Wacky Wilvawee Weekend!

In what is known as rivalry weekend, the two days following turkey day did not disappoint this year. We will get to the games in a moment, but first the narcissist in me must discuss what the hell I did this weekend. (Also, you are correct. I failed again last week to send out an article. This is a possible Bieber infraction.).

For the tenth time since 2001, I made my way to “The Farm” in Palo Alto for the Notre Dame/Stanford game. It took me three and a half hours from our new place in Cali to get there with the Thanksgiving traffic. Naturally, I passed the time listening to many of the exciting games on ESPN radio. Once in Palo Alto, I linked up with my old neighbor Drubaca at the patio bar for a quick beer and loaded tater tots. Then we embarked on a brisk one mile walk to meet the Harkin clan from Donegal, Ireland in the Masters Grove for a few more pops. 

Notre Dame owns "The Farm" once again!

As is customary, more than half the stadium was filled with Notre Dame fans sporting their green colors and a healthy glow from their tailgates. After several first quarter turnovers that put Notre Dame in a brief hole, the Irish dominated play for the next two plus quarters, rolling to a 56-23 smackdown of the lowly Cardinal. Notre Dame’s offense was led by Jerome Bettis’ Clone, Audric Estime, who ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns. I also finally got to see Sam Hartman play live after several failed attempts since tracking his career from his high school days on the Netflix series QB1. Oh, and what would a Stanford game be without me ranting about how disgusting and vile that joke of a so-called scatter band is? They remain an absolute disgrace to a very integral part of college football. The drive home was much shorter with no nighttime traffic and another helping of Thanksgiving dinner awaiting me.

Around the country: In a weekend full of close rivalry games, it depends on your personal loyalties  as to which game was the best — but there was definitely no shortage of exciting matchups. In what is called “The Game,'' we saw Ryan “Charmin” Day lose once again to a Michigan team whose head coach was in timeout. My sister stated that Ryan Day looks like he kicks dogs. This most likely eliminates the overrated Buckeyes from playoff contention and possibly cryin Ryan from his current employment status. The only thing that makes me happier is watching Lincoln Riley lose (sorry SC friends).

In the Iron Bowl, Alabama pulled off what will now be called the “Milroe Miracle.” Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe threw a 40 yard strike to the corner of the end zone to his stud receiver Isaiah Bond for a come-from-behind 27-24 win over their hated rival Auburn. The #1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs struggled in the game known as “Good Old Fashioned Hate” against the Nerds from Georgia Tech. The Dawgs squeaked by with a 31-23 victory, their 29th straight.

 In the Apple Cup, it took a late field goal for the Huskies to narrowly secure another win to remain undefeated on the season. Final score UW 24, WSU 21. In the Civil War, Oregon easily bested Oregon State 31-7. After losing, OSU head coach Jonathan Smith pulled a Lincoln Riley and bolted for Michigan State. In the Commonwealth Cup, Kentucky knocked off Louiville, eliminating any outside chance they had at crashing the playoffs. Florida State, playing without injured all world QB1 Travis Hunter, managed to come from behind and beat their in-state rival Florida 24-15. Arizona capped off their best regular season in a decade with a crushing defeat of Arizona State in the Territorial Cup. In Group of Five action, Liberty ended their regular season 12-0 with a win over UTEP, and Tulane finished their campaign with an 11-1 record and possibly a top 20 ranking. Finally, FCS, D2 and D3 playoffs also got underway this weekend.

Donnelly sibs at Navy 0n 11/15

Conference championships for next weekend:

The Final Pac 12 Ship:  Oregon vs. Washington

SEC:  UGA vs. Bama
Big 12:  Texas vs. Okie State

Big Ten:  Michigan vs. Iowon’t

ACC:  FSU vs. Louisville

AAC:  Tulane vs. SMU

MWC: Boise vs. UNLV
Sun Belt: App State vs. Troy

CUSA: Liberty vs. New Mexico State

MAC: Miami-Ohio vs. Toledo

Bieber award: … Can you guess? Once again the award goes to perennial Bieberite, the Stanford Band and their lame mascot for not entertaining or amusing me. Simply put, in the harshest of terms, they suck. No talent, no humor, no respect. In fact, they are so bad, I am going to make them crawl the length of a muddy football field to obtain their latest Bieber trophy and then crawl back to their mansions in Woodside and Atherton, CA, to put it on their mantle. Honorable mention goes to all those who bailed on joining me at Stanford.

Ginger award: Goes to Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel for playing on Friday after getting hurt the previous weekend and being listed as doubtful. Not only did he play, but he threw for 400 yards, three touchdowns and even ran one in leading the Sooners to a 69-45 shootout over TCU. Do you think the Sooner fans miss Caleb now? Look at these comparative stats:

Well done DG, and come back for one more year please!

Next up: I am off to Arlington, TX, to catch the Big 12 Championship and attend a tailgate sponsored by Tailgate Connect®. It will be hard being in a sea of all that awful orange, but I consider it a mission of mercy and charity to kick off the Christmas season.

Happy Tailgating!

Tiger Bait

 I will start off by begging for your forgiveness for not getting an article out last week. This is my first miss of the season. I did attend two games in one day in the great state of Alabama that Saturday (11/4) at UAB and the University of Alabama. Forrest Gump would have been proud of all my running around. Check out pictures below from the missed weekend.

Clockwise from top left- Utah Pig Bus Tailgaters, BC Pops & Peg enjoying the win at Cuse, The Duncan boys on opposite sides at USC/UW game and Friends of Frank Tailgate at Rutgers pre gaming!

