Tag Archives: Nebraska

Barspotting: Champions

I’ve been going back and forth trying to figure out which place to go for this week’s barspot.  It’s not that big of a weekend in terms of college football as #1 and #2 isn’t playing.  My team is however and it’s kind of a championship weekend for them.  So what better place to watch the game than Champions!  They are smack dab downtown and offer up a tight little joint for some football watching.  I was actually there 2 years ago for SXSW and stopped by there for lunch during the conference.  It was my first stop at a sports bar in Austin.  So I’m bringing out all the stops for this weekend’s games.

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PIck It Standings Week 08: Shake Rattle N Roll

Yes, we have not one, but two big upsets to deal with this week in Pick It and Stick It Standings.  Unfortunately, there’s not real upsets with the picks, but with Oklahoma and Wisconsin losing there is a major reorganization in the BCS Standings.  Things are starting to unravel quickly in the tightly wound Big 12 race now that Oklahoma lost.  Unfortunately for me, that means that ESPN College GameDay won’t be in Manhattan when the Sooners take on the undefeated Kansas State Wildcats.  That’s fine because I think they play better when they are under the radar.  Much like me and my status for Pick It and Stick It.  Let’s check out the standings.

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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!

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Pick It Standings 2011 Week 07: BCS Countdown is a Go

Finally, the week has come.  That week I’m talking about is the BCS Standings Week 1.  We’ve been hemming and hawing about who’s best and who’s overrated.  Now we the dip stick to check the levels of college football awesomeness. There are some surprises and not so surprises in the fresh standings.  But we’ll get to that later.  We also have a new week of Pick It and Stick It Standings to go over.  Will Keltron3000 hold the top spot or will some young up and comer take over and turn the league upside down.  It’s too close to call so let’s check it out right now.

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Cuatros Makes It Count

It has been a long time since I’ve seen some rain.  I would’ve never thought that it would take this long living down here in Texas to see a downpour.  What’s even more incredible is that this here downpour came in the middle of a barspot that featured an outside patio for most of the bar!  That’s right, Cuatros was the place to be last Saturday and I had the opportunity to watch some football both inside and outside.  So, yes, I got a little wet but it was totally worth it for the great time that I had there.

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Pick It and Stick It 2011 Week 06: Pick the Bigger One

I have to say I’m a little giddy at the news that TCU will be accepting the offer to join the Big 12.  Yeah, I know that they turned the gravy train around from the Big East but they are a better fit and I’m sure they were a little shakey about that conference after Pitt and Syracuse decided to leave.  Yes, the Big East is in HUGE trouble, and now it’s the Big 12’s turn to take a deep breath and grab a couple of more teams.  In fact, I’d say it’s high time for the Big 12 to Pick It and Stick It!  Speaking of which, we have another exciting weekend of action on the field and on your pick sets.  Let’s go over the list:

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Crib Sheet: Here We Go Again On Our Own, Maybe

Once we thought we were safe, but anybody who knew their history and knew about the psyche of Missouri understood it was not over.  And with that, Missouri last night gave chancellor Brady Deaton the power to pursue other conferences.  They could be like Oklahoma and stay or they could be like Texas A&M and go.  Time will tell.  Although, they were first on the block last year so I’m pretty sure they are out the door.  Nevermind the fact that Tier 1 and Tier 2 rights are officially equal in the Big 12, provided everyone commits to the league.  Yup, so expect some announcements early next week about conference affiliation so they don’t bother with the actual games being played on the field.  In the meantime, check out this week’s Crib Sheet:

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Backspin Threw Me Off

I lucked out again with Kansas State not playing at the same time Texas was.  They were actually playing Baylor and on ABC.  The nationally televised match up and the fact that it was not going against Texas led me to think that a remote sports bar south of the city should have that game on.  So Saturday I found myself at the Backspin Texas Sports Bar & Grill.  I’m glad that I picked that place for the game.  Did the tiny nature and remote location lead to a great time?

