Tag Archives: Sunflower Showdown

Pick It And Stick It: Stuffed With Games

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So it’s Thanksgiving weekend which makes it kinda funny that it’s also Hate Week.  We give thanks to what we have in this world and what’s to come, but at the same time we also unleash the rivalry hatred that builds up within us the whole fall.  It’s quite exhilarating.  We have joy and, half the time, have some hate joy.  I can’t explain it.  I’m just enjoying the ride.  And the turkey. Continue reading Pick It And Stick It: Stuffed With Games

Barspotting 2014 Week 13: Black Sheep Lodge

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Welllllll, lookie here!  It’s an actual Barspotting!  I gave up the game many moons ago but luck feel into place this last week.  Yup Kansas State played West Virginia on a Thursday and I was having other things going on.  That meant some time out and some time to review a bar.  Sad to say no Football Feedings this week but I think y’all will enjoy what I saw last Thursday. Continue reading Barspotting 2014 Week 13: Black Sheep Lodge

Pick It And Stick It: It’s For The Birds

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It’s Friday and it’s late.  I successfully avoided Black Friday and took the brunt of Thanksgiving yesterday.  I took a day off yesterday and am now finally recovered enough to spit out my finger pickin’s flakes of college football destiny.  Thanksgiving was a day for family and this weekend it’s been a family of rivalries.  Heck I’m watching the Civil War at the moment (that’s Oregon vs Oregon State).  We get more rivalries tomorrow and it’s time to give thanks and give picks to see who comes out on top. Continue reading Pick It And Stick It: It’s For The Birds

Purple Yeti Roar 38: Kansas State Dominance

I’m talking about how Kansas State continuously takes care of business against the in state brother for Kansas.  Tune in and watch me talk about the Big 12 games from the weekend and the Big 12 games coming up.  Oh yeah, I’ll talk some Top 25 match ups and some overrated SEC stuff.  Let the dominance continue. Continue reading Purple Yeti Roar 38: Kansas State Dominance

Pick It And Stick It: Finding Some Seeds

It’s Sunflower Showdown weekend! While it’s nice that Charlie Weiss is trying to get his Kansas kids up for the game and refocus rivalry juice toward Manhattan, Bill Snyder has been doing that exact thing for much of his tenure. But we can get into that later. There’s a wealth of great games this weekend both inside and outside the Big 12. We’ll know much more where teams will be seeded in the national championship race after this weekend. Time to Pick It and Stick It. Continue reading Pick It And Stick It: Finding Some Seeds

Lavaca Street Bar Was A Skee Ball

It’s been awhile since I had to get up for the early college football game.  Last Saturday was the reprise and I’m thankful that the Lavaca Street Bar had a bloody mary bar to kick things off.  There was alot of talk about Midwestern sensibilities in the last week and I was surprised at how the Lavaca catered to that.  Speaking of the Midwest, it was Sunflower Showdown weekend and I had a front row seat, without actually being there.  Did Lavaca Street Bar handle spectating well, or did I leave sucking on some cheese curds?  Let’s find out.

Walking in, you wouldn’t suspect that Lavaca Street Bar was a big sports bar.  It’s another in a long line of sports bar that look tiny up front but huge in the back.  All around the bar, televisions lined the place.  In the back room there is a huge projector screen television as well.  The Direct TV made sure I was able to watch my team up on there.  The wireless internet is free but they had some kind of weird sign up page that made things hard to login.

The best part of Lavaca Street Bar has to be the games.  They have all the games that you need.  They have Big Buck Safari, Golden Tee, a hard punch game, Pop-A-Shot, Skee Ball, and what I think could be a pool table.  I see cue sticks but no table and I think it’s because of the bloody mary bar.  At any rate, back to the Skee Ball.  It’s a rare sight to see Skee Ball in any bar, let alone a sports bar.  If you want to set yourself from the back, get a game like that in your bar.

The service was rather sparse.  There was essentially two bartenders for the whole joint.  The female one was rather cute and the guy, well, was a guy.  We had to get up from the back a couple of times to order food and drinks.  They did come out here and there though.  The guy was nice enough to setup the whole back room for my games so I can’t dog them too much.  He also turned the light on for me when I was getting my bloody mary because the place is real dark.  Like go to sleep dark.

Now on to the beer pairing.  Lavaca touted some Midwestern specials like cheese curds and brats.  Guess what I got.  The cheese curds were good but not northern Iowa good.  I think the ones I make are better.  I chose to have Wastach Brewery’s Pumpkin Seasonal Ale with the bratwurst.  I wanted to do an Oktoberfest type ale but that was the closest thing they had on tap.  I’m so glad I chose it.  It has to be the best tasting pumpkin beer I’ve ever had.  The brat itself was tasty but everything around it was average.  The mustard, bun, sauerkraut, and even the basket was very low rent.  But hey, that’s part of the appeal.

