We're not in Kansas anymore!

 

As mentioned last week, Hurricane Ida threw a wrench in our Deep South Labor day plans. We ended up calling an audible, clicked our heels three times and found ourselves in Kansas Friday night for the Jayhawk match against the FCS South Dakota Coyotes. We would double up for a game in Columbia, Missouri, on Saturday as Mizzou would take on the Central Michigan Chippewas. As is customary on Labor Day weekend every year, my wingman is my college fraternity brother, rugby teammate and fellow tailgater enthusiast, Jim Tubby Devine. We were also joined Friday night by another college friend, Joe “Way” Novak, my Army buddy, John Holter, and fellow Sooner fan, Paul Munding.

The Fab Five pre-gaming. ominous clouds that never materialized walking into stadium and the Coyote Band adopted us!

 

The Kansas Jayhawks play in the Big 12 conference and are predominantly a basketball school. They are on their 200th coach since they fired the great Mark Mangino AKA “The Fat Man” for being too rough on his players in 2009. Mangino was perhaps the greatest coach Kansas ever had and introduced them to the concept of winning. Is it possible they are suffering from the curse of the Fatman since his untimely departure? Years and years of futility since those glory days a mere 12 years ago. A great man once told me “You got to go to Kansas and see the phog", so to Kansas we went! Kansas is a basketball school that has a historic Fieldhouse called the Phog named after the great coach Phog Allen. We pregamed on the hill below the war memorial tower in the sweltering heat. We enjoyed a few cold beers and of course my new favorite peanut butter whisky car bombs! Kansas would be my ninth out of the 10 Big 12 schools to attend a game and pregame festivities. I tentatively have Kansas State vs. Oklahoma planned for October 3, which will finish up the Big 12 for my quest. Despite Kansas being a basketball school, two of the greatest running backs of all time graced the gridiron in Lawrence many years ago: Gale Sayers played in the 1960s and John Riggins ran wild in the 1970s.  

Scenes from the Stadium with the Holters, Tubby and Joe and my twin bird.

 The first half of this match up with the power five Kansas Jayhawks taking on the FCS Coyotes from South Dakota was about as exciting as watching the QVC network selling toe rings. We sat on the 50-yard line some 60 rows up in the middle of the Kansas alumni section. Memorial Stadium holds about 47,000 fans. I would guesstimate that there were 25,000 fans in attendance on this warm and muggy night. The stadium itself is not much to write home about. It does not look like many upgrades have been done in recent decades. The one cool feature that grabbed my eye was beyond the South End Zone: the hill that leads up to the iconic war memorial tower. I have seen this hill on games on TV many times as it is adorned with white spiked tents for private tailgates. Back to the game, neither team could generate much offense in the first half. Kansas took a 7-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. We decided to change up the mojo and went to the other side of the stadium to sit with the South Dakota fans. The second half was ultimately exciting with South Dakota out playing the bigger, stronger, faster Kansas Jayhawks. The game was not decided until the very end when South Dakota turned the ball over on downs with 20 seconds remaining to play. Kansas eked out a 17 to 14 victory. In a Bronx cheer fashion, the Jayhawk student section stormed the field to celebrate the victory over a lower conference opponent as victories have been far and few between in Lawrence Kansas in recent memory. Game one of the weekend in the books.

"Noem what I'm sayin?"

 

I would like to say Saturday morning we were up and out early but the morning progressed a bit slower than anticipated due to the two hour time change for me and perhaps that second peanut butter whiskey car bomb the night before. Nonetheless, we did exfil from Lawrence mid-morning for the 2 and 1/2 hour rainy trek to Columbia, Missouri. Upon arriving in Columbia, we dropped our bags at the hotel and made our way over to the Missouri Tailgate hosted by Rick Storie, part of the Tailgate Connect® fraternity of tailgates. We enjoyed a few cold beers, an obligatory fireball shot and some smoked chicken wings. More importantly, we shared stories of the tailgate with Rick and his friends. One couple lived on opposite ends of the state (KC and Saint Louis) and used the tailgate as a place to meet. One of Rick’s close friend’s shook hands with us and pointed out where his right thumb used to be; it was now his big toe after a farming accident. It is always so cool to learn about local traditions and hear these kinds of stories of how tailgates bring people together with the friendships that are made and endured outside of the football stadium. What better way to spend National Tailgating Day than with new friends in Middle America? With the tailgate winding down, we made the 3/4 mile trek to the hallowed grounds of Faurot Field. Missouri would be my final venue to attend in the SEC.

Tailgating at the Missouri Tailgate with Super Host Rick Storie.

