Piercing the Cone of Silence

full length of article here
Ok y'all...the Infamous Cone of Silence is currently underway if haven't noticed. Oh, Cone of Silence, how I have missed you!

Since our chance at the championship game died in Texas yesterday, I had actually wanted to do a season in review for my blog post today. But this cone of silence situation is quite intriguing.

What does it mean? Has UTSA managed to stall bowl slot negotiations? Has our brain trust managed to pull a negotiation coup and announce the Hawaii Bowl? Has R+L decided that what this guy says is true and so they don't want to put USL through the agony of puckering up to lowly Tulane?

Tomorrow there is to be a conference call. About what, who knows. Tulane just loves making easy things difficult, so we shall see soon enough. I have 100 latkes going in a bet (with applesauce) over what is to be announced tomorrow.

What I do know is that the longer that this drags on, the less chance you are going to have out of state alumni who are going to re-arrange their holiday plans to come be in New Orleans in 3 weeks.

My town daughters are already organizing carpools to the airport the week prior, ready to depart the very second when their exams finish. Tulane wouldn't ever like do something reasonable like announce in advance for extended dorm closings until December 22nd. So don't count on any students making plans to go to a bowl.

So the Rice game: We didn't go to Houston. This is a picture of us in town after the game. We did manage to put on cute gameday outfits nonetheless. I was holding out hope that I would be able to pack up at dawn on Saturday and roll into Rice Stadium before kick off. It just wasn't meant to be. I need to get on Coach Hullabaloo to get us a Cessna though so that we can jump off to a game on a moment's notice.

I can't say who, but I had a VIP celebrity wedding that needed to be tended to by Boss Lady Stationery (me) and I was reprinting placecards and extra menus until literally a half hour before the guests were seated for dinner. Could you imagine if I had been already tucked away in Houston and getting desperate phone calls from their wedding planner about this or that?

Coach Hullabaloo and our friend Bald Boy and his uncle
So instead, I was fielding the desperate phone calls from Bruno's where Coach Hullabaloo and I had gone to partake in that great American pastime of Watching Saturday Football at A Local Watering Hole.

'Tis a fine tradition that is enjoyed by the majority of American College Football Fans and Alumni, but which has sadly eluded Greenwave fans for decades for many self-inflicted reasons.

Absent were the Greenbackers who were either at home or across the street at Rocco's as they are currently still on their boycott of Bruno's.
I will say this about the controversial Bruno's. Other than praying I don't get cancer from all of the secondhand smoke, I was pleased that the bartendress was wearing a Tulane shirt on gameday. Like we are a for real college team and this is a for real local joint.

How refreshing for a change! But getting the game on the TV with sound was a bit touch and go at first. And we weren't sure if we were even gonna get sound after they finally got one of the sound-less TVs going. But we finally did get sound, and thank goodness - because this yet again:

And this wasn't even my phone. So no, I am not the sole crazy lunatic who doesn't get iheart to work for Tulane games or for the radio shows.

So anyways, I ended up having to skip out for a spell and was therefore actually only able to watch the first and fourth quarters, as I spent quarters 2 and 3 tending to said wedding paper emergencies.

From what I saw Tulane's defense was absolutely boss. More specifically Nico Marley was who was boss.

Nico Marley with an assist on the strip from the always awesome Darion Monroe.
Moment captured by Smiley Pool.
However, if there were a prize for completing passes out of bounds - we'd be a lock. Juan Kincaid said on WWL that Tulane left our offense Uptown and that pretty much describes what happened at Rice. Our first 1st down was in the 3rd Q. ha! So we go out the door, losing to RICE. Lawd have mercy.

Oh well. Quelle Dommage. We close out the season in bittersweet fashion.

The silver lining is that our loss didn't give anymore fuel to the notion that UTSA should have a claim to the exCUSA championship game. Because that would have been a gag me situation imho.

Alright, so now for the retrospective portion of my final blog post of the regular season:

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite wins:

I am so glad we got to sucker punch Tulsa. Lawd how I disliked their stupid, rude fans. Too bad we get to still see them on the other side.

I am also sooo glad that we embarrassed ECU, and it was more delicious in that they called us everything in the book: including referring to us as a bunch of "homeless people." Well you lost to a bunch of homeless peeps. Hoo-ray!

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite away game ideas:

The DJ in the student section at Syracuse.

