Tax timeout for Tech

Excuse me today for taking a break from taxes so that I can continue to revel in last night’s amazing gridiron feat by my (and the hubby’s) alma mater.

In case you missed it, and you probably did since it was broadcast on the NFL Network, Texas Tech’s Red Raiders staged the biggest comeback in college bowl game history, taking the Insight Bowl title in overtime after spotting the Minnesota Golden Gophers a 31-point lead. You can read all about it on the Tech site or in this International Herald Tribune article, since it obviously is a worldwide story.

It was great! OK, it was great starting about 10 minutes into the third quarter. That’s when Tech scored to make it 14-to-38. The Raiders then began an offensive run that culminated, with just 5 seconds left in the game, in a 52-yard field goal (the longest our kicker had ever made) to send the game into overtime. Minnesota got a field goal and then on Tech’s OT possession, we punched it across the goal line for the win.

The way the game started, the hubby and I were kind of wishing that our cable system didn’t have the NFL Network free view. That way, we would have had an excuse for not watching.

As amazing as the victory was, it was just as amazing how awful the Raiders looked that first half (and well into the third quarter, too). And I must admit that we flipped over to ESPN to catch another game (more on this a bit later).

OK, give us grief for not sticking with the game. But c’mon! 38-7. They sucked! Do you really like watching your favorite team get the crap kicked out of it? If it had been even remotely close, we would have hung in there.

As it turned out, we saw all we really needed to. By the time we turned back to the free view, Tech was coming on strong. Even better, the NFL Network replayed the game overnight and we taped it. So now we can go back and watch the comeback from the beginning.

Tech trivia: No, that red-haired (although his locks look rather orange to me) character shown above (figurine image courtesy of College-Traditions.com) is not a distant cousin of Yosemite Sam. That’s Raider Red; you can read about him here.

Tech’s live mascot is the Masked Rider,
a caped student who circles the football field on
a black stallion. The current Rider is Amy Bell from Kermit. Yes, my last name, but no relation. And yes, Kermit, my hometown, but I don’t think her family lived there when I was growing up.
Kind of Twilight Zone-y, though, don’t you think? But cool, too.

I think it’s a great mascot. Judge for yourself from this photo (courtesy of Tech) of Amy and Midnight Matador. You can read about the Rider tradition here and get the scoop on my fellow Kermit resident here.

Fun football Friday: Last night was a particularly fun college football time here in our house. Not only did Tech win, but so did the Maryland Terrapins in their Champs Sports Bowl match-up against Purdue. The hubby and I lived in Greenbelt, Md., for most of our years in the metro D.C. area. That’s just down the road from Maryland’s campus in College Park, so we adopted the Terps as our second "home" school.

So we watched the Terps win while Tech was struggling. The highlights of that game are available by scrolling down the above-linked Herald Tribune story.

And as I type this Saturday afternoon, the U.S. Naval Academy, another Maryland school we adopted, is clinging to a one-point lead over Boston College in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Why Navy? My dad was in that branch of the service. Then when the hubby and I lived in the D.C. area, we got to know the Academy. We settled in Greenbelt (home of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) in large part because it provided easy access to the nation’s capital as well as Baltimore and Annapolis, where the Naval Academy is based.

The hubby tells me that campus access is more restricted these days — why? Is there highly confidential, anti-terror planning among the Plebes? — but when we lived in the area, we regularly visited the gorgeous Annapolis grounds, touring the buildings and just enjoying the view along the Severn River. Go Midshipmen! Beat B.C.!

Sad update — B.C. won on a last-second field goal. Bummer.

Return to tax time: OK, if you just have to have some tax talk, you can revisit this October post that looks at Congressional questions about the tax-exempt status of the NCAA.

But I can’t be bothered with mundane things like taxes today in the wake of the Biggest. Comeback. In. Bowl. History. Yay Raiders!