A Cat Fight At The Music City Bowl

Yes it was.
The Wildcats of The University of Kentucky and the Tigers of Clemson University.
A good old fashioned knock down, drag out.
I thought this would be a hard fought game, and I wasn't dissapointed.
Both teams seemed to be evenly matched. One team just didn't get it done when it counted the most.


I had a chance to shoot Clemson football earlier this year, and I didn't do it.
I think the editor from that company wanted me to cover them all year.
It's just more of a drive from my house than I want to take every Saturday.
After I saw the Clemson team walk the field with head coach Dabo Swinney, I began to second guess myself.
One of the things I love about college football is the traditions and ceremonies that surround the game. I've got a lot of them that i've yet to mark off my to-do list before I can quit taking up space on the sidelines.


The game started out with Kentucky seeming to have the upper hand. Here Wildcat runningback Derrick Locke runs around left end early in the game.


Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker passes from the pocket. As you can tell, I've started to get bored and started to drag the shutter. Maybe bored is not the right word i'm looking for. I was cold, it had started to snow, me knees were starting to hurt, I had a couple of decent images. I was just looking for something a little different. I do that sometimes. I love dragging the shutter at night games when both teams uniforms are colorful.


Kentucky quarterback Morgan Newton drops back to pass.


Derrick Locke takes a pitch and runs around left end as I drag the shutter again.


Music City Bowl MVP C.J. Spiller looks good as I finally catch a slow shutter speed image of him.


One of the problems with televised games and especially bowl games is the dead time between change of posession, time outs, quarters, etc..... I know the schools, conferences, sponsers, bowl committees, and who ever else that has a claim to the TV rights need to sell air time(commercials), but dang if it don't make for long lapses in concentration when you have your mind on the game. During one of these lengthy lapse of concentration, I noticed the reflection of the high definition scoredboard / video screen in the windows of the pressbox. Nice and colorful, right?


See......I did shoot something besides slow pan images. Quarterback Morgan Newton of Kentucky.


One thing I kept on noticing was the bottoms of the Clemson players cleats. They wuz shiny. I ain't never seen shiny bottom shoes. What will they think of next?


Clemson would keep pluggin' away. Sometimes they would come up a little short. Here Tiger tight end Michael Palmer almost makes the catch. But that pluggin' away would pay off for Clemson, as they would later score to go ahead.


As time was winding down, Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks begin to work the officials.


With about five and a half minutes remaining in the game, Kentucky was facing a fourth and nine and lined up to punt, when they called for a fake punt. I kinda had a feeling that would be a good time for one.
The Kentucky punter, Ryan Tydlacka, received the snap and pulled the ball down and ran around right end. After gaining enough for the first down, he was introduced to the game of football by Clemson safety Spencer Adams. I bet he wont fake another punt again.


I was across the field on the Kentucky sidelines waiting for the Clemson players to give a Gatorade bath to head coach Dabo Swinney. Just as they dumped the bucket of Gatorade over his head, Clemson runningback and Music City Bowl MVP C.J. Spiller walked into my frame. You know.....the more I look at it, the more I like him being in the frame. I think it adds something to it.

All I Got Was A Rock........

They moved the second Talladega race weekend to the last weekend of October.
Yep, Halloween weekend.
Or, as they say around here.
Hallo-Dega.
They are tempting the gods.
That's what happens when you build on top of an old Indian burial ground, as legend says.
Then they have this race on Halloween weekend.
Enough strange stuff happens here, you shouldn't laugh in the face of it.
We should give praise to the Almighty so he will protect us through the weekend.


Strange things do happen here.
Nobody can explain it.
Then the weekend started off crappy. Rain. And more rain.
Rained out Cup qualifying. And final practice.
And the Truck Race started late.


After the rains stopped and the Camping World Truck race got under way, I caught the trucks of Dennis Setzer(8), Matt Crafton(88), and Jason White(23) coming out of turn two, three wide.


It was a good race with a lot of action, but not the wrinkled up fender kind of action I was looking for. Here the lead pack of Todd Bodine(30), David Starr(24), Kyle Busch(51), and Aric Almirola(15) comes out of turn two.
So much for my kind of action.


I was kinda bored and started looking for person celebrating Halloween before the sun set. Then I saw Jason....I mean Freddie.....uhhhh, Michael Meyers...no, no, no....what made me scream was the 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide Sugar Bowl sweatshirt he had on. I remember the University of Utah whooping somebody's behind.


Then I spotted a spotted cow. I hope those are his teats.


I noticed as it was getting darker, more crazies were coming out, not that Fred and Wilma are crazy.


After an uneventful Truck race, the sun sets on Talladega SuperSpeedway.
I've got this feeling the night will not be uneventful.


I had a special assignment for this race. I had to find people tailgating and dressed up for Halloween. Because of the late start of the race, most of the tailgating was over before I could make my way to the infield. I did find lots of people dressed for the Trick or Treating that was about to take place.


My new friends from Canada, but I can't tell you what their costumes were.
It's not what you're thinking.


Look....cows cook chickin.


And there's always a fat chick in a bikini that thinks she looks good, plus there ain't enough beer in Talladega.


Some of us survived Hallo-Dega better than others.
Maybe we have more practice.


After just a few laps had passed, I begin to feel lucky.
Paul Menard(98) and Joe Nemechek(87) tangled as the were exiting turn two.


But it became appearant early into the race that it would be a loooonnnnggggg and booorrrrriiiinnnngggg day. NASCAR had told the driver earlier in the drivers meeting, not to bump draft through the turns. Boy, they really know how to sell tickets, don't they?
Anyway, something told me Halloween was not over just yet.
I didn't know I was about to turn into Charlie Brown.


Nothing seemed to go right for me all weekend. From Thursday until the end of the race on Sunday, nothing went right. I was having a Charlie Brown weekend. Everybody was Lucy. They always seemed to pull the football back as soon as I was kicking it.
Even my standard blur shot didn't come out like I wanted it too. I was beginning to think I was gettin rocks in my Trick or Treat bag.


Most of the people on the tower where I shoot have been there for years. Here Brian Hallman of NASCAR SCENE and Cody Crisp of the local Talladega paper are hoping they don't get any rocks.


Then the pack started to tighten up and run three wide.Maybe our luck would change.


As the race was winding down, we saw a little bumping as the pack got even tighter.


Jeff Robinson from NASCAR ILLUSTRATED was waiting for some treats, but like the rest of us, all he got was rocks.


We were watching as Jamie McMurray(26) and Dale Earnhardt jr(88) would lead the pack off of turn two. Then they went down the backstretch.


I watched as the cars made there way into turn three. Some cars changed lanes at the end of the backstretch and Ryan Newman(38)had no place to go. As I saw him making a hard left, I started shooting again. Now remember, I'm more than a half mile away from them, but I do have a 400/2.8, but it's still not enough lens for the distance. I did the best I could, but sometimes it's still not good enough.


After a short red flag to stop the race, as the safety crews cut Mr. Newman out of his car and then cleaned up the mess, some drivers just couldn't get started again.


Then the excitement happened. In the tri-oval. The people shooting in that area got another treat. Just like Charlie Brown......"All I got is a rock".
Jamie McMurray won. Then ran outta gas. And got a push from Greg Biffle.


Who got the treats?
My buddy and Associated Press photographer Glenn Smith.


And Associated Press photographer Skip Williams.
This just didn't seem to be my year shooting wrecks.
I don't have another one scheduled this year.
Maybe next year.

These Tigers Have The Blues

For the last few days, I've been trying to think of something witty or clever to describe the game between Kentucky and Auburn.
I can't!
It was bad.
Auburn had their chances, they just didn't take advantage of them.
Kentucky took advantage of theirs.
Auburn's passing game didn't look sharp and the running game had to carry the load.
And for the first time this year, special teams earned their keep when they blocked a first quarter fieldgoal attempt and returned it for a touchdown.
Just like most of the other photographers, I was positioned downfield and didn't get a shot of the block.
All I got was the back of Neiko Thorpe as he was seeing headlines and goal lines.
Oh well......


The game started out like it might go Auburn's way. Then the wheels slowly started to fall off.
Here, Kentucky cornerback Randall Burdon knocks the ball away from Auburn receiver Quindarius Carr.


Ben Tate was the bright spot for Auburn. He rushed for 132 yards.
Tate and Kentucky linebacker Micah Johnson fought some hard battles all night.


Auburn ran a reverse to wide receiver Terrell Zachery, which gained a bunch of yards. Then Kentucky cornerback Paul Worford got in the way.


That Paul Worford guy seemed to be everywhere. Darvin Adams got seperated from the ball by him.


Yep....Ben Tate is THE workhorse. He moved up on Auburn's rushing chart to 6th all time. And with another good game against LSU this Saturday, he could climb a couple of more spots.
He scored Auburn's only offensive touchdown. Things were looking good at this point.


And the fans went wild after Ben scored.


Ben celebrated with Mike Berry.


The cheerleaders celebrated.


And Kentucky just would not quit. They kept plugging away.
Wildcat receiver Gene McCaskill got his hands on the ball as Auburn's Neiko Thorpe was a step behind.


Kentucky started their comeback, mixing pass plays with running plays.
Wildcat tailback Derrick Locke is tripped up by Auburn's Zac Etheridge.


Kentucky's number one quarterback, Mike Hartline, was injured last week. Saturday night was quarterback by committee. Kentucky runs the Wildcat offense with Randall Cobb as quarterback. Here, he dives for the endzone as Auburn linebackers Josh Bynes and Craig Stevens close in. He didn't score, but it was only a matter of time.


Kentucky brought in Junior quarterback Will Fidler on the next play. He stretches the ball out over the goal line to tie the score with 4:57 to play in the fourth quarter.


Auburn couldn't move the ball and Kentucky didn't waste any time movin the ball downfield. Randall Cobb ran the Wildcat offense again, and scored on a four yard run with 1:51 left in the game.


The Kentucky ball players got to celebrate with the Big Blue fans that made the trip down to Auburn.
Maybe Auburn can stop the wheels from coming off this week before heading to Baton Rouge or it could be a long night.