2016 DFT Schedule

Date Time Conference Teams 1-Sep MWC Weber State at Utah State 2-Sep Big 12 NW State @ Baylor 3-Sep 2:30 Central SEC UCLA @ T A&M 4-Sep 6:30 Central B 12 Notre Dame at Texas 10-Sep MWC Portland State @ SJSU 17-Sep 6:30 Central Big 12 Ohio State @ Oklahoma 24-Sep BIG Iowa at Rutgers 1-Oct BIG Minnesota @ PSU 5-Oct 7:00 Central SBC Ga Southern at Arkansas State 6-Oct AAC Temple at Memphis 8-Oct SEC Bama @ Arkansas 15-Oct 7:00 Central BIG Ohio State @ Wisconsin 21-Oct 7:30 Pacific PAC 12 Oregon  at Cal 22-Oct off Couch Bound Saturday 29-Oct ACC BC @ NC State  1-Nov MAC WMU @ Ball State or BGSU @ NIU 2-Nov MAC Toledo @ Akron 3-Nov MAC Buffalo @ Ohio 4-Nov MAC CMU @Miami 5-Nov SEC UGA @ Kentucky or BYU @ Cincy 12-Nov FCS Portland State @ Sac State 17-Nov AAC Louisville  @ Houston 19-Nov Big 12 OK State at TCU 26-Nov OFF Family Time 3-Dec 3:00 PAC 12 PAC 12 Ship 10-Dec INDY Army Navy TBD Bowl Games

This Is The End

Darth Saban

Congratulations to Coach Darth Saban and the Evil Empire (the Alabama Crimson Tide) for winning their fourth National Championship in seven years. Forest G and My Jenny were heard to be partying up a storm in Greenbow, AL last night after the epic win by his Alma Mater. Clemson gave the mighty Tide everything they had and then some. Many will claim that they even outplayed Bama but forgot to score more points. So in the end, that is the only thing that matters. Clemson QB Deshaun Watson did his part in throwing for over 400 yards and running for another 70. The Clemson Defense bottled up Heisman winner Derrick Henry save for his one 50 yard burst for a score in the first quarter. Defensive Ends Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd repeatedly put pressure on Bama QB Jake Coker all night. Coker was able to do enough at the right times when it most counted. You have to also play Special Teams as Bama caught Clemson off guard with a perfectly executed on side kick in the fourth quarter that resulted in an eventual touchdown. Kenyon Drake ran a kickoff back 95 yards for a score after Clemson had kicked a field goal as well. Bama TE OJ Howard had a breakout game with five catches for 208 yards and two TDs. Final score Alabama 45 – Clemson 40.

"Bama Bob' Hora, Nor Cal Chapter President of  Roll Tide Roll

Major props go to North Dakota State for winning their 5^th straight D1AA (FCS) Championship. No college football team at any level has ever accomplished this feat. The Bison thoroughly dominated Jacksonville State from start to finish.

Bison Bob and Julie Baumgardner showing us they know how to count at the FCS Championship

 A recap of the DFT 2015 Journey

• Triple header opening weekend with games at UConn, *Illinois and Northwestern
• 5 dry days in Utah with my teetotaler brother watching games at Utah and BYU and a side trip to Bryce Canyon
• Annual Backyard ND Tailgate and dedication ceremony for Fritz’s chair at DB&G
• The wet and wild southern journey with games at UVA, ODU and the epic weekend in Athens, GA with lodgings in Arthur Fonzarelli’s garage apartment (2015 Anchor game) for the Bama at UGA game.
• The DFT brick unveiling at the CFB HOF
• UC Davis (D1AA) “Straight outta Danville”
• Homecoming at Frostburg State, tailgate in the snow.
• University of Arizona weekend
• USC @ Cal where we never made it into the stadium
• Dads Weekend at Oklahoma
• Harvard/Yale
• Boise at SJSU and ND at Stanford on Thanksgiving weekend
• Army/Navy
• Foster Farms Bowl
• Rose Bowl

* game cancelled due to lightning

 ·        11 new Stadiums (8 D1 A, 2 D1 AA, 1 D3)

·         19 attempted games, one canceled and one I can’t explain my whereabouts.

