Tales from the Tailgate - Many people have asked if we will possibly write a book about this adventure.  Click here to read Excerpts from our upcoming book, Tales from the Tailgate, or how I got to see every 1A football team play at least once in person ! Read the Introduction and three chapters.  It's coming along pretty good.  We hope it will become one of the Classics!

PSAC teams forge ahead - Bloomsburg (11-1) knocked off PSAC foe West Chester to avenge their only loss this season, 28-21, and move on to the next round of the D-2 play-offs.  This weekend, they will host the California (PA) Vulcans (11-1), champions of the PSAC.  The Huskies handed the Vulcans their only loss of the season back on Sept. 6 at home, 24-17. This should be a great game.  If we weren't going to New England for Thanksgiving and the BC-Maryland game, this is the game we'd go see!  The winner of this game advances to the national semi-finals in two weeks.   If Bloomsburg hosts a game, we'll probably go.

Bowl Game  -  With their six wins, Navy has already been offered and  accepted the inaugural Eagle Bank Bowl on Dec. 20 in Washington, D.C.  We plan to be there!  The question is, will a team from the ACC be there.  Clemson (6-50 defeated Virginia last weekend, 13-3.   We only saw Clemson play once before -all the way back in 1980 when we saw the lose to Maryland, 34-7, in their next to last game of that season.  The Tigers won their next 13 straight to win the national championship in 1981!  We are working on getting a Clemson home game on to our schedule next season, but now we're looking forward to this one.  Go Navy!

Dropping like flies - A review of last season and this season so far indicated we were on the right track selecting Football Bowl Division teams to watch on our schedule, but as the season progresses, a lot of the teams that were expected to be in the Top 25 are long gone.    Only five of last season's teams we saw remain in this season's Top 25 , and now only three are left on this season's slate.  2007 included # 3 Oklahoma, #6 Penn State, #7 Texas Tech,  #11 Oklahoma State, and #12 Mizzou.  This year, we've seen #3 Penn State,  #22 Michigan State, and No. 20 Boston College comes up this weekend.  More to drop!

Who wants to be the "Beast"? - Seems like Cincinnati (9-2) should clean up this weekend with their game final home game versus Syracuse this weekend.  They follow up with a trip to Hawaii to give the a shot at an 11-2 record.  Brian Kelly has really turned things around for the Bearcats, and if he decides to stay, which we doubt he will, UC could challenge for the Big East title each year he remains.  Looks like the Orange Bowl BCS Bowl for these Bearcats.  It could be interesting to see if they play a Big East pariah such as Boston College or Virginia Tech.

"Pappy" Waldorf Update - We've gotten word that a list of potential candidates is being pared down to about 12 players.  Hopefully, we'll get to see some of the candidates play before the end of the season.  For those who are hearing about this for the first time, Collegefootballfan.com is on a panel to select The Best Walk-on football player in college football each season.  We're looking forward to it.  A sponsor is still being sought.  Anyone out there have a Dr. Scholl's connection? Get it?  "Walk-on? Dr. Scholl's?

That's cold - CBS-TV has reached an agreement to televise the Army-Navy game over the next ten years on the second Saturday of December instead of the first.  This allows the classic to become the focal point of college football's last regular season game each year.  Over the last few years some of the significance has been taken away with the playing of conference championships played on the first December weekend.  During those last few years, that weekend in Philly always seems to be the coldest of the year! Don't be surprised if it feels warmer on the second Saturday!

Best Conference?- There's only one good BCS conference out there this year.  The Big Ten is down.  Nobody in the Big East wanted the title except for Cincy.  The ACC is a mad scramble of ineptitude.  The PAC 9 made USC look good.  Only Alabama and Florida stood out among the SEC.  For balance, excitement and big games, the Big 12 showed it had most of the best teams in the country.  Look for them to dominate during bowl season.  Why do so many conferences seem so weak?  I think it's a sign of the times -  too many kids spend too much time playing game on their computers instead of playing ball outside when they're kids - seriously!  All the hype we hear about these great individuals coming out of high schools is overblown.  Kids don't understand the meaning of teamwork any more.

