There Is an Actual Professor of Tailgating — and His Research Will Surprise You | Dr. Andy Gillentine

There is literally a professor of tailgating. Dr. Andy Gillentine has spent 30 years at the University of South Carolina investigating the phenomenon of tailgating — what drives people to sit in a 105-degree parking lot in August, what the legal and economic implications are, and how universities can make game day safer and better. He turned all of it into the first honors class on tailgating ever offered at a major university.

Dr. Andy joins Luke to break down what the class actually covers, what the research has revealed about why we tailgate, which yard games his students designed as a business project, and who he'd most want to tailgate with from Gamecocks history (the answer involves Steve Spurrier and a lot of bourbon stories).

What we cover: 30 years studying tailgating at the University of South Carolina · The honors class curriculum — history, law, marketing, economics, food, and games · Why people sit in 105-degree heat before a football game (the sociology of tailgating) · Yard game innovation assignments and what students came up with · Local beer philosophy: always go for the lager · Favorite game: cornhole, but the Can Jam and ring-hook are underrated · Dream tailgate guests: Stephen Garcia and Coach Beamer

Transcript

Intro

Luke 0:00

Welcome back to the Tailgate Connect podcast. I'm your host, Luke Lorick with Tailgating Challenge. I love all things tailgating. And today we're going to talk to a very special tailgating personality. He is literally a doctor of tailgating and teaches a tailgating class at the University of South Carolina. You're going to want to learn more about what Andy has to say about his class and tailgating in general. Stay tuned. Across the states from college to NFL. All right, welcome to the latest Tailgate Connect podcast episode. I am here tonight with the one, the only, maybe the only, a doctor of tailgating. Andy, thanks for joining the show. How are you doing tonight, sir?

Go GameCocks — Luke's shirt on YouTube

Dr. Andy 1:07

Luke, we're doing great. It's glad to see you. Glad to be a part of the show.

Luke 1:11

Heck yeah, man. So again, when I say like, I'm not saying this in jest for those that are like a doctor of tailgating. Are you are you being serious? And so I will say, first I'll say, go game cocks. I got my shirt on right now for those watching this on YouTube. So I had the pleasure of meeting Andy, who literally was a professor of tailgating at the University of South Carolina. Andy, did I did I hit that right?

How does one become a professor of tailgating?

Dr. Andy 1:38

Absolutely. It's something I've been doing for the over the past 30 years is investigating the phenomenon of tailgating. So it's been great to do it. The university's been very supportive, and people like yourself have been just great.

Career path: coach → administration → professor

What are our responsibilities for 55-110K people in parking lots?

Luke 1:52

So I feel like someone's probably out there right now, because obviously we have a lot of people that love tailgating listening to the episode. And they were like, how does one become a doctor in the sport of tailgating? Tell us about your journey a little bit on how you got to be a professor of tailgating.

Dr. Andy 2:07

Well, it's funny, Luke. I think I did like a lot of people who worked in athletics. You know, I started my career coming out. I worked as a coach for a number of years. Then you move into administration. And anybody that works in the education sector, you keep going back to school to keep better in yourself, to become a little more skilled in what you do. And once I made the big move from athletic administration, sport management over to the education teaching people side, we began to notice that this phenomenon of tailgating was really growing. And as an administrator, we began to be curious, what are our responsibilities? And that's how it all started. We were just thinking, you know, I've got 55,000, or in the case of South Carolina, 110,000 people out in these parking lots before a game. What are my responsibilities? What do I have to do? And as an educator and as an administrator, you start following that path. And that's how it all started.

Luke 3:14

Now, now, before all of that, before the educational aspect of it, were you an avid tailgator like growing up in life? Did you already have a little bit of that passion in your heart for it?

