Dave from Carter-Finley

I don’t even have to write what I’m really thinking about this topic … these pictures say everything. (photos from Triangle.com)

So Saturday was Media/Meet the Pack Day.  Go here to see the N&O photo gallery … there’s a few funny pics in there.  Not much news from Media Day other than TOB saying, “We have enough weapons, I believe, offensively and defensively to have a winning season and get to a bowl game.”  I hope he knows what he’s talking about.  Of course he followed that statement with “injuries could change that” which is fastly becoming his calling card here at State.  This is year four so I guess he still needs time to build up the depth chart?  If the depth chart is still thin why are we still kicking guys off the team?

Speaking of that Denzelle Good was added to the growing list of guys (Donald Bowens, DeAndre Morgan, Dominique Ellis, Jimmual Simmons, and Chris Ward just to name a few) TOB has kicked to the curb.  A few probably deservedly so, but as many or more for little to no reason at all.  I could elaborate, but I’ll just leave it at that.  Good had a lot of promise coming out of high school being one of the most talked about players at the 2008 Shrine Bowl so I had high hopes for him.  In other attrition news, Morgan Alexander was forced to leave the team due to bad grades.  He was very impressive last year on the scout team and a player even the coaches had raved about so of course I was excited to see what he could do in the Red & White.  Oh well I can still play with him on NCAA Football 11.  These losses won’t be felt this year, but it does weaken the depth chart down the road.

While everybody was at Meet the Pack Day I was helping Mrs. DFCF get some stuff done around the house.  With only two more weekends left after this one before the season starts and all my Saturdays are booked up she knew to take advantage of the day.  While I was finishing my honey-do list I was thinking about Wolfpack Football … shocker!  I wanted to finalize my plans for the website too.  It might be a little audacious but here’s what I have planned for the season:

1. Weekly game preview:  players to watch, key match-ups, stats, records, gambling info, etc.
2. Weekly team grades:  putting on my professor cap and grading the team/coaches’ performance each game.
3. TOB-O-Meter:  think the Shawon-O-Meter with TOB’s winning percentage (currently).
4. Arround the ACC:  news, commentary, ACC Championship Game preview, etc.
5. Tailgating DFCF Style:  setup, stories, recipes, videos, etc.
6. DFCF the Greek:  top 3 weekly ATS picks posted every Friday.

There’s one other thing, but I need a whole write-up to do it justice so check back later in the week.  Of course I’ll have my random rants, crazy stories, self deprecation, and such but I wanted to have something for my readers to depend on every week (kinda like a Wolfpack Football information crack if you will).  The countdown is under 20 days.  Woohoo!  Bring on some football!

I did watch the Kay Yow Spring Game on Pack Pass.  I devoted way too much of a perfect day at the beach watching a live stream of a NC State football practice, but that’s what I do.  I have plenty of thoughts/observations that I’ll get to in the next few days so check back.  I’m still trying to talk to a few people I know that were actually there to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

There is some other important NC State news that I have neglected far too long that I have to mention.  Randy Woodson has officially taken over as the new Chancellor (read his bio).  While I was a student Marye Anne Fox was the Chancellor and I loved her.  She did a great job for the University and was very pro sports.  She left right before I graduated and James Oblinger took over.  I was never fond of him at all.  Even before the embarrassment of the Mary Easley fiasco he was never a pro sports guy and he helped usher in the 5 hour tailgating rule that I absolutely despise and still doesn’t make any sense to me.  I’ll reserve final judgement on Chancellor Woodson, but he’s definitely made a great first impression on me.  I’m very excited about what NC State University could be under his leadership.

New NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife Susan

The NC State Alumni magazine had a great article about new Chancellor Woodson in the Spring 2010 issue which can be read here.  Aside from the fact that he looks like a great person to lead our University, I really liked seeing the following quote from him:

“I think one of the areas where [we’re] different from Purdue right now is [that NC State needs] to win a little more in athletics. It enhances the brand when athletics perform at the highest levels. It has the potential to tarnish the brand when things go awry. And what I mean by that is not just losing, but having controversy associated with the athletics program. I’m a firm believer in the value of competitive athletics for the institution. I believe that it’s got to be done with integrity, with strong business principles so that it’s a solid resource and on solid financial ground. When it’s done well, it really adds tremendous value to the NC State brand. You can’t buy the kind of advertising that you get from a successful athletics program.”

That’s music to my ears Chancellor Woodson.  Now let’s start making it happen.  Welcome to NC State!

