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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Week 13 - Happy Thanksgiving







The DFT Bay Area contingent enjoyed a double header weekend with both Boise State and Notre Dame coming to town.  Bright and early on the morning after Thanksgiving, the First Family of Tailgate headed south to San Jose to watch our formerly mighty Broncos take on Sparty. We were accompanied by families from Danville who all sent their kids to the school with the Blue. Many of the families we had previously tailgated with when our #1 was matriculating through BSU. A fantastic breakfast tailgate was served consisting of a kettle pot egg scramble, egg puff pie, Mullica’s man candy (bacon wrapped lil smokies with brown sugar), pastries, breads, fruits, Irish coffee, Bloody Mary’s and of course the obligatory Fireball Aperitif. 






Our Gourmet Chefs hard at work

DFT Daughters of Anarchy



Look what I learned at Boise Dad!

              For the last time, that is not how you play Beer Pong!

The Students and Alumni of Boise


And those of us who paid for them




The kids playing cornhole

                          Big kids playing Slammo
 


Monte Vista's finest from class of 2010




Casting a shadow over my flock









































The Boise State Broncos were in the midst of a disappointing season having suffered four losses coming into the game Saturday sporting a 7-4 record. The Broncos would nonetheless be favored to win against a San Jose State that needed to win the game to become Bowl eligible. The first half tempo was dictated by San Jose State as they held a 10-9 advantage going into their decrepit locker room at the break.  Boise State was pushed and tested through the third quarter until they finally pulled away in the fourth securing a 40-23 win. Boise ends the regular season with an 8-4 record and awaits their Bowl destination. For San Jose State, their season is sadly over.
 
Spartan Stadium on game day

On Saturday we made our way over to the Farm in Palo Alto for the Notre Dame-Stanford “Battle Royale”. We co-hosted with the Iorios’ and were joined by a host of old friends, new friends, kids, Irish fans, folks from Ireland and DFT loyalists. Tri-Tip Sandwiches and Italian Sausages were the main course accompanied by a slew of tasty side dishes, a full Bloody Mary bar and many other necessary accouterments to make a successful Tailgate. The only time the Stanford football scene really comes to life is when the Irish invade the Farm. The Tailgate area was approximately ten times fuller than a normal Stanford game would have.
 
The Iorio/DFT crew readying for the big game



The Irish ladies could not bring us luck










Surrounded by real Irish People and Don Gervolino






















The Gracious Admiral and Don Desimone

The Desimone and Gerovolino crime families





















Christie and Connor Beeman are now famous  posing with KG, Dan and the banner



ND Could have used us on this day

Loyal Lou of DFT Nation running with the flag

Notre Dame needed to win this game to have a legitimate shot at the four team college football playoff. As it stood, the Irish were in sixth place entering the contest. Stanford having secured the PAC 12 North, had an outside shot at the playoff if they were able to beat ND and win the conference Championship next Saturday. Each team moved the ball with ease through the air as the defensive secondary’s posed no threat at all. ND and Stanford traded scores throughout the contest with the Irish scoring the apparent game winning touchdown with thirty seconds left to go up by 1 point.  However, after Stanford got the ball back, QB Kevin Hogan was tackled by the facemask resulting in a 15 yard penalty followed by a 25 yard completion up the middle. Stanford ran one more play before bringing their kicker on to attempt a 47 yard field goal on a chilly night into the wind. As we know now, the kick went right down the middle giving the team with the disrespectful Nerd Band and crappy mascot a win over my Fighting Irish (Name to be changed soon for being derogatory and offensive toward my type). My Irish eyes were crying. Nonetheless, it was the most exciting game I attended all year.

Don Iorio and his Mafiosa
 Around the Nation – In the marquis game of the weekend, Our “House Divided” watched “Bedlam”, as the Oklahoma Sooners knocked off the Cowboys in Stillwater presumably securing a spot in the college football playoff. In the Big House in Michigan in the game simply known as “The Game”, The Ohio State University took it out on Team Harbaugh by leaving the maize and blue, more black and blue with a 29 point win. Iowa ends their regular season unbeaten by knocking off Nebraska. They will face off in the Big Ten Championship game next Saturday. On Friday night, in one of the sloppiest games of the year, TCU edged Baylor in overtime in Fort Worth. Navy lost their chance of playing in a Premier Bowl by going to Houston and announcing they had problems. Here are the other scores from major rivalry games around the country:


The Iron Bowl - Alabama 29, Auburn 13

The Civil War – Oregon 52, Oregon State 42

The Apple Cup – Washington 45, Wazoo 10

The Palmetto Bowl - Clemson 37, South Carolina 32

Battle of the Sunshine State – Florida State 27, Florida 2

The Land of Lincoln Trophy – Northwestern 24, Illinois 14

The Carolina State game – UNC 45, NC State 34

The Egg Bowl - Ole Miss 38, Mississippi State 27

The Victory Bell– USC 40, UCLA 21.


Here is the lineup for the conference Championships next week:

PAC 12 – USC v Stanford

ACC – Clemson v UNC

Big Ten – Michigan State v Iowa

SEC - Alabama v Florida

AAC – Temple v Houston

MW - Air Force v San Diego State

MAC – Bowling Green v Northern Illinois
Con USA - Southern Mississippi v Western Kentucky

Bieber Award – Goes to LSU AD Joe Alleva and the rest of the Baton Rouge Administration for their handling of the Les Miles drama over the last few weeks. It had been widely speculated after LSU lost to Bama a month ago that Miles would not be back next season. Miles is the all-time winningest coach in LSU history. Rumors swirled about that the announcement would come after their last regular season game on Saturday against Texas A&M. What was happening behind the scenes was an attempt to lure Jimbo Fischer from Florida State to replace Miles. When that fell through this past week, combined with a tidal wave of public support for the Mad Hatter, Alleva was forced to retain Miles as head Coach. In doing so in the post-game presser, Alleva could not have been more smug and non-grateful about the situation. As some talking head on TV said, he looked like the Governor announcing a stay of execution for a prisoner on death row. I think in this case, the person that needs to be fired is Alleva. Since that is not happening, the consolation is knowing that he now too is a Bieber awardee.


Next week – Plans are up in the air as to whether we will attend the PAC 12 Championship next Saturday or sit in Buffalo Wild Wings and watch all the day’s action.



Happy Tailgating!
   
The Mulicas at bedlam


The USC Song Girls courtesy of Major Rodrick

An unknown BC Fan waving the DFT banner at the Cuze
The Maddalons at the Apple Cup
Buckeye Maddie Castelein in Ann Arbor.....

....And rocking the DFT Shirt in the Big House!