FAU's beach inside of the stadium in lieu of corner endzone seating is truly awesome. And I am also jealous of their in game entertainment and PR/marketing. Their sideline hostess kept spectators' attention going throughout between downs and timeouts so that there was never a lull. It is such a stark contrast with our shoestring plan of having a TAF staff member mumble something inaudible on the field here and there, or undergraduate interns toss some kind of marketing something together. I hope TPTB was taking copious notes.

Ruston. Oy. We barely knew ye. But I did love your alumni pavilion for tailgating.

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite tailgate theme of the season:

Challah-baloo was my favorite-est tailgate theme. Savory kugel and roasted brisket - fantabulous. I can't wait to do more Jewish tailgating!

Mrs. Hullabaloo's favorite plays of the season:

Xavier Rush's reception on 3rd and 24 for a touchdown at Louisiana Tech.

The strip/fumble/touchdown by Jordan Batiste and Dominique Robertson at ULM.

Darion Monroe's blocked FG at homecoming.

Strozier's shoeless pick 6 from Poydras to Girod at the ECU game.

Cairo's clutch FGs for our overtime wins.

Another fond memory:

Shaking my boutte to the Greenwave brass band at the senior game.

Ok Greenies.....signing off for the season, I'll see you when I see you.

Pra Caramba!

So this is me, shakin my booty with the ever fabulous first lady of TU Football, Angel Johnson to the Greenwave Brass Band in the third or fourth quarter. Yeah. fun times!
So it was about damn time.

We have been due a flipped script with UTEP. I have watched so many stupid games against CUSA teams go sideways for us, so it was high time.

moment captured by Michael DeMocker
I'll never forget our hail mary situation in 2008, Kevin Moore under center, Graf screaming "IF WE GET THIS, WE WILL BE ON SPORTSCENTER FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!" We had been ahead most of the game, Andre Anderson was busting his tail all over the field, and then we let the game slip away 21-25 in the second half. Sigh.

So it was pretty funny to get this text from Chardonnay after the game yesterday.

Com Certeza, ha!

I will say that I am deee-lighted Coach Johnson has architected something out of nothing. But am I satisfied? uh, Hell No. This horrid conference we were trapped in and the mediocrity that was orchestrated since being handed the keys to the kingdom in 1998 cannot just be forgiven or forgotten because we beat a bad team on our way out the door. No sir.

But it was a momentary distraction fo' sho'.

photo by aguiluzer
I hope that the team is enjoying their season. Proud of the change in attitude. Proud effort they are making. But if TPTB makes amends by hiring Jaime Garza or get us into a P5 conference then maybe I'll revise my hardened opinions about where we've been and where we are.

Could you, like, imagine this behavior being tolerated at Corndog land?

So in summation: don't like hold your breath that I'ma lead a ticker tape parade down Poydras about the New Orleans Bowl.

They actually want us to pay $25 to "secure seats". Chile please, I have walked up and bought tickets minutes before kick off at that bowl, sat where I pleased and didn't have to worry my pretty little mind.

The sister-in-law of the late great Greenwave booster, CJ Lenz, is one of my girls. She marched right up to me at tailgating and gave me somekind of lecture about me needing a serious attitude adjustment. "Now listen here young lady, a bowl is a bowl!" ha ha! This, from the same lady who ditched standing in her friend's wedding to be at the '73 win over the bataan rouge corndogs. But honestly, it doesn't matter what I think about it because the Universe is in charge at this point.

The math involved for us to upgrade our situation is pretty crazy right now.

It's the slightest glimmer of hope for a better bowl and I refuse, refuse, refuse to go down without bitching even more than I already have. I mean I picked my man pie Coach Hullabaloo after all. So as you can see, I am not a settle for anything that just wanders along kind of girl. So anyways: I can't even believe that we have to go through these scenarios for many reasons including the fact that UTSA wasn't even a zygote for Katrina, but the deal is that UNT had to lose yesterday, which they did - but now UTSA is an upstart and could win the division unless Louisiana Tech somehow has a miracle next week at the Alamodome (The Bulldog Miracle! pray for it y'all. seriously pray, pray, pray!).

