We did our best to avoid the blast impact of Farmegeddon 2009 and with your help we landed in the bunker that is Scoreboards Bar vs Grille. Scoreboards tucked us away very quietly while we watched the action exploding on the screens. In times of catastrophe, one can’t be concerned of amenities. They must be concerned for survival. Well, we survived Scoreboards. From patching together tvs, to working with outdated accommodations, we walked out of disaster with no scratches and sore backs. Hey at least the food exceeded our expectations of canned beans and cracker jacks.
Category Archives: Football
GameDay: FARMAGEDDON HAS COME!
So the only real big game hyped up in the area this week is Kansas State taking on Iowa State at Arrowhead Stadium. The other local teams are on break and getting ready for conference play next week. This is a great opportunity for these two teams to showcase themselves (on a national spotlight even). Both programs are suffering a bit right now. Both of them will be run centric and defense heavy. Both have new coaches (albeit one is returning). Both teams were projected to be in the cellar of the Big 12 North this year. Well it may not mean much for everyone else, but it means the whole season for these two team.
For Iowa State, they’ve always been in the shadow of Iowa for years. Sure, there’s been times when the Cyclones were up and the Hawkeyes were down. But last year and especially this year, Iowa State is taking a back seat. They axed coach McCarthy last year and ended up with what looks like a trade with Auburn. McCarthy went on the head coach the Tigers where Iowa State got defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes. It’s a new regime for the Cyclones and expectations are that this guy will be instilling defense into a league that forgot how to spell it.
Meanwhile, Manhattan’s favorite son has returned in the form of Bill Snyder 2.0 to build back the program that was once a national title contender. After the embarrassing skid mark that was Ron Prince, Snyder 2.0 is back to bring street cred back to the Wildcats. And he’s doing it in the same way that Rhodes is trying to do up north. Defense and a big ole running game is what was missing last year and Snyder 2.0 is hell bent on bringing it back. Fortunately he has help in a JuCo transfer by the name of Daniel Thomas to help lead the way.
So today’s game is much more than deciding who will share the cellar with Colorado in the Big 12 North this year. It’s a progress game. The winner will have a better shot at making the most improvement this year. The loser will have to eat it and plan on building for much longer. Being the Kansas State grad that I am, I’m pulling for Snyder 2.0. But I think the fact that I’m not going to Arrowhead shows just how close this game might be. Let’s hope it’s not on ugly game on both sides of the field. Now off to the bunker. IT’S FARMADGEDDON!
Pick It and Stick It: It’s Getting Hard
Well hard and cold. Hard because the teams are starting to even out and we are actually seeing tougher calls for the spread. On top of that, the confidence points don’t work out too well anymore. There won’t be hardly anymore Off bets to drop the big points on. Cold because of the weather. It’s getting nippy out folks. Bundle up and bring the Irish coffee.
| Favorite | VS | Underdog | Final | Status (times in CDT) |
| (20)BYU | VS | Utah St. | 24 | Fri, Oct 2 at 8:00 pm |
| (6)Virginia Tech | @ | Duke | 17 | Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am |
| (13)Iowa | VS | Arkansas St. | 21 | Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am |
| Michigan St. | VS | (22)Michigan | 3 | Sat, Oct 3 at 11:00 am |
| (3)Alabama | @ | Kentucky | 15.5 | Sat, Oct 3 at 11:21 am |
| (10)Cincinnati | @ | Miami (OH) | 29 | Sat, Oct 3 at 12:00 pm |
| (15)Penn St. | @ | Illinois | 7 | Sat, Oct 3 at 2:30 pm |
| (18)Georgia | VS | (4)LSU | 3 | Sat, Oct 3 at 2:30 pm |
| (9)Ohio St. | @ | Indiana | 18 | Sat, Oct 3 at 6:00 pm |
| (21)Mississippi | @ | Vanderbilt | 9.5 | Sat, Oct 3 at 6:00 pm |
| (25)Georgia Tech | @ | Mississippi St. | 6 | Sat, Oct 3 at 6:30 pm |
| (8)Oklahoma | @ | (17)Miami (FL) | 7.5 | Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm |
| (7)USC | @ | (24)California | 5 | Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm |
| (11)TCU | VS | SMU | 28 | Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm |
| (5)Boise St. | VS | UC Davis | Off (0) | Sat, Oct 3 at 7:00 pm |
| (12)Houston | @ | UTEP | 15 | Sat, Oct 3 at 8:00 pm |
| (16)Oregon | VS | Washington St. | 33.5 | Sat, Oct 3 at 8:15 pm |
Okay so the only Off just happens to be Boise State. The BCS Bronco Busting Broncos are riding there way to a somewhat cake conference schedule. Will they make it? UC Davis will help. Cincinnati is supposed to roll Miami of Ohio even though it’s a rivalry game. The other Miami is hosting Landry Jones and Oklahoma. Looks like the loss to Virginia Tech was enough to put the Sooners out ahead on the spread. Georgia and LSU have the smallest spread because, well, it’s the SEC and it’s Defense. Did you see LSU last week? Yeah it will be close. The other close game will be the Paul Bunyan Trophy contest that pits Michigan against Michigan State. Last week’s gift for the Wolverines is why the are favored 3. It’s 3 points from the referees and the Big 10.
