What happens when a School 🏫 that plays Football 🏈🏈🏈 goes up against a Football School ? You don’t worry about the outcome, simply enjoy the moment on a Big Stage…

My beloved Duke University Football team has finally made it back to a warm weather ” Big Boy ” Bowl πŸ₯£ game!!! The only thing is that the Ole Miss team believes that they belonged in the 12 team playoff.

Β  I can already here the chant of our 9-3 is bigger than your 9-3. Reality is that the Rebels would be correct. We made it to one of the Big 3 (Pop Tart, Holiday & Gator) because the ACC was just a bit down this year. While we did have 13 of the 17 teams qualify for the post season, the league currently sits at 2-9 with Duke and Virginia Tech both underdogs tonight and tomorrow.

Β  Manny Diaz managed to lead us to an amazing 9 win season which included a Tar Heel State sweep of UNC, NCSU and Wake Forest. But Lane Kiffin got his 9 wins in the S.E.C. The good news is that Arch Manning just transferred in so we dodge that bullet.

  Enjoy the moment on the Big Stage will be the motto today !

Happy New Years ! GIF curtosey of Mama Smoot..Day LONG Travel Log (20 Hours, but who’s counting)

   To call today a travel day would qualify as an understatement !

   But there’s always time for Kindness here in the World 🌎 of Kindness !!

  Wake ⏰ up at 3am in Houston, Texas and have taken the Shuttle from the Hotel 🏨 to the Airport known as IAH, named in honor of President Bush.

Now its a Non-stop βœ‹ Flight ✈️ back to Charlotte on American Airlines. Enjoying having status with an Airline for the first time in my life.

Have never paid to fly First Class so its way cool when its provided for FREE. Quite the upgrade after flying out here on Frontier Airlines.

After getting to Charlotte, Linda will hang around CLT for a couple of hours and then fly onto Jacksonville, Florida. I envy her and her direct flight ✈️.

  The next 14 hours for me will be a bit more complicated. First, its drive the Truck up to Greensboro Airport (GSO) and park it so that its waiting when we return from the Bahamas πŸ‡§πŸ‡Έ next Wednesday night.

  Five hours until my Delta flight ✈️ heads out for Atlanta (ATL) and then four hours until the connection down to JAX. 20 hours start to finish and 14 without my Booogz.

  If there is a Bright Side its the potential for a Mega Step πŸšΆβ€β™‚οΈ Day. There was to be 30,000+ steps to be found, if no other reason than to cancel out the poor Food choices…..

  Thank You Mama Smoot for the assistance in wishing ❀ everyone a Happy New Years !!!

The Photo πŸ“· of the Fit Bit belongs to Lin as she chased me around the first of four Airports. πŸ’˜

I miss her already and she’s just now leaving…. sad πŸ˜₯

If this was a Basketball πŸ€ game it would be referred to as Padding Ones Stats. In the chase to 1 Million Steps πŸšΆβ€β™‚οΈ one side Challenge is how many different Countries and πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡² States can be squeezed in.

  The I-77 South Carolina border is just six miles in the wrong direction so it was a No Brainer to add it to the total !!

South Carolina is on the Scoreboard with 3,062 !

While Scott German managed to not mention Duke in his breakdown of the ACC, his update is still a fun look at the State of the Union that is ACC Football…. It’s time to play UNC for the Victory Bell πŸ””!

https://augustafreepress.com/news/scott-german-what-we-know-about-the-acc-through-four-weeks/

Scott German is Chris Graham’s partner in crime up in Waynesboro. Each week during the 🏈🏈🏈 season one of them will take a look at the league.

  The sad part for me in the UNC upset loss at home to James Madison University is that it prevented a match-up of 4-0 teams when the Tar Heels load up the Bus 🚌 for the nine mile drive over to Wallace Wade Stadium 🏟 this Saturday.

Β  Duke – Carolina football has produced insane games the past few seasons, including the Double OT race to 50 points last year. Sadly, the Battle for the Victory Bell πŸ”” isn’t front page news on Tobacco Road. It’s remains one of my favorite days of the Year, win or lose.

Β  Travis King is a Sports fan that I believe lives in my neck of the woods. King recently penned a piece about loyalty to a program and realistic expectations of said program. While I don’t know Travis personally, I was impressed by his words in regards to Virginia Tech.

Β  It was 50 years ago that I decided that I wanted to attend Duke University. One small thing prevented it happening, complete lack of intelligence. Other than that, I was spot on qualified.

Β  Ended up living on Campus and pumping Gas β›½ for the folks that actually got into the School 🏫. But I have been a die hard fan of the University as a whole and the Football team more than all others. When you are a Duke Football fan you have different expectations.

  Terms like Big Boy Football are not part of the day to day and Cold weather Bowl games for 6-6 teams are welcomed. This year I looked up and down the schedule to see if we could sneak out 6 wins as we started the Manny Diaz portion of our Football legacy. First thing that had to happen was we had to open 4-0 ( which we did) because like everyone else, it appeared the league was loaded for Bear 🐻.

Β  Four weeks into the season some teams, like Scott mentioned, are simply not as scary as the might have first appeared. Still doesn’t change the fact that we are 0-for-Life against Florida State. Two wins in the next eight games gets us to the Great White North (Annapolis, New York or Boston). Anything beyond that is Icing on the Bowl πŸ₯£ cake πŸŽ‚.

Β  Remember that a Duke Football season has only ended in a Bowl game 10 times in my 61 years, so not going to become greedy!

Back to Travis for a minute, I could not agree with him more in regards to his take on remaining loyal to one’s program. In my mind, I look at College the same way I look at High School. Your School should be Your School 🏫.

Β  Imagine if someone asked about who’s your team in High School and the answer was in Golf its Floyd County, in Baseball its Alleghany, in Football its Radford and in Softball its Carroll County.

  In regards to Duke, we have attended at least one sporting event from every team except Wrestling and we hope that scratch that one of the list this year. But Football is King 🀴 for me because its where we face the greatest challenge, by a wide margin.

The biggest difference between say Duke and FSU or Virginia Tech or SMU is that there was zero expectation when the season began. Getting picked 15th in a 17 team league sets the bar pretty low.

Β  We have 8 more games in five different Stadiums and I know where I will be sitting for each of those. Cheering on the Blue Devils! Travis mentioned that with all of the money πŸ’° being tossed around now that going to Miami is more appealing than Blacksburg. If that’s true I don’t think Durham is a must-see destination for Big Boy Football players.

Β  Schools are often labeled Basketball schools or Football schools. Let’s call Duke a School of Higher Education with an Amazing Hospital πŸ₯ and a fun Football team. Don’t forget we have a Volleyball team that lets the Basketball team use their Gymnasium.

Β  Uva is 3-1 now and they do have a shot at getting to 6-6, which will look great after the past two seasons. Sometimes a Cold Weather πŸ₯Ά Bowl πŸ₯£ can be a good thing, just not repeatedly.

Β  Now, if we can get Travis to not use Daniel Jones as a way to say that Barkley is in a better place this year, but that’s another battle.

  Victory Bell πŸ”” game this Saturday afternoon !!!