4 Hard Downs: Successful Girls Night, Corndogs Anyone?, Game Management & Who Are You?

Girls just want to have fun, new faces popping up, special teams should be special and maybe don't celebrate

I am not even going to burn a down on this. With one exception, girls movie night for my kid was a success. We are on the train to sleepovers, which, I didn’t realize you have to warm up for but we are doing exactly that. Pizza. Popcorn. Parents having wine by the fire. Kids everywhere hanging out just doing their thing.

Here is the one exception:

Yes, that is kid’s hair in an RC dinosaur car.

How does that happen?

I don’t know.

Was their screaming? Yes. Basically from everyone in the room (7 girls). Did hair have to be cut?

Yes.

Overall it was a good night and your boy don’t take much pics because he’s running and gunning, wheeling and dealing making sure wine glasses are full, kids are fed, popcorn doesn’t burn and, obviously, solving a hair in an RC car situation.

End my night watching Stanford monster up on Colorado and then you get some sleep before you wake up for a full Saturday. Honestly, I know will have to for radio this week, but I don’t want to spend time on the Buffs.

They’re down, I don’t need to kick them.

So, instead, let’s go another direction, go ahead and SPOT THE BALL!!!

1st Down: Situational Football Is The Most Football That Ever Football’d

I’m not in love with “Total Yards” as a stat, except when LSU gives up 1,200 in 2 games. The reality of it is football is about situations. Small moments that decide if you win. Writing for “The Messenger” last week, I got to talk about how Oklahoma not only won the Red River Rivalry, but also improved tremendously on the defensive end. They didn’t become Georgia, but they get off the field on third down and make sure you don’t get TDs in the red zone.

Obviously we can talk Mario Cristobal from a week ago, I don’t want to. It was a mistake and my biggest takeaway from that is feeling bad for the kid and being upset that the camera kept cutting to him being devastated.

So, let’s go to a thing I don’t feel bad about, Notre Dame going into half in a game they ultimately won in a big way. However, this was bad:

Thanks NBC

3 guys go to celebrate. USC picks up a timeout because it is either a penalty or a timeout in this situation. Neither is good. But a longer field goal is better, in theory, I guess.

This is why you have to train situational awareness in football.

These guys have to know to lay on this guy so the clock runs out and a team with no timeouts can’t get on the ball and spike to get the field goal team out. Just wrestle around on the ground with him and make the officials waste time.

Not celebrate.

Freeman’s face was clearly one of, “we’ll deal with this for sure” because he’s a smart defensive guy and expects smart defensive play out of his smart defensive players.

Situations in practice are preparing guys for success.

2nd Down: Special Teams Are Even More Football

Tennessee. Michigan State.

And more.

As Deion said, “Our special teams weren’t special” and that matters.

I guess let’s rip the Spartan band-aid off first. This is insane:

Thanks BTN

Up in a game you need and this is the decision the return man makes. Oofah doofah.

It is a kickoff, not a punt. You have to attack that ball and get it.

It is a sky kick. Fair catch it. Don’t turn it into a long onside. Run your ass off to make the catch but you call a fair catch so that they can’t attack the football or you. Can’t let that thing hit the ground.

Much like Buzz’s girlfriend, woof.

Vols, on the flipside, only win because of a punt return TD.

Thanks. CBS

I did not think Tennessee could win a game like this. I’m on the record saying Vols needed to play into the 30s to win and if this game was 24-17-ish then A&M gets the dub.

Special teams still falls under the situational football umbrella.

In just these two situations you get a clear glimpse of how Special Teams can win, or lose, a team the game.

3rd Down: Love Midseason New Face Contributors

Holland

This is Sione Vaki’s game log:

Played in every game, had 1 carry going into this weekend. Then, 15 for 158, goodness.

Of course, he also has this season stat line:

That’s right this man was a safety before, during the bye week, they decided to flip him to a running back.

This is all from CFB Stats, by the way.

Not the offseason move of taking an LB to RB or a WR to S. This was an in-season, we need help, what can you do move.

Love to see guys find a home, even after already being a thriving contributor at another position.

Two other guys, due to injuries, who popped up that we had not seen this season?

Dallan Hayden at Ohio State and Giles Jackson at Washington.

An RB and WR, respectively, who weren’t good to go, healthwise for the first almost half of the season, went off this past Saturday.

Hayden went 11 carries for 76 and a TD for the Buckeyes.

Jackson went 6 catches for 68 yards and a TD.

That’s the beauty of college football. Hell, the beauty of football. If you are there when your number gets called and you show up, you can be the man that day. All three of these guys were the man on Saturday.

No one in the country had this on their bingo card, but it worked to the tune of 3 wins.

4th Down: FryDay on Sunday

My kid loves routine. Having movie night with pizza and popcorn disrupted her routine because usually on Fridays we have “FryDay” where we do fries and burgers or onion rings and gyros, but the main point is the “fried” part.

So, on Sunday, we did corndogs.

Corndogs, battered fries, spicy aioli, mustard & ketchup

Pretty easy just a matter of taking the time. I’ve got a little kid, so I don’t make them full-sized, I use bun-length hot dogs cut into thirds and jumbo skewers (easier for her to hold) cut into thirds as well, like this:

Batter is pretty easy:

Cornmeal, APF, salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, adobo, season salt, garlic and some herbs de provence. Half a beer, used a dark German beer my neighbor gave me, a little Texas Pete and some buttermilk. Looks like this:

Then you dip and fry at about 370, don’t crowd the pot, the heat will drop from the hot dogs and the batter so just to 2 or 3 at a time. As you can see, they’re smaller boys so that they fit into the pot. I’ve tried the longer sticks and hot dogs and the leaning method but I don’t like it.

That’s corndogs. Yes, I burned myself, but it is a labor of love. My wife and kid loved them and they’re awesome leftovers for when you’re typing this up on a Monday.

Enjoy y’all. Going to get into UNC’s defense this week, excited to talk about Michael Penix Jr. as well plus a more fleshed out “Girls Movie Night” recap.

Cheers!!!