Memorabilia - We received a call recently from Rich Goff in Morristown, NJ who will be retiring shortly to South Carolina.  He called to say he might have something we'd be interested in.  In cleaning out his garage, he told us he had a piece of the goal post from the 100th game played back in 1969 between Princeton and Rutgers.  Seeing the article in the Daily Record recently, he thought we would appreciate it.  He was right!  After that particular game Rich, an RU grad,  attended in New Brunswick, an RU student was dragging the 12-foot post along and Rich asked, "Do you have a piece for me?" He offered the kid a six-pack.  The student put it down on the ground and stomped off about a 3-foot section.  Rich took it home and stenciled the white painted piece in red, "1969: Rutgers 29 Princeton 0".  It stuck us that they don't make wooden goalposts like this any more!  It looks good on my home-made bar out on my deck already.  It'll be a great conversation piece.  Thanks for thinking about us, Rich!

Tennessee Two-step - This bowl season we've booked our first game to attend the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville.  Arrangements are now being determined for the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis.  Now that PSU has a shot at the Rose Bowl instead of the BCS championship, we'd love to go, but our former contact from 12 years ago, Bud Griest, is nowhere to be found.  Hopefully he still has that PSU sweatshirt we gave him on Jan. 2, 1995 and thinks of us again!  If not, we'll see three bowls as we bought tickets for the inaugural Eagle Bank Bowl in D.C. on Dec. 20    6-4 Navy landed the first bowl berth and will probably face Clemson!   In the Music City Bowl, we'd like to see Georgia Tech with Paul Johnson's triple option play Mississippi with QB Jevon Snead, but we're probably going to have to settle for Kentucky against one of several mid-level ACC teams.  In the Liberty, we'd like to see Vanderbilt, a one-timer for us as is Ole Miss, play Tulsa with our Tulsa friends the Pistoia's in town.   Stay tuned!  We love bowl games, but now there are definitely too many!

Defense?  Defense?   - In a D-2 playoff game, the Abilene Christian Wildcats defeated the West Texas A&M Buffalos, 93-68!  The No. 2 Wildcats (11-0) scored on 13 of 15 possessions.  RB Bernard Scott scored seven TDs, six on the ground, one via pass.  He rushed for 292 yards.  His QB Billy Malone passed for six TDs and 383 yards.  For the Buffs (10-2), QB Keith Null connected on 42 of 63 passes for seven TDs and 595 yards.  WR Charly Martin was on the receiving end for 14 of those completions for 323 yards and five TDs.  The two Lone Star Conference teams combined for 22 TDs in the three hour and 55 minute game.  Maybe that wasn't the real Mike Leach along the sideline for Texas Tech last Saturday in the Red Raiders 65-21 loss to Oklahoma.  Sounds like he was up in Abilene instead pushing the buttons for both of these offenses instead!  ACU next plays Northwest Missouri State in the next round of the D-2 play-offs.

Tale of two schools - We started the season when we saw Virginia Union visited East Stroudsburg.  Pass-happy Virginia Union ranked 25th in the D-2 pre-season polls,  and came in with high expectations after a 9-2 season in 2007.  They fell to ESU in a sloppy game for both, 14-11.   Well, it seems the pressure to win even at the D-2 level is fairly heavy.  The Panthers finished their season at 5-5, and first-year head coach Greg Richardson was relieved of his coaching duties at the end of the season.  He had been an assistant the two previous years.  No reason was given for his release.  East Stroudsburg finished their season at 9-2, but losses to West Chester and Bloomsburg precluded them from this year's D-2 play-offs.  Both teams who defeated them are in the play-offs representing the Eastern Division of the PSAC. Warrior Head Coach Denny Douds finished this 35th season with a total of 218 wins.