But my feeling is hows that for some bs an inaugural member of the SEC has to resort to? And CUSA would be so stupid to let a provisional team rob the conference of a potential Liberty Bowl payout, the biggest bowl payout for conference. UTSA is not eligible to play a bowl game this year and the numbers aren't there for them to get a bowl bid even if they win enough games. If UTSA gets to the CUSA championship, Liberty Bowl would go free agent for the CUSA slot and that would be all she wrote. It would be a lose-lose situation for everyone. Just wretched!

So anyways, the game: what a hoot. It was more of a touchdown derby with a Lorenzo Doss interception mixed in to keep things interesting. Look, more photeauxs by Michael DeMocker.

Marc Edwards catches his first TD

Sam Scofield being awesome
I'm watching the replay today on an actual TV and not a laptop, because well, I can - they are actually showing games on TV this season for the first time since like Hurricane Georges.

When's the last season we had for real college luxuries like TV replays? Progress.

And speaking of luxuries: our tailgate food was Lindo Maravilhoso, Otimo!

In honor of our mighty Brazilian, our resident Lou Groza Award winning kicker, Cairo Santos, we chose a Brazilian theme for our senior game tailgating and word, it was some kinda good. And it was so great because everybody went out of their comfort zone and executed these exotic recipes flawlessly.

Priscilla brought the star of the show: grilled Tri Tip cut of sirloin, also known as "Picanha" and it was some kinda good. Our Band Mom whom I'll call Tupelo Honey brought chimichurri sauce to pair with the steak, which was exceptional.

Peggy brought traditional brazilian chicken salad, or Salpicao....word.

Whoever decided in Brazil that shoe string potatoes needed to be in chicken salad deserves a prize. Peggy's friend Marlene brought us some lovely brazilian rice, which went nicely with some "feijoada" I picked up from a Brazilian cafe out on Williams in Kennah Brah. Feijoada is basically red beans, but with pinto beans instead of red beans.

One of my sorority sisters joined our tailgating group, I'll call her Ginger. Ginger made a brazilian twist on spinach dip using hearts of palm ("palmitos") and kale and it was boss.

Coach Hullabaloo even contributed and made chorizo "Bolinhos" which are mashed yucca stuffed pillows of heavenly-ness.

We rounded out the treats of the day with an interesting version of brazilian carrot cake that is topped with chocolate ganache, which sounds like an odd pairing, but was actually very tasty. Also making a cameo were some Pao de Queijo rolls and then I made a coconut/ginger/tomato sauce to nestle some grilled chicken drumettes in.

Ok so most recipes are on my pinterest page, but here are a few of the standouts:

A NO FAIL CHIMICHURRI
cup of fresh parsley leaves
3-4 garlic cloves (the more the merrier)
2 tbs fresh oregano leaves (or 2 TSP dried)
1/2 cup olive erl
2 tbsp wine vinegar (red, white, no matter)
Tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Ok, so gathering the ingredients is the hard part. Toss in a blender or bullet and whiz everything together. Slather onto your steaks and like just die from happiness.

CASTELO AND PALMITOS DIP
6-8 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive erl
one 14-16 oz can of hearts of palm
5 cups of kale, chopped small
halfa cup of milk
8 oz pack of cream cheese, room temp
half cup sour cream
salt and black pepper
cup of parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a baking dish. On the stove, saute garlic in olive erl, add hearts of palm and mix, add kale and give it all a whirl. Turn off heat, add milk and cream cheese and mix through. Then add sour cream and parm, salt and pepper to taste. Pour deliciousness into the baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

BOLINHOS DE CHORIZO
1 large yucca/cassava root
1 egg
2 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 lb chorizo
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Saute chorizo in a pan until cooked, add chopped onion and stir through until translucent. Turn off heat and add chopped cilantro, stir through until well distributed. Set aside to cool to room temp. Peel your casava/yucca and then cut into 2 inch chunks. Boil in salted water until fork tender. Drain and mash like mashed taters. Add coconout flour, garlic powder and s+p to taste as you mash. Mold mashed yucca into balls, dust with coconut flour to keep from getting sticky and then mush/press a hole with your thumb to flatten out a bit, fill with a tablespoon of chorizo filling and then roll back up into a ball with a dust of coconut flour. Fry em up in a pan until golden brown and then keep yourself from eating the whole batch.

