Nov 10
Ray PierceEntertainment Cooper Lake State Park, fantasy football, Food, football, NFL
So this past weekend was our yearly trip up to east Texas for the gathering of our Fantasy Football league rightfully named “The Big Feed”. (click here for Pictures) Rodney Franklin hosts the event every year at Cooper Lake State Park, where he’s the Park Director. The park has quite a few cabins that we stay in.
This year is a first for the trip. All of the members of the Donations Please Fantasy Football League were able to attend. In years past we had most, but not all. Here are the members of the Donations Please league:
- Stan Ward (Leavenworth)
- Ray Pierce (Walt Coleman Lanterns)
- Rodney Franklin (South Sulpher Stallions)
- Steve Bryant (Bannana Tuggers)
- Mark Walker (Red River Valley Bulldogs)
- Jeff Warren (Lazy Sunday)
- David Jordt (Austin 37er’s)
- Ted Tongson (You Like)
- Jarrett Workman (Colorado Cutthroats)
- Lee Exum (A-Town Pimpdaddies)
The reason it is called “The Big Feed” is of course the huge quantities of food that are there. Rodney and Mark Walker put out a huge selection of food (mostly meat). Saturday night Mark made up a crusted Pork Tenderloin Sandwich that was mouth watering. I wish that I had the recipe for that one. Rodney made up some mouth watering pork ribs for us as well.
Then comes the Sunday feast. Mark smoked a brisket, a pork butt (pulled pork), hot links, german sausage, salmon, and a couple of beer can chickens. You can’t just have a little bit of food. Even a sampling of everything takes up your entire plate. Personally I like the pulled pork, but you can’t deny the rest of it.
So everyone is watching NFL Sunday ticket and moaning and cheering as their Fanstasy Football teams trod through the day. I think my team in particular had to have had the worst day of all. As of Sunday night, I had only 45 point. I just have to hope for Kurt Warner on Lee’s team not to score 12 points on Monday night. Yes that right, even with a paltry 45 points, I’m still leading in our game. (probably won’t last though)
I’d like thanks Rodney for hosting the Big Feed again this year.
Nov 02
Ray PierceSports college football, Colt McCoy, football, Graham Harrell, Jordan Shipley, Michael Crabtree, Texas Longhorns, Texas Tech Red Raiders
Texas Tech Red Raiders
Last night’s game between Texas Tech and Texas, was probably the best game that I have ever watched or can remember. Texas Tech came out on top 39-32 on a last second touchdown from Harrell to Crabtree. Tech showed up to play without a doubt. The first defensive series for Tech led to a sack of colt McCoy and resulted in a safety for the Red Raiders. That play in my mind set the tone for the night.
Tech Defense showed up in a big way. While I’m not claiming it is impenetrable, it was by far the best defensive effort we’ve seen out of the Red Raiders since Mike Leach took over the team. Texas’ offensive line is great, and to have them allow 4 sacks of Colt McCoy is almost unthinkable. I really don’t think they were really prepared for the tenacity that Texas Tech brought. It was really cool watching the Tech defensive unit force 3 and outs on Texas offense. It’s something that as a Tech fan, we really haven’t seen much of.
Tech offense showed that they are for real and very good. It’s not just a system. There was a great breakdown of how the Tech offense works on ESPN earlier this week. Check it out here. Something that Texas hasn’t seen this year either was the amount of receivers that we get involved in the game. Balance in our terminology is how many touches your skill players have, not run vs. pass. But probably the biggest factor in Tech moving the ball in this game (and all year) was our running game. We finally have one. Teams have to respect it at least, and it sucks up a LB or DB to stop it or delays them from helping out on the receivers.
Another good that we did last night was limit our penalties. Tech is one of the most penalized teams in the nation. Tech had 8 for 78 yards. Two of which were unsportsman like penalties for fans running on the field with 1 second left on the clock for 22 1/2 yards.
I think one of the more shocking things in the game was that Jordan Shipley wasn’t as clutch as he’s been in the previous 3 games. He’s been the real killer for the past 3 games for Texas. Last night he dropped several passes that would have either extended the drive or been huge gains. Very uncharacteristic for him.
Brian Orakpo was definitely a force to reckoned with. He definitely was a disruptive force. I do think limited his impact much better than I anticipated. Once he went down to injury there really wasn’t that much pressure on Harrell. I hate to see people go down to injury. If I’m a player I want to go against your best players and prove that how good you are. Speaking of injuries, Quan Cosby went down early in the first half and was really a non-factor. It’s hard to take pressure off the other receivers when your best one is out of the game.
I think Colt McCoy was spitting blood almost the entire second half. He got hit in the mouth because his helmet slid up. You know that had to hurt. I wonder why this doesn’t happen to quarterbacks more often. More times than not their chin straps are only using 2 snaps instead of the 4 that are on them.
I talked with several people in Lubbock today, and all of them mentioned how classy Texas was in defeat. They were disappointed understandably, but they handled themselves in the interviews with a lot of integrity. That speaks volumes to how the Longhorns are led. Mack Brown is a great coach and great role model for them.
All in all I think this was one of the better played games by both teams. I think every sportscaster in the NFL watched the game, because they have mentioned it on just about every broadcast. It’s good to see that Tech’s getting some love from the national media.
The polls have come out now…Tech #2 in AP Poll…#3 in USA Today Coaches Poll. Just waiting for the BCS to come out.
Now to put this behind us and focus on Oklahoma State coming to town.
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