Passing yard leaders - Last season, we saw four of the top five  play in person - 1.) Graham Harrell of Texas Tech  (4,438 yards), 2.) Case Keenum of Houston (4,274 yards). 3.) Sam Bradford of Oklahoma (3,710) , and 5.) Chase Daniels of Missouri (3,392).  There may be a Heisman winner among them somewhere.

Interesting stuff -  Oregon State is one win away from re-playing Penn State in the Rose Bowl.  A win over Oregon could put the Beavers into the Rose Bowl for the first time in 45 years. Penn State (11-1)  defeated Michigan State, 49-18, to handily win the Big Ten.   This would be a re-match of this year's game in State College won by PSU, 45-14.  A lot of people are hoping that the Ducks beat the Beavers and USC gets to mix it up with the Nittany Lions instead. / Temple won their fourth game of the season by besting Eastern Michigan, 55-52.  How does anyone allow EMU to score 52 points?  Oops, sorry. This was the second time the Eagles scored 52 points this season. In their opener, EMU defeated 1-AA Indiana State, 52-0.  The Sycamores finished the season at 0-12.  If Larry Byrd were still there, at least ISU could put some points on the board!  Sorry .  Wrong sport! / EMU  Head Coach George Jennyk and his staff were fired after the close of his 2-9 season.  Former U of M Coach Lloyd Carr is helping with the search.  Is there somebody at his old school available for the position?/  Boise  knocked off 6-4 Nevada in Reno, 41-34.  Only 7-4 Fresno stands in the way to maintain an unblemished record and get back to a BCS bowl./ No. 13 Georgia (9-2) has been preparing for two weeks  for No. 18 Georgia Tech's triple option.  The Yellow Jackets (8-3) defeated Miami last Thursday night. Crafty Coach Paul Johnson may have the Bulldogs right where he wants them.  This is the reason Tech hired him away from the Naval Academy. / Hard to believe that not only his job may be on the line against Alabama this week, but a shot for a bowl bid may fall out of Tommy Tuberville's reach for the first time since his first season at Auburn (1999). / For several bowl games, if the SEC cannot qualify a team, the Sun Belt provides a team.  Who thought the Sun Belt could ever provide more than one, maybe two teams?  Troy has seven wins and if they win their remaining game over Arkansas State, they're obligated to the New Orleans Bowl.  LA-Lafayette is one of four remaining Sun Belt's with five wins.  Those would be bowl games that even we can't get excited about./  Of 19 1A Bowl Division teams we'll see play during the regular season, 11 are already bowl eligible and five are out.  Auburn is 5-6 and has to play No. 1 Alabama.  We're hoping to the upset!  Rutgers is 6-5 and plays 5-6 Louisville on Thursday, December 4, for bowl scraps.  We'll be there! / Only Tennessee in the SEC East will be bowl ineligible at the end of this season./   Buffalo is 7-4 and bowl eligible for the second time in history.  /  Western Kentucky who we'll add next season as Team #120, is 2-9 this season. They do not play their next and final game of the season until December 6 against Florida International who has three games remaining.  Great scheduling./  The PAC 10 may only end up with five bowl eligible teams.  Maybe they should be like other conferences and do away with two conference games and replace them with two pushovers to guarantee at least eight of them six wins!/ 7-4, 3-4 LSU should even things out this weekend when Arkansas comes calling./  How bad is the Big Ten this year?  Northwestern finished 9-3.  That doesn't look bad until you note they lost to hapless 3-9 Indiana, 21-19. IU looked pretty bad when we saw them roll over to Penn State.  Also, Wisconsin finished their season with a 36-35 OT win over Cal Poly, a 1AA team!  The Big Ten is not so Big any more.  We weren't impressed with the quality of play when we saw Michigan State defeat Wisconsin, 24-22, this year. / Notre Dame's loss to pathetic Syracuse with lame-duck Head Coach Greg  Robinson just goes to show that you can recruit all the All-Americans you want, but if you don't make them better football players when you get them, it's going to show up in you record.  The Irish visit USC this weekend.  The luck of the Irish won't even help them.  Don't tell me that game's on TV!  /  We wish Tulsa's Todd Graham would knock it off.  They got beaten by mediocre, at best, Arkansas, and then got clobbered, 70-30, by Houston.  Destroying 2-9 Tulane, 56-7, proves nothing.  Marshall (4-7) is up next.  Another mediocre SEC team should give them a challenge in the Liberty Bowl. /  What does it say about college football when the supposedly weakest BCS conference, the ACC, has nine of twelve teams bowl eligible with the possibility of two more becoming that this weekend if they win their final games?  Only Duke is definitely out! / A fitting ending, Washington State finished the season 2-10 with a 16-13 win over 0-11 Washington.  But wait, there's more!  WSU visits Hawaii and Washington visits Cal.  Just when you thought the Apple State had enough./ Look for us to announce our proposed consolation games next week for all the teams that didn't become bowl eligible.