Barspotting: Pointing to the Scoreboards
This week finds us in the middle of Johnson County and at a neat little place called Scoreboards. We’ve been there before the blog started off and we’re pretty sure it’s a good time. There used to be a Scoreboards in Manhattan but we don’t think it’s the same bar. Sometimes sports bars survive on their own without a website, but we think these guys could use one. It was super hard to find a pic or logo of the place. Maybe we can open up a KCCGD hosted space for bars around the area. Or post some ideas for Scoreboards below and we’ll talk to the manager Saturday.
Crib Sheet: Icing It Down
Much of the staff for the KCCGD (all one person of it) is knocked down under injury this week. Lower back pains are not an easy ailment to handle. Granted it’s no puke inducing concussion, but we know how limiting an injury can be. Usually a team would be lucky enough not to have any of their stars miss a game or two during the season. Usually you rest them at halftime or have them skip the easy games. In this BCS culture today though now you have to play your top guys all the time, even when hurt. So in that spirit, we achingly bring this week’s Crib Sheet:
- The College Football Hall of Fame is moving from South Bend to Atlanta. The promised attendance was never met in Irish-land and now they are moving down to Bulldog country. So let’s get this straight, they are moving from one program where expectations of a once great team were never met to another place where expectations of a once great team were never met? Hey, at least they’ll avoid nasty winters.
- Michigan University will no longer allow purses into the stadium for games. Sorry, RichRod, you will have to find something else to carry all of your crying tissues.
- The college football world gasped a big ole sigh when Tim Tebow went down with a concussion over the weekend against Kentucky. Apparently he was aleady sick when he took a sick hit from a Kentucky player. It’s a good thing Florida has the week off. Not for Tebow to recover, but the for the rest of the sports media to talk about the games. Hopefully.
- Sports Illustrated is attempting to bring playoff brackets into the mainstream with a half-cocked bracketing system to rank the top 16 teams and then place them in a bracket. Are they bummed that USA Today has the Top 25 Coaches’ Poll, the AP has their own poll, but they have nothing? That’s what we think. And this is the only ink we’ll give them.
- Baylor’s hope for a rise to bowl-dom blew up in their face Saturday when Robert Griffin went down last Saturday with a torn ACL in his knee. A veteran QB in Blake Szymanski will take over the helm as Baylor gets ready to head into conference play October 10. It really sucks for the Bears but will make thing easier for the North teams playing Baylor this year.
- Twitter rears its ugly head again as a couple of tweets from some Texas Tech players caused Mike Leech to ban it from the team. This was, of course, in reaction to some awesome tweets from newly suspended offensive lineman Brandon Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams. We miss it already.
- Speaking of Twitter, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin is using his handle to retrieve 3 helmets stolen from Cougars players while storming the field during Houston’s dramatic win over Texas Tech. Twitter and Texas Tech just does not mix.
- Stafon Johnson, tailback for USC, had emergency surgery on his throat after a freak weightlifting accident. I’ve seen some bars fall with very heavy weight on them in the gym and it does not look pretty. How did it get on this guy’s throat? We hope he turns out okay.
- New Mexico head coach Mike Locksley pulled a Buddy Ryan (or a Tom Caple) on his assistant and busted his lip. We’ve seen some punches so far on the field at least once a week during the season, now we’re seeing it during coaches meetings. Oh wait, football is a violent sport. Check.
