Time Flies

Hard to believe how fast time goes anymore, crazy that Labor Day weekend will be here soon, and of course Purdue football! I like fall but I hate fall, I like it because it means Purdue football, but I hate it because it means winter will be here soon BLEH. 6 Days til kickoff, I have contacted the first person about being a guest picker, I pretty much told her she has to say yes so we'll see what she says haha. Who does your team open up with? The SEC looks to be the best conference yet again, but don't worry they will be taken down big time once basketball season arrives :)

So, who is excited for fall tv to come back? It's no secret I am addicted to television, watch way too much of it. Can't wait for all my favorite shows to come back! I can't remember if I blogged this or not but we recently upgraded our cable package(ya big mistake I know) now get close to 900 channels as well as DVR which is really nice. I'm really excited for Glee, did anyone watch the sneak peek after American Idol this past spring? I thought it was really good, not sure about other new shows, probably going to try that Flash Forward show as well.

The US Open tennis tournament starts Monday, I am stoked for that. It's the last grand slam of the season, early favorites are Federer and probably Serena, but who knows on the womens tour. I like how Fed is playing what a great year he's had, won the French, and Wimbledon and in doing so broke Pete Sampras' career record for slams, then he and his wife had twins! CRAZY! I have always liked the US Open, partly because it's the one in the states, but more for the atmosphere. The spectators don't really follow the general rules of tennis especially at night matches and that makes it more fun to watch. For the men several come in with a good shot of taking out Fed, those include, Murray, Roddick, Djokovic, Nadal. I just don't see Nadal winning this one though, which is fine by me since I am not a fan. The women have several contenders as well, of course Venus, Dementieva, Jankovic, and of course my favorite who has returned after having a baby Kim Clijsters! I have to say I hate the ESPN has the rights to the open now, I worry how their coverage will be. USA Network had the rights previously and they did a fantastic job, even when matches ran over time they never bumped it, or stopped showing it they kept going not sure we'll get the same coverage from ESPN. Also, I hate Chris Fowler calling tennis he never shuts up! Should be fun to watch regardless, here are my picks for Semi's, upset specials, and your winners

Women
Don't Bet On It- Dinara Safina- Even though she's #1 she'll go out early mark my words
Semi's- Jankovic vs Dementieva
Serena vs Venus
Champion- Serena over Dementieva (hard to pick against Serena)

Men
Don't Bet On It- Nadal needs more time to comeback from the injury has never done great at the open
Semi's- Federer vs Djokovic
Tsonga vs Murray
Champion- Federer over Murray(Just can't pick against Fed Express!)

Alright that's all I got for ya, everyone have a GREAT week. I will be posting again late Thursday night with the first Football picks of the season! Go Boilers!

Preview

Hello again bloggers
First off thanks for those who watched the clips, I know a few of ya did! To those who didn't screw you haha Just Kidding :) or am I? Anyway, that was kind of a look into what a gameday experience at Ross Ade Stadium is like, minus a few things. One of my favorite traditions is breakfast club, but I didn't post about that, I think it's nutz too if you are facebook friends with her you should ask her about the humping bunnies haha.

This post is previewing the upcoming Purdue football season, and when I decided to do this, I thought about how I wanted to do it. If I did the way most previews go it would be boring, so I am going to go another route, but for most of you it will still be boring. Hang in there I will have other stuff to write about. On with the preview

First off- I think it's like Deja Vu that we play Toledo to open our season. I remember back in 1997 a guy named Joe Tiller was hired and he promised Purdue would win again, and nobody believed him or expected anything, especially after losing his opener to Toledo. Imagine how shocked Boiler nation was when we went on to have a9 win season and win the Alamo Bowl, here's to hoping Coach Hope can do the same.

Expectations- very low. Honestly, nobody knows what to expect out of this group of Boilermakers, as we have a new coach, and a new QB, but I can tell you most people have us pegged pretty low on the totem poll in the big ten. My expectations are anywhere from 4 to 7 wins, and alot depends on how we do in the non conference as those games carry more importance than maybe ever to get off to a good start. The one thing I like about Coach Hope(besides that kickass name) is his enthusiasm, he is repeatedly saying this year will be a success if we can return to a bowl game, and I tend to agree. Bottom line here for us to be successful we need to overachieve.