SALPICAO
1 whole skinless chicken breast poached in seasoned water, shredded
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup peas
2 small granny smith apples cubed
1/3 cup seedless raisins, or dried apricots or dried figs, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup mayo
1 package shoestring potatoes
1/2 cup of olives
1/2 cup of heart of palms (cut in cubes)
Salt and pepper

Ok, the ingredients are the hard part. And maybe the elbow grease you need to mix everything together. So combine everything and then s+p to taste. And be astounded by the deliciousness.

Cute picture of former FB mom Maggie Edwards shaking her tailfeather with one of the drink vendors to the Greenwave Brass Band.

Me and my peeps

Mercury is in Retrograde!!!

I'm not sure where I would place this loss on the richter scale of losses. Last week I wanted to hold a wrist slitting tailgate theme. This week I considered fashioning a noose out of my tailgating tablecloths.

In retrospect I do not believe that I am nearly as devastated as I felt after this Toledo era loss though.

Well. Maybe.

While I was somewhat (ok, very) impressed with how Montana has improved, no moral victory explanation is going to satisfy me. I wasn't even consoled by the outhouse losing in Tuscaloosa. It coulda shoulda been the sweetest ending to our gameday, but alas, Mercury was in retrograde!

I just knew it had to be something, because there was some kind of juju on that endzone. A Roll Wave button is just not enough to offset the juju from Mercury being in retrograde.

You know the endzone I'm talking about. The endzone where UTSA coughed up the ball. The same darn one where we coughed up the ball. The same one UTSA scored a TD on and where Cairo missed a FG. Yes, that's the one.

I swear that endzone was simply plagued.

So maybe this loss is saving us from our Liberty Bowl Coaching Curse wherein we always lose the coach who gets us bowl eligible after going to the Liberty Bowl. (Pittman, Smith, Bowden)

This morning I actually even considered just giving up and not worrying about going to the New Orleans Bowl. I am such a bad Tulane fan, I am simply dreading the possibility of getting embarrassed in front of USL fans and giving Sporty Nunez fodder for her articles. The thought of a USL New Orleans Bowl just makes me want to book a vacation to Tulsa or a cruise to Somalia for the holidays.

Anyways, because Coach Hullabaloo was off reuniting with his Marine Corps peeps in Philadelphia for a man weekend, Chardonnay and I packed our little bags and made a good old fashioned girls road trip out of the UTSA game weekend. We spent the night with Nell and then went to San Antonio where I OD'd on BBQ and cobbler, road the boat for a tour of the Riverwalk, admired the Alamo, etc.

We went by the Tulane Alumni tailgating too. I ran into Alex Wacha and his family, but I was in a rush so I didn't get a picture. I kind of regret that. Coach Hullabaloo had such a man crush on Alex, especially after his game winning sack in overtime in the UTEP game and his game ending interception at Rutgers.

The alumni tailgating was really cute.

So glad they are stepping them up a notch now. The caterer served grits and grillades, corndouilles (Andouille corn dogs), bloody marys and beignets.

And how cute are these centerpieces?

Look out: Tulane colors and everything!

As Mercury in retrograde dictates, I did run into an old friend - a long lost college acquaintance whom I'll call Vinnie Barbarino.

Here's Vinnie wearing his wife's bedazzled sunglasses because he forgot his. Hilarious.

So I did very much enjoyed catching up with Vinnie and hearing about his French quarter wedding to his wife which sounded lovely. I enjoyed knowing Vinnie in college because he delivered food for one of my favorite restaurants. And his fraternity had great keg parties at the bar that is currently known as Ms Mae's, which a young Mrs. Hullabaloo did not miss.

Anyways, I don't have much to add about the game that hasn't already been beaten to death: Enough penalty flags to hold a proper Veterans Day flag ceremony, Umpteen dropped passes, lawd have mercy. We totally let UTSA off the hook and beat ourselves.

We are 1-5 against teams that are navy blue. 0-2 against red and navy blue teams, 0-2 against ernge and navy blue teams. Navy is just not a good color for us. But what's worse is that we are 0-3 against teams who were birthed AFTER Katrina. Hows that for some titanic flower beds for ya?

A younger Tulane fan posted on twitter earlier today that these last two losses hurt more because we got so used to winning.

I guess these losses learned us now, huh? Booooo.

And so it begins, y'all ....

What time is it?

It's booty o'clock! Totally time to rev up those booty engines Greenie Dats!!!

Me and my hullabaloo-ettes, Chardonnay and Luscious, bouncing our bouttee's after the triple overtime.
Ha! ha!

