Week 11 - Dan From the Couch?

 

When you have no game to attend and you're bored you play dress up

Well folks, best laid plans sometimes don’t always come to fruition. As noted in my last write up, I was on my way to the east coast this week for a meeting and would catch games at Penn and Navy. On Tuesday morning, the meeting was cancelled thus my travel was scuttled. Nonetheless, I pulled research on Penn’s stadium and thought I would go ahead and share it. Established in 1895, Franklin Field, named after school founder Benny “Skullett” Franklin, sits on the campus of The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia. F2 is the oldest football stadium in the country and is credited with having the first scoreboard and first radio broadcast of a live football game. With tear downs, rebuilds and upgrades, capacity peaked at 78,000 when the Ivy League was considered a power conference. Current capacity is 52,500.

Franklin Field is not only the host facility to the Penn Quakers football team, it may be better known as the home of the Penn Relays for Track and Field. It was also home of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 -1970. In a famous incident in 1968, the fans even booed Santa Claus helping solidify Philadelphia fans roughneck reputation. The Quakers play in the prestigious and historic eight school Ivy League and have had an impressive history.

Franklin Field back in the day

Around the nation – First and foremost, a shout out to all those who have served this country and didn’t seek safe spaces and crying rooms when they were young men. They sacrificed their safety and comfort so we can enjoy our freedom to tailgate. It was awesome to see all the schools that had patriotic tributes on their uniforms honoring our Military.  A special nod to my two brothers Charlie and Billy and my father in law Curt who all who served in Vietnam. 

 

West Point Wiggins and a Normandy D Day hero at Army/ND game

This weekend was perhaps the craziest allotment of upsets I can ever recall. In the spirit of one of the biggest upsets in election history, we should not be so shocked at the results we witnessed on Saturday. We watched three of the top four teams go down along with numbers eight and nine. First we saw the Pitt kicker Chris Bluitt not blow it in Death Valley, SC by nailing the game winning field goal right through the uprights. Dabo was not dancing in the locker room after this game. In Iowa City, it was another hey diddle diddle right down the middle moment as Iowa won over Michigan on a last second field goal right through the goal posts. The entire stadium stormed the field and it was rumored that coach Harbaugh was caught on camera dining on you know what again in despair. Back in Ann Arbor, the students were given coloring books and playdough to cope with the loss. Out in Seattle, the Huskies showed little fight as they were knocked out by the men of Troy. ESPN College Gameday made the trek up to the rainy campus and shone a big light on the UW program who appeared to not be ready for the spotlight. Another set of Dawgs did step up in Athens, GA and took a huge bite out of Auburn’s season by knocking them out of playoff contention. And how bout Ole Miss resurrecting themselves from the dead and coming from behind to beat Texas A&M? Hotty Toddy as the Shea Patterson era begins in Oxford! In other top 20 upsets, Virginia Tech loses to Georgia Tech and technically are eliminated from the playoffs. North Carolina bows down to Duke in Krzyzewskiville. 

80 year old Gene Delauter attending his first college football game and tailgate at Navy

 

The Major attended the Columbia/ Cornell game

Creeper Cam shot provided by the Major

 

Separated at birth: Euro "Hrusty" Griswold and USC's Sam Darnold

Division III spotlight - Division III powerhouse Mount Union suffered its first regular season loss in 112 years to John Carroll. That is an astonishing feat folks, eleven years of never losing in season. In the biggest little game between Amherst and Williams, Amherst prevailed 28-3. In the oldest small school rivalry in the south, Randolph Macon bested Hampden Sydney. Guess who cracked the top 25? Yep, you got it Frostburg State after taking down in state rival Salisbury State. 

Bieber – This week’s lottery winner is none other than Shock Linwood of Baylor. Shock shocked his coaching staff with shocking behavior, shockingly by…..wait for it…..shoving an assistant coach last Saturday. What did you think I was going to say, he shocked him? Nonetheless, I know this is a shocker to all of us. This was during the Baylor game whence they were being shocked by the underfrog TCU. Apparently this was brought on by the Shockster not getting the carries he deemed appropriate. He then engaged in a heated conversation with a coach during the game and shoved him. Shock is the all-time leading rusher at Baylor but was sharing duties with two other backs this season. Head coach Jim Grobe indicated that Linwood had anger issues and needed a week in timeout. Thus he had to miss yesterday’s game against the Oklahoma Sooners which his team could have used him in their losing effort. It’s all good though, as Shock will be back on the field to produce more electrifying performances this season. However, for now he gets to cuddle with his new Bieber bobble head doll.

Next week – I will be off the couch and forego my mannequin challenge and the Tailgate will head back to Texas for the TCU game in Fort Worth versus Mrs. Tailgate’s Oklahoma State Cowboys. We will also migrate up I 35 afterward to catch a game at University of North Texas against Southern Miss.

Happy Tailgating!