Schedule- We have one of the tougher non conference schedules in the big ten. Sure we play to MAC schools in Toledo and Northern Illinois at home, and those are essentially must win games, but sandwich in between those games is a road trip to play those hideous uniforms AKA the Oregon Ducks. Last year we should have beaten Oregon no ifs ans or buts about it, but choked in the end, and this year will be much tougher playing there. Our other non conference game is the annual battle for the Shillelagh trophy with Notre Dame. Words can't explain how much I hate Notre Dame, I relish anytime they lose, and beating them can highlight the entire year. While it will be a tough game, it is at home, and it is a night game so watch out. If we can finish the non conference 3-1 we are well on our way, although 2-2 is more doable at this moment. In the big ten we get somewhat of a break as this is our year to have Iowa and Penn State not on the schedule those two will be battling Ohio State for the big ten title in my opinion. Watch out for the Hawkeyes they really came on last year, and were young. As for other big ten games, we have four at home, Northwester(homecoming I will be on the field) Ohio State, Illinois, and Michigan State. For the most part those are winnable with the exception probably being OSU. The one road game that will be neat is Minnesota, did you know they have opened a new on campus stadium this year! Can you imagine playing there in November?? I think 4 wins is doable in the big ten but we'll have to play really well to do that.

Offense- Can I just put a big ? here? I think Coach Hope will run the spread that Purdue made famous in the Midwest and the Big Ten, but who knows. Our quarterback is a Senior who had some really bad luck last year. Our starter Curtis Painter(now with the colts) was benched last year at Northwestern, and Joey Elliot comes in gets us 2 first downs, and then goes out with a shoulder injury out for the rest of the season. He is completely healthy, and should be ready to go but he is definitely an unknown we'll see. His back up is a true Freshman who Coach Hope said would play in situations other than just mop up minutes. Running back is looking good as we have Jacyen Taylor back from his ACL tear, and two others fighting for time. I think the biggest thing on offense will be how fast the receivers can come around, because they are such a big part of the offense. I am very interested to see how the O performs against Toledo.

Defense- This is suppose to be our strength, as this unit is almost all completely back, and really came on last year. I think they are going to need to get more pressure on opposing QB's to be successful this year, as well as create some more turnovers. Didn't do enough of that in my opinion last year. It should be noted that our defensive coordinator also left us taking a head coaching job at Illinois State. We'll see but I expect the D to be better than a bend but don't break type of unit like we've been in the past

I am not going over special teams, I will just say it's nice to have a dependable kicker for a change.

Prediction- Everyone knows me knows when I do my picks I never go against my Boilers even when the odds are stacked against us like they will be this year. It's going to be interesting to see how we start out with Toledo, might get a good indication of how we can do by that one game. I am not going to make a final prediction, I will just say I hope we are playing football in Dec/Jan somewhere!

Hope you enjoyed the preview, I will be contacting people for guest pickers soon! If you want your team to be included please leave a comment :) I will use all the teams from last year but don't mind adding teams.

NON SPORTS!
Anyone watching Big Brother? This season has been CRAZY! I can't believe all the drama it's almost over the top. Those three idiots who cried over Jessie getting evicted was HILARIOUS! It's a game he didn't die. And Chima getting kicked out for throwing a 4000$ mic into a hot tub! I like Jeff, Jordan, and Michele, but I have a feeling Jeff is about to do something stupid.

Have a good week and BOILER UP!
Phats

Just getting ya ready for it

Football season is right around the corner, in fact the high school season in Indiana starts this Friday. So, to get ya ready I thought i'd share some fun video clips of the atmosphere at Purdue and Ross Ade Stadium, and next week I will preview the upcoming Purdue football season, BTFU! It should be noted none of these are my videos, I found them on youtube.

