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Clemson Tailgate Wrap-Up:

      - Lot 1, College Park, MD 
 

Tailgate Quote:   

“I’m not drafting a flip cup team…I’m forming a flip cup family!”

-Bob (what I meant to say during my botched inspirational speech)

Overall: 
 

The picture at the top won’t make sense until later you read some more, but the theme I’m going for is the perfect Maryland day.  Back when I had no responsibility (aka College) me, Tyson, and my friend Nate stumbled into what we now refer to as “Guys All Time Summer Fantasy Day”.  We began the day playing golf, then about the 3^rd hole someone called with free Orioles tickets (this was back when that was a big deal).  Then after the game we headed to College Park for Derek Taylor’s bachelor party (details omitted).   It was basically all any guy could ask for on a Summer Day.

And that’s pretty much how the Clemson game day went.  We woke up to the sound of tabs being opened on Bud Light cans, then played drinking games all day followed by one of the most memorable Maryland games of the season.  And then afterwards we enjoyed the rest of the day drinking beer (well soda for me at that point) on the South River while eating crabs.  Throw in the fact that it was October and night time and we were all wearing shorts and short sleeves while on the water, and you’ve got a day that is tough to beat.

Dare I say it was about as perfect a fall day as you can have in the Old Line State.  In fact by the time it ended, I was a changed man.  I could see all the positives in a noon kick off, I could see how we could weasel our way into the Conference Championship game, I could see why living in Maryland can sometimes be taken for granted.  All was right with the world.  Though I won’t go on explaining the difference between post Rutgers Tailgate Bob, and post Clemson game Bob, I will say that this particular day won’t soon be forgotten. 

Survivor Flip Cup

Let’s just jump right in with this.  I know a lot of people read these things (mainly to see their own name) and I really appreciate the comments and feedback.  And though no one has ever come right out and said it, the Flip Cup stuff is probably what is driving your patronage (is that the right word?).  If we were the Fox Sunday Night Line up in the early 90’s, Flip Cup would be the Simpsons, and everything else would be those other shows that I can’t recall from that era.  So to reward you for your loyal readership, I’m going to jump right into Survivor Flip Cup.  So here goes:

The next challenge for me is going to be how to translate these stats into something meaningful.  I’m thinking you get a W for all those you beat, and an L for all those you lose to and then you get a winning percentage.  If anyone has any other ideas though, I would sure like to hear them. 

Punt, Pass, and Kick:

Having a child must really be wrecking havoc on J.  Not that I’m one to talk, but PPK use to be J’s event.  The trophy is covered in “J’s” but lately he has been slipping.  First it was Pete who made a chink in the armor, and now it’s Chris.  For the first time since the trophy was foraged in my garage…ok it wasn’t made in my garage, it was actually pulled from a rock deep in the woods of Cecil County during a Hurricane while angels sang, but for the first time in a long time Chris is back on the trophy.  Chris however, didn’t just win, he also set the bar for the All Time PPK Record.  Scratch out 43, and Pencil in 44!

Now once would be good enough for most of us, but this day things were a little different.  After regular PPK, we followed it up with a game of Left handed/footed PPK.  Chris and I actually tied in this version but he was able to put me away in the first ever Left handed/footed PPK Overtime.  His total of 23 was enough to take home another title, I guess it was his day.

Miscellaneous

I just want to congratulate J on winning a brand new T-shirt.  What’s that you say, how did J win a T-shirt?  Well funny you ask.  For those who do not know, we don’t just do the D7 website anymore, and we don’t just do Turtledroppings.com, we also contribute to Raycomsports.com’s Terrapin Blog page.  Check it out when you have a chance.  Chris and I each do one post a week to their site.  How does this relate to J and his new T-shirt?  Well Raycom is giving away T-shirts each month to people who read the blogs and leave comments.  This past month one of those winners was JJH!  So you too can win a T-shirt by checking out Chris and I’s posts, and leaving a comment.  For each comment we receive our posts popularity increases, so you aren’t just making yourself eligible for prizes, but you are also helping us out.  And also feel free to leave comments on other posts as well.  That’s all I just wanted to congratulate J, and thank him for supporting our endeavor.

