The 2018 Tailgating Season is over

For the final tailgate of the year, our usual black lot adventures have several dramatic highlights:

Basil and Shane contemplate what to do next 

Andrea finds an alternate grill with our engineering Class of  '86 neighbors

Grill Plate Saviors: 
The A&E production team quickly sprang quickly into action when it was determined our grill was useless without the grill plates. Our tailgating neighbors generously allowed us access to their grill to cook up  Andrea’s Eric's awesome Sloppy Joes! 

Let me explain - I got one car and two passes.... 
and I have no idea who Adam is

Parking Lot Drama: 
Members of the local precinct patrolled the black lot looking for offenders, finding someone to bother who was taking up an additional parking spot on a day when the stadium was half full. That group had an extra unused parking pass that upon appeal to the roving lieutenant of parking security was found acceptable to let them keep their space.  Tough to have a good tailgate time when you are getting hassled by the man.

Look! Fourth Quarter!

Not this week Buddy!

DENIED!: 
Rejected in his attempt to gain Audi Club Access, Three Quarters Eric actually stayed to see the fourth quarter.

Wail until the French aupairs
see the new 2019 Basil look  

Looking Sharp!

The Game:
It was another entertaining battle that ended up with RU on the wrong side of a 20-7 loss for an easy cover. If only Gio could have caught that double reverse touchdown pass, we could have had our play of the year! Also the red mac looks to be a new style choice heading into 2019!

In closing: As this year could be called The Season of the Big Heads, who knows what next year's trend will be. Wait until we get behind the backboard in the student section at a basketball game with all four heads!!! 
All I can say is I'm sure someone in the group will come up with something great! 

Long live BREPNation.com!

Tailgaters pledge:
Thank you very much for the 2018 season BREPNation.com tailgaters! You have inspired us for the last magnificent 7 tailgates. You have excelled in your corn hole competitions. You have shared your emotions with us and the whole RU world. You have celebrated our lone victory with dignity, and accepted numerous defeats with dignity. I declare the 2018 Rutgers tailgating season closed. In accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world (and BREPNation.com) to assemble 9 months from now in the Black parking lot of Piscataway to celebrate with us the 2019 Rutgers football season!

See you next year!

State Penn, Rutgers Horseplay

Well, we're back to the noon kick-off for our home finale vs. Penn State.

The Hobo clan's going to be light (likely just Bill and Shane; no Kaitlyn) and lacking in energy both for the game itself, and for running a tailgate.

If the group wants to tailgate, I'm happy to bring all of the stuff but someone else will have to run the show as I've got a really chaotic week and am using my normal Friday-night prep to attend our hoops tilt vs. St. John's.

The Saturday forecast is mid-40s and sunny, so if the group wants to meet at our usual spot please someone lead the charge. Otherwise, if we're looking at a pregame diner meet-up or other, same deal.

If folks wanna congregate in Tinton Falls, I can facilitate that too. Very open to ideas.

RU-Michigan Wrap up

The cook getting ready with
RU red gloves - always in spirit

The BrepNation crew assembled in the the depths of the main black lot for our sixth tailgate of the season on a windy, cold, afternoon for our first late afternoon home start of the season. Down a few key members of the Witkowski clan, Sharon Head and a Labue, the hardy tailgaters braved the gale force winds that made Cornhole nearly unplayable. Luckily for us, Bill stepped up in difficult conditions to prepare awesome cheese steaks. He deserves a big hand from BREP Nation for the effort he makes to put these tailgates together, as well as handling all the ticket related headaches that comes with a group of about 20 every year. Long Live the BRES father! 

Getting the grill up and running in hurricane like wind conditions under the watchful eye of BRES 

Making sure the meat is done to perfection

As for the game itself, Rutgers got off to a good start to be tied at 7-7 later in the first quarter after a long run by the Fight Doctor, Isiah Pacheco.  As things got colder and Michigan ran up the score, the BREP Nation crew dwindled down to two by the end of the third quarter. As lest Audi Club Eric was able to keep his club crashing steak going.

You can't stop me, you can only hope to contain me!

We apologize the content this week is a little light due to the loss of the official BREP camera during the game. 

See everyone next week for the final home game of the season for a noon time start against Penn State. 

Michigan Game, SMH

We'll refrain this year from re-posting the picture of us stepping on the Univ. of Michigan pillow at the bongo house on our last trip to Ann Arbor, in hopes that the #4 Wolverines don't stomp on us too bad this coming Saturday at Low Point/No Solutions Stadium.

The schedule makers must have had a 2+ blood-alcohol content when they decided to make our game a 3:40 p.m. kick-off, but at the least we don't have to get up super early to meet. Weather's supposed to be OK -- on the chilly side, but dry after rain on Friday.

Assuming our standard operating procedure, let's meet at noon at the Walmart lot.

Food-wise, I'm an open book but will offer to either dust off the Maize and Blue Awning sandwich idea that we did a few years back, or go simple cheese-steaks.

Either way, cast your vote below in the comments. The latter's less work, but I'm fine w/either or something different y'all wanna do instead.

Separately, if anyone has two available tickets please let me know. Asking for a friend.

Rundown for the RU-Northwestern Homecoming - Part 2 - Audi Club Eric

No trek into the game is complete without stopping to see Dana's Brick

The stamp to the heaven above 

Sauerbraten as far as the eye can see

After the morning tailgate festivities, BREP-Nation went into the stadium ready for the game. Little did we know that Audi Club Eric would be able to work his magic to get several of us into his new personal playground.

Have another cream puff!

Drinks are on Eric!

As usual the BREP nation crew tried to push the limits of the RU service staff to the brink by passing the food and drinks down the remaining members at the seats below, getting Adam his second stern warning of the day from the RU police.

The peasants down below
 fend for their scraps 

The king and queen of the Audi Club look down
 from their lofty perch

               

How did that get down here? 

Three cheers for Audi Club Eric! 

 












Next home game is against Michigan on November with a time yest to be announced.

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!"

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.