Rollllllllllllll Tide Rolll!

This past weekend had me once again traversing the highways of the Deep South to make my third SEC matchup in as many weeks. This time, my trusty F-150 pointed me due west on Interstate 10 and took me the five hours for my third trip to Baton Rouge, LA. The purpose of the trip was to visit three of our stellar tailgates that we at Tailgate Connect offer at LSU. The Tigers were hosting the Florida Gators, and the game, of course, would be played at night in Death Valley — which is the only way to see a game there. This meant that most LSU tailgates would be well underway by 8 a.m. and folks would have their glow on by noon. As I have mentioned before, LSU is consistently one of the top tailgate experiences every year.

I arrived at 1 p.m. and started the day with our newest Tailgate,The Krewe of Damn Strong. While new to Tailgate Connect, this tailgate has been around 20 years and is run by Stephen Cannon and his family and friends. I was treated to some of the most amazing tailgate food I have ever had: Alligator sausage, meatballs, boudin, alligator piquante over a bed of noodles … Oh, and let’s not forget the stellar bread pudding. All of this was washed down with a swig of homemade moonshine, giving this tailgate a real bayou feel. 

The Damn Strong Tailgate bringing the you in Bayou! 

I then made my way to our second and third tailgates, two long-time affiliate hosts of ours, where we had over 100 customers in attendance . KOCKA and Bayou Bandits are the names. At KOCKA, I spent time with a group of 10 customers from the Boston area that were doing a guys trip in Louisiana. At the Bayou Bandits tailgate, I met a group of 12 folks who were down from Canada and having the time of their lives. We also had a bachelor party and a group of 12 guys who all went to high school together in Danville, CA, back in the last 1970s. Through it all, the Abita beer kept flowing at the Bayou Bandits party.

Bayou Bandits and KOCKA Tailgates at LSU.

Stephen, the host of the Damn Strong tailgate was beyond generous and even provided me with a ticket to the game. Way better price than what Mrs.Tailgate paid for that Colorado ticket last month :). Kickoff was at 6:30 p.m., so the 102,000 fans started making their way into Death Valley to take their seats while another 100,000 continued partying outside the stadium. I also was given a free gameday program (which are rare by the way) from the program stand guy. It must’ve been my charm or the stupid look on my face, not sure which.

LSU entered the game toting a 6-3 record,with Florida sitting at 5-4. LSU was led by one of the most dynamic players college football has seen in some time, QB1 Jaden Daniels, while Florida was captained by Wisconsin transfer QB Graham Mertz. If you have not seen Daniels play in person, you are missing out on one of the all-time greats IMHO. He did not disappoint on the night as he set a record as the only QB to throw for over 350 yards while also running for 235. The game teetered back and forth until midway through the third quarter when LSU and Daniels swung the momentum fully in the Tigers’ favor. After falling behind 28-24 early in the third, LSU ran off 28 points to Florida’s seven for a 52-35 swamp beating. If Daniels is not a Heisman finalist, I will call out the Heisman committee for being as corrupt as the Nobel Peace Prize committee. To top off an awesome game, the massive LSU marching band treated us to a patriotic Veterans Day halftime tribute.

Military halftime tribute by the marching band

Around the Country:  Michigan, absent Coach Harbaugh passed their first real test of the year by beating the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley. Out west, Oregon held on for a close win over Benedict Riley and the USC Trojans. Rumors are swirling that Lincoln is already looking to leave to protect himself when Caleb moves on to the NFL and leaves him completely exposed. (Can you tell I am still bitter about how he did Oklahoma?). In the Big 12, we witnessed Oklahoma righting their rocking ship by running wild all over the WVU Mountaineers. In the ACC, Florida State stayed perfect by scalping their in-state and conference rival, the University of Miami. I must also give the SEC a second mention as it is hard to ignore how well Georgia has been playing, winning their 27th straight game by blowing out Ole Miss 52-17. In Group of Five action, San Jose State upset Fresno State by showing them the way out of San Jose, 42-18. In Division 2 action, Frostburg State finished their season with a big win over Fairmont State completing a 7-3 campaign.

Bieber: Although there must be enough evidence that will prove Coach Harbaugh was complicit to some degree in the now notorious sign stealing scandal, he has not been officially charged. This did not stop the knee-jerk Big Ten administration from bowing to the whining of the other Big Ten schools to have ole mom pants suspended. Once upon a time in America, one was not convicted and punished until officially proven guilty. I suppose the paste eaters in the Big Ten admin skipped their classes in civics as they took it upon themselves, in an unconstitutional manner, to suspend Harbaugh from coaching on Saturdays for the rest of the season. This was not even sanctioned by the NCAA or Dean Wormer at Faber. In the words of Otter from Delta Tau Chi, “Isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? We’re not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth the United States of America!” Well, Big Ten administration, you might not have the backing of John Belushi and the rest of the Animal House, but you do have some nice, shiny new Bieberware!

Ginger: This goes to my new friend and chairman of the Damn Strong tailgate Stephen Cannon for the amazing amount of work and pride he puts into his tailgate along with his Krewe. Here is a brief video of just a snippet of what goes into his preparation each Saturday for an LSU home game:

https://youtube.com/shorts/t1VCng4TINs?si=S94T2IItycDlghwQ

Next Up:  We have the Donnelly Family and Friends Tailgate for the “Causeway Classic'' at UC Davis as they host crosstown rival Sacramento State. The tailgate will be underway by 9 a.m. with a noon kickoff.

Happy Tailgating!