- Kansas will have condominiums in the stands in the form of seat mortgages. So while the kids are fighting on (and off) the field, the snooty rich people will be in the stands. Live sport spectating is becoming the privilege of the elite. This isn’t good at all.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Yankee Bowl. The Big East #4 team and the Big 12 #7 team are signed up to meet at Yankee stadium beginning in the 2010-11 season. Granted they still need approval, but if you have the mayor of New York and the owner of the Yankees behind it, the proposal should pass. I for one wish that any ‘home’ team in New York gets beat.
- Missouri gets the dunce cap this week as the athletic department sold a box of old cell phones. Without wiping them. Hey, hook me up with an email address or phone number over here. I want some coaches to know about the blog.
Pick It Standings Week 4: Discussions of Concussions
The world stood still and then moon and sun stopped spinning for just one moment as Tim Tebow was kneed in the head and carted off the field, vomiting into a pink bag. Ever so slowly the planets began motion and we call took a breath as we watched the ambulance pull Superman away into the unknown. The ticker told us what happened. We were update hourly on his condition. When it was all said and done, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow had a concussion. Fortunately for our picks, it wasn’t as dramatic.
Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 4: Discussions of Concussions
J. Murphy’s Brings Out the Irish in Every One
Western Europe meets the western Kansas City area as we trucked way the heck out to Shawnee to view Saturday’s selections at J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grille. The games lined up for the afternoon seemed like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The traditional fare sprinkled the joint so well we were waiting for a Contra Dance to bust out. And the food, well the food was all it was cracked up to be, Irish wise. But there was so much more than really cheesy Irish references (which we will stop as of now) at J. Murphy’s.
Continue reading J. Murphy’s Brings Out the Irish in Every One
GameDay: BCS and Quick Return Programs
Believe it or not, I’m a big supporter of the current BCS system. Anymore I see major complaints coming from sports writers who lack the creativity to come up with something compelling. Either that or they think they control college football like baseball writers. At any rate, the major beef from them nowadays comes in the form of mid-conference teams not getting a fair shot. You see Utah and Boise State lifted up high as a examples that the system doesn’t work. I’m not so sure about that but there is something that’s happening this week that is making me take a second look.
Barspotting: J. Murphy’s Law
So the voters spoke and we’re feeling Irish this week at J. Murphy’s. It’s not March yet, but we have a feeling it’s going to end up like it by the time we get done here. So let’s run down the stats on the bar. Green decor. Check. Beer (with Guinness). Check. Irish Whiskey. Check. Corned Beef and Cabbage. Check. All football games. Check. Looks like they meet the requirements for an Irish sports bar. Come out with us Saturday to find out if the proof is in the Shepard’s Pie. Erin go bragh!
When: Saturday, September 26, 2009
Time: 12:00 pm
Where: J. Murphy’s Irish Pub and Grill, 22730 Midland Dr, Shawnee, KS 913.825.3880
Games:
- 8:00 PM CT Missouri at Nevada Friday
- 11:00 PM CT Southern Miss at No. 20 Kansas
- 1:10 PM CT Tennessee Tech at Kansas State
- 2:30 PM CT UTEP at No. 2 Texas
- 2:30 PM CT No. 9 Miami (FL) at No. 11 Virginia Tech
- 2:30 PM CT Illinois at No. 13 Ohio State (Illibuck Trophy)
- 2:30 PM CT No. 15 TCU at Clemson
- 6:00 PM CT Grambling State at No. 16 Oklahoma State
- 6:00 PM CT Louisiana-Lafayette at No. 25 Nebraska
- 6:00 PM CT Army at Iowa State
- 6:00 PM CT Northwestern State at Baylor
- 6:00 PM CT UAB at Texas A&M
- 7:00 PM CT Iowa at No. 5 Penn State
- 7:00 PM CT Notre Dame at Purdue (Shillelagh Trophy)
- 8:15 PM CT Texas Tech at No. 17 Houston
- 9:00 PM CT New Mexico State at New Mexico (Battle of I-25 for the Maloof Trophy)
Notes: It’s a somewhat of a trap game for Missouri as they head to Nevada Friday night. Kansas hopefully will turn their punches toward Southern Miss and not the basketball team when they host the Golden Eagles. Virginia Tech plays another game of the week when they host newly resurgent Miami. The Illibuck Trophy is up for grabs as Illinois heads to Ohio State and hope for an upset like last time. Speaking of upsets, Iowa hopes to do the same thing this year to Penn State like they did last year and derail their national title hopes. The Shillelagh Trophy is up for grabs when the Fighting Irish take on the Purdue Boilermakers. Texas Tech takes a long road trip to Houston and look to duke it out against the newly christened cinderella Houston Cougars. Finally New Mexico and New Mexico State meet for the 100th time this weekend in the Battle of I-25 and the Maloof Trophy.