D-3 update - 11-0 Mt. Union rolled over Randolph-Macon, 56-0.   In the East alone, #6 Muhlenberg (9-2) fell for the second week in a row to Wesley of Delaware (10-1).  #18 Ithaca (9-2)  fell to 10-1 Curry.     Curry now visits No. 3 Cortland who defeated 10-2 Plymouth State, 31-14.  I The winner most likely travels next to face No. 1 Mt. Union, winner of nine D-3 national championships.  It doesn't look like we'll be traveling anywhere local for a D-3 play-off this year.  D-2 is a slight possibility if Bloomsburg wins to host a game.  Maybe we'll just drive up to Hartford that day and find a ticket for Pitt and UConn.

MAC balance - In the MAC West, four teams have four+ conference wins.  In the East, two have two and five have only one.  And the title will go to... How about Western Michigan with their 23-17 win over Illinois this past weekend.  Although Ball State and Central remain 5-0 in the conference, WMU trails a strong 5-1.  Buffalo earned their sixth win to become bowl eligible for the first time. At 6-4, Turner Gill's charges have Bowling Green and Kent left to play to possibly wrangle eight wins for the Bulls.

Rivalries - The recent trip to see Lafayette host Harvard made us want to plan to see the Leopards host Lehigh there in the longest college football rivalry.  We saw Yale and Harvard this past week in Cambridge, MA, for their 125th meeting where the Crimson won, 10-0.  This means we'll have to wait until 2010 for the 146th meeting between the Leopards and Mountain Hawks when they meet at Fisher Field.  Who should we see in 2009?  We're thinking Pitt at WVU in the Backyard Brawl.

CFF Twenty-five years ago - On September 10, 1983, John Massimilla and I traveled to the second game of our small school double-header.  After watching Lafayette defeat East Stroudsburg in Easton, PA, 20-10,  we headed out to Montclair, NJ where we saw something we'll never see again.  MSU tied the Wagner Seahawks that evening, 20-20. 

CFF History Lessons - Through 2007, below is a pretty impressive list of some all-time leaders we've seen play over the years since we started this crazy, fun-filled "diversion":

Passing yards: 1) Timmy Chang, Hawaii -17,072 yards; vs. Rice, 2002 ; 2) Ty Detmer, BYU - 15,031 yards; vs. Navy, 1989

Touchdowns: 1) Travis Prentice, Miami (O.) - 78 TDs; vs, Army, 1998

Points: 1) Travis Prentice, 468

TD passes: 2) Detmer, 121;   3) Chang, 117;   5) Danny Wuerrfel, Florida - 114; vs. Florida State, 1997 Sugar Bowl;   6) Chad Pennington, Marshall - 100; vs. Army, 1997

Rushing yards: 1) Ron Dayne, Wisconsin - 6,397 yards; vs. Syracuse, 1997;   3) Tony Dorsett, Pitt - 6,082; vs. Navy, 1974.

