Week 10 – Holy Cow Town!

A low key weekend for the Tailgate as several of us made the trip up I-80 to Davis, CA for the UC Davis/ Northern Arizona game. Poor man’s tailgate in the $9 parking lot consisting of Bloody Mary’s and sandwiches were devoured on a spectacular 84 degree fall day in Cali. Both teams hail from the Big Sky conference in the FCS division. UC Davis, behind former Boise and Colorado Coach Dan Hawkins is having a strong season. With their only loss coming to PAC 12 power Stanford, the Aggies are poised to make a deep run into the FCS playoffs this season. Northern Arizona on the other hand has struggled through a season with a few key wins but with more unexplainable losses. This was my second visit to Aggie Stadium which was built in 2007 and has a capacity of just under 11,000. Since my last visit, a beautiful new video board was added in the south end zone. I also learned that a brand new 40,000 sq. ft. football facility is being built along with 2 practice fields. This is a great little stadium with plans to expand in the future, assuming they get the fans to fill the seats.

Aggie Stadium

It's not often you run into your family orthodontist and old dentist at a game. Former Aggie WR Dr. Rob Ceunin and his wife Marina.

Drupacabra gets revenge on Coach Sochor as DQ protects him.

The Aggies ranked number 6 in the FCS Division, were simply too much for the Lumberjacks to handle. The combination of a strong running game and a passing game featuring NFL WR prospect Keelan Doss resulted in almost 500 yards of total offense for the Aggies. We had to bail out near the end of the third quarter to make it back to Dan’s Bar & Grill for the 3 screen watch party of the marquis games of the weekend. Final score UC Davis 42, NAU 20. UC Davis has a crucial game next week against Eastern Washington on the Red Inferno that will have bearing on FCS playoff seedings. The Big Sky Conference should get 3 teams in with Davis, EWU and Weber state. At the watch party we chowed on kielbasa, pulled pork sandwiches, homemade beans,  guacamole & chips, and plenty of libations.

Beer is served!

ADD Theater set up for the watch party at DB&G,

Around the country

In a much anticipated matchup at Death Valley, the Crimson Tide just proved to be too good by completely shutting down the Bayou Bengals 29-0. I have believed all along that LSU was Fools Gold as their Offense is simply offensive! In Evanston, IL the Fighting Irish found some magic to pull off a victory over a scrappy Wildcat team keeping their perfect season and playoff hopes intact. Michigan delivered a thorough beat down of Penn State in the Big House to secure their spot as the top team in the Big Ten. UGA diffused any thought that Kentucky would challenge for a spot in the SEC Title game by marching on Lexington and walking out victorious.  Out in Lubbock, TX where they throw tortillas on the field (I still don’t know why), the Red Raiders gave the Sooners all they had and nearly pulled off a giant upset. Nonetheless, OU had just enough in the tank to slip by with a Big 12 shootout win 51-48. Down in Austin, WVU had to go for a two point conversion twice to make it count as the Eers eliminated the Horns from Big 12 title hopes. Way out west in the Palouse, the Stache continues to roll on as the Washington State Cougars defeated a much improved Cal Bear team. In ACC action, BC rolled on VT in Blacksburg, and Sunshine and the Clemson Tigers put up 77 on a really bad Louisville team. ESPN College Gameday will make its way to Chestnut Hill next Saturday for the BC v Clemson ACC battle of the year. In “Group of Five” action UCF scored more points than Temple on Thursday night in Orlando and Fresno State covered the spread and then some over UNLV. 

Ginger – This week it was easy, NostraDANus was back on the scene. I gave 25 points to LSU in the Bama game for $100 and I covered with 4 to spare. I won the straight up bet on the ND game with a Wildcat alumni for a $40 bottle of red. In my Yahoo weekly pickem, I had the best performance in the group this week hitting on 20 of 25 games week. I nearly predicted OU’s offensive output on the Sooner Fan Podcast last week, I said 52, they scored 51 (never mind that TTU scored double what I said). My four teams won as well, Notre Dame, OU, Boise and Army. Basically, I woke up and pissed excellence Saturday morning, so therefore I nominated myself for simply being badass and taking home the Ginger trophy. Yeah Me!

Bieber –. In College Park, Maryland a new Soap Opera has emerged titled “As The Turtle Turns”. We are all familiar by now with the tragic death of Maryland football player Jordan McNair in the off season workouts overseen by now fired strength and conditioning coach Rick Court. As outrage grew over the summer, in August Court was fired and head coach DJ Durkin was put on paid leave while the investigation into complicity ensued. The perception was that Durkin created a toxic culture at Maryland and Court was somewhat of a henchman to him. To add to the story, Durkin had a losing record after two years as the head ball coach in College Park. Most just assumed they would work out a settlement and he would ride off into college football nomad land as an assistant coach somewhere else. In the interim, Maryland was coached by Matt Canada and were having their best season in years. This past Tuesday, a most bizarre press conference ensued when University President Wallace Loh “Life” announced the school was reinstating Durkin and that Loh would be stepping down as University President. Okay that was weird. Chairman of the board James Brady took to the podium as the apparent puppeteer behind this mess. He went on to profess his confidence in Durkin and Athletic Director Damon Evans. Well, talk about the proverbial turd in a punch bowl, this news was received with as much enthusiasm as being told a hurricane is heading your way. Several players walked out of their team meeting and students organized a protest. Social media and ESPN were abuzz with a “WTF” are they thinking campaign. After much public outcry, and alleged pressure from Maryland Governor Hogan,  Brady relented and announced late Wednesday that Durkin was fired. On Thursday, after facing the heat himself, Brady resigned as Chairman of the Board for UMD. I am not here to try Durkin, but anyone with a brain can see MD was in a no win situation if they kept him. No parent in their right mind would want to send their kid to play for a program with such perceived dysfunction.  So instead of ripping the band aid off when this all happened, we now have in addition to a deceased player, a fired strength coach, a fired head coach, a resigning President and a resigning Chairman of the regents. This has truly been one of the biggest soap operas in college football since the Penn State scandal. And for this performance, the University of Maryland wins this week’s Bieber’s honors.

Picture courtesy of Brian Donnelly

Next Week – Plans are up in the air.

Happy Tailgating!