This. Y'all. Is what I have been bitching am talking about. The elusive win I have been holding out for against a good team. And a conference win for good measure!

My favorite picture from the game. Images are by Parker Waters.

So yes, I was completely verklempt that we are one win away from a bowl game!!

Hullabaloo, ray ray!

However, one thing that has put a damper on things (well, two, because the LSU types now deciding that they need to offer their unsolicited, unresearched opinions and assign us to the Independence Bowl has me some kind of aggravated), is that I am all kinds of miffed that Derrick Strozier didn't get a helmet sticker and that I had to sit through a half hour of ellashue discussion on WWL news about their stupid locker room speech to finally get to the Tulane coverage portion of the news.

Can you believe there was Not One Peep out of ESPN about Strozier's boss interception touchdown?

Haters.

What's a guy need to do to get some attention? I mean he went and lost his flippin' shoe and everything.

I think setting a school record via a goal line interception touchdown in your socks deserves at least a tweet from the national media peoples don't you think?

Anyways, what knocked my socks off was that we won without Nick Montana. I couldn't even contemplate the possibility. Jordy Joseph even saw a little bit of playing time. It's like, who needs offense? Because the game plan was all defense and all Cairo Santos.

Here's video Coach Hullabaloo took post game when everyone lined up to sway to the alma mater. I love that Devon rushed the field in his chair. You can see him coming back towards the student section in the video.



And you'll all also be happy to know that I took one for the team and left the suite where we were watching the game when ECU tied the game during regulation. I left and went out to set up post-game in the parking lot as per usual. And I didn't even dare to listen to Graff call overtime. So now I gotta watch the triple overtime online via All Access. Which will be good because the Saints lost to the Patriots so I will need some cheering up (hows that for flipping the script?! ha ha!).

All of us at Hullabaloo Huddle are taking our rituals very seriously. Coach Hullabaloo has been washing and wearing the same pair of purple drawers and white cargo shorts for each of our wins. Zach Davis' daddy says he has to come and give me a hug hello upon arrival. The two occasions he shook Coach Hullabaloo's hand before saying hello to me, we lost. FF Jim says since he is 0-3 in games he watches to the end and 5-0 in games they attend partially or not at all, he is staying away. Although Coach Hullabaloo sez that we can let Jim come and stay in the parking lot outside because his wife Red is such a great baker and we need her sweets for sustenance at tailgating.

Another piece of "lucky" flair is my "Roll Wave" button which has been undefeated since I purchased it from the cheerleaders for the SMU game last season. I wore it for the Louisiana Tech game too.

So our tailgating theme this week was Asian in honor of Columbus Day and it was a great success. I really do loooove doing themed tailgates, it makes menu decisions much more exciting to plan. I'm so lucky that my hullabaloo-ettes put up with my crazy ideas.

I found this adorable Chinese toile fabric with little pagodas on it, added a little ruffle flair, picked up some coordinating Asian bowls and chopsticks from the Hong Kong market, and dug out some old paper lanterns from a prior ill-fated homecoming tailgate....and voila.

It was a bit touch and go Chez Hullabaloo prior to tailgating because A) I spent all night slow cooking my famous spicy asian ribs to then char them into bits of coal at 5am, necessitating a redo B) I had to send Coach Hullabaloo to the store 3 times throughout the night and at dawn to pick up ingredients as I was messing up in the kitchen big time C) My kitchen clock was off by an hour so I ended up at tailgate totally late and D) the one game we bring only one tent, it rained.

Due to all of the calamities I sustained pre-tailgating, I was totally rushed and I wasn't quite proud of my tablescaping for this game as I have been for others. But as Julia Child sez, you are alone in the kitchen and nobody will know the difference. Which was true, because all of the food turned out amazing. Even Koozie made himself a plate of food and he usually boycotts our "weird" tailgating food. Plus we enjoyed being shoved together in our little tent and having some laughs.

Peggy made this truly fab Asian crunch salad which I am sharing below. There are tons of variations on Asian salads, but I particularly liked this one because of the broccoli and romaine in it. So it wasn't so much noodles and nuts as many others. And now that I have discovered soy-free Coconut Aminos, I can feel less guilty about enjoying it.