 

Somehow I managed to get rockstar parking for the Backspin.  When I pulled in, I had a nice view of the patio and a side way look to the joint.  I heard online that it was a small place, but I was hoping it would be wider that what it turned out to be.  Walking inside I instantly felt cramped.  It was room for maybe 3 tables across and a ginormous sports bar.  Okay that’s fine.  Both outside and inside had some sweet looking HD televisions with a huge one in the main dining area.

As for the rest of the Backspin, it filled out as nicely as it could with its real estate.  I was surprised to see a Golden Tee game there and alleviated any worries I had about their effort.  Not only that, but they also had some BuzzTime Trivia, which gave me a chance to try out their app on my new Android based cellphone.  All that internet juice was handled promptly by their free wireless internet.  Connection issues were not a problem mainly because the place is so small.

The service there wasn’t so great.  I got a primo spot in front of the huge big screen for the Kansas State vs Baylor game, but had the chance to watch the end of the exciting Texas A&M vs Arkansas game.  It was about two minutes to go and they somehow accidentally changed the channel.  It was so harried that a patron got up and started jacking with the Direct TV remote.  Seriously, if you have a sports bar, you need to have workers who know how to operate the televisions.  Also, the audio was out of sync for the end of that A&M game.  That, the waitresses were pretty hot and they did a great job of making sure my beers were full.

For this week’s beer pairing, by the way, I had an unexpected mix of food and drink.  I was hoping to get their Reuben but I had to try their Tzatziki dip and fried pickles appetizer.  I’m happy I went that way.  To wash down the lot, I chose some New Castle.  Not only was it on special for $3 but the brown ale helped with the crispness of the fried pickles and the strange combination of yogurt and spices for the Tzatziki dip.  I’ve never had Tzatziki before but it is a nice cool down appetizer to noms on with pita bread.

Now on the to the games.  Non Big 12 wise I caught that big showdown of Wisconsin vs Nebraska as well as the Alabama vs Florida game going on at the same time.  First off, Alabama looks legit and first year Florida head coach Will Muschamp has a little bit more work to do, including keeping his starting quarterback healthy.  Big 10 wise, Nebraska got a great welcome to the conference with a whooping handed to them from the Badgers.  Nebraska isn’t a complete team but it didn’t help them that Wisconsin had the free agent quarterback wonder that is Russell Wilson.

Big 12 wise, I watched a whole heckuva lot of football.  While I was sweating away at the gym, I got watch Kansas go up early on Texas Tech.  Little did I know that the Red Raiders would come back to win on the road in Lawrence.  Both teams are in trouble against Kansas State, more on that later.  So I mentioned Texas A&M and Arkansas.  All I can say that it was awesome to see the Aggies choke again.  They have never won a game against the SEC and will hopefully be competitive against Vanderbilt when they take off next year.  Wow they have no heart.

The big game of the day for me was watching Kansas State host Baylor for their first big test of the year.  Robert Griffin III is the mega stud quarterback for Baylor and he continued putting up great numbers.  The combination between him and Kendall Wright torched the Wildcat defense all day long.  But Kansas State was resilient.  I don’t know how they keep close in these games, but they do.  Everyone will put it on Bill Snyder 2.0 and deservedly so.  Collin Klein kept consistent on the offensive side of the ball and linebacker Arthur Brown broke out and delivered the game saving interception.  These Wildcats are now ranked and they have real good shot of going to a bowl thanks to Texas Tech and Kansas.

So that was my day at the Backspin.  That place is super tiny but for where it is located, I can make some concessions.  It’s by no means perfect.  When you can’t figure out televisions on gameday, you go down big in my book.  The food was decent and I like the beer specials.  If I had an important game that I absolutely had to watch, I wouldn’t do it at the Backspin.  If I wanted to sneak away from the city and hide out in a decent sports bar, the Backspin is where I’ll head.

