GAMEDAY INFO: Forget Parking and Take the Tar Heel Express

Everyone has the gameday plan of pulling in the car, pulling out the grill, and tailgating until gametime. Sometimes the unique parking situations at UNC make that impossible. If your friends already have a tailgate spot, consider the Tar Heel Express shuttle which allows you to park further out and shuttle into campus.  The round trip cost is $5 and one-way is $3.  (During basketball season there is also a route from the Carolina Coffee Shop to the Smith Center which is $2 one-way and $4 round trip.)

Service to and from the University Mall, Friday Center, and the Martin Luther King Blvd lots start 3 hours before game time.   Buses from the Southern Village and Jones Ferry lots begin 1.5 hours before kickoff.

For more info on gameday parking at UNC refer to this great packet put out by the UNC Department of Public Safety (aka Dept of Will Tow and Ticket Your Butt).

RECIPES: the Tailgate Breakfast

The Heels welcome the ECU Pirates into Kenan Stadium at noon on saturday.  The noon kickoff always proves challenging when it comes to planning the proper tailgating menu.  As much as we at THT love burgers and beer, they are not the optimal food for the 8am start. (and yes if you are a real tailgater that is when you start)  THT has you covered with the following tailgate breakfast suggestions.

• Tailgate Breakfast Squares – Iowa Alums claim that you can make a good egg casserole deal the night before, put it in the fridge and then just heat it uncovered.  Perfect tailgating food because it is both hearty and simple.

• Twice Baked Breakfast Potatoes – BarbequeLovers.com have a VERY detailed recipe for twice baked potatoes that looks good.  Honestly potatoes should not require this much instruction, but these potatoes have meat in them so they automatically are THT approved.

• The Chicken Biscuit – The great thing about this is that it is ubiquitous in that you can eat them for breakfast, go cheer on the Heels, and then come back to the gate and eat them for dinner.  The equation is simple, you fry a chicken and put it on a biscuit.  (The lazy-gater has an easier equation in that it is drive up to Bojangles window and order)  However tailgating is a time for experimenting.  So THT suggests kicking up your chicken biscuit with egg, cheese, and hot sauce.

• Biscuits and Gravy – This could be the perfect recipe to perfect in your lab and then put away for a tailgate when it is a little colder.  But we at THT do not let the silly weather dictate our achievement of the optimal sausage gravy quotient.

• French Toast – This is a great french toast recipe despite the fact that the author somehow thinks people lug ovens out to the pre-game blacktop.  (But if your rig does have an oven, please post it here) It would not take much to do it without an oven or even to use a dutch oven.

• Some suggest a nice morning fruit tray…

• Beverages also pose a quandry.  A couple suggestions include an Irish Coffee, the bloody mary, and might we suggest that someone try a Screwed Firefly consisting of Firefly sweet tea vodka and orange juice.  Also a personal favorite is milk that has been sitting in the ice chest overnight and has achieved sub-zero temps.

If you have your own great early morning parking lot fare, please help us out and post it in the comments.

GEAR: Show Us Your Rig

Every artist has his favorite brush.  Every golfer has a trusty putter.  And every tailgater has his/her personalized set up.  Whether you prefer a grill to be hitch-mounted, towed on a separate tractor trailer, or made out of a grate and cinder blocks THT wants to see it.  Send in pics of your rig and they will be posted in a future post.

Send your pics to tarheeltailgate@gmail.com.

[In the meantime click on the picture above to see neatorama.com's breakdown of all the bells and whistles on this "Muscle Car BBQ."]

Step by Step Guide to Getting Hyped for the Citadel

So it is the day before the first Heels game of the season, and if you are like us here at THT then your excitement for football is at a dangerously high level.  But if you are having a problem getting psyched for the game, THT has you covered.  Simply follow process and you will be tackling your co-workers like Terry Tate Office Linebacker in no time.

Step 1: Look the Part. Friday is College Colors Day, so sport your Heels gear to work.

Step 2: Remember Where You Came From: Watch an old UNC commerical with Charles Kuralt

Step 3: Remember Last Season. Watch the 2008 Entrance Video

Step 4: Get Informed

• Visit Inside Carolina to get the latest updates on the game.
• Listen to Butch in his final press conference
• Read the DTH’s “Heel Curtain” which contains several articles about key players (this also can be downloaded or printed off for gameday reading material)

Step 5: Hand any NC State coworkers you may have a tissue after their 7-3      loss to  South Carolina last evening.  This does not get you hyped for the game but it is always fun when State fans are flipping out about a loss.