Here’s the voting results from facebook:
Crib Sheet: Layeth the Smacketh Down
There’s alot of violence going around in college football recently. Well, more violence than usual. Yes, there’s the pads a poppin’ but more and more we see fisticuffs break out. Whether it’s on the field or off, there’s been some smacking and smack talking cropping up all over. So pay attention to this week’s Crib Sheet. We have some lessons to teach. If you smellllllll, what the Crib Sheet, is cookin’!
- Rick Neuheisel and Bill Snyder 2.0 go way back, as Kevin Haskin writes. It seems that during the rebuilding process in Manhattan, Snyder 2.0 targeted the Buffaloes first instead of going for the top team in the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Neuheisel was the coach for Colorado at the time. So these guys know each other well. INSERT RECAP
- Collins Okafor is the second running back to leave the Nebraska Cornhusker squad. I guess Bo Pelini had confidence in the other two guys up for the position. Let’s hope none of those two get injured. But wait! He’s Back!
- So there have been complaints of Michigan’s Jonas Mouton tossing punches at Notre Dame’s Eric Olsen from their matchup a couple of weeks ago. Then to top it off, Rich Rodriguez claims he never saw it even when the video came out. Plus Mouton will not get punished for the haymaker he tossed. Talk about a total classless decision. Especially after that hoopla with Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount. We know what should. Check out the video and let us know what this guy should get (oh wait, yup he got a one game suspension):
- To be fair, Golden Tate did a nose dive on the Michigan State stands during Notre Dame’s victory over the Spartans. Yup no one helped him. Lambeau leap this ain’t:
- Texas A&M’s Uzoma Nwachukwu is loving life as the big man (and frosh) on campus this week. Nwachukwu scored a touchdown on each of his four touches last weekend against Utah State. I’m not sure what’s more surprising, the fact that the Aggies are undefeated and 2nd in the Big 12 South standings or the pronunciation of his name.
- Fans who were kicked out of Minnesota’s home games for drunkenness will have to take a breathalyzer test the next time they try to attend a game. That makes alot of sense since it’s for the student section only and protects the fans from the wild tailgating that students put on before the game. I should know. I’ve been part of many of those.
- In this week’s lesson on smack talking, Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin fires back accordingly when Urban Meyer made up excuses about how close the Florida and Tennessee game was last week. That’s good stuff. Remember never to back down if someone returns the shot you fired first.
- Kansas football players and basketball players can’t get along. Point guard Tyshawn Taylor ended up with a dislocated thumb after a frucus broke out in front the university’s student union. Here’s a tip, the only other type of athletes that can mess with football players are wrestlers. Anybody else, prepare to get injured.
It’s not Atlanta, but We’re Doing the Dirty Birdie’s
Some weeks, you don’t know what you’re going to run into when you pick a place you’ve never been to before. So when we strolled up to Birdie’s Pub and Grill, we weren’t expecting much. They didn’t have a website and the only information we got about the place was on Google Maps. Walking in, however, things turned completely different. Yes, it was bigger, but for some aspects it wasn’t necessarily better. The goal of the week was to watch some Nebraska vs Virginia Tech and head to a BBQ. We accomplished the mission. Here’s the report.
Continue reading It’s not Atlanta, but We’re Doing the Dirty Birdie’s
Pick It and Stick It: Spreading It Thin
It’s another Friday and it’s time for another Pick It and Stick It update. This weekend we have a couple of intriguing match ups and some obvious picks as well. The picks were all done and set way back Wednesday for the Purple Yeti. Let’s hope everyone else remembered. I guess that’s the ‘Stick It’ portion of the fantasy league. Some of you may be wondering wht the ‘Spread’ portion of the table means. The ‘Spread’ is how many points the favored team must win by to get a win. This helps out immensely when a sure blow out is about to happen. This also helps out the folks in Vegas to justify booking those kind of lopsided match ups. So without further ado, here’s this week’s pick set:
Crib Sheet: Need More Cowbell
It’s another week of college football news and we are getting into a rhythm. Most of the news churns up and out on Saturday and Sunday now. I would say the amount of news tripled since the start of the season. But we are taking it all in and making some sweet music for you to kick back and zone out on. Let’s just consider this the greatest hits collection from the week. Like any good compilation we have peaks and valleys then finish off with a strong note. And no Kanye. Now that’s what I call Crib Sheet! Rock on below:
- Steve Sipple from HuskersExtra.com talks about how the Cornhuskers are scheduling weak opponents and acceptance of such philosophy. Welcome to what the Kansas State Wildcats did every year. Now everyone is doing it. Hey, at least they fill a slot in with a quality opponent. They have Virginia Tech coming up.
