I told Tyrone that this season feels like Toledo Year 4. No special teams coach (omg, that one kick off where the ball hit a Greenie on the head? LOL), head scratching DoddmentumTM-esque play calling. He agreed....
"Badie to the Bone" tho. I love his effort.
And Teddy Veal! What great players. Our flickers of promise.
Obviously, I would rather be winning. But I can tolerate an occasional moral victory: like remember when we almost came back against Syracuse in the dome in 2011 and thought we were gonna get the ball back on that 3 and out which ended up (boo hiss) a bogus pass interference on Dezman Moses? or when we had Alabama back on their heels in 2008? or OMG being up against the Corndogs the first half with that safety of Matt Flynn and then the beer shower on Andre Anderson after his touchdown? FUNNNN!
Tell me that's not more fun than losing to Rice like we did in uninspiring fashion in 2013. Or our Benny Hill interpretation last week in Durham. I have infinitely more respect for playing a stronger schedule. You learn more from challenges than easy successes, which is why I hate lazy scheduling and booking teams like flippin Army and Southeastern. Because it doesn't do anything for us except mask our problems, or give us another big glaring L, like a scarlett letter.
So speaking of Scarlett, we actually made it to Rutgers! Only Mrs. Hullabaloo would have a compilation of travel stories. Fer real. It's always something when I fly. This particular trip, the FAA tower in Chicago caught fire so our connection to Midway was cancelled. It was like Planes, Tranes, and Automobiles across the country. Coach Hullabaloo and I ended up flying into different airports on Friday. I luckily sat with a Greenie on my flight to the East Coast, but we had the craziest time getting her rental car. Getting lost, getting on the wrong airport tram, finding out at the first car rental counter that the reservation wasn't valid, going back to the airport, and then finally being told that the only available rental was a pick up truck. OMG, we were laughing and crying. My girl was like, puh-leeeze tell me it's a quad cab! Because could you like imagine our luggage flying out the back of the truck on the NJ Turnpike? Lawd.
Gameday was early because the game was scheduled for a noon kick-off for TV. Even though some question my sanity for passionately following Tulane football - I was not about to spend $45 per person (!) for some cafeteria-style burgers at the Tulane Alumni Tailgating (completely crazy, amirite?!) which was set up out in Pennsylvania practically. If that's not enough, it was an additional $65 per game ticket through Tulane's allotment.
We opted instead to meet up with my girl whom I'm calling Eaglette, and her adorable family for their tailgating in the park across the street from the stadium. We also found walk up game tickets for $20 and $30. Between parking and all, we were out $80, instead of a potential $210. The cost savings elicited just minimal amount of complaining from Coach Hullabaloo following yet another loss. Following Tulane Football is, after all, a past time. We aren't completely nuts.
Anyways, Eaglette's family are the sweetest! This is me with her cutest niece on the planet. Santa brought her this very cute cheerleading outfit so she can properly cheer for her cousin who is on the team. And she spiral curled her beautiful hair for the occasion. I wanted to teach her the Hullabaloo. so cute.
Eaglette and her family made buffalo chicken pasta, pizza bread with red sauce, and NJ-style muffulettas - which were actually a very tasty interpretation. They made them with ciabatta bread, sun dried tomatoes, some olive salad, the italian meats, and then a thicker slab of cheese which actually tasted creamy like a brie. They were delicious.
I also loved the concept of buffalo chicken pasta. I think I'd like to interpret that with thin chopped slices of celery garnished on top, matchstick carrots, and some blue cheese crumbles. Remember Kokopelli's buffalo chicken burritos?! Or maybe a buffalo chicken dip with fried bowtie pasta? yum-o....
Anyways, before heading in to the game, the younger adults did beer shots.
We had tailgated in the park literally across the street from the stadium, so it was an easy uphill walk. Coach Hullabaloo taking a breather as we watched the Rutgers marching band and mascot on horseback march by before the game.
Yes, the sky really was that beautiful and blue. Gorgeous.
Below is from a tailgating group nearby us, omg on the head dress. Kinda cute, right? Since the head dress was just like the mascot's, I wanted to share the photo.
But speaking of dresses, Rutgers fan-ettes and tailgatresses don't wear gameday dresses. Coach Hullabaloo noticed and made a comment about the absence of gameday dresses. I do not understand. I do not speak that language. I am from the South and we love our gameday and jazz fest sun dresses. It was 83, sun was blazing, and all of the ladies were wearing jeans or jean shorts and t-shirts. I cannot be in heavy restrictive clothing on hot game days. Plus the farmer tans? no.
So wearing a dress at Rutgers definitely makes you stand out and earns you some brownie points. I was able to get in to the stadium sans bag check because the security guard was caught off guard by my dress and was so wrapped up fawning over it that he waved me through.
Coach Hullabaloo and my $20 & $30 tickets ended up being in the same section as the Tulanians who paid $65. This was our view.
As you can see, this year they put us up on the upper deck of the stadium, which I wasn't so much a fan of. It was like we were in time out and not allowed to have any fun. Our cheerleaders were a thousand miles away down on the field. I never saw them. In 2010, Rutgers had put us in the lower corner endzone next to the student section so that I could ooh and ahh and squeal over their totally cute student section traditions. I still love their air guitar on opponent's third downs. And the Rutgers band was exceptional. Their drum line does beats like an oncoming train after first downs, which was really really cool. I love college football traditions! I don't understand why we can't import any cute and fun ideas of our own.
Another fun/funny tradition is that Rutgers (as does every college football team in America, except for Tulane because it doesn't fit our model for some unspecified reason) is they do a video montage of their pro players. So we were all yelling RAY RICE! WHERE'S RAY RICE? when Rutgers did their video this year. lmao. Honestly, I hope that us cat calling the video annoyed the one Rutgers fan in our section who was brought by a Tulanian to watch the game. He was being THAT disagreable fan with low self-esteem and small man parts who felt the need to whiplash everyone in the section about our misfit team and lack of accompanying displays of school spirit like mascots and bands that other schools bring. Thanks for pointing out something we don't already know!
Mr. and Mrs. StPeteWave and Coach Hullabaloo and I did our best to lead cheers in the section. We got everyone to join in after first downs to Mr. StPeteWave's "WHATS THAT?! TU-LANE! FIRST! DOWN!" and my version of BC-Wave's "2 LANE, 4 LANES, 6 LANES A HIGHWAY! DRIVE! WAVE! DRIVE!"
Anyways, I did leave the game with a memento. TSA took away my sunscreen lotion at the airport, so Coach Hullabaloo is sunburnt like a crawfish, and I ended up with a sunburn around my Mignon Faget pelican charm on the middle of my chestbone LOL. Like a pelican tattooo. Except that I kept calling it a beaver tan, uhhhhh, hellooo....instead of a racoon tan. We totally LOLd on my slip of tongue there. Ha Ha Ha!
Later that night we met up at Due Mari for dinner in New Brunswick and look at our menus. How olive and blue!
I was very impressed with how all of the businesses, including our fancy restaurant which we were at, put flags up for gameday. Oh Greenieees....Dare to dream y'all, right?!
So now we have a bye and I am praying, praying y'all, that the UConn game is an afternoon or evening game. Otherwise, I shant be tailgating at home until November and that will make me very sad.
Buh-bye my chamudis! Catch you after the bye
