Take a Bite Out of the Apple

The Tailgate made its way to Manhattan, KS, a.k.a. The Little Apple, for the epic Big 12 clash between the host Kansas State Wildcats and the visiting Sooners from Oklahoma. Coming into the match, the Wildcats had knocked off the Sooners the past two seasons. Could they make it three in a row? I was joined on this leg of my journey by my college buddy and designated driver, Jerry Buck Hampton, who now hails from the State of Virginia. This was my final Big 12 school to attend a game at, thus closing out my third Power Five conference in my quest to pre-game and attend a game at all 129 Division 1 schools.

On Saturday morning we made our way to the campus of Kansas State, parked our car and road marched to the off-campus bar area called Aggieville. Aggievillle is a lively little area with pubs, restaurants and lots of activity on a game weekend. We planted ourselves on two bar stools at Kites Bar n Grill and made friends with both purple and white and crimson and cream clad patrons. $14 all you can eat buffet, cold draft beer, Bloody Marys and TVs everywhere with games on had us not wanting to leave the cozy confines of this fine establishment. Nonetheless, we did eventually leave and made our way back toward the stadium. We made a pit stop at a tailgate hosted by Wildcat fan Luke Pauls and his family and friends. Then it was off to the stadium for a 2:30 kickoff.

Tailgating with the Cat Clan!

The skies had darkened and the air had cooled considerably with the threat of thunderstorms by the time we entered the stadium. Speaking of which, the stadium is named after legendary coach Bill Snyder and his family. In fact, the highway into Manhattan is also named after him. Coach Snyder taught this university how to be relevant in the sport of football not once but twice. He built an incredibly strong and consistent program that spanned parts of three decades over two stints at the helm. The structure of the stadium is a beautiful, intimate cathedral that has seen many upgrades in recent history. Although it is not enormous, it retains the crowd noise and makes it one of the loudest in the Big 12.

The venerable Snyder stadium and Kites Bar N Grill

The Kansas State faithful were excited on this day as their sixth year super senior QB Skylar Thompson was returning to action after being injured since week one. The student section was hopped up on purple kool-aid infused with goodness and remained loud and engaged throughout the day. The stadium was near capacity. Our seats were strategically located just below one of the in-stadium beer gardens, which I would become well acquainted with throughout the day. Kansas State came into the match with a 3-1 record and Oklahoma 4-0. Both fan bases would have you believe that neither team has played up to their potential yet this year.

The game started with KSU putting together a long drive that ended on the OU 11 yard line with a fumble that was returned by Nick Bonito all the way to the KSU 19 yard line. OU would only get a field goal off of the turnover. Skylar Thompson would lead the Cats on two scoring drives for a 10-3 lead with momentum on the side of KSU. Oklahoma would respond with 10 more points of their own to take the lead and momentum into the locker room at halftime. The much maligned OU QB Spencer Rattler put together his best performance of the year by completing 22 out of 25 passes for two touchdowns on the day. The game remained competitive throughout the second half, but OU’s offensive weapons more than made up for their own porous defensive secondary. Final score: Oklahoma 37, Kansas State 31. We made haste for our strategically located Batmobile and set course back to Kansas City.

 

 Stadium action

Around the Country - The three games that the college football world built up to be the best games of the year turned out to be snoozers with a combined score of 103-34. What three games, you ask? Alabama put down Ole Miss 41-21, UGA destroyed Arkansas 37-0 and Cincinnati topped the Golden Domers 24-13. Notable upsets saw Oregon go down on the Farm at Stanford along with the hopes of the PAC 12 making the CFB playoffs. Too bad there were no fans there to witness the Cardinal win. In the Bluegrass State, the Wildcats of Kentucky took a bite out of the Florida Gators’ season by beating them at home for the first time since Reagan was El Presidente. The Old Pirate Mike Leach and his Mississippi State Bulldogs got the best of the Aggies from Texas A&M in College Station, TX. Wake Forest behind the arm of QB1 Sam Hartman remains the only undefeated team in the ACC after slipping past the Louisville Red Birds. SMU led by Sooner transfer QB Tanner Mordecai are another Group of Five team to keep your eye on. They improved to 5-0 after dominating South Florida 41-17. In Stillwater, OK, the mulleted Mike Gundy and his Cowpokes knocked off the Baylor Bears in a battle of undefeateds.

DFTers at tailgates and games at Boise, Navy and Oregon State

Ginger -

Goes to Gavin Adcock, fifth year senior defensive lineman for Georgia Southern (GA SO), for grabbing a beer out of the air, thrown by a fan, while standing on top of the team bus and chugging it. More importantly, this was during the team’s entrance to the stadium before their game with Louisiana. If that doesn’t fire up a crowd, I don’t know what will. In fact, Webster's needs to put his picture next to the word “badass” in its good book. However, GA SO AD, Jared Benko, who happens to be Adam Schiff’s doppelganger, didn’t agree with this herculean feat. He promptly kicked Adcock off the team and was so reactionary he fired the head coach after the loss. Mind you, GA SO Head Coach, Mark Lundsford, had led the team to three straight bowl games the past three seasons. He would probably still be employed had Schiff errrr I mean Benko not have gone all “woke” on the situation. For this egregious act, Gavin gets the prestigious Ginger for doing something so cool, and Benko-Schiff gets to adore his Bieber trophy.

Next up - Couchgating with my grandson on Saturday for the Red River Shoot Out. The following weekend is Parents’ Weekend in Boulder where the Buffs will host Arizona.

 

Happy Tailgating!