- Speaking of the Wildcats, Bill Snyder 2.0 just inked a 5 year, $10 million dollar deal with program. They had to sign a new one with the new school president and athletic director. But five years? He can probably leave whenever and take a paper pushing job with the department when he’s done. Hopefully he will have turned the program around in three.
- Apparently swine flu is breaking out all over on football teams across the country. They need to start washing their hands and behind their ears before practices and such. Weren’t players supposed to be bigger, faster, and tougher in the new millennium? Since when did a flu cause a freak out? Man up, players (but don’t shake my hand).
- Erin Andrews, resident ESPN sideline hottie, told her story on Oprah last week. For those of you who don’t know, or listen to the news, Andrews was filmed nude by a peeping tom in some hotel room a couple of weeks ago. She stated that she thought her career was over. Um, she’s seriously mistaken. If anything her nudity made her more popular. Just talk to every Hollywood actress out there. They dip into the nude pool when their careers are threatened.
- Just in cased you missed it, Stephen F. Austin barely beat Texas College 92 – 0 last weekend. That’s right. Not 9, not 2, but 92 points. It’s nice to see some joystick scores on the field every once in awhile but this is ridiculous. Texas College should’ve hit the restart button.
- The power went out before the half of the Montana vs UC-Davis game over the weekend too. It took some time for the UC-Davis staff to get it up and going. The home field advantage wasn’t enough, however as Montana went on to win 17-10.
- Even though highly touted Colorado is 0-2, Dan Hawkins job might be safe. ESPN Big 12 blogger Tim Griffin talks about how broke the Buffaloes are and why buying Hawkins out could hurt more. That’s real good news for every other team in the Big 12 North.
- You’d figure after losing a close game that you can talk about it with a little class. But Notre Dame’s Charlie Weiss dashes all hopes of respectfully losing by blaming the Big 10 officials in their last second loss to Michigan last week. The schedule is weak enough for the Domers to finish with a double digit win record. Focus on that Weiss.
- Oklahoma fans from around the globe are supporting Landry Jones and his pencil thin mustache. Even the American Mustache Institute chimed in for their support of the molestache. Considering how he’s played on the field so far, there shouldn’t be any complaints about that mouth hugger.
Pick It Standings Week 2: No Excuses
This week’s Pick It results are in and it looks as though some people forgot to set picks again. Including me. It’s a new system but what I missed was actually picking opponents on top of setting the confidence. So I was intrigued on the big rivalry game between Notre Dame and Michigan. “It’s just one game. Surely you didn’t get distracted off of one game, right?” You see, it’s more than just a rivalry. Jolly is a huge Michigan and subsequently a Big 10 fan. I used to hear lots of crap about Big 10 this and winningest program that. Being a Big 12 boy myself as well as a former catholic high school grad, it was necessary for me to take the opposite side this week and root for Notre Dame. I even bought a fitted cap to wear for the game. Well it didn’t pan out as I hoped and missing the picks this week only turns the knife deeper. It’s okay, though, everyone likes an underdog and the Purple Yeti just became one. Heck, it worked out for Rudy. Here’s the results:
Continue reading Pick It Standings Week 2: No Excuses
Johnny’s Tavern has the Power and the Light
We were very skeptical when we strolled toward the Johnny’s Tavern setup on the corner of the Power & Light District in Downtown Kansas City. We’ve been to a couple of places around there before and the experiences were weak. We had some hope, however, as Johnny’s Tavern came through for us before. After spending the afternoon there we can say it is the best bar in the district. The food was great, the poker game was loads of fun, and the games on the screens were stellar. If you own or work at a bar around that area, read on to see how to make it successful.
Continue reading Johnny’s Tavern has the Power and the Light