·         Largest Army/Navy, ND @ Stanford and SJSU Tailgates to date.

·         Introduction to Fireball

·         Sautéed Lobster Tails at 2 different Tailgates

Overall CFB Season Highlights:

• Tanner Mangum’s miracle touchdowns against Nebraska and Boise State in the first 2 weeks.
• Cliff Kingsbury verbally abusing Brett Bielema in a presser
• Michigan State’s improbable win against Michigan after a botched kick attempt.
• Miami’s winning rugby play against Duke with multiple infractions that were incurred.
• The dance craze switching from the Nae Nae and the Whip to Dabbing.
• Spurrier and O’Leary quitting mid-season because their teams sucked.
• Frank Beamer retiring.
• The drama that is USC.
• Baker Mayfield resurrecting Oklahoma.
• Christian McCaffrey being the second coming of Reggie Bush.
• The AAC giving the Power 5 conferences a push.
• The Big Ten becoming relevant again.
• The fall of Leonard Fournette from being the lock on the Heisman and the rise of Derrick Henry winning it.
• LSU AD hanging Les Miles out to dry
• The long strange trip of the Nkmediche Brothers.
• Dabo’s free pizza party.
• 25% of Head coaching jobs turning over by season’s end.

Bieber Honorees on the season:

Off Season – UAB for killing program and then reviving it.

Week 0 – Sark for the drunk presser, ESPN for suspending Curt Schilling, Illinois players for being whiney and getting their coach fired.

Week 1 – The Meth heads at the University of Florida for robbing the NMSU team bus during the game.

Week 2 – Drunk Utah State Fan at Utah that got escorted out.

Week 3 – Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood for encouraging a teacher to change a player’s grade.

Week 4 – TCU players for robbing a fellow student and beating him for a case of Keystone Lite.

Week 5 – The fan that refuses to sit at the game and stands right in front of you.

Week 6 – Auburn’s “disrespected” Duke Williams for punching out Bar employees and security.

Week 7 – Pat Haden for firing Sark when he did.

Week 8 – The kid who puked on the bar in Arizona after chugging fireball.

Week 9 – Coaches that quit during the season like Spurrier and O’leary because they are losing.

Week 10 – Bad Referees.

Week 11 – CFP so called talking head experts such as David Pollack and Jason Seahorn.

Week 12- Multiple – Zeke Elliot, Heather Dinich, Harvard Alumni, Kevin O’Connor, SEC schedule.

Week 13 - LSU AD Joe Alleva for hanging Les Miles out to dry.

Week 14 – No awardee.

Week 15 - Steve Sarkisian for his lawsuit against USC.

Bowl Recap Week – Stanford Band at the Rose Bowl.

Bieber of the year – Steve Sarkisian (The third USC Coach to win the annual honor).

Bieber Hall of Fame Class of 2016 Inductees:

Pete Carrol

Mark May

Craig James

Gordon Gee

Scam Newton

Vontaze Burfict

Johnny Manziel

Lane Kiffin

Jameis Winston

Steve Sarkisian

Major games on slate for next year:

Weber State @ Utah State

 ND @ UT (Horns down)

TOSU @ Oklahoma (family trip)

Alabama @ Arkansas (Sooweeeeeee with my High School crew)

TOSU @ Wisconsin (anchor game to learn the Jump Around with a large DFT crew)

TOSU @ PSU (Happy Valley)

Williams @ Amherst (The biggest little game in America)

Army/Navy (Simply the best rivalry)

BC @ either Wake Forest or NC State

I have been approached by an on line publication called Stadium Journey to write reviews of the different venues I attend. I will start with some College Hoops this season and continue with football games that I attend each autumn. I will send links out and will encourage my loyal audience to generate some revenue for me by reading my write ups! Don't worry, I will still do my weekly DFT posts throughout the season too. As the good times had to stop for Jim Morrison, they also have come to an end for DFT 2015:

Bowl Recap - 40 down, 1 to go

Nothing sez Merry Christmas Dad like a bunch of drinking and tailgate apparatuses! #mydaughtersknowmetoowell pic.twitter.com/hlvJvRszz5

