I don’t believe he really went. Instead he and his imaginary friend were probably holed up in his basement playing John Travolta records and donkey kong. In the Holy War, the Utes defeated the Cougars 3 times as the Student body was penalized twice for Premature Celebration. There are pills for that I am told. San Jose State goes to 2-1 after butting heads with the Rams from CSU and taking them down. Am I forgetting anything?..... Oh yeah in other news Notre Dame put the clamps on Sparty in East Lansing as an emotional Manti Teo led the Irish to their best defensive performance since Rudy Rudiger got his sack back in the day. Nephew Tailgate Nate is still wiping his green tears away after witnessing my payback game.

Rudy

Gripe of the week – Kickers. Need I say more? Scholarships should be based for these “athletes” on their ability to do their damn jobs! Having witnessed Boise kickers two years in a row demonstrate the ability to not perform their scholarship duties, I am not a newcomer to this discussion. Ficken Kicker last week for PSU, Cal’s kicker this week missing wide by at least 25 yards, several times. Stanford’s kicker almost handing the game to SC.  The BYU kicker, missing twice with 1 second to go. My 3 soccer playing daughters could do as well if not better than some of these toothpicks in shoulder pads. It seems as though the quality of college kickers is going opposite of our national debt, down, down down!

Hit of the week:



The Tailgate will be at world HQ again next week with a backyard tailgate with Notre Dame Fans and posers like me. Shout out to Manti Te’o for his tough week and ability to still step up and lead his team to a big win.

Happy tailgating!