Horse Racing

Horse Racing made it’s 2009 debut this week.  We got in 3 regular races followed by the Double Up Derby at the end.  Though the football game didn’t go her way, the gambling did.  LeAnne had a winning horse in every single race, including 3 in the Double Up Derby.  Here’s how things panned out.

Race 1 Winners: Chris, Lee, Meagan, and Beth each won $4

Race 2 Winners: Chris, Lee, Brian, and Mary each won $5.75

Race 3 Winners:  Lee, Bob, Meagan, and Jason each won $6.50

Race 4 Winners:  Lee (x 3 for $19.50), and Matt for $6.50

Coffin Corner:

No CC this week.   

Flip Cup Results:

And here we are.  The main event.  It was a little tough with the late start this week, but we were able to get in 6 series with the inclusion of the Survivor Match, which you can’t sleep on.  The thing about Flip Cup for me is that I feel like less of a fan for not being in my seat when the Football Game starts, yet at the same time, I’ve never regretted playing that last series.  I’m actually still waiting for the day when we start playing Flip Cup for the Entire 6 hours of tailgating.  I don’t think it is too far off at this rate.  Anyway, let’s get into the Series:

The First Series:  I can’t remember if these teams were picked, or if they just sort of formed.  My notes are not that detailed, in fact I’m always amazed whenever I gleam any useful piece of information from them.  Regardless Team Coke was made up of Meagan, Frank, Justin, Jason, Bob, Colleen, Shannon, and Lee.  Team Pepsi was made up of J, Chris, E, Matthew, Matt, Mary, Beth, and Surin.  Team Coke jumped out to an early lead winning game 1, 2, and 3 before finally suffering a hiccup in game 4.  But order was restored in game 5 and Coke was truly better than Pepsi on this day.  

The Second Series: The second series was basically the same, so we’ll keep the same names.  However Team Coke added Jeff, and Team Pepsi added Aaron.  I have no idea who these guys are or who they came with, where they were from, etc.  But they were cool and didn’t screw anything up, and that is fine by me.  Anyway, I don’t know which team got the better deal in the Jeff/Aaron acquisition, but Coke needed an extra game to  win it, so that could be a nod in Aaron’s favor.  Coke won 2, then Pepsi rallied to tie it after game four, but then Coke won two more in a row to put this one on ice (you like that pun, pretty good huh!).

The Third Series: Now I’m pretty sure these teams were picked.  I don’t know who the other captain was, but I can at least remember that I was one of them.  My team, who I’ll call the William Wallace All Stars was made up of Bob, Matt, Mary, Lee, E, Jeff, Aaron, Matthew, and J.  The Edward the Longshanks Henchmen were made of Beth, B Lee, Surin, Chris, Justin, Colleen, Meagan, Jason, and one unidentifiable name. I’m thinking it could be Chris D, if so I need to change his overall standings and give him 2 more wins.  Anyway, I was quite proud of my team that I put together, and my feelings were justified after we took home game one.  But that was to be our highlight as, just in real life, Longshanks Henchmen tore the innards out of the WWAS’s.  4-1. 

The Fourth Series:  Same teams, but were they really?  Beth had been a liability all day, but something happened after the first two games and she went from a last round pick to a shut down queen.  Much to my chagrin. Just like the third Series WWAS’s came out strong winning 2 in a row, but just like the Movie, in the end ETLH just overwhelmed them.  They won not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 in a row to bring this one to an end. 

