4 Hard Downs: Offseason, Combine and Bastard Manicotti Edition
Why bench 4 Hard Downs in the offseason? Let's keep it going, since I gotta do a Monday post anyway!
During the season I do “4 Hard Downs” to hit the 4 most interesting or important things coming out of the CFB weekend. Screw it, let’s keep it going because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m no branding expert, anyone who knows I have like 3 different names between IG, Twitter and FB knows that. But I think I’ll stick with this one, hit 4 things out of the weekend and that’s the Monday, every week.
It won’t always be CFB, I can add some cooking, like in this one where I explain that I think crepe manicotti is good, but I like a heartier pasta…that’s for later.
I dig the combine. I like watching guys do the little things right. As someone who has a few friends who went to the combine or had to live on pro days and went to Arizona or Florida to train:
The beauty of the combine is in the pre-work, both on and off the field.
Your body better be right and tight. Your footwork better be clean. Your 40 start needs to be immaculate. Your hips need to be fluid. You can’t slip or get stuck on drills that you’ve been practicing since, at the minimum, January (in reality since high school since most camps and combines do the same drills).
And that’s just on the field.
Off the field you’re gonna need to know your football. You’re going to have to have answers for everything they have heard about you from any contacts they have. That microwave you threw out the window your redshirt freshman year, what was up with that? Speeding ticket from when you were 20, have you learned your lesson?
Everything from the most major incidents like arrests and being associated with high school friends who are now in jail to both being a good teammate and thoughts on your own teammates.
Oh and your social media!
So as we do during the season, this is our first of the rest of Mondays forever of the newsletter…
SPOT THE BALL!!!!
1st Down: Anthony Richardson Understood The Assignment
Dude he killed it.
Confirmed everything we knew from an athleticism standpoint. First for QBs in the 40, Vert and Broad. He’s as explosive as he showed on camera. And he did it all as the biggest QB at 6’4” 244 lbs.
You could see it on camera, he was shorter than a few guys, Tanner McKee from Stanford, but 13 pounds heavier and way faster and more fast twitch than McKee. If you saw him standing in line to perform it was clear, as we already know this just confirmed, he’s built different.
He was a bull gator on the block.
But the best part is that he clearly has been working on touch and accuracy during draft prep.
I love watching guys improve. I love seeing guys take the craft seriously. I love seeing guys recognize weaknesses in their game and attack those with a vengeance to fix them and get closer to invincible. I loved seeing Tua do it in high school. I love seeing Richardson do it as he heads to the next chapter of his football life.
Sure, he wasn’t perfect. Some underthrown deep balls to WRs he’s never met before and could have easily overthrown with his cannon arm. He’ll be better at that at his Pro Day.
As someone who has been consistently on the fence about Richardson…no, that’s not true…as someone who has been on the side of the fence that thinks he’s a reach in the Top Ten and project as a first rounder, I came away impressed.
No clue how the interviews or how the chalk talk is going to go with teams, but he clearly understand what he needed to fix on tape.
Hats off my dude. You love to see it.
2nd Down: Brian Branch Should Have Been With The Safeties
I love Brian Branch. I think he is probably the 2nd best DB behind Kelee Ringo. But he is the 5th or 6th best corner in this draft. He could be the best safety in this draft if he wasn’t chasing the CB demarcation.
He finished in the bottom third in the 40, in the 10 yard split on the 40, vertical leap and broad jump. Same numbers, as a safety, a position he is suited to play? Making him a more appetizing candidate in the draft.
The good thing is teams understand they can move pieces around.
But operating in the corner space as a guy who is better suited as a big nickel or safety didn’t do him any favors. He isn’t walking away from Indy with the idea that “yeah in my group I was tops.”
Although, I do stand by the idea he is the 2nd best DB. He can play. He’s got squabbles and an understanding and feel for the game that is elite. But if you’re going to draft him as a corner and pay him as a corner he can’t get picked before Ringo, Christian Gonzalez from Oregon, Devon Witherspoon from Illinois, Cam Smith from South Carolina, DJ Turner from Michigan, Joey Porter Jr or Clark Phillips from Utah.
They are better corners.
I hope the team who picks him uses him closer to the hashes and closer to the line of scrimmage. Arguing about this with people, and myself, reminds me of when I argued with an old boss about Jabrill Peppers and I refused to call him the best corner coming out of high school because I thought he was a safety. I wouldn’t say it, that was the button they wanted at the end of the video, and at the end of THAT day, they got someone else to say it.
But at the end of a future day, and still now, I was right. He wasn’t and shouldn’t have ever been a corner.
Hopefully Branch gets to be the corner he wants to be, but man, I think he’d be a bang up safety.
3rd Down: It Is Adult Human Homeowner Combine Season Too
We ain’t gonna run 40s or get our height and weight checked but we are going to get lawn and garden checked by our friends and neighbors. Get your rear in gear. Whether it is a purposeful “no lawn” or a pollinator garden or a fescue or a warm season grass. Whatever you do is right.
So do it right.
I assume everyone reading this is already a Hand in the Dirt listener. If you’re not, check it out, it is a gardening podcast about football that I do with my friends. We talk some ball, answer listener voicemails and emails plus talk about the ups and downs of trying to make your lawn and landscape look nice or keeping your chickens alive.
This is a little late because your boy was out there slinging mulch. My space is too small for a bulk delivery so basically I have to triple load these heavy ass bags. I go get the bags from Lowes and put them on the cart. Then I put them in the car. Then I unload the car. Then I got to spread it out and make it look alright.
I think I did alright, I am very ready for spring to get my 4 years of renters neglected roses back in tip top shape.
4th Down: Squid Ink Stuffed Shells For Your Ass
First and foremost, I know that traditional, scratch-made manicotti, is made crepe adjacent with a batter that is lightly cooked and then stuffed and rolled. You don’t have to tell me that.
I don’t like that.
I have done it many times. I don’t like it. It is too eggy for me and almost like a floury omelette crepe. I like hearty pasta, which is closer to the shells you buy at the store that are dried.
Except these are fresh.
Which means I start with my classic pasta recipe, then modify it for the squid ink.
2 cups semolina flour
2 large eggs
2 tbs squid ink (cuttlefish ink if you’re looking online)
1 tsp water
2 tsp salt
Drizzle olive oil to get the right consistency, and more for the plate, like this:
You have to up the flour because much like when you’re making roasted red pepper or spinach pasta you’re introducing more liquid with the squid ink. So I had more flour, cut the water in half and use the olive oil to make sure I get to the consistency I want.
I give that ball at least an hour to relax. It has already been played with enough between the mixing and the shaping. Give it a break. Let it breathe under a kitchen cloth.
You can put it through a pasta press, either machine or hand-cranked, but I like to throw down some flour and hand roll mine. Just some APF on the counter and cut the ball into quarters and roll it into sheets.
As you can see I also don’t make the big long boys. I like two rows of 3 inch instead of 5 or 6 inch and then it fits weird in the pan.
The filling is a homemade pork sausage with parm and goat cheese, instead of ricotta, which we’ll get to in a later post (honestly, I have to keep notes on the “we’ll get to that later” and just do a summertime 4 Hard Downs that is just “we’ll get to that” and I guess the parm-mozz cream sauce with garlic and basil and oregano fit into that too.)
Lube up the pan so it doesn’t stick. Drizzle the cream sauce over the noodles and cover with foil and into the oven at 375 for at least an hour. It is thick because as it gets hot in the oven it thins out and seeps in without making them soggy, thanks to the sturdier real pasta noodle.
Covering is super important because you don’t want to let the moisture out and scorch the cheese.
After the 60-90 minutes take them out. Put them into reserved sauce in your bowl or plate. Add some sauce on top. Put the plates/bowls or plate-bowls under the broiler. Toss some oregano and basil on top to finish and you’re in business.
Spicy and cream filling with the pork and goat cheese, creamy sauce outside, browned and the fresh little herbs on top. That’s dinner. If you want to use store bought sauce, do it. If you want to use the classic store bought noodle, do it. This isn’t a challenge, it is just me sharing what I do that makes me happy, and process is mostly my jam.
It is some bastard version of manicotti that is like if ravioli and lasagna had a baby and put it into a manicotti, so it is the Snow of the Manicotti World (see I know Game of Thrones…Snow, bastard blah blah blah dragons, Mountain, Viper, Sansa, shame shame shame).
Either way, it is the way I like it. I hope you will too.
Cheers!