— Dan Donnelly (@Dantailgater) December 25, 2015

For many schools, the Bowl Season is a reward for having a winning season. This year with forty one Bowls consisting of eighty teams, the Bowl Gods had to dip deep into the gridiron well by grabbing a slew of teams with .500 records and three teams with 5-7 records. Most of the early bowls played to empty audiences much like Hillary at an NRA rally or the Donald at an Anger Management seminar. The one exception was the Holy War between BYU and Utah in the Vegas Bowl (Odd place for a gathering of the Mormon faithful). Of course this was also year two of the College Football Playoff that would bring real meaning to the post season, and New Year’s Eve with the semifinals being played in Miami and Dallas.

Drubaca attacking Miss Utah at the Holy War

The Fullington/Heins crew braving the snow at New Mexico Bowl

A local contingent of the DFT crew enjoyed the Foster Farm Bowl at Santa Clara the day after Christmas to witness the 5-7 Nebraska Cornhuskers take down the UCLA Bruins 37-29. The crew consisted of Bruin Alums John Maddalon and Tony Seber and their familias, the Tim Pollock Panda Pride and Dan.
 

Salute to the Foster Farms Bowl!

Chef Panda firing up some vittles.

 

Christie torturing a UCLA Fan.

The Pandas, Maddalons, Sebers and Dan

 

Bears of a feather.....

The coolest Christmas gift goes to Sooner fan Luke Munding

For the main Bowl season event, we made our way down to So Cal New Year’s Eve for the 102^nd Rose Bowl game and 127^th Parade of Roses. We were joined by DFT loyalists Sneezy and Monica Rabago and legendary BC Eagle Tailgaters Pops and Peggy Leblanc. After arriving at our lodgings in Santa Clarita we performed a dry run for the main event the next day by room-gating with pizza and libations only to watch our Oklahoma Sooners flame out against a better prepared Clemson Tiger team in the Orange Bowl. Oh well, so much for me going to the National Championship game in Phoenix, “wait till next season!” New Year’s Eve dinner was celebrated at Larsen’s Steak House in Valencia over a side of beef, good wine and the Bama blowout of Sparty in the other Semifinal in Dallas. New Year’s morning had us departing the hotel at zero dark thirty to arrive in time to watch the Rose Parade in downtown Pasadena. I highly recommend this to see once in your lifetime, and only once as I am not much of a floral enthusiast!  

My Favorite float in the parade...here comes the King here comes the big #1!

The Rose Bowl by far is the best organized and well run Bowl in America. Every true college football fan must attend it at least once in their lifetime. We had our tailgate up and running in no time on the driving range of Brookside Golf course adjacent to the stadium. Joining us for the ho-down was my cousin Teen and her husband Dr. Eric Glassy. We dined in style with sautéed lobstuh tails, crab cakes, assorted sides, Bloody Mary’s washed down with a few beer funnels of suds. In fact, the pre-game gathering was so much fun we did not make it into the Granddaddy of Them All until the second quarter. We were even provided our own private flyover of the stealth jet buzzing our tent. 

The good Doctor and his thirsty bride

Patsy's Girls

 

What better way to start the year.

Protection; never leave home without it!

 

Mrs tailgate and her twin Monica

Pops the gourmet Tailgate Chef

 

The first couple of Tailgate

Not a good idea to torment the chef if you want to eat

 

The Rabago welcoming committee

The Leblancs under the iconic sign

 

Cousins

The Stealth flyover

 

The Rose Bowl DFT crew

As most already know, the game was over by the time we entered the stadium as Stanford and its one man wrecking crew of Christian McCaffery held a commanding 28-0 lead. It’s a good thing they served something other than soda in the venue to keep things.... shall we say entertaining? The throngs of Iowa faithful who outnumbered the StanNerd crowd by a margin of two to one were quiet and maudlin. To add insult to injury, we had to witness another despicable performance by the Stanford scatter band at halftime. More on that below. Stanford ended up winning handily 45-16 with C- Mac setting all kinds of ridiculous records.
 

Panoramic shot of the Granddaddy of them all

 

Sharing a fresca at the game

Bowl Recap:

Bowl	Outcome
New Mexico Bowl	Arizona 45  New Mexico 37
Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl	Utah 35  BYU 28
Camelia Bowl	Appalachian St 31  Ohio 29
Cure Bowl	San Jose State 27  Georgia State 16
New Orleans Bowl	Louisiana Tech 47 Arkansas State 28
Miami Beach Bowl	Western Kentucky 45  South Florida 35
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl	Akron 23  Utah State 21
Boca Raton Bowl	Toledo 32  Temple 17
Poinsettia Bowl	Boise State 55  Northern Illinois 7
Godaddy Bowl	Georgia Southern 58  Bowling Green 27
Bahamas Bowl	Western Michigan 45 Middle Tennessee 31
Hawaii Bowl	San Diego State 42 Cincinnati 7
Saint Petersburg Bowl	Marshall 16  UConn 10
Sun Bowl	Wazzou 20  Miami 14
Heart of Dallas Bowl	Washington 44  Southern Miss 31
Pinstripe Bowl	Duke 44  Indiana 41
Independence Bowl	VA Tech 55  Tulsa 52
Foster Farms Bowl	Nebraska 37  UCLA 29
Military Bowl	Navy 44  Pitt 28
Quicklane Bowl	Minnesota 21  Central Michigan 14
Armed Forces Bowl	California 55  Air Force 36
Russel Athletic Bowl	Baylor 49  North Carolina 38
Arizona Bowl	Nevada 28  Colorado State 23
Texas Bowl	LSU 56  Texas Tech 27
Birmingham Bowl	Auburn 31  Memphis 10
Belk Bowl	Mississippi State 51 NC State 28
Music City Bowl	Louisville 27  Texas A&M 21
Holiday Bowl	Wisconsin 23  USC 21
Peach Bowl	Houston 38  Florida State 24
Orange Bowl	Clemson 37  Oklahoma 17
Cotton Bowl	Alabama 38  Michigan State 0
Outback Bowl	Tennessee 45  Northwestern 6
Fiesta Bowl	Ohio State 44  Notre Dame 28
Citrus Bowl	Michigan 41  Florida 7
Rose Bowl	Stanford 45  Iowa 16
Sugar Bowl	Ole Miss 48  Oklahoma State 20
Taxslayer Bowl	Georgia 24  Penn State 17
Liberty Bowl	Arkansas 45  Kansas State 23
Alamo Bowl	TCU 47  Oregon 41
Cactus Bowl	WVU 43  Arizona State 42

If Oregon hadn't given up those last 5 touchdowns they would have been fine

— Fake Bo Pelini (@FauxPelini) January 3, 2016

Bieber Award – Perhaps the most egregious Bieberosity of the year occurred in front of my eyes at halftime of the Rose Bowl. Once again, the not funny, not talented, loser riddled, elitist Stanford Band attempted to make a mockery of people from Iowa. The Collective “Stains on the bed sheets of life” had been suspended from performing at road games all year by the PAC 12 for past bad behavior but were permitted to come to the Rose Bowl. Mind you, this is an uber liberal university that has safe zones and prides itself on an anti- bullying platform. However, they think it is fine to make fun of other people. They attempted in their perverse nerdy way to make fun of farmers (I guess these idiots think their food comes from Google and Facebook and not the heartland) by doing a skit of a farmersonly.com dating service. They also adorned several geeks in a cow costume and tried to emulate cow tipping. This was probably the closest some of the Stanturd males have ever been to a female in their lives. In fact the cow was better looking than all of the Stanford female band nerds. At one point they attempted to make a sad farmer face out of their members, however it looked more like a self- portrait of themselves representing male genitalia. It is a shame as I have much respect for the football product Stanford puts on the field. However their mascot and band are a poor reflection on their school and program. It’s no wonder Harbaugh couldn’t wait to bolt. Well Stanturd Band, next year when you are home on New Year’s Day and your team is at the Rose Bowl, your consolation will be the first Bieber Award of 2016!

My season is over, however I will be watching the FCS Championship game Saturday on TV and of course the big game on 1/11 between Clemson and Bama. I will do my final write up of the year after next Monday.

Happy Tailgating!