Geaux Above and Beyond!

The boys in the Bayou!

The annual DFT (Danvillians From the Tailgate or Drunk From Takeoff) anchor game landed us in the swamps of Louisiana in the great river city of Baton Rouge. ESPN College Gameday and the Florida Gators were coming to Death Valley for this classic matchup with the LSU Tigers. This would be my second trip to Death Valley with my first visit being the catalyst for me starting this blog eleven years ago. With our posse arriving from different states, continents, planets and on different days and varying times, we all finally connected Friday in BR at the Watermark Hotel. We contributed immensely to the local economy Friday night in the form of purchasing consumptive nourishment and nutrients at establishments such as Chimes and Boudreaux & Thibodeaux. Random dance moves were broken out, new beers and foods were sampled, and practical jokes were played. As is the tradition with this crew, we went home early in order to be fresh for a marathon day of tailgating and a night game at Tiger Stadium. 3 AM is early, right? Asking for a friend.

Friday Night warm up

Up bright eyed and bushy tailed on Saturday, a gourmet breakfast consisting of bacon infused Bloody Mary and a Boudin (pronounced Boo Dan in a Cajun drawl) omelet got me and Doctor Brian right back in the zone. Others wandered over to campus to catch ESPN Gameday. With a kickoff time of 7 PM it is important to get a little tailgating in to absorb the electric atmosphere that is game day at LSU. With 100,000 seats in the stadium it is said that LSU has over 300,000 tailgaters. It certainly appeared to be true on this crisp fall day in the Bayou. This is a professional tailgating atmosphere with people who know how to do it right.

We all reconnected at 11 AM at the famed KOCKA Tailgate run by Officer James Roy on the south side of the stadium in a grassy area with plenty of shade trees. KOCKA’s set up was most impressive: A giant TV theater tent with two flat screens showing games, a DJ tent, a food tent with a giant gumbo kettle pot, beer pong tent and a liquor tent.  Most unique is their “Beer Funnel of Death” which some of us not named Nancy partook in. We also connected with Mike Doyle and his gang which included Freddy Mercury and the Reno-911 cast. We would continue to hang out with these characters for the rest of the day. Many of the regulars from KOCKA made us feel very welcome and the laughs continued.

KOCKA Tailgate

Doing the Bayou boogie

Chicken head Sammy

The crew with our host James Roy

We meandered over to the Bayou Bandits tailgate in the heart of campus at around 3 PM. We were served more gumbo, gator sausage and Abita beers from a triple tap. Whistlepig Whiskey was pouring samples at the tailgate right next to us so naturally we made ourselves right at home. The famed Tiger marching band along with the Golden Girls processed right by our tailgate spot. Beer pong and football were played, but not very well by the participants with the exception of the five-year-old kid with a canon arm. Much of the day was contemplating who would win Bieber and Ginger awards as there was a vast selection of candidates. At 6 PM we began our trek down into the hallowed sacred cathedral that is Death Valley.

The Bayou Bandits Tailgate. Upper right is our host Michael Kleinpeter

Cheerleaders,  Don Desimone, Amy Poehler, grilled gator and Abita Galore

Death Valley at night against an SEC rival is as epic as any of the great college football traditions. If you could only go to three games in your life, my personal recommendation would be Army – Navy, the Red River Shootout and a night game at LSU. If the atmosphere outside the stadium was electric, then I would categorize the scene inside the stadium as a geostorm.  We were treated by the Army parachute team jumping into the stadium with all landing on the eye of the target at midfield. LSU was ranked #4 and Florida #9 coming into the game. Oddly enough, there was a sizeable contingent of Gator fans there to support their team who had just knocked off Auburn in an upset the previous week.

Death Valley at night!

The first half was an offensive tennis match with each team more or less holding serve. LSU Heisman Hopeful QB Joe Burrow carved up the Gators Defense like they were in an episode of the show Swamp People. Florida’s offense was equal to the task opening holes at the line and making short passes that would turn into big gains. This might be the first time in decades I would say that LSU has a way better Offense than their Defense. Even more importantly was the parade of characters in our section that elicited shrieks of belly laughs from ourselves and everyone around us. We enjoyed calling people out and taking pictures of people now named man bun, jorts boy, weirdo fanny pack fool, orange head, nacho cheese in nose man, Amy Poehler and the list goes on. The first act ended with the score knotted up at 21.

The Freak Show

The Gators started off the second half with a drive resulting in a touchdown to take the lead. The air in Death Valley seemed to be slowly getting sucked out. Just as soon as I thought that, the Tigers clawed right back to score two touchdowns while clamping down on defense and slowing the Florida ground and air attack. Behind by seven points midway through the fourth quarter, Florida had its chances to tie the game but could not find their way into the end zone. LSU would score again and deny Florida in the red zone to secure an incredibly well played victory by the score of 42-28. Canes fried chicken and an Uber ride back to our hotel to catch the Boise State blowout while drifting off to sleep for me. Others from our crew were not as adept at navigating their way home and returned after a long struggle. Baton Rouge, we will be back again.

We will be back!

Around the country – in Dallas, TX at the legendary Cotton Bowl, Oklahoma led from start to finish behind a masterful defensive performance consisting of nine sacks and a shutdown of the Texas Longhorn run game. Sooner QB Jalen Hurts accounted for close to 400 yards through the air and on the ground and All American Cedee Lamb had ten catches and three TD’s. The clear upset of the day was watching the UGA Dawgs go down in overtime to a below average South Carolina team. Paul Finebaum will not get his wish now of a four team SEC college football playoff. Penn State set the stage with their ABC white out night game matchup next week against Michigan by beating Iowa at Kinnick stadium. Notre Dame had a much tougher time with USC then most would have predicted, winning by a margin of only three points. Has anyone noticed that Minnesota is now rowing the boat and undefeated?  In the ACC and PAC 12…….well who cares since other than Clemson no one is going to the playoff or did anything special.

Texas QB Samantha Ehlingher

Bieber – When a school announces that they will lift the alcohol ban and start serving beer in their stadium, euphoria usually ensues, and it becomes water cooler talk at the offices all week long. The analogy of this is that beer being served in most stadiums is like going to a nude beach. The anticipation and build up takes your imagination to places never before explored. The excitement is uncontainable. The reality is 98% of what you would see at a nude beach is not only a disappointment, it can be flat out nightmare causing. The same is true for what happened to us at LSU. After acquiring a thirst from the walk that took us from the tailgate to our seats, I volunteered to go grab a couple of cold ones for the good Doctor and myself. In our concourse, there were two small tables set up with one person taking money and the other pouring beer with neither having a care in the world. I entered the line with about 25 people ahead of me. It seemed like years later I finally obtained said suds to return to my seat. During this course of time I went bald and gained 40 pounds. The actual amount of time was approximately 45 minutes. Of course, I was razzed by the people in our section as I missed a good chunk of live action on the field. So, my Bieber goes to LSU beer concessionaires and any other college stadium that says they serve beer in any fashion other than full on concession stands pouring ,massive amounts of golden lagers.

The beer line at LSU Tiger Stadium 

Ginger –  Let’s just leave this here.....this is ginger as hell!

 Next Week -There is a possibility I will attend the Cal v Oregon State game in Bezerkeley on Saturday if they cancel the Antifa rally. I also plan on attending the Monte Vista high school game on Friday night. A special thanks to Tailgate Connect for once again hooking us up with an incredible day.

Happy Tailgating!