First up, 2 hrs before kickoff the Purdue band, and of course my friends the cheerleaders do what's called Thrill On the Hill, that takes place on Slayter Hill. It's a fun little pep session to get you ready for the game, enjoy these two clips from it. The first is the band, in my humble opinion the best damn band in the land, getting the pep session started. Second is the Horse led by the golddusters, and the cheerleaders a band cheer they have been doing since even before I was there.





Naturally the next thing is the run onto the field, and I am bummed I found a good one from the Ohio State game 2 yrs ago, but the owner won't let you embed it so this will have to do.



Of course once the game starts we have our own traditions, of doing the Boiler Up arms on third down, cheering Boiler Up when we hold them on 3rd down, and our first down cheer which when we started it was "1 2 3 4 FIRST DOWN!" unfortunately in the last 2 yrs the students have added the word "bitch" to the end haha.







One of my favorite traditions, is between the third and fourth quarter, somebody(usually a famous alum or current coaches of other sports) introduce the song SHOUT and the whole stadium gets involves and dances. Of course a little cheesy, I love it, this one was special and I was on the field of for this one(it was homecoming) as first astronaut to walk on the moon and Purdue alum Neil Armstrong was the guest conductor, lets just say even the NW fans were in awe of this one! The guy video gets into this!



Of course every Purdue victory ends with the team over at the student section singing the greatest fight song in the world HAIL PURDUE!



Hope ya enjoyed a look into the sights and sounds of Purdue football, and get ready as the season is right around the corner! GO BOILERS!

Phats

My Purdue season tickets came in the mail!!!

Well, vacation is over and it's back to work this week BOO! The only nice thing about returning from vacation was going to the mailbox and finding our Purdue season tickets HELL YA BABY!!!

This past week my whole family pretty much went on a vacation together while at times a zoo it was definitely a good time, and just great to get away. So, my mom, sister, brother in law, their three kids(ages twins 6 youngest 4), brother in laws parents, and of course Kris and I took off for the great state of Ohio for a getaway. We went to Great Wolf Lodge and Kings Island. For those not familiar with these places Great Wolf is a huge hotel that has an even bigger indoor water park which my nephews absolutely LOVE, the perk for me is it's right next door to Kings Island a fun amusement park! The day we got there was devoted to the water park, it was fun but I am just not that big of a water park person, and without this sounding too mean water parks seem to attract heavy people who wear swimsuits that don't fit YEOW! They have some cool slides, including my nephews favorite the toilet bowl, as well as a neat water coaster, but I tell ya the water was FREEZING! The plan the second day was for me to stay at the water park til about 5ish and then head over to the amusement park for the day but it wasn't looking promising as it was thunderstorming most the day and of course they shut down the rides. If any of you live in Kentucky it was the day the University of Louisville was under water! Anywho I kept checking and around 6 the storm passed the rides were running so we(kris and I) booked it to Kings Island to get some rides in, and it worked out perfect. Since the rides had been closed since noon there were NO lines!! It was awesome! They have a new roller coaster that's like 270 feet called Diamondback we got to ride that 5 times! We could have ridden more but we wanted to get on some other rides as well. If you ever go to Kings Island in Mason OH, make sure you ride the Beast at night there is absolutely nothing like it! In all we rode all the major coasters as well as some fun spinning rides, and ended the night on the tallest free fall ride in the world it was a great night. The vacation ended with all of us going to Kings Island for the last day, it was fun my brother in law actually lost his flip flop on Diamondback! How crazy he held it on for the whole 3 minute ride and we were waiting to pull in the station and he was wiggling his foot and off it went, so he had to buy new ones HA too funny. We ended the trip with me taking my nephew on the octopus 4 times in a row, talk about dizzy!

It was nice to get home and go to the mailbox and find my Purdue tickets had come!! I am getting excited, and we aren't even suppose to be good! I like pro sports, but to me there is NOTHING that compares to the atmosphere you get at college sporting events, to me nothing is better than the college game. How are your teams suppose to be? I see Florida and Texas a re 1 and 2 in the opening poll to that I say YAWN doubt either will stay there.

Well, that's all I have hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer!
Phats