Pick It and Stick It 2011 Week 05: Time To Play For Real

Conference play kind of opened up last weekend for the Big 12, but this weekend we have a couple of head to head match ups.  I don’t know which game will be more exciting, the Texas vs Iowa State or Kansas State vs Baylor.  The obvious is the Kansas State game but if you remember last year, Iowa State went down to Austin and beat the Longhorns.  The local media around here is chirping about how it’s a revenge game but the player interviews talk about how they expect to handle Iowa State easily.  We’ll find that out Saturday as well as just how real Kansas State’s defense really is.  Here’s this week’s Pick It and Stick It: Continue reading Pick It and Stick It 2011 Week 05: Time To Play For Real

Barspotting: Laying up to the Backspin Sports Bar & Grill

Another week of barspotting and I’m going for the trifecta.  It’s been 2 great weeks of college football watching and I need one more joint to make me believe that Austin is serious about sports bars.  The last two weeks were easy because it was close to downtown.  Now it’s time to throw Austin for a loop and go for that ‘remote neighborhood family bar’ joint.  Well, I’ve found down south in the Backspin Sports Bar & Grill.  Saturday I’ll find out if the remote locations of Austin bring the game like the places closer to the heart of the city do.
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Pick It And Stick It 2011 Week 04: Sticking Together

Whew!  Another close one for the Big 12.  I swear, the Big 12 is the greatest thing since MTV’s The Real World.  If you want to talk about the best conferences, then the one with the best drama factor definitely is the Big 12.  Yeah, they are staying together but we really don’t know for how long.  So while they hold hands again and tell everybody that things are cool, let’s focus on some actual football.  This week’s Pick It an Stick It kind of reflects the noise off the field.  Like the Big 12, most of the great games are stuck together around 2:30 Saturday.  That’s fine for me and my barspotting trip, but how will it fare for the picks? Continue reading Pick It And Stick It 2011 Week 04: Sticking Together

Pick It and Stick It: Sticking With The Crowd

It’s the hustle and bustle of college football.  At the beginning of the year, everyone is tied 0-0.  Slowly and weekly, the winners bubble up and the losers peter out.  We’re getting into week 3 and it’s still crowded.  We haven’t yet hit the real bubbling point.  Apparently it’s Road Test Weekend so we’ll more than likely get the cauldron cooking real quick.  Speaking of being crowded, I’m planning and surfing the flesh at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Granted I have Sunday tickets so it won’t be too bad, but Saturday’s at Third Base Sports Bar.  Let’s hope people don’t bubble up vomit and I don’t peter out.

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Pick It Standings 2011 Week 02: A Trophy Weekend

Nope, not rivalry weekend, but a weekend so great it deserves its own trophy.  Going into last weekend, I was nonplussed about the matchups, but after witnessing three epic games, I’m eating some crow.  I may also be eating some crow with this week’s Pick It and Stick It Standings. Now last week, I was in last, but I’ve been bumped up to tied for last!  I’m in a hole like Chip Kelly and Notre Dame, but I totally believe I can turn it around.  Now on to the standings: Continue reading Pick It Standings 2011 Week 02: A Trophy Weekend

PIck It and Stick It: Fling It Home

That’s right, I’ll be on a plane shortly but I want to get the picks up for the week.  It’s hard to stay focused with the Big 12 in legal gridlock.  You know, I thought professional wrestling was soap opera for guys but now I know that college football realignment is the real deal.  No offense to the WWE, but this stuff is way better than the scripted stuff I used to watch.  So as the conference turn, get your picks in and hope for the best.

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Pick It and Stick It: Flick Me A Winner

Here we go with another year of Pick It and Stick It!  This time I decided to go easy on people and not do confidence points throughout the year.  It was just too much beef to handle week in and week out.  So I cut that fat off and leaned it down to a tasty point spread straight up pick league.  You can drop two weeks so if want to join up please do so at:
If you got any questions, please feel free to hit me up.  Now let’s take a look at the first week’s pics: