Tailgate Recap: Rutgers-Kansas

Although missing several key members of our group (including our spiritual lifeblood BRES)

Big Red Elvis Andrea? 

another successful tailgate with great weather was had, followed up by a much need Rutgers victory, making for a fun filled day. Parking in an unusual location turned out to be a great place for the morning setup. Opinions still vary in the heated Black Lot versus Purple Lot debate.  It was good to see another member of the group enjoying the sun wearing their Elvis "TCB" sunglasses.

Scott and BREB cooking with Eric waiting for some grub

The early morning start with a breakfast tailgate menu was expertly prepared with Scott and Big Red Elvis Basil (BREB) handling the cooking duties, and deserving a big hand for their efforts. The amount of eggs, bacon, and pork roll cooked and eaten was more than enough to clog a few arteries.

Intense double dose of Corn Hole

The corn hole competition was spirited with several hard fought contests (including one decided by a controversial foot fault by Cheesy Damien), with two games going on simultaneously most of the morning. The regular C-hole veterans plus the addition of newcomers Conner and Tim (and a few shady looking dudes from the adjacent tailgate) made for many interesting match ups. The post game period was a mellow time, except for the adjacent Big Fun dance off, making the earth rumble under our feet, capped off by some wings and pizza at Gabrielle's.

We have a bye week next week, with the blackout game to follow the week after with Michigan State (currently ranked No. 2 nationally)  for an 8 PM BTN start. Hope to see you all there!

Group shot for Game 3 Tailgate (We really need a Rutgers tent!) 

RU- Kansas early tailgate set

Looks like we have our tailgate set for this week's RU-Kansas match up with the weather outlook excellent. The menu assignments are set with four dozen eggs, 3 dozen rolls, 2 packages of bacon, pork roll, home fries, donuts, corn muffins, etc. that should have it covered. I think everyone now has their primary ticket needs met, and we should have a group around 20 people. There may still be a ticket or two floating around, so if anyone needs another let me know ASAP.  

As my sidekick and lifeblood of our tailgate crew BRES will not be present, there will be an intern opening available this week for anyone looking for a possible future career as a tailgate concierge. Please contact the human resources department at BREPnation.com to obtain an application and be fitted for your RU tie.    

See you all at 8:45 AM at the usual spot. 

BREP

Awful at Cornhole, but GREAT on the Pitch

Only slightly intense

It's a consensus that Zach is one of B-REP Nation's weakest competitors with the heavy beanbags and scoring 3-pointers in our tailgate games of cornhole, but he's evidently scoring in abundance for West Paterson's high school team.

This kid's carrying the Hornets on his back to a 4-0 start and No. 16 ranking the The Record's Top 20.

We have not seen that kind of prowess since Basil's well-publicized run through the 7-year-old travel soccer season, B-REP's 5-for-5 with 6 beers downed in the Somerville B League adult softball, and Eric's Guinness Book record for most consecutive rollercoaster rides without throwing up after eating a tray of his jelly meatballs.

All I want to see now for a well-rounded lifestyle from Zach are some straight A's and showing up for Grilling 101 to erase that "incomplete."

Well done, Zach!

RU/Washington State Tailgate - είναι Έλληνες για μένα

Sorry I am so late to the post game, but going back almost 2 weeks to the gut wrenching loss to Washington State. Truthfully, it may have been one of the better live football games I have had the honor to be present at...but a loss is a loss. We move on.

Our tailgate was anything but gut wrenching...in fact it could not have been any more pleasing to my palette.  The term "It's Greek to me" is intended to identify an item of complexity.  While I am sure our leader Chef Bill will attest that prep for this heroic display was possibly "complex", it was quite pleasing and not "gut wrenching" (like our later experience with the game) to all who enjoyed the Gyros (or "Gyear-ose" as Bill has programmed into me over the last few years) and other fine Greek delicacies. ΩΡΑΙΑ δουλεια RU Crew (Nice work).

Kansas Tailgate.
We're down a bunch of starters this week with Bill & crew out of town and Chris & Evan also out.  But we've got B-REP back from a One Game Suspension for a violation of team rules and Eric & Andrea rejoining the squad as well.
Does the team have some fight in them without their grilling leader??  Will someone step up??
Let's find out!!

What's on the menu for the week??  Maple flavored pork products anyone?!?!

Dave
Acting Interim Associate Coach Intern

RU-Penn State Hangout Thoughts & Channeling McCloud

Our mentor, B-REP, called me this week about viewing plans for Rutgers-Penn State.

Kathy and Kaitlyn are away, so Shane and I are game if anyone wants to watch together, whether it be at my house (anyone's welcome to stay over if needed) or out somewhere.  

If anyone's interested, use the "comment" field below on the "yes/no" and "when and where."  

In this area, the Brick House near the Tinton Falls outlet mall is a pretty good spot, as is (pardon the use of another chain) Applebee's, right off GSP Exit 105.  The latter, surprisingly, has a great outdoor bar with fire pit and plenty of TVs and I'm sure would accommodate us well.   

Either way, the matchup is building up to a battle of programs going in the wrong direction...legally, so figure on another tight matchup like the 2014 season and this game maybe deciding whether we'll be .500 or above, or 2-10/3-9, this season.

Not quite the way we rolled
into Toronto, but...

Separately, there was a great piece in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that's got me thinking I'll dust off the McCloud jacket that I wore to the defunct International Bowl in Toronto some years ago.

It provided good luck then and maybe a necessary reversal of fortune this season.

Those who travelled to Toronto recall the cold conditions of Toronto in early January quite well, and my McCloud jacket kept me toasty the whole time and drew the admiration of several.  

Figure on an appearance later this year and "you're welcome!", in advance, for early winter fashion advice. Clearly I was ahead of the trend about a decade ago in picking up my shearling coat from the bankrupt Wilson's Leather store for around 30 bucks. 

Misguided hipsters and Brooklyn hipster wannabes somewhere are going to be shelling out upwards of $8,000 for one of these beauties.  Trust me, mine's not going up on eBay anytime soon.

Something tells me Dennis Weaver's (d. 2006) smiling up there somewhere.

BRES promoted for this week's tailgate!

               In my absence this week, BRES has temporarily been promoted to the position of BREP for the Wash St tailgate. From his decades of dedicated service, he has clearly earned this spot. Please afford him the same respect (hah!) you would give to me. Evan will be filling in as BRES's intern to round out the tailgate rotation. (As with Jedi, there must always be one leader and one apprentice at each RU tailgate.)  I look forward to seeing posts on how each of them did in their new roles.
BREP (except for today).

Menu Ideas For RU-Washington State

Fortunately, as a pseudo-foodie and resident of the Northeast, I do not live in Pullman, WA, where the best restaurant rated on TripAdvisor is an ice cream shop and the pickings otherwise appear slim.

Pullman, WA...near Napoleon
Dynamite's hometown

If you want to load up on ice cream sundaes on Saturday, we can do that, but the situation (digestively) could turn ugly...FAST!

Recall that earlier this year I stumbled upon a review about the gyros at a place called "Black Cypress," where it appears the menu changes regularly (and does not have gyros on it now), so we can go that route (chicken and lamb/beef) and build around a Greek/Mediterranean food theme or entirely off the board upon your suggestion.

Another concept that came up in discussion last Saturday was salmon, which we could just as well do on the grill, tapping into the broader Washington state flavor. 

Apples are the state fruit, so of course if people want to drum up a few apple-based desserts that seems to make some sense.

Let's get a discussion going and a resolution/consensus by Thursday night. 

I have no problem procuring the meats and fish, if that's helpful.

Use the comment field below.

Tailgate Recap, Looking Ahead to Washington State

Pip kickin' Dad's arse not once...
but twice!

It was great seeing everyone at Rutgers for what was a lopsided affair, and nice to have a true freshman (Steven) that we can haze during tailgates and inside the stadium.

Double Donut

Absent foot infractions by B-REP that led to a controversial win at cornhole, the Christian-Bill team dominated the boards for the better part of the morning after a fine breakfast of Jersey tomato casserole, home fries, the best glazed crumb cake on Earth and 9 dozen donuts.

Could they be any cuter?!

Really, the game outcome did not matter much -- more great times with the crew and a nice warmup for next week's game vs. Washington State.

Kickoff's 3:30 p.m. and we'll meet up at noon at Wal-Mart.

Gotta say, too, that I'm liking the black lot slightly more, as it did not seem as elbow-to-elbow as purple.

Blog's back up and running; sorry about the short outage, as evidently I did not respond to a "verification" email sent to an obscure gmail account that I never use.   Speaking of which, Larry, you need to verify in a similar fashion, so check your email.

I'll work on permissions for all this week and have some ideas for the WSU tailgate.

Everyone enjoy the rest of Labor Day weekend!

Great seeing (most) everyone

Rutgers vs. Norfolk St. Info

Good morning, B-Rep Nation!

Saturday's game vs. Norfolk State kicks off a noon, so plan on our usual meeting spot at Wal-Mart, say 9 a.m.  

Prediction: Rutgers 30, NSU -7

The forecast, surprisingly, looks outstanding (sunny, high 70s, 0% chance of rain).  I'm also going to distribute everyone's season tickets as I cannot (nor want to) maintain this big a group; the ordering stuff's easy, but I don't have time to be the broker as well in-season.

I'm not looking to do a huge amount of cooking on site, and so I'll offer to make my Jersey tomato casserole (1 egg, tomato and taylor ham, 1 veggie as well) and home fries for breakfast; I'll make enough for the group.  I'll also have the grill (new one)/propane/tools, folding table, cornhole and canopy and chairs. 

Everyone else should plan contributing either a food and/or drink item(s), so please respond w/what you're bringing for the group -- ideas: water, beer, soda, bagels and spreads, desserts, chips and dips.

Stay tuned to www.brepnation.com, as I'll post ideas for a more-extensive tailgate menu of foods based on the geography/local foods of this year's opponents. 

Reminder, too, that we now have 6 parking passes in the black lot this year, which gives us flexibility if, say, people cannot arrive early to a particular game. I don't mind holding on to most of the passes; just don't want to deal w/tickets.

So, what'cha bringing on Saturday...?