The Sunflower Showdown was the main event for the weekend for me.  For some reason I was real scared about Kansas.  Boy was I ever wrong.  Kansas quarterback Jordan Webb has the 2nd highest passer rating in the Big 12.  He did a good job, but the rest of the team was terrible.  Meanwhile, on the other side, Kansas State’s Collin Klein put up all star numbers.  He ran for 4 touchdowns and actually threw the ball pretty well.  It helps when you are playing one of the worst defenses in FBS.  Methinks Turner Gill’s job is in serious trouble right now.

The other games were a little more competitive.  I got to watch was Missouri and Oklahoma State duke it out in Columbia.  Seeing as Missouri no longer thinks they are Midwest material, it was nice that the Cowboys beat them down.  Well, it wasn’t a beat down so to say, the Tigers kept it nice and close.  I missed out on LSU vs Auburn because I was busy Halloween shopping.  I also missed out on most of the action in the evening because I went and watched White Denim at Stubb’s.  So the first big Hail Mary of the year that put Michigan State over Wisconsin was not to be had for me.  Thanks to a lightning delay, however I watched the end of Texas Tech upsetting Oklahoma.

It has begun.  The undefeated teams are starting to drop like flies.  I still don’t know what to think about the weekend.  I certainly didn’t expect Oklahoma being the team with losses going into this weekend’s game against Kansas State. Lavaca Street Bar had a super sweet setup, even though it was too dark and you had to try real hard to get service.  The food is almost food truck level, which can be real tasty but lacking on the presentation side.  I’d recommend this place to just about anyone if they want to duck in and see some great football.  They have reserved areas for alumni groups like LSU and Wisconsin so be careful when you go.

Pick It and Stick It 2011 Week 08: Ready, Flick, Fight!

It’s high time to duke it out on the field for dominance on the college football landscape.  The unbeatens will dwindle down here real soon, if not this weekend, and it’s everyone team for themselves.  Please remember, however, by fighting I mean actually playing tough football.  I do not mean actually fighting the opposing players.  It seems in the last couple of weeks some players have been confused and took to fisticuffs.  Heck 41 players are suspended because of a big brawl that happened last weekend.  Please, when you go out there fight well in terms of football, not Mortal Kombat.  Now, it’s time to go over the Pick It and Stick It and look for some fatalities.  Finish Him!

Continue reading Pick It and Stick It 2011 Week 08: Ready, Flick, Fight!

Stadiumspotting: Thursday Night Lights Part II, Lawrence Edition

We said we had one more trip left in us and I was wrong.  We have at least two!  So tonight starts another familiar trip out west to Stadiumspot.  We’re not going all the way to Manhattan, however.  We are heading to Lawrence to watch the Sunflower Showdown.  Kansas comes off a beating from the Baylor Bears of all teams while Kansas State said goodbye to Nebraska by getting their asses kicked.  Both teams need a win and there’s nothing like notching a rivalry win to pick things up.  I don’t know who’s going to win this one but I hope that it will at least be competitive.

Continue reading Stadiumspotting: Thursday Night Lights Part II, Lawrence Edition

Crib Sheet: Pow Wow Kansas City Style

So the athletic director and coaches meetings for the Big 12 are in Kansas City this week and the Crib Sheet is here to fill you in.  We’ll start out this week with the beginnings of the meeting and then wrap up Thursday’s and Friday’s talk next week.  Dan Beebe held a press conference to field questions about the first day of talks.  The big picture?  The league is heading into media negotiations with excitement next year because of the money the ACC got from ESPN.  But they need to stay together and Beebe would like to know if they are a soon as possible, even though he knows it won’t happen.  Among his case for staying together was that potential for more money, the disruption of balance in the league that could force some regulatory structuring, and that the Big 10 could very well do nothing.  Beebe says it’s a young conference and would like to see it grow old together with the members.  Will it happen?  We’ll find out next year, but in the meantime here’s this week’s Crib Sheet:

  • The Big East wants the NCAA to study whether or not the on field head official should be in charge of overturning instant replay calls instead of the in-booth official.  We don’t think this works out to well because even though the head official is in the flow of the game, the in booth official has better looks at close plays.
  • Dennis Dodd over at CBS Sports reiterates what we have been saying about Rich Rodriquez:  he’s on the hot seat big time this season.  Dodd puts the odds at 8-4 and a bowl appearance for him to keep his job.  Any takers?
  • Nebraska’s top receiver Niles Paul got his 2nd MIP and a ticket for urinating in public last week.  If he keeps it up, he might be kicked off the team.
  • The NCAA extended its catastrophic insurance for student athletes up through 2013.  A student athlete could receive up to $20 million in lifetime benefits if they get hurt during practice or competition.  That’s a pretty sweet deal.
  • The cause behind the Urban Meyer drama last year finally came out.  Meyer stated he had esophageal spasms and that he has some meds to take for it.  The pain from the spasms made it ultra painful to eat.  Hopefully the medication will work and he can continue on in his work.
  • The latest road block from Texas Tech didn’t work.  The judge in the case states that Mike Leach can move forward in his lawsuit against the university for his firing late last year.  Notch one win for the pirates.  It’s going to be quite the naval battle between these two.
  • Even though Oklahoma is under some potential violations, the Sooners sent a letter to the NCAA stating that they meet the requirements set by the NCAA for their probation.  A probation period that came from recruiting violations and is expiring soon.  So they are out of the woods but could be right back in it soon.
  • Some officials from Kansas are caught up in a ticket scandal that diverted a couple of million in tickets to 3rd parties for personal gain.  Most of the 6 officials involved have either left or been fired.  Meanwhile, athletic director Lew Perkins stated he didn’t know it was going on.  This shouldn’t hurt the athletics department in terms of probation and what not, but Perkins image is damaged and the school has not only money to recoup but the Feds sniffing around for more.
  • On to football, the Big 12 meetings this week let loose some football schedule nuggets.  The Border War will be on Fox Sports Net on November 27th at 11:30 am.  The Sunflower Showdown moved from Saturday to Thursday night October 14th on Fox Sports Net at 6:30 pm.  Mark your calendars.  Also, note that it’s exclusively on Fox.  Testing for media numbers for the upcoming negotiations anyone?
  • Apparently some exercise equipment loaned to Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins has come around to bite him in the form of a blackmail scheme.  A former disgruntled employee, Bill Dent, tried to extort money in exchange for keeping quiet about the equipment.  Dent also says that Perkins received the equipment in exchange for tickets.  We’ll find out what happens here.  Perkins says he is a victim, because the company that loaned the equipment went under and didn’t recover the gear.
  • Meanwhile at the Big 12 meetings this week, Lew Perkins talked about that as well some talk about the expansion speculation.  The big takeaway?  He says expansion is a super serious threat and that Kansas may or may not have been contacted by the Big 10.  Diversion tactic is a go!

Kansas State Wildcats 2009 Year End Review

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Seeing as I graduated from K-State, I figured I would cover them just a little more than the rest of the area teams in Kansas City. If any other fans/alumni of schools around the area want to write for this site, please drop us a line.  That said, everyone predicted that K-State would drop as well this year.  What was expected to be a major blow off year turned into a massive surprise.  K-State fans should be more than happy with what turned out this year in Wildcat football.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was damn close.

Continue reading Kansas State Wildcats 2009 Year End Review

Manhattan Makes Us Miss The College Life

The Manhattan Miracle was once thought to be just a one time thing.  Fast forward to 2009 and we now know it never left.  Are we talking about football?  Partly.  We’re also talking about the little city of Manhattan and the miracle that it can play with the big dogs when it comes to having a great time.   We revisited some old school places and discovered some new ones.  Then we went to the Sunflower Showdown and witnessed the rise of the miracle on the field.  All in all it was a top notch time and we were happy to see the good ole days just one more time.

Continue reading Manhattan Makes Us Miss The College Life

GameDay: Going Old School

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Ah, yes the Sunflower Showdown.  I was at the game last year and it was a blowout.  I’m heading to the game this year and it’s a homecoming in a way.  I make no bones about being a K-Stater and while I do my best to be objective, the Purple Pride eeks out ahead.  So when I go to the game today, I will be reliving the days of past when I was a student.  I will also be going back to the source and inspiration for this website.

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Stadiumspotting: Sunflower Showdown in the Little Apple

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We make our return to the beautiful city of Manhattan, Kansas to watch Kansas head to Kansas State for 107th meeting of the Sunflower Showdown.  The KCCGD crew was down there a couple of years ago for the Missouri game and it’s been awhile since we made our way back.  We’ll head to Bill Snyder Family Stadium and watch the action on Wagner Field.  We already scoped out some tailgating spots and we’ll be sure to nab some cheesecake on a stick.  We also hope this game won’t be a stinker because it’s a must win for Kansas and a driver’s seat spot for Kansas State.  This will be big and we will be there.

Continue reading Stadiumspotting: Sunflower Showdown in the Little Apple