Homecoming

It has been a long time since we have been able to come off of a home Big Ten win going into Homecoming but that's the case this year after our big win on Saturday! The Boilers put on the best costume of the Halloween weekend when they showed up as a Big Ten football program last week against Nebraska.  This week we welcome in the Illini for our Homecoming game and given our recent close games with them I expect it to be another fun football weekend.


Our tailgate theme this week will be Mardi Gras as we bring a bit of Bourbon street to West Lafayette, IN. Paula and I visited New Orleans last year and it really reignited our passion for the food, music, and spirit of the town.  We will be serving a big pot of gumbo, shrimp po' boys, and of course a batch of hurricanes!


Given the fact that this will be the latest homecoming game for Purdue since the 1930's we will have our warming tent set up with the kerosene heater.  We will also add in some hot toddy fixings to the bar for those of you that prefer to warm up "the old fashioned way."


We are set up in the W lot for the remainder of the season, this means we will be on the asphalt just south of Slater Center and west of the Track and Field Stadium.  The W lot is framed in a gold box in the graphic below.  We will have a gold 10x20 tent set up with our Old School Boilermakers flag as pictured in the photos in the banner on the right side of the blog.



Several of our normal tailgaters will be Marching with the AAMB Alumni band, but we will see them on their break between practice and the game.  We will target having the food out a little early this week to accommodate their schedule.


Friday November 6, 2015
No planned group outing for Friday, but everyone is welcome to come over for beers at 1814 Vinton anytime after 6:00.  For those of you staying there on Friday night, my parent's will be home anytime after noon.


Saturday November 7, 2015
8:00    Depart from 1814 Vinton
8:15    Set Up in W Lot
9:30    Food Ready
11:30  Depart for Stadium
12:00  Kickoff
3:30    Conclusion of the game
5:00    Depart W Lot
6:00    Dinner at 1814 Vinton


Please note that we are leaving 15 minutes earlier than normal in an effort to ensure that food is ready for the AAMB Alumni participants during their break.  We will plan to break down the tailgate before we head up to the game. 


I have allowed for socializing time post game but if you are riding back to 1814 in the Ambulance or Element you will need to be back to the W lot by 5:00 please.  Those of you not heading to see the AAMB post game show are welcome to break out the chairs and beers back at the tailgate.


I will have dinner ready for us at the house by 6:00 if you plan to join us.  Our post game plans will be TBD once we've had dinner.  If we feel like going back to campus we can do that, or we can break out the cards and games, fire up the popcorn machine, and drink the night away in the basement.

Nebraska

Owing to illness, injury, an unfavorable weather forecast, and overall apathy there will be no tailgate this week.  Sorry for our loyal attendees, I will make it up to you over the next two tailgates!

Minnesota

I guess you could say that we achieved a moral victory in East Lansing last weekend by keeping it close with a chance to go ahead at the end of the game with the #2 team in the nation.  Moral victories however do not count as W's in the standings.  What does that mean?  Well it means the leader of our esteemed football program still has exactly 1 Big Ten win to his name.


Additional bad news, two freshmen players (both of which were being redshirted) were arrested on possession of alcohol and weed on Saturday night.  What does that mean?  That means the football team has had 4x as many freshman arrested this year as they have had wins!  Wah-wah.


Minnesota comes to town dragging an albatross of an offense, so there is hope on the horizon.  They were shut out in Evanston last week and have struggled to put points on the board all year long.  This could be another competitive game, lets hope our guys can find a way to break through and get that long awaited home Big Ten win!


For reasons that remain a mystery the Big Ten network has made this their afternoon feature game.  That means a little bit later start to the tailgating.  We are working on moving to the W lot for the remainder of the season so plan on seeing us there.  We will have a new tent this week, a 10x20 one piece with a gold top.  We also will of course be flying our Stone Cold Tailgating Club flag.


Our tailgate menu this week comes to us from our friends in Minnesota.  We will be serving a burger specialty called a "Juicy Lucy" that is apparently popular around the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  Essentially it is two 1/4 lb patties smashed together with American cheese in a pocket in the center of the patties.  We'll be accompanying that with all the fixings and French Fries of course!


Saturday October 10, 2015
10:30     Depart the House
11:00     Tailgate Set up
3:00       Depart for Stadium
3:30       Kickoff

Elimination of the Colletto Level - It's now all Hazzel

I received a facebook comment today reminding me that Hazzel could not be as bad as Colletto.  Since the Colts are playing like crap and my work server is down I had some time to kill.  I decided to pull together some data to see just how bad Hazell has been.




Those of us that attended Purdue in the 90's think of that period as the worst in the school's football history.  I'm here to tell you that you are wrong.  While we were terrible we were not even close to being as bad as we area now.  Colletto's teams played against a stacked schedule with 65% of their games coming against RANKED OPPONENTS.  Hazzel has faced ranked teams in 25% of his games.


Win Percentage
Colletto
Overall 37%
Ranked Teams 12%
Unranked Teams 52.5%


Hazzel
Overall 18%
Ranked Teams 0%
Unranked Teams 24%


In other words, Jim won about half the games he was supposed to win and lost the games he was supposed to lose.  (In the Colletto numbers we count ties as wins because that was the convention at the time.)  Jim went 17-31 against the Big Ten, which is awful, but it means he was 7-11 out of conference with playing ND each year when they were monsters.


Hazzel has only managed to beat 2, count them 2 teams that were not FCS (Division I-AA.)  As near as I can tell Colletto's teams never played a I-AA team.  Hazzel came from the MAC and hasn't been able to even compete against his former conference going 1-3 against MAC teams and 0-2 against Conference USA.  Out of conference he is 4-8 out of conference (2-6 against D1) and 1-15 against the Big Ten.  Folks that is a travesty. 


Scoring
Colletto Years

Row Labels	Average of Purdue	Average of Opponent	Delta per Game
1991	20	25	-5
1992	20	30	-10
1993	19	24	-5
1994	30	31	-1
1995	26	24	1
1996	18	29	-12

Hazzel Years

Row Labels	Average of Purdue	Average of Opponent2	Delta
2013	15	38	-23
2014	24	32	-8
2015	30	35	-5

In 4 of the 6 Colletto years our average scoring delta per game was 5 or less points per game.  This year Hazzel's teams have finally gotten to the -5 plateau but we also have not yet gotten to the meat of the schedule. 


A deeper look shows the scoring against ranked and unranked opponents shows how inept the Boilers have been under Hazzel.


Colletto Years

Row Labels	Average of Purdue	Average of Opponent
Ranked	16	31
Unranked	26	25

Hazzel Years

Row Labels	Average of Purdue	Average of Opponent2
Ranked	15	39
Unranked	23	33

Under Colletto we lost a lot of games, but we were competitive at home.  See below:

	Home		Road
Row Labels	Boilers	Oppo	Boilers	Oppo
1991	27	24	12	26
1992	19	29	21	31
1993	23	22	15	28
1994	34	29	25	32
1995	28	27	23	22
1996	20	24	15	36
Grand Total	25	26	19	29

Under Hazzel not so much, we're not competitive anywhere:

	Home		Road
Row Labels	Boilers	Opp	Boilers	Opp
2013	15	37	15	40
2014	24	32	24	31
2015	30	33	31	41
Grand Total	21	34	20	36

Folks, start writing Morgan Burke now and let him know you're not happy.  Be respectful, feel free to reference this post.


mjb@purdue.edu