4 Hard Downs: Ryan Day, Fights & Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Success, Planting Flags, Coaching Missteps and More
I love Thanksgiving. Everyone knows it is my favorite holiday, number one with a bullet, if you will. Dinner came out amazing. My family loved it. The leftovers hit hard on Friday when I got to kick it with my friends.
I am glad it is done, your boy is tired and it is time to go to work.
Also, my kid learned how to play “The Game of Life” which has added some new features that make it last, probably, as long as Monopoly but without the shady fun.
I do not like boardgames. Have really never liked them. I don’t get the appeal. That being said, my kid and wife love them so I did play one game and it did feel like torture because of rules and reading each card and all these go this way and get this or go that way and get that.
Don’t buy your kids “Life” for Christmas, you’re going to hate it.
You know what I don’t hate? Fighting, so let’s go ahead and SPOT THE BALL!!!
1st Down: Fight Night
Bet you haven’t thought about this song in a long time, but this is what Rivalry Weekend turned into.
Most of which came from “Planting The Flag” or in the case of Arizona State, the um, trident(?) or pitchfork(?) (there not much heft to NC State’s flag or ASU’s thing either).
Fighting has been a part of football for a long time. We fought offense-defense in practice. We’ve all seen pre-game dust-ups in rivalry games. We’ve seen the fight between FIU and Miami.
I had a long talk with my dad because he is of the mind that it is escalating now and I wasn’t sure if I agreed. However, the best part about having these talks with my dad are they make me think and re-think things, specifically flag planting.
It happened in 2005 with Michigan State against Notre Dame. It happened in 2017 with Baker Mayfield:
Which did, actually happen at Ohio State (which I do think also is interesting, especially given his recent takes on this). The flag planting on your rivals field, as my dad said to me, is a “middle finger” to the opponent. The opponent doesn’t want to get the middle finger which leads to the fighting.
Thus, more flag planting, more fighting.
I think there is an element of guys trying to have a moment, my dad disagrees. I do think there is something to guys who have lived their entire life in a world about going viral. On both sides.
The thing my dad and I totally agree on?
It is also a depiction of leadership. Not just coaches but also players. Teams that have player forward leadership don’t normally act a fool. Teams with strong coaching leadership don’t act a fool.
So, we’ll see what this looks like next year and if my dad is right (he probably will be) about the escalation.
2nd Down: Ryan Day Feeling Some Type Of Way
Speaking of strong leadership.
I saw Sherrone Moore get in there to try to control his players. Ryan Day, after losing and only scoring 10 points, just stood there while a guy who played his entire career at Ohio State and was a captain was freaking out.
Didn’t try to break up the fight. Didn’t go to console his captain.
Just stood there.
I don’t know if they’re going to fire him or not. Probably not. They’re going to the playoff, assumedly. They still have to sign this recruiting class.
However, as I said, I always talk to my dad about things to make sure I think through them enough. My father worked in education for over 20 years. The idea of him seeing some of his students fighting and standing around doing nothing, that’s not how he gets down. He couldn’t and wouldn’t.
But Ryan Day’s not my dad; so maybe this is his coaching and parenting style: Do Nothing. Which, ironically is what he and Will Howard did for an offense with three future NFL WRs.
3rd Down: National Signing Day Feels Crazy
If you’re like a lot of people, you don’t realize National Signing Day for College Football is TOMORROW!! I’m working to put together a show that goes two hours from 7-9et TOMORROW night for Bleacher Report.
Two hours of me talking to myself but also spending the start of the show and during the show having moments of making people realize how wild this has become.
-Pre-conference championship weekend
-Pre-some coming coaching firings
-Pre-new staff hires rooted in coaching hires
-Schools with no coaches
-Playoff selection coming
-Pre-NFL declarations
-Pre-High School football championship games/playoffs even
Basically, this is wild and I’m trying to wrap my mind around it. Tune in tomorrow because I’ll be in my basement, which I am getting setup and there will be a gang of children’s books in the background because I can’t do it in my office since my kid goes to bed at 7:30 and I can’t scream into a mic while she sleeps one wall away.
4th Down: Chili Never Looks Good
These pictures suck, but the chili tasted so good.
Turkey Chili made with homemade tomato paste, ancho and arbol chiles plus onions and garlic and red beans and obviously some leftover turkey. It was very good. It looks like dog food. Any tips on chili photos let me know because I want to share.
On the left is mine, with no cheese, a lot of diced jalapeño and a little homemade spicy ranch. On the right is my wife’s with cheddar, avocado and light jalapeño…AND…a homemade savory whipped cream with cumin, chile powder and a little salt.
I like it in the bowl or the crock but the only time I’ve taken a good picture of chili is on the corn waffle with it on the plate. But again, I want to eat it, when it is 30 degrees, out of a bowl.
Cheers!!!
One thing that works for photographing any food is using the portrait setting on an iPhone...you need to be relatively far away from the food but it makes anything look spectacular!