Step 6: Get reacquainted with the players

• meet Kendric Burney
• meet Bruce Carter
• meet Deunta Williams

Step 7: Start to size up your opponent by reading IC’s intro to the Citadel.

Step 8: Watch Loafers Sans Socks‘ intro to the 2009 Heels

Step 9: Watch the 1997 Gator Bowl (BEWARE: this cranks the Terry                    Tate Meter to 11)

FINAL STEP: Watch Mr. TarHeel.com’s Intro

If by now you are not so hyped that Coach Davis should consider putting you on the kickoff coverage team then you should visit a doctor and probably never come back to this site again.

**Chaser: Hark the Sound

What it is, is football!

The 2009 college football season is upon us.  The season kicks off at 7pm tonight on ESPN when State College in Raleigh faces off against South Carolina (never referred to as “USC” or “Carolina”).  Without football there would be no tailgating.  I think there is no more fitting way to honor the gameday experience than to hear it described in this 1953 monologue by Tar Heel treasure Andy Griffith (’49).

Ceremoniously listening to Sherriff Andy describe gameday has become a tradition for me.  I have always thought that if you close your eyes you can picture this happening in and around a 1940s Kenan Stadium.

Andy Griffith in Kenan Stadium

What’s on your menu?

With the first game just 3 days away is your menu set?  Did you go with some old favorites or are you trotting out something new?  Are you going beer/brats, burgers/bourbon, or the Bojangles’ Supertailgate Special route?

List your menu in the comments section for all to see.  Use this spot to brag about your awesome fare or ask for help if you have menu block.

GAME WEEK: The Citadel, 9/5 @ 6pm

The wait is over as Coach Butch Davis will begin his third season at the helm by leading the Tar Heel Boys out of the tunnel on Saturday to face the Citadel.  Visit the UNC Gameday Central for official information on the event.  The official pregame information site is up and running at Tar Heel Town.  Tar Heel Town has a “Gameplan” page with FAQs and some very useful maps for those who have not been to campus in a while.

Gameday activities will kick off with the Old Well Walk at 3:30pm.  As a note of safety, remember to not let your kids or grandmothers hold a football within view of Marvin Austin.

Quick Hits:

• The new Tar Pit fan shirt is now available.
• Great maps that can be printed as pdfs or downloaded to your smartphone.
• Represent the Gridiron Heels while surfing the net by downloading the new official 2009 UNC Football wallpaper featuring linebackers Quan Sturdivant and Bruce Carter.
• The town of Chapel Hill has a new gameday initiative called “Touch Downtown“
• Follow UNC Football on twitter for useful updates

GEAR: Bud Light Approved Tailgating

The people at Bud Light have lauched a new website called Tailgate Approved.com The site has a number of tailgate gadgets including: a part cooler/part grill (the Grooler $125), a tailgate toolbelt for your dog, and 3 in 1 condiment gun.  In addition to the “As Seen On TV” products there is also a name generator for your fantasy football team (“Necessary Roughness” is already in its 8th season of dominance so hands off my team name bro).

THT does not endorse Bud Light over any other adult beverage maker, but man do we applaude their enthusiasm in putting together a really fun tailgating site.

[**Hat tip to Uncrate.com for the pic as I could not figure out how to get one directly from the site**]

RECIPES: Tailgating Recipe Books

With 12 games in a regular season, plus a hopeful bowl game, even the best tailgate chefs blank of what to make.  Here are some tailgating cookbooks to either spice up the old boring brat/burger routine or to get you started out with menu planning.

• “The Tailgating Cookbook: Recipes for the Big Game” $14.35 at Amazon.com.
• Tailgating.com has a number of recipes as well.
• Food Network has its Top 100 Tailgating Recipes

Do you have a resource for tailgating recipes? If so, help your fellow Heel-gaters by linking to them in the comments section.

Web Tools to Organize Your Tailgate

If you and your tailgating crew come from all over, as mine does, then you know that coordinating the perfect ‘gate can be a nightmare.  Though the tailgating equation has pretty much remained the same for time eternal (football + grill + meat + friends = awesome), the information age has put some real neat tools at the tailgater’s disposal:

• Doodle – the tool allows you to set up a poll (say to decide on brats or barbecued chicken) or to set up a calendar to let your friends RSVP for games.  This kind of planning can help you plan just the right amount of supplies without the hassle of long email chains.
• Google Calendar - if you have your own tailgating tour, use a shared google calendar to let your friends know of all the stops along the way.
• Google Groups - set up a group for your crew of tailgating crew.
• Google Docs - create a shared google docs excel sheet to have everyone sign up for what they will bring.