 

University of Missouri migrated to the SEC a decade ago. Prior to that, they had been a long standing member of the Big 12 and formerly the Big Eight. Upon moving to the SEC, Missouri had initial success for the first two years. However since that time, they have struggled mightily in what is considered the toughest conference in the country. Faurot Field seats a little over 60,000 fans. It is a spectacular facility with many recent upgrades that are visible. The South End Zone and the East stands appear to have had significant upgrades in recent years. The North End Zone has the hill with the Giant recognizable M in it that people can sit on during game day. The end zones have the word Missouri encapsulated in diamonds — a long standing signature of the field. As awesome as the stadium is, we were a little disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm from the student section. This is D1A Power Five football, get pumped up would ya! The Tiger band did its part and belted out great songs throughout the game as well as a halftime performance honoring the recent Olympics. Our seats once again were some 60 rows up on the 50-yard line with a great vantage point of all the action below.

The venerable Faurot Field.

As far as the game goes, the undersized Chippewas from Central Michigan gave the heavily-favored Tigers all they could in the first half. A Swiss cheese of a defense, Missouri gave up many big plays to Central Michigan in the first half. At halftime, the Tigers took a 17 to 14 lead into the brand new locker room. In the second half, each team battled back and forth with the superior Tigers eventually wearing down the scrappy Chippewas, pulling away with a 34 to 24 margin of victory. We then headed back to the hotel and ordered Buffalo Wild Wings via Uber Eats and watched the snoozer of a game that was Clemson vs. Georgia.

Around the Country -  The nation witnessed an inept display of offense in the aforementioned Clemson vs. UGA game on Saturday night. UGA backed into a 10 to 3 non-thriller of a victory. Other powers such as Ohio State and Oklahoma struggled against lesser opponents for their first victories of the year. Alabama looks like they picked up right where they left off by destroying the overhyped Miami Hurricanes. There were many upsets around the country as FCS schools and group of five schools knocked off Division 1A schools and power 5 schools. I will give a shout-out, begrudgingly, to UCLA for looking impressive in taking down the mighty Bengals of the Bayou, the LSU Tigers. On Sunday night, perhaps the most exciting game of the weekend, we all saw Notre Dame squeeze out a three-point victory in overtime over Florida State 40-37. The Seminoles were honoring the recently departed Bobby Bowden on this night. Notre Dame was starting transfer QB Jack Coan. More on that game in the Ginger section. And my youngest Tailgater witnessed her first live game at the University of Colorado Friday night when the Buffaloes knocked off Northern Colorado in a relatively easy game.

The Dru crew at the first college game at the new stadium in Vegas.

The Ginger Award -  In 2018, McKenzie Milton, quarterback of the UCF golden knights, was leading his team to a second straight undefeated season. In November of that year, Milton suffered a gruesome devastating leg injury that involved nerves, arteries and other piece parts that allow one to walk. Fast forward to Sunday night, Milton, now a backup with the Florida State Seminoles, entered the game midway through the fourth quarter for the first time in over three years. Just the mere fact that he is able to suit up in a football uniform again is beyond a miracle. On top of him entering the game, he led Florida State to a rally resulting in the game going into overtime. Unfortunately for Milton, the Seminoles would fall short by three points. However as a Notre Dame fan, I found myself rooting for this courageous young man to be doing what he was doing and doing it so well. For your efforts last night Mr. Milton, you my friend are the recipient of this week's Ginger award for doing something so courageous and badass!

The Bieber Award

-  After the aforementioned Notre Dame/Florida State game Sunday night, Notre Dame's coach Brian Kelly was asked how he thought his team executed. Tongue in cheek, he responded that he thought the whole team should be executed based on their performance. He was essentially quoting the great John McKay who made the same comment from 45 years ago as a first-year coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a loss. However, in the world of wokeness and sensitivity, the keyboard Warriors around the world on social media started ripping Kelly calling for his head and not getting the joke. As is customary with most of the morons of the keyboard Warrior generation, they have no understanding of history and completely missed the origins of the statement. So this week's Bieber award is for all you anti-humor woketards who can't find humor in anything and called out coach Kelly on his comment.

Next Up - this coming weekend I am off with the exception of maybe going to the local community college game on Friday night. The following weekend is our Danville DFT group anchor game in Norman, Oklahoma, when the Nebraska Cornhuskers come to town.

A favor to ask if any of you have candidates for either the Ginger or Beiber Awards, please text me by Sunday morning of each week. If it is a good one, I will ask you to even write a summary and give you credit in this write-up.

Happy tailgating!