The Fifth Series: Again we mixed up the teams.  This one saw Team Oreo vs. Team Hydrox.  The Oreo’s were made up of Colleen, Bix, Justin, Bob, Beth, Meagan, Madra and B Lee.  The Hydrox were made up of Matthew, Jason, Chris D, Pete, Matt, Lee, Mary, and J.  As always, the team I was on raced out of the starting gate claiming both games 1 and 2, but the Hydrox ate up games 3, 4, 5, and 6 to make sure there would be no deciding 7^th game. 

The Sixth Series:  And finally, the last match up.  This one was between Team Bounty, and Team Charmin.  Bounty had Pete, Meagan, Lee, Matthew, J, Beth, Justin, Bob, and Chris D.  Team Charmin had Mary, Chris, Madra, Juanita, Colleen, B Lee, Surin, Matt, and Jason.  Now stop and look at these teams for a second.  This is an 18 person Flip Cup game beginning as the football game is kicking off.  You can say what you want about anything, but no one can say D7 is not passionate about Flip Cup!  Anyway, we went the whole day without a game 7 and this proved no different.  Bounty, like all the teams I was on, came out strong.  Then Charmin won games 4 and 5 to turn a potential rout into a death match.  But the Quicker Picker Uppers managed to shake off their nerves to claim a Series win in game 6.  Interestingly enough, my note pad had a game 8 written down if needed.  Interesting score keeping on my part. 

Below are the season standings.  Still plenty of time left to make your move. I think there are at least 6 people who could win this thing.  Probably more depending on how things shake out, but luckily for flip cup, we are only halfway through the season.  

The “Save the Terrapin (tailgaters)” Drive:

I don’t even know what to call this thing anymore.  I guess it’s just a general fund.  Since we played Horse Racing this week, we actually got a little bit of green in the tin.  Unfortunately I left the tin in Pete’s car, so I have no idea how much money we raised.  I’m guess it is around 20$ or so. 

Tailgate MVP:

As you can see some of these categories, like Highlight and Lowlights I’m just going to pull out when necessary, I can’t say with certainty that there were any highlights or lowlights.  The MVP is also a category I’m thinking of dropping, but if I were to do that, I think there may be some backlash, so I plan on keeping it for the time being. 

With that, this week’s MVP was Bixler.  Chris won the PPK (with both feet), and he traveled down from Boston.  But what is most important is that he bought Pete and I two dozen Crabs.  If you are looking to be the MVP one day, please take note! 

Honorable Mention (in no particular order): 

Shannon gets honorable mention this week.  I guess I somehow failed to mention her in the last recap which was a terrible over site by me.  It is nice to see Shannon (and Matthew) week in and week out.  She is definitely the #1 female D7’er.  Thanks Shannon, and though literally speaking it’s easy to over look someone so short, figuratively speaking it’s much tougher. 

Reminder:

I just want to point out that our next tailgate is the Pumpkin Carving Contest.  Please participate, though I must admit the thought of some of you with knives is a little worrisome.  I am going to work on getting some really great prizes this year that will reward participation more so than winning.  Winning is it’s own reward, but anyone who puts in the time to do a pumpkin deserves something nice.  After I finish this up, I’ll look online for some participation awards. I also want to point out, we have a 4:00 pm start.  We may have to do the judging after the game, but at least we have a shot at some darkness for the candle lighting.  

Conclusion

First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming.  I don’t know why I’m thanking people because it isn’t my tailgate, but I’m the only one who is in a position to write about it.  But as we waxed nostalgically about the days events over crabs, Chris re-iterated what we already know.  No one flies or drives all the way to College Park for Football.  Its to hang out with everyone.  I especially love the season because lets face it.  How can any of us grow apart when we spend 6 to 7 Saturdays a year re-living the glory days?  It’s also nice to see our football team with a pulse. 

So until then, don’t forget:

·        Next week is pumpkin carving.

·        PPK isn’t just for northpaws any more

·        18 man flip cup matches are more common than you think

·        And every once in a while, our football team can surprise ya!

Let’s beat Wake this weekend and meet back in Lot 1 for Homecoming on the 17^th.  Until then GoTerps!