Week 15 - It's All Decided Now

 

Boomer Cowboy?

While the Nation’s youth were participating in the moronic fad called the “Knockout game” most of the Country was busy being engrossed with the last weekend of the regular college football season. Additionally, some were still celebrating the non-arraignment of Jameis Interruptus, and others perhaps felt disenfranchised by the Florida legal system once again over the outcome. Die hards down in the SEC were still euphoric or despondent (depending on your team) over last week’s “Kick Nick Kick” game or Daylight Saban’s Time at Jordan Hare. No longer can Nick say “it’s good to be the King!” But nonetheless, we all came together as fans of the greatest spectator sport on earth to enjoy our obsession on this hallowed 56 hour time period.

 

Nick might not walk on water anymore......

 

...but he does look good in burnt orange

The Tailgate viewed the weekend’s action from DFT world headquarters command throne starting Thursday night with AAC action. This would be the first full uninterrupted weekend from the couch. Aside from NIU being exposed as a fraudulent product on Friday night, all the real action was on the revered last day of the regular season: Saturday, December 7, 2013 a day that will live in infamy.

As much of the lower 48 was under extreme cold weather conditions, we experienced our own icy conditions at the Tailgate household. You see we participated in our version of Bedlam for the first time with #2 rooting on her new Sooners and Mrs. T “two stepping” to her Stillwater Cowpokes. It was akin to a legendary fight between Gemma and Tara Teller from The Sons of Anarchy. The smack talk coming out of their mouths was not for the faint of heart.

Before the friction

Tara and Gemma Tailgate. Meowwwwwww!

Anyway, as we all saw, the underdog Sooners pulled off an improbable upset over the favored Cowboys in Stillwater making OSU and Pistol Pete their own Brokeback Cowboys. Bedlam ensued. 

Pistol Pete, I can't quit you!

The OSU loss set up the de facto Big 12 championship between Baylor and Texas later in the Day. Speaking of which, Texas hung tough in the first half but could not keep pace with the high octane Bear offense in the second set. Baylor rules the state of Texas and is coronated with the Big 12 crown.

Auburn and Mizzou matched up in the WAC conference championship where only offense is played. Did I say WAC? The game looked like anything but an SEC title game with the two teams combing for 1200 yards of O and 102 points. Auburn Stud running back Tre Mason accounted for 300 yards rushing alone. In the end the Auburn Ducks were just too much for the Baylor Tigers coming out on top 59 – 42. Did I confuse you? Okay the Tigers beat the Tigers 59 -42. Real cat fight I tell ya. 

Nick finally got to tailgate since he had the day off

The win would possibly put the Auburn Tigers in the National Championship game if only Sparty could pull off an upset of the fighting Urbanas. So, perfect segue to the BIG Ten heavyweight match played at Lucas Field in Indy. Sparty raced out to a 17 -0 lead over a befuddled Buckeye team only to relinquish the lead by giving up 24 straight points. Miller and Hyde (Sounds like a shady law firm) took over offensively for team Brutus finding their groove on the ground. Sparty’s top rated Defense in the Country bucked up and shut down the Buckeyes from that point on. Sparty scored 17 straight points to win by TKO and head for Pasadena for some Roses. The Tailgate will be hosting nephew Nate for the game.

Go Green! Go White!

Out in Tempe, it was “déjà vu all over again” (thanks Yogi), as Stanford led by Tyler Gaffney and their brutal front seven on D stuck a pitch fork in the Solar Satans. Stanford will meet Sparty at the Rose Bowl. I need 2 tickets! Duke playing in their first ACC championship game kept things interesting with the Noles for about 20 minutes. The Nolear Express then took over and scored at will behind the newly exonerated Jameis Winston. Final score FSU 45 -7. FSU will play Auburn (known in the SEC as Barn I am told) on January 6^th in Pasadena for the final BCS crown.

In other action having no bearing on the National Championship, the Rice Owls (another smart school) win the Conference USA championship over Marshall. 50 people braved the ice storm in Dallas to watch SMU lose to UCF. Seriously, there were less than 100 people in the stadium. With that win, UCF gets the automatic bid for that powerhouse conference the AAC to slide into a BCS Bowl. A final reminder why the BCS is finished. 

UCF recieved a chilly reception at SMU

In the last game of the night, the Aggies from Utah State gave Derek Carr and Fresno all they could handle before Fresno secured the W and a berth in the Elvis Bowl. Just think if they had not lost to SJSU last week they would have been headed to the Fiesta bowl. Lionel Richie can be heard singing:

“Everybody sing, everybody dance
Lose yourself in wild romance
We're going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever
Come on and sing along!
We're going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever
Come on and sing along!”

Beiber Award

– Steve Sarkisian is this week’s winner for being the first coach of the year to leave a program for another prior to their Bowl game (it feels good to pick on a SC coach again). I rant on this every year and I refer to it as “Coach Poach”. It is unethical and immoral for a coach to do this to his players after getting them to sacrifice themselves for him all year, yet he leaves before the culminating event. And in Sark’s case, he goes to a hated Conference rival! Sark is a good coach and turned around a disastrous Washington program. He will probably do well in So Cal based on his past experience there. I would not fault him for leaving after the Bowl games are played out but this is another area of College Football that needs cleaning up. Other notable team jumpers in recent history, Brian Kelly, Rich Rodriguez and Dave Doreen, last year’s coach at NIU. Also, our hearts are broken with Coach Pete leaving Boise as step two in the domino effect caused by Sark. Good move for Pete, bad news for Boise.They say the reason they have to go right away is so they can hit the recruiting trail immediately. My solution is simple: No hiring coaches of teams committed to a Bowl from the end of the regular season until one week after the last Bowl game is played. During this time, there will be no recruiting of any kind at all. Violating teams will forfeit the following season! This would provide a real commitment to the kids and end world hunger and stop all wars.

Next week - The Tailgate will venture to the City of Love for the annual Army Navy classic.

BCS Bowl Schedule

Rose	Michigan State	Stanford
Sugar	Alabama	Oklahoma
Fiesta	UCF	Baylor
Orange	Clemson	Ohio State
Championship	Auburn	Florida State

 Happy Tailgating!