Heisman Hype - Over the years, 14 Heisman Trophy winners have played on teams we've seen.  Not all performed for us the year they won the award, and as you'll see below, not many played on teams that fared well.  And to be honest, few individual performances lived up to the hype:

1976 Tony Dorsett, Pitt - beat Navy 13-11, 1974

1983 Mike Rozier, Nebraska - walloped Penn State, 44-6

1985 Bo Jackson, Auburn - lost to Florida, 14-10 and lost to Miami (F), 20-18, 1984 (got hurt in both)

1986 Vinny Testaverde, Miami (F.) - beat Auburn, 20-18, 1984 (sat on the bench behind Bernie Kosar)

1987 Tim Brown, Notre Dame - lost to Penn State, 21-20

1990 Ty Detmer, BYU - beat Navy, 31-10, 1989

1992 Gino Torretta, Miami (F.) - beat Penn State,17-14

1993 Charlie Ward, Florida State - destroyed Kansas, 42-0

1995 Eddie George, Ohio State - crushed by Penn State, 63-14

1996 Danny Wuerffel, Florida - picked apart Florida State for the National Championship, 52-20

1997 Charles Woodson, Michigan - embarrassed Penn State, 34-8 (played both ways)

1999 Ron Dayne, Wisconsin - shut out by Syracuse, 34-0, 1997 (held to 46 yards)

2002 Carson Palmer, USC - clubbed Penn State,29-5 (two years before Pete Carroll showed up)

2006 Troy Smith, Ohio State - beaten by Penn State, 17-10, 2005

Maybe we've already seen another or two - Missouri's Chase Daniels, Texas Tech's Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, and Oklahoma's Sam Bradford have potential as do a few others!

CFF Ten years ago - On November 11, 1998, I attended UConn's final win in D-1AA as they defeated the Hampton Pirates, 42-24, in the opening round of the playoffs at their old Memorial Stadium.  Head Coach Skip Holtz would leave after the season to become the offensive coordinator at South Carolina where his dad, Lou, stepped in as Head Coach.  Rand Edsall stepped in from Georgia Tech as new Head Coach of the transitional program and we added new teams such as Middle Tennessee, Utah State, Kent State, and Akron over the next few years as UConn played an Independent schedule before joining the Big East.

Second time around - We've seen 'em all, but we've got  teams appearing on our slate this year for only the second time.  Among them are Fresno (done), Oregon State (oh well), Louisiana Tech (done), Indiana (done),  LSU (done), and Mississippi State (done). Akron will appeared for the second time as a Bowl Division squad when we saw them visit Army.  We also saw them play in 1-AA at Rhode Island.  We think we have potential second-timers to add during our three bowl teams in Clemson, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and/or Kentucky.

FCS playoff excitement - Surprisingly, five Colonial Athletic teams made the brackets of former D-1AA play-offs.  James Madison (10-1) took the top seed. Villanova (9-2), New Hampshire (9-2), Richmond (9-3), and Maine (8-4) all made the grade.  We saw the Maine Black Bears turn their season around when we saw them defeat Delaware, 27-10, to win their first of six straight after starting 2-3 overall.  They lost the next game in their finale against UNH last weekend, 28-24.  Another entrant we saw play this year was the 9-2 Colgate Red Raiders.  We saw them lose their opener to Stony Brook, 42-26.  The absence of leading rusher Jordan Scott put quite a crimp in the Colgate game plan that evening. They lost their second game two weeks later to Furman, 42-21, but reeled off eight straight wins including a 5-0 Patriot League conference record to earn the automatic bid.  Their last two games were one-point victories over conference foes Lehigh and Holy Cross. They will play at Villanova in the opening round.  Three-time defending Champ Appalachian State (10-2)  is the second seed.  They lost to JMU early in the season.  They host South Carolina State (10-2).  Northern Iowa (10-2)  is the third seed.  They host Maine (8-4).  Montana (11-1) is the fourth seed, and they host Texas State (8-4).  A play-off trip here looks difficult, too. 

Watch for more Salvo updates throughout the season! 

- Steve Koreivo, ed.