Dr. Andy 3:25

I think we all did a little bit of tailgating. I think it was one of those things that I didn't get to experience a lot of because I was participating in the activity. So, you know, Saturday was a game day or Friday night was a game day, work day for me. So we didn't get to do a lot of that. But once I pulled out of the, as I call it, the on-the-field part, I began to experience what tailgating was like. And when we first started doing this, it wasn't as large of a scale as what we have today. But it was fun to see. And that's so yes, I I quickly found this is great fun. I enjoy this. What more can we learn about this? And again, then we launched into studying how to make it better, fast, more fun, safer, all that good stuff. So yeah, I've always loved to do it. I love to cook. So it just was a natural fit for me.

Luke 4:20

Excellent. So for those that are tuning in too, they probably want to know like, well, like, what does a class, like if they're like, I'm just gonna go sign up for the university of South Carolina, everybody's enrolling in the University of South Carolina right now. Again, we got some good tailgators there, no doubt about it. But what is like, what is that class, what does the curriculum like look like for one of the students that would take a class on tailgating?

When did the class officially start?

Dr. Andy 4:41

Well, it's funny because it I get that question a lot. Is it what do you do in a class about tailgating? So if you if you kind of take into general the comments I've made, the first thing we try to do is we use tailgating as a vehicle to teach all the different aspects of sport management. So that gives us a constant example to use in a class. So we start out immediately looking at what's the history of tailgating? What are the sociological implications? In other words, why do people want to go sit in the parking lot in Columbia, South Carolina when it's 105 degrees at noon on August 31st? What drives them to sit out there and do that for that period and have a great time? We immediately then, as I mentioned, we shifted to the legal focus. So we'll look at that, we'll look at the marketing implications, how that allows us to sell our programs, encourage more fans or customers, if you want to get on the management side, to come into it. So we look at all those different aspects, how to manage the tailgating event itself, what are the financial implications? And you couldn't have a good tailgating class without looking at food. So we do incorporate all of that into our class. And next thing you know, it's been 16 weeks of really fun but intense study of a topic and breaking it down. And we like to think this helps the students learn how to think about things, how to analyze phenomena and situations, so that not only in tailgating, but now in any aspect of their business or their life, they can look at it and start seeing all these different components that are involved with it. So that's how the class goes, and we have a great time doing it.

Luke 6:31

I I can imagine so. So when did when did the class like start? Like what what was the first year that it was like we have a tailgating class at the University of South Carolina in year blank?

Dr. Andy 6:44

Well, if I have my years right, it was during the pandemic.

Offered through the Honors College

Luke 6:48

Okay. 2020-ish?

Dr. Andy 6:50

Yes, and we had that was the first official year that we had the class on the books. We offered it through the Honors College. So that gives you the idea of the kind of the academic rigor we build into it. Wow. But we we were offering it through the Honors College, and then here come all the things with the pandemic. We just rolled that into the class. Here's another aspect of hosting an athletic event, or any event, for really, and disaster strikes. What do you do? And so we went from tailgating as you and I know it to home gating, to backyard gating, and talked about all those aspects of it. So we made it work, but that was the first year. So I think five years or six years into it at this point, uh it's been a great time. It fills up instantly. I think that's a good thing. That was my point.

Limited seating — honors college constraint

Luke 7:40

Is there ever an open seat, or does it just like these things just pop off and people grab the seats quickly?

Dr. Andy 7:45

No, it fills up in a hurry. The honors college here at uh University of South Carolina always has limited seating uh because these are seminars for these students who are just super, super kids, super smart and inquisitive. So it fills up really quick. So I have majors from both sport management, the business school, uh, you name the field, they're gonna be in there. And it makes it for really nice conversations because it's coming from all these different angles.

Luke 8:15

No doubt. How how big is a normal class size for one of these classes?

Do they cook food in class?

