Ryan Plugge: Tailgating Week 1
"College Football is back." This might be one of the better sentences in the world besides the typical "I do" or the doctor saying, "It's a boy/girl." And my goodness it was 5 straight days of solid college football! But as any team would tell you, winning the game starts with the preparation that happens during the week while at practice and film study. You know what else happens before games that is vital for the team to win....TAILGATING!
Tailgating for the Aggies has become a religion for many people and I will be attending many of them this year. I am a senior at Texas A&M and college football is engraved into my DNA. This is my last year as a student so I am going to attend away games and even traveling up to South Bend for a Notre Dame game during A&M's bye week. I will be able to be a part of many different tailgating venues and I couldn't be more excited. Week one for the Aggies meant a date with the PAC 12 favorites UCLA Bruins for a 2:30 kickoff time in the hot sun. But hot weather does not stop any football fan from getting their tailgate on. This week and other weeks in Aggieland I will be focusing on one of my favorite tailgates, SECYouAtKyleField, which now has their own Instagram account @SECyouatkyle, but I will also venture around to the different tailgating areas.
Set up for the tailgate started at 8:00 in the morning so that everything can be up and running by 9:00 am when people start to arrive. What does set up include exactly? Well the group needs to put up all 3 tents, set up the music, get the TV and dish working, and doing all of this with an ice cold beer in their hand. Once everything is rolling, the music started to play some old country and rock jams while everyone talked about how they are ready for football and about how long and terrible the off-season was. There was also competitive bags (corn hole) games going on and the smell of football was in the air.
But what's a tailgate without awesome food right? Exactly, you can't have a great tailgate without great food. That's why this tailgate had been smoking brisket since Friday at 3:00 pm. It was so tasty and amazing for a Saturday afternoon with college football. After the brisket was served and everyone felt happy and cheery (Combine lots of beer with the fact that OU just lost...lots of people will be happy) the music playlist changed and the party actually started.
It started with "Fireball" by Pitbull. I know many peoples thought on Pitbull, but man he is an entertainer and that is what this tailgate does. The Fireball challenge at this tailgate is to try to finish handle of Fireball Whiskey before the song ends. Let's just say by the time the song ended they had finished one handle, and they sure do love their fireball and not afraid to show it. Add that and some belt limbo and the party was officially started! Note how the last guy from UCLA downed a lot of that Fireball, props to him. Since the opponent was from California, the tailgate had to play some Katy Perry, "California Gurls," which made the whole group start to dance. After the rowdiness, smiles, laughs, and jell-0 shots, peopled started to get really excited because it was almost game time. Luckily at this tailgate spot you only take 100 steps and you're in Kyle Field.
We all know how the games have turned out, Texas A&M beat UCLA in OT to grab a really important win for this team. Kyle Field was rocking and it was good to see the defense show signs of being the old "Wrecking Crew." This could be a really good season in Aggieland and I'm excited to be there for the ride!