Priscilla brought epic fried rice from China Doll restaurant and Chardonnay made Crab Rangoon dip, which was yummy. I made some wasabi deviled eggs, because not having deviled eggs at tailgating is like un-American. Luscious brought green tea cheesecake. I also found these omg, crack-like sesame balls at Hong Kong Market.

They are like Asian beignets and they are delicious. They are filled with a cream cheese type mixture, soaked in honey and covered with sesame. And seriously you can eat like 20 million of these and not give a damn.

The only fails in the menu were the edamame "hummus" recipe from Trisha Yearwood, which wasn't any good no matter what I did to fix it. And the green and blue flavored fortune cookies that I found online. However, Coach Hullabaloo was most impressed that I found his San Miguel beer that he used to drink when he was stationed in the Philippines during his Marine Corps days. Ha ha!

And yes, that's sake down below and Plum wine on ice with the beer. Ok....so, now, for recipes.....

PEGGY'S ASIAN CRUNCH SALAD

half cup of canola erl
quarter cup cider vinegar
half cup sugar
Salt and Red Pepper flakes to taste
2 tsp soy sauce or coconut aminos
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs butter
1 (3 oz) pack of ramen, minus flavor packet
Cup of chopped walnuts
1 of head romaine lettuce, chopped (br> Chop just the broccoli florets from 2 fresh broccoli heads
4 green onions, chopped

Whisk together the wet ingredients, salt, pepper flakes, and sugar to make the dressing. Refrigerate the dressing for at least an hour. In the meantime, break ramen noodles and sauté (minus flavor packet) in the butter in a sauce pan. Saute until the noodles start to turn a nutty brown and then set aside. Put your chopped romaine, broccoli and green onions into separate ziplocks. Ziplock the ramen. At tailgating toss everything together.


CRAB RANGOON DIP

quarter cup chopped scallions
2 tbs each of chopped fresh cilantro and ginger
1 tsp sugar
2 8oz packs of cream cheese, softened/room temp
2 tbs lime juice
salt to taste
1 6.5 oz can lump crabmeat

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray down a casserole dish with nonstick spray and set aside. Mince your scallions, cilantro, ginger, and sugar in a food processor. Add softened cream cheese and lime juice, and pulse to combine. Season with salt to taste and then lovingly pour into to a separate clean bowl. Sneak a taste. Fold crabmeat into cream cheese mixture gently so that there's still chunks of crabmeat in the dip. Transfer entire mixture into your greased casserole dish and Bake dip until hot in center and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Serve dip with fried wonton chips.


WASABI DEVILED EGGS

6 eggs
Mayo
Prepared wasabi
Ground mustard
Salt and Pepper
Sriracha
Chopped scallions
Tempura crunchies for garnish

Set the eggs inside your pot and cover with cold water. Bring the water up to a berl. Let berl for a minute and then cover the pot, and turn off the stove/remove from heat. Let sit for 10 mins and then run the eggs under cold water so that the shell membrane releases for easy peeling. Cut in half, remove yolks yada yada yada. Mix yolks with a whomp of mayo, a smidge of wasabi (what you can tolerate), another smidge of sriracha (whatever amount you like). Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in minced green onions. Put into a sandwich bag, cut a hole in a corner and pipe back into the egg halves. Sprinkle with tempura crunchies.

One final thought....Didn't you just LOVE the halftime performance? Elvis! Loved it! Even Little Mac sang along to all of the songs. I was barely alive during Elvis's lifetime and Little Mac knew every verse! Photo by Mike Nay.

Roll Kyle Roll!

Ode to The Kingpin Kyle Fischer. Master of that fine 7 10 split, baby!

Did you see that? Hilarious. Here it is again if you missed it.

Ok, so this game was totally like a Charlie Brown and Lucy, Peanuts and the Gang, cartoon game. {Sue me for keeping things in perspective.} Those crazy snaps to the QB and long snapping to the punter were simply out. of. control. I almost started a betting pool up in the stands on where that sucker was gonna squirt out from next. Montana juggling it like a hot potato before he can throw, Picarelli having to pluck em out of the stratosphere before placing it down. It was totally cray.

And Holy turnovers Ben Affleck. You know how they have a homerun derbies? Well we were definitely doing our part to have a fumble and interception derby there last Thursday. The best quote from the game came from Scott Kushner.

I do have to say that Julius Warmsley's sack fumble in the fourth quarter was absolutely genius. Afterwards he went and lifted up Coach Sumrall in a bear hug up in the air on the sidelines. It was funny.