Dr. Andy 8:20

Anywhere from 20 to 22. I've told them I can handle more if they would like at times. So, but usually that's gonna be about right. That way we can have the discussion on every I had a the class met on Mondays and Wednesdays for I think it was about an hour and 45 minutes. So what we would do is on Wednesdays, those are food days. So in addition to having the normal class topic, that was the day we talked about how do you set up your tailgate, your actual tailgate. And then what about the foods? And we used that to talk about everything from food safety to preferences to sustainability issues. So we even tried to weave that into it, feed them. You know, I figured about 22 is all I can afford to feed.

Luke 9:07

So what like what what are some of the the foods? Like, are you all cooking the foods and like prepping them like on a grill in the parking lot? Am I am I being crazy with my my view of a class just sitting in a parking lot learning about tailgating, or is that happening?

Dr. Andy 9:23

Well, it has happened that way. Well, we tried to do is talk about I'm a firm believer in the type of food that you prepare and serve at the tailgate. You know, it's got to add to the feel of the tailgate. And part of that is just convenience. So we do a lot of things that can be handheld, you know, easily eaten with one hand. So we we would learn how to prepare those foods, and I would have different people help me prepare things uh during the week. So we kind of tried to keep that focus in. And gosh, I know we had a variety of sandwiches that we would serve. Those are easy. Walking tacos are easy to do. Uh, we would have Frito chili pie, if you can imagine. So and then I but I let the kids incorporate what do you think should be there? What do we have? And then so we put it together that way.

Luke 10:15

Excellent. Again, as always, you're making me hungry, right? For some of this out there. So uh is there is there just one offering for this class? Are there multiple classes with it?

Dr. Andy 10:28

No, it's just it's just the one offering. But at the University of South Carolina, we're lucky, you know, my program, sport management, sport and entertainment management, we're housed in the College of Hospitality, Sport, and Retail. And when we have within that college, we're now able to offer a culinary degree or program. And one of the classes we've added to that is strictly a tailgating culinary section, where we help those students learn to prepare as if they were a professional working on a tailgate scene. So even from the business side of this, we're uh we're attacking tailgating, so to speak. And it's a popular class, it's a one-hour class as part of the culinary program. And it uh our chef here that teaches that class does a great job. He and I have coordinated classes before. Uh so it works out really well. We have fun.

Luke 11:25

Uh I can I can only imagine. Is it tailgating and really good food with good people? It's like, what's not fun about that? I feel like let me ask you this question. Is the University of South Carolina the only school you're aware of that offers this like a tailgating style class?

Dr. Andy 11:42

I'm pretty sure we're the only one in the country to offer the style class that I teach. Uh I have not found anything like it anywhere else. Now, from the culinary side, there's probably a couple of others that do it. Sure. Uh, because that is a popular thing to think about. How do we cater? How do we uh put together large meals if you think about like the president's tailgate here? But I think for what we do in the actual academic study of it all and try to bring in all those aspects, I don't think anybody else is doing it unless they've recently modeled after ours.

The class unlocks entrepreneurial thinking

Luke 12:19

That's fair. And if somebody's listening to the show and they said, I know what university that's doing it, send us a message. We would love to learn more about that program as well. Absolutely. This is this is fascinating. I went to the University of South Carolina 2000 to 2004. And I guarantee you, I don't know if I was in the honors college, but if I had the opportunity to take a tailgating class, that would have been number one thing on my list of things to do with it. I think that's an amazing offering to blend that business. Because I'm assuming too, with all the research you've done, like tailgating is big business, right? Overall, is it?

Dr. Andy 12:53

Is that a fair statement? Absolutely. And I I honestly, and that's part of the the class we talked about, the entrepreneurial opportunities in tailgating. And Luke, I think as you and I have discussed, I think it's untapped. There are so many opportunities for businesses, and I've watched it grow over the years. When we first started doing this, you know, we we floated the idea of someone ought to have a company that sets up the tents and all that stuff for you. Well, within a few years, that became reality, and that business has now exploded. We're very popular. But yes, I mean, there's lots of money to be made from all different angles. You know, my belief in athletics is you don't want to keep charging your customer more and more and more, but you give them opportunities, ways they can choose to spend their money, and this is just one of them because it adds to that satisfaction.