I’m one of those people that just gets enamored with the Olympics.  It doesn’t matter if it is the Summer or Winter games, I just can’t get enough.  Stuff that I would normally find painfully boring to watch … like Nordic combined … I am glued to the TV and rooting for my fellow countrymen.  Speaking of Nordic combined, big congrats to Bill Demong and Johnny Spillane for bringing the USA our first ever Olympic medals in this sport.  Stuff like that is what the Olympics are all about.

Back in the fall me and my little brother (I know proper grammar is “my little brother and I”, but that has always sounded stupid to me so I don’t talk that way … turn me into the Internet Grammar Police) were planning a trip to Vancouver.  We were looking at flights, hotels, and rental cars.  My brother even got his passport and we talked to our grandma about using part of her timeshare.  Some stuff came up and our plans just never materialized.

As I was watching the Olympics come to a close yesterday I was a little sad that we didn’t make it up there for a couple of reasons.  First, it would have been a damn good time.  Don’t worry Mrs. DFCF, I promise I would have stayed away from the Olympic Village.  It just seemed like one huge rockin’ party that I hate I missed out on.  Second, it would have allowed me to cross something off my personal bucket list.  That got me thinking … what would DFCF’s bucket list look like?

I know the suspense and anticipation is killing you, so without further ado here is DFCF’s bucket list (in no particular order):

1. Be Mr. Wuf for a half.
2. Watch a game at Carter-Finley from a suite in Vaughn Towers.
3. Tailgate in the Carter-Finley RV lot with my tailgate crew for a whole weekend.
4. Take a “behind the scenes” tour of everything that goes into Gameday at Carter-Finley … especially the jumbotron.  (I’m a technology guy.)
5. Perform the coin toss for a game at Carter-Finley.
6. Get to follow along on a recruit’s official visit
7. Visit the Press Box at Carter-Finley during a game.
8. Help the grounds crew paint the field at Carter-Finley before a game.
9. Attend a BCS bowl game that the Wolfpack is playing in.
10. ******** ** ***** ***** ** *** 50 yard line ** ******-******.  (Edited to keep this blog rated PG.)

That’s the list for now.  I reserve the right to add more stuff to it later, but I’m pretty sure this list will be tough enough to complete as is.  I’ll come back and revisit this whenever I can cross something off.  For now I need to start working on how I can make some of this stuff happen.  If you, or anybody you know, can assist me in completing one (or more) of these things please drop me a line (dfcf99 at gmail dot come).  Thanks!

I’ve been in Myrtle Beach playing golf (and bad golf at that) with a group of guys for the past few days so it’s been a little quiet here.  I have some work … and sleep … to catch up on so enjoy the Cornhole Song video above that was shot at none other than Carter-Finley Stadium.  Cornhole has been a strong addition to the DFCF clan’s tailgating.  I had a good friend make me some custom boards which can be seen below.  That’s one of my loyal readers standing there in the back.

DFCF's custom cornhole boards in action

It’s just barely over a week since the 2009 NC State football season ended and I’m starting to go through Wolfpack Football Withdrawal (WFW).  I was really expecting to be planning for a bowl trip about this time, but the Pack football team didn’t get the memo.  I did go to the Carolina Panthers game this past Sunday to try and help soothe my WFW symptoms, but that didn’t work.  What a boring game and a boring atmosphere.  The tailgating wasn’t even that good.  The game did reinforce to me why college football is so much better than the NFL.

It’s just hard to believe that I wait what seems like forever for the Wolfpack football season to get here and when it finally gets here it’s over just like that (technically it was over back in October).  The easiest way to handle WFW is to start planning for next year.  The Kay Yow Spring Game is just around the corner, April 17th to be exact, so mark your calendars.  Lord willing, I’ll be there.  My birthday is that week so all I want is to tailgate and watch Wolfpack Football … and my wife says I’m hard to shop for.

I’m also already making plans for the first road trip next year to Central Florida in lovely Orlando.  Never been to Disney World so that’s the angle I took to get the wife’s approval.  Sneaky, huh?  I think about NC State football 24/7/365 so I’m also working on upgrades and additions to our tailgating.  We absolutely brought it this year, but there’s always room for improvement.  Just this past Friday me and the wife went on a wild goose chase trying to find a NC State tailgate table.  I find at least five Carolina ones everywhere we go, but have not found a State one yet.  Very frustrating, but surprisingly a good treatment for my WFW.

Note:  I’ll be checking back in randomly throughout the offseason so if you want to know when something new is posted just subscribe to my blog by clicking the link on the right side of the page.

