Friday, October 26, 2018

Rundown for the RU-Northwestern Homecoming - Part 1

Can you spot all the big heads in the picture? 

Oktoberfest feast!
Facing the music for no ID 
The Brepnation crew assembled yet again in the black lot for the fifth time this year with limited hope of a Scarlet Knights victory on Homecoming. To our surprise, Rutgers gave their best effort of the year on defense with Chris Ash handling the play calls, leading to a rare safety and a 12-7 halftime lead. Unfortunately the offense again wasn't able to do much in the second half, and didn't record a first down for the final 25 minutes, leading to a 18-15 Northwestern win. While the game was entertaining, there was an unusual amount of tailgate shenanigans to report on. Our annual Oktoberfest feat was its usual great success with many chipping in the different dishes and beers.

Welcome newcomer Jess! (in happier times)
 
Backup called in the handle the situation 













 Adam learned the hard way what not to do to impress Jess, attending her first tailgate, running into trouble with the local precinct. Only the desperate pleadings of his mother allowed Adam to not be carted away for lack of identification, even though he is 23. Eric even offered the cops $20 to get a picture of the perp in cuffs. (Note to BRES: In the future make sure to ask for proper ID before serving!)


Have you seen this man in the 4th quarter?
The Eric-head presentation 

In typical BREPnation crew fashion, the tailgate was only slightly sidetracked for this week's presentation of the latest head. "Three Quarters Eric" took his turn in the spotlight, receiving this major award. Known for his great generosity and making sure all have a good time, it was an award that was long overdue. In informal polling, the website 538.com has indicated that the ERIC-Head has edge out Sharon-Head as the most popular head.  In the immortal words of BRES, missing for the tailgate, but available via Skype, it was an "instant classic".

Check back soon for our second post next week for the happenings in the stadium during the game.


Coming soon...The Adventures of Audi Club Eric 

"His head is bigger than mine!"

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Homecoming Tailgate

Scarlet Knights either ready for
some football, or a big team dump
Well, after a much-needed week away from great tailgating yet grim gridiron activity, B-REP Nation will re-rally on Saturday as Rutgers hosts Northwestern for homecoming.

Nothing like a soft opponent to start the easy part of our B1G schedule.

Alright, so the Wildcats are leaders of the West division with a 3-1 league record and we're unlikely to win another game until September 2019, but let's not facts stand in the way of a good yarn.

If nothing else, the weather looks half decent for Saturday (low 60s, cloudy) and we'll likely reunite with Festmeister Skurat, returning from a two-game hiatus, several cross country meets, Oktoberfest celebrations, road-tripping with Judas Priest and excessive work travel.

Festmeister Skurat gearing up for a return to the
Black Lot, though a week late with the RU blackout
On the latter point, Chris has been away a ton and will be so again until Friday, so let's get everyone in the group to pitch in on a proposed Oktoberfest-style tailgate.

Los Hobos (Bill, Kaitlyn and Erin) have a Costco-size bag of potatoes at the ready for potato pancakes, and if memory serves the Burks have some unopened packages of brats from our prior tailgate. So if everyone can pitch in with something, we can get this going if all are on board.

Potential things we could use to make it happen:
  • bratwurst and rolls
  • garnishes for the brats (mustard, sauteed onions)
  • red cabbage or cucumber salad
  • sauerbraten (if someone wants to get aggressive)
  • sour cream and apple sauce (for potato pancakes)
  • Jagerbombs
RSVP in the comments field with headcount and contributions.

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Well, At Least We Have Each Other -- Illinois Recap

The winners from noon until about 3:30 p.m. at Low Point dot com Stadium were, in no specific order...JC, Basil, Tinton Falls and not-West Paterson Scott and Festmeister Skurat, who had better things to do on Saturday as Rutgers hosted the Illinois squad and its 63 fans on hand.

While Chris was watching Evan run over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house, and rumor has it that Basil and the Angels were tied up with another case involving the Italian radical group "Patriots for a Free Society," the rest of B-REP Nation suffered through Rutgers Football's latest step to a 1-11 season.

Again, there's more than three letters (A-S-H) that make Coach Chris look more like former debacle-of-a-head coach Terry S-H-E-A each day in how this team is performing, all the way down to kicking a field goal to cut the deficit to Illinois to 14 points with five minutes to go...because why in a completely lost season would we want to try and show some trust in a young offense that got to the opponent's two yard line. One of the few times we recall audible boos from a Rutgers football crowd that is completely deflated. But, hey, Chris won the post-game presser, responding to the journalist's question on the topic as if the person had four heads. His response was along the lines of like...we needed three scores to win.

Ugh.

The question through season's end is whether we can be competitive with the upper-echelon teams of the B1G; but, hey, a LOT of us were winners again before noon. The missing clearly missed out.
Sharon-Head wins as B-REP
Nation favorite by slimmest of margin
(also pictured: No-Show D-Labs II)
LOW-Res warms
up vs. minor league
foes
The Nation arrived in the parking lot by 9 a.m., procuring a spot close to the Knightengale service, more so for Eric than his injured wife, though she did succumb to his pressure to get the golf-cart lift to Low Point Stadium. One guy on the cart before theirs was so hurt that he had a bottle of beer in each hand. Fortunately, Expat Johnnie turned down a ride this week and walked, saving face.

B-REP shows the
proper ratios of
condiments
The reason we do what we do
B-REP was large and in charge on the grill, doing a bang-up job of catering burgers and dogs to not only the core members of the group, but Tom's friends and their bright orange clothing. It was nice to meet their son, a junior transfer to the Environmental Sciences school over on Cook, though unfortunately he's not big enough to help the team's woeful offensive line.

Pete, Sharon and the ever-demanding Sharon-Head -- winner of Saturday's three-head challenge -- brought some cool friends, including one who brought Basil Hayden bourbon yet forgot to mention that to a certain member of the Nation. That's why from now on out she'll be referred to as Maria.

We've yet to get the final tally, but figure LOW-Res earned a solid $15 as the Nation's black lot beer-delivery technician. He later contributed to back-to-back cornhole victories, first drubbing Tom and Eric, then scoring five late to eek out a 21-20 win over Expat Johnnie and Frankie Ribs.
Pete relegated to
the naughty chair
for improper use of
burger pickles

It was another great morning of tailgating and laughter with the crew, but after three straight weeks we get a home BYE next week, which should give the Burks extra time to put 43,000 tiny spiders on their roof and heading west to Pennsyltucky to buy super-firepower pyrotechnics and an actual body for the big Halloween shindig. 
We learned that "Illini" is Algonquin
for "Tom's neighbors who also like
Dad Bod Lager

Everyone have a good weekend away from the lot next weekend!

We'll be back at it vs. Northwestern on Oct. 20 for, you got it, ANOTHER noon start. Oktoberfest is likely to be a prominent theme, whether Festmeister is in charge or we ship someone in from Berlin to handle matters.
Rare opportunity to be photo'd with
Mayor McHillsborough and the
lovely Renee Delcore
Dr. Dana's precision operating on...
a hamburger roll




Sharon-Head and Sharon enjoying a drink 
B-Repnation before we left early......











Friday, October 5, 2018

Behind the scenes look at BREP Nation staff at work



Bill, BRES and Dana working hard to get the shot perfect
The finished product after a little work from the B-REP NATION special effects department. 

We get questions from time to time in the B-REP Nation newsroom about what goes on weekly behind the scenes to keep the blog up and running. Above is an example of the hard work put in by our field technicians and special effects crew required to get the right shot to magically paste the ShaneHead on the 1869 football season memorial statue. GREAT WORK TEAM!