Villanova Tailgate Wrap-Up:
-Lot 1 College Park
My take on the tailgate:
“Opps…sorry….damn…sorry…my bad….almost…..got it ”
-Bob Wevodau playing flip cup
Overall:
The other day I was killing some time and decided to read some of the old recaps from the 2006 season. I started off with the William and Mary game and then went down the line from there, but what I remembered most about that recap was how I said something along the line “Tailgating for Maryland Football was even more fun than I remembered”, and as I was re-reading that last week, I was thinking to myself, gosh that came across a little more corny than I would have liked, but now I can remember why I wrote that.
To hang out with people you don’t get to see as often as you like, and just kill 6 hours, talk sports, play drinking games, and grill out, what more can you ask for? It keeps you going, it keeps you young, and it gives you an excuse to blow off the real world for a day. It’s hard to get offers and invitations all fall long only to pass saying “Sorry that’s the Villanova game, can’t make it”. To the outsider, they can’t figure out why a game verse a DIAA opponent is something you block out your calendar for. What they don’t realize is that you aren’t anticipating the lopsided victory, your anticipating the just so special mix of tradition, gambling, immaturity, inappropriate cursing, alcohol, and friends, that you can only capture a half dozen times a year. Oh sure you can have a big party and get together to watch the FSU game, and though it will still be fun and worth while, it just won’t bring back the same kind of memories as the ones that are made with the back drop of Lot 1 in the background.
Football’s back, Tailgatings back, we’re 1-0, UVA’s 0-1, and really what more can you ask for on September 3rd?
Tailgate Highlights:
There really was no watershed moment, no event that when it happened I made a mental note in my mind saying “That’s it, there’s my highlight”. But that doesn’t necessarily reflect badly on the Tailgate overall. It was solid. We played beer pong, horse racing, LRC, and flip cup which is a pretty full day. Everything went smoothly, which leads me to my first option.
It is tough to give a highlight out to an event that never occurred, but this years Villanova game was strangely lacking the Big Brother feel of most tailgates. Not once did I see any campus police come by our tailgate. Maybe they are saving up their over time for the bigger games of the year, like say for example WVU, but no one gave us any grief. Thanks to Jason’s effort we now have a better understanding of why we get targeted and what we can do to stem the encounters we have, but yesterday none was needed. The Campus police were no where to be found, and as much as they are just doing their job, it sure made things a lot less stressful for the drinking games.
Another highlight was the Michigan-Appalachian State game. Why is that a highlight at our tailgate? Well for one every time anyone saw someone on their cell phone they just had to scream at that person “What’s the Michigan score now?”. And amazingly every time that person reported good news. Of course there was that one call that deflated the whole party when they reported Michigan scored a late TD to take the lead, but that was quickly followed by the news we were all waiting for. Michigan’s chances for a National Championship were over before Labor Day. It’s one of those things that’s funny because it happened to someone else, and since we aren’t Michigan, that makes it hilarious!
But I think the highlight of the day may go to the lack of bees at the tailgate. Did anyone else notice this? I didn’t see a bee all day. I never had to look into my beer to make sure I had the all clear before sipping. Now as beneficial as those insects are, they really don’t serve any purpose at tailgates. So that is what I’m going with for the highlight.
Tailgate Lowlights:
This one is all me. I can’t speak for everyone, but I probably can speak for most in that the tailgate lowlight for me was the LRC game. I mean from the get go we knew our side of the table was going to get shafted. Every roll whittled us further and further down, while the other side of the table was eating up our chips like a fat man at a Super Bowl Party. And though they say in LRC you are never out of it until the last chip was gone. With about 8 chips left, me and everyone to my right and left knew it was over. And we were right. Congratulations to Surin who could barely roll the dice, he had so many chips in his way all day.
Flip Cup Results:
This was brutal. Jason, Jen, Snively, Erin, and I DOMINATED which was kind of amazing considering they all had to carry me, on what was probably one of my worst flip cup performances in quite some time. The South side of the table complained about how we had an unfair advantage after our 4-0 shellacking, so we switched sides, and as it turned out they were right. Once we moved, we were only able to win 4-1. It was definitely harder on the south end. The ribbon for those who also participated goes to Juanita (yes that’s correct) Surin, Justin, Jen’s mom, and J.
We thank you, because just like the Harlem Globetrotters, we’d be nothing without our Washington Generals.
The “Save the Terrapin” Drive:
I’m pretty impressed with the Terrapin drive so far. We only played one game of LRC, and one horse racing game, yet we still raised over 37$. The general consensus is that we will again donate to the “Save the Terrapin Drive”. If someone would like to suggest something else, please send me a written proposal outlining your ideas and the reason we should adopt it. Since everyone is too lazy to do that, we’ll just keep it as is. Despite that the Terrapin Institute no longer has to buy turtles back from watermen, there is still plenty of opportunities for donations, afterall the fight to restore the terrapin’s population is just beginning.
Tailgate MVP:
Curse the day I ever made this award up. I can’t win with this thing. I am going to cop out and say there was no Tailgate MVP. Everyone stepped up, and everyone did their job. Everyone that could be there early was on time, and even the late comers weren’t that late. If we can do this week in and week out we are going to have a great season.
The next tailgate will be September 13th. Those Thursday night games really provide a lot of opportunity for someone to rise, and someone to fall. I’m almost positive we’ll have an MVP after that one, so stay tuned. I can only use the “Everyone wins” line once a year, so I’ve painted myself into a corner early.
Honorable Mention (in no particular order):
If there is no MVP then there really shouldn’t be an honorable mention, because that would indicate that that particular person was below everyone since everyone won the MVP. Are you following? Anyway, this isn’t an Honorable Mention award, but I will use this space to congratulate Snively on his QB Challenge win. The way things are going lately, he may want to re-enroll and try to walk on.
Miscellaneous
I’m not sure about how I feel with this one, but I’ll throw it out there. I was thinking on the way home that the biggest complaint I had about the tailgate was how it seemed to rush by. By the time we got all the games out, it seemed as if we were rushed to get everything in. Now I don’t want to plan the fun out of everything, which is certainly a concern, but for the WVU tailgate, which is going to be shortened as is, I was thinking that as soon as we get there and have a decent amount of people, we jump into horse racing. After that it’s LRC, than finish up with flip cup. In between we can play beer pong. I really enjoy the games and the games we play allow for maximum participation (which is key!), so maybe we can get them out earlier so we can play until we’ve had our fill instead of rushing through them at the end. Just a thought, we can take it or leave it.
Conclusion
Next tailgate is September 13th. It’s going to be big. We’ll see the return of Bix and possibly a Forrest sighting. Also B Lee should be back. Until then, don’t forget:
- Bees are great pollinators, not partiers
- Four great flip cuppers can carry one bad flipper
- Never take a Div I AA opponent for granted
- If one Lot 1 pass is good, then 3 is really, really, really good
Till then………….