Former Pack great Jerricho Cotchery taking in Homecoming 2009

I love it when former Pack players in the NFL spend their bye week to come back and root for the Pack.  Saturday Jerricho Cotchery was at Carter-Finley and got a huge standing ovation when he was recognized.  Jerricho was one of the hardest working and nicest guys we’ve ever had at State.  What a class guy.  He still owns the Pack records for most career receptions (200) and most career 100 -yard receiving games (15).

In 2003 at Duke, my crowd was tailgaiting by Jerricho’s mom and dad (in addition to Cotra Jackson’s mom).  They were grilling chicken wings and we were grilling Mr. Gibson’s world famous pork chops.  We shared some food, stories, and had a good ol’ time.  Super nice people.  It was a joy to watch Jerricho and Philip Rivers dissect defense after defense during their time wearing the Red and White.  DFCF wishes much success to Jerricho in life and for the duration of what we all hope is a long NFL career.

A good buddy of mine does some volunteer work for Jerricho’s Foundation up in NYC.  Great to see athletes giving back to the community.  Check it out here.

Look at me back in my college days trying to be cool with the hat on backwards.  (Cue up Will Ferrell’s sound bite from Wedding Crashers … “What a loser!”)  It’s always fun reminiscing back to the good ol’ days.  You know, back when our tailgate menus consisted of kegs and eggs, we could play our music as loud as we pleased, and the only rule involving a 5 was the 5 second rule.

None of those are the case any more thanks to former Chancellor James Oblinger and current Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford.  I can’t even believe I’m mentioning those two names on my blog.  I promise I’m not trying to sabotage my own blog.  Anyway, this whole 5 hour rule (actually don’t forget that it started out as the 4 hour rule) is flat out stupid.  It was a huge overreaction that hasn’t come close to solving the real problem that is at hand, yet somehow four years later it still stands.

This attack on tailgating has started to spread to places other than NC State too, even the NFL.  If I close my eyes it almost feels like I’ve been teleported back to Kindergarden and banished to timeout by my teacher.  I mean what is going on?  It’s gotten so bad that ESPN’s Rick Reilly wrote a recent article about it which you can read here.  I can’t put it as elegant as him so I won’t even try, but it just really sucks.

We don’t have any real football tradition at State.  We’ve had some great players in the past and a few good teams, but nothing anywhere close to putting us on the national map.  All us Wolfpackers know this and have accepted it (in my case very begrudgingly), but the one thing we have always had to be proud of was our tailgating.  I hope that our new Chancellor will put this issue at the top of his/her list and right this wrong.  If we want to be a top football program we at least need to act like one.

There are a lot of songs that when I hear them they make me think of NC State.  They’re either past intro songs, budding traditions, celebratory songs played after wins, or the dear to our hearts fight songs and alma mater.  Most are from football, but a couple are from basketball and I had to throw in one from baseball too.  Anyway, here is my “kick donkey” tailgating playlist (DWTS reference just for Mrs. DFCF).

1. NC State Marching Band – Fight Song
2. WCW Mayhem – Wolfpac Theme
3. Drowning Pool – Bodies
4. P.O.D. – Boom
5. Guns ‘n Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
6. Disturbed – Meaning of Life
7. NC State Marching Band – Red and White
8. Bruce Channel – Hey! Baby
9. The Sugarhill Gang – Apache
10. Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
11. NC State Marching Band – Alma Mater
12. Bruce Robison – See You Around
13. Metallica – Of Wolf and Man (edited per T-Bone’s request)
14. Tank Tyler – Welcome to the Carter (I forgot about this one)
    
15. Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf (another one I forgot)
    

I’m sure I have overlooked a few.  Let me know what songs make you think of NC State.

Coming to you from Winston-Salem it’s DFCF Tailgating Live. Trying to copy the SNL intro, but i don’t think it worked that well. I’ll have to work on a more catchy intro for next week.

Anyway, we set up the tailgating spot right beside Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Our tailgating crowd is a little smaller than usual, but I see a lot of red here in the parking lot.

Absolutely perfect day for football. No cloud in the sky, not too hot, and a nice breeze. I live for Saturdays like this in the fall.

My bro had a chance to stop by a little while ago. It was nice to get to tailgate with him. Can’t wait til he graduates and can join me for every game.

The sight of the day is easily this State student wearing only a little red speedo, some cowboy boots, and a white hat. He just did some poses for the crowd. I’ve seen some interesting outfits at State football games before, but this tops the cake. I’ll try to get a picture.

That’s all for now. GO PACK!