This was my favorite picture I snapped after the game.

Hands down though, my absolute favoritest moment of the season thus far has got to be the conversion on 3rd and Twenty-Freakin-Four by Xavier Rush that made ESPN Sports Center review of the game.

photo by Chuck Cook of USAToday

ROLL DAMN WAVE, y'all. My team! on Sports Center! Last time I remember staying up all night to re-watch a Tulane replay scrolling on Sports Center over and over was when Michael Jordan's interception in the Liberty Bowl made Play of the Day. I even talked to random people at the airport about that interception: Excuse me. Did you see that? Play of the Day? Tulane, y'all!

For the casual football viewer, if all you saw was that ESPN replay you woulda thought everything was tip top shape on that possession. Thanks ESPN for your fine editing. But sitting in the stands witnessing it in person.... in my mind I was throwing daggers. I could not shake the bad feeling that our going backwards on downs was going to go the way of the Houston 2009 game when we were drawing blood with first and ten at their 30, but then ended up tragically at fourth and 43 and a big ole nasty loss.

Anyways, if you gotta aks.... Yes: I'm holding my end of the bargain as a Tulane Fan and absolutely relieved we pulled out a win out of that mess. Because if I'd actually made a trip to Ruston and then lost, oooohh glory. So thank you to Kyle Fischer for missing all those Field Goals!!!!! We need to send you a bagel and rugelach basket in appreciation.

Coach and I actually skated in to Ruston with moments to spare and missed the pre-gaming. Cute picture of us at The Joe (<-- what Tech fans call their stadium).

So yes, unfortunately I only got to give a super quick glance to Tech tailgating and offer my bossy opinion. I had ended up talking Coach Hullabaloo into taking me to Dallas earlier in the week for a few days of shopping and then shooting over to Ruston for gameday. I mean, there's only so much North Louisiana to go around and we're going to be there twice within 2 weeks. I gotta leave some of the fun for the Monroe weekend.

Anyways, I snapped a few shots of things that intrigued me.

Cute picture of Angel's outfit for the game.

I thought that this tailgating pavilion that Tech has for alumni is genius. Loved this.

and now I know that Tech alumni are p-i-s-s-e-d, about how their season is turning out, but chin up. At least y'all got this cute pavillon and we still gotta look forward to shuttling in from the dome next season.

This wreath was kind of cute.

Not as cute as my door wreath.

But it will do.

And then I loved, loved, LOVED, this centerpiece with the mums, mini helmet, car flags, plush mascot.

I am totally copying this cuteness!!!! And wouldn't you know that the owner of this tailgating set up is the mom of a 2006 Newcomb alumna. I invited her to come enjoy our tailgate in New Orleans if they ever come.

My friend Chardonnay, whom I will mention below, assured me that the Tech tailgate was okay, but that from her extensive travels to Louisiana tailgates that Mrs. Hullabaloo tailgates are far and away the best tailgating. I was so touched and honored to hear that. I do it all out of love.

Other things I enjoyed: The charcoal pants and white jerseys. Sharp. I am Switzerland in the uniform controversy, other than laughing when I listened to a clip of Graff from the USA game when he had to ask which player had just scored. Up close, I love the charcoal jerseys. Really, I do. But I have to admit it was mighty nice at the Ruston game to be able to identify players out on the field instead of our Get Smart tactic of invisible jersey numbers meant to fool opponents. My middle-aged eyesight appreciated it.

And then the FUNNIEST new tradition has been started by the boyfriend of one of my newest hullabaloo-ettes whom I'll call Chardonnay. So Chardonnay's boyfriend takes to screaming "WHO'S YO DADDY?!?!?!?!?!" every time that Nick Montana completes a pass. It's hilarious. I laugh every time. And Joe has got to hear us because he usually sits a few seats away from us at the dome and also ended up just one family over from us in Ruston.

A fun thing the booster club I belong to are doing this season is we are taking this banner on the road to our CUSA road games.

Last year we had another banner for Devon that turned out great. We collect signatures in exchange for a voluntary contribution. Last year we raised over $800 at the Ole Miss game and then presented the banner to the family personally. They were sweet enough to show us a picture of it in front of his bed. So we hope that this banner does well also.

Next up is Syracuse and we are all set to go. Catch up with me after the weekend y'all!