Tailgating is a multi-million dollar business

Luke 13:51

Agree. Again, I know I'm not going to a game without tailgate. So it definitely increases my level of satisfaction. I think it's interesting because, like you said, an untapped market. I think it's it's growing in that respect. But hey, I'll put you on the spot here. Do you have any G Wiz numbers like X amount of people, tailgate for college football games or like this much money is involved with it? Any any G Wiz numbers off the top of the head?

Dr. Andy 14:16

Oh gosh, it's a multi-million dollar business. You know, and it's one of those things where it's really hard for us to get an exact number on it. You know, I throw some out in class, but I tell the students that you've got to understand these numbers are wholly inaccurate in that they're all too low. Because there are so many that we're still learning all the different aspects that are related. But the number of people that tailgate skyrockets every year, that I think the most important number for people to think about is that we found between on an average weekend, between 10 to 20 percent people more than the capacity of the stadium are out there tailgating. They have no intention of going to the game or couldn't get tickets, but they show up to tailgate. And that's why I mentioned we have over 100,000 at Williams surrounding Williams Bryce tailgating on the weekend. We can only fit in 77,000 these days, but we've got that many more out there who want to be part of that tailgating scene. And if you think each one of those persons stopped by the grocery store or stopped by the local restaurant and picked up a tailgate to go box, think about the money that's being spent in your community just to tailgate, not in the stadium. So you add together, you know, the food, the the parking place places, which man, if you've never been to the University of South Carolina for your listeners, you need to see these private tailgating events, uh venues that we have set up. That's another great business model that I'd tell anybody to follow, and I wish I'd done it myself. But it's uh there's just it's it's hard to throw some of the numbers out, but it's just tremendous. The percentage of people in the U.S. who m who will tell you that they tailgate at least once a year is staggering. Of how many people actually at least go one time a year, and then the number of people that go every weekend, almost year-round, to almost any event, that number just keeps growing up. Yeah.

Luke 16:29

All right. Uh reminded again, what is the official name of the class that you teach?

Will there ever be a tailgating degree?

Dr. Andy 16:35

Oh gosh. It's got a long title, but it's the business implications of tailgating, and we examine it from a sociological, an economic, a managerial, and an ethical standpoint.

Luke 16:48

Do you believe that one day the University of South Carolina will have a degree in tailgating? Not a class, but a degree in tailgating. Am I dreaming too big right now? Go ahead and look at the crystal ball in the future.

Dr. Andy 17:03

Well, I don't know that we'd ever have a degree in tailgating. But if you think about, again, my area, sport and entertainment management, man, if that doesn't describe tailgating, I don't know what does. So if you really want to study, you know, something that kind of detail, sport and entertainment's the way to go. And yes, we can offer that class in tailgating. And we could probably offer an advanced class too. Just dropping that out there.

Two or three students have gone to grad school in sport management

Luke 17:30

I like it. I like it. I feel like I need to come back and get some more uh tailgating knowledge for the University of South Carolina since it wasn't there when I went to school back in the day. But I love that we that we as a university are doing that nowadays. It's awesome. Yeah, but you have been the guest speaker in the class, so there we go. I I didn't want to do any shameless like self-promotion over here today, but I I did have I and I appreciate I had the opportunity to speak to a class that and they were the kids were so engaged, like so engaged. Like you you never know sometimes. Like if people are just gonna be like, oh gosh, like 18 to 22-year-olds or whatever the case may be in there, are they gonna be engaged? Are they gonna be whatever? But they were super engaged, had tons of questions, and probably needed more time, right, to continue the uh the good conversations we had. What was that? Probably maybe was it two years ago, maybe?

Dr. Andy 18:17

Uh two or two or three, yeah, it was. But it was those are the kind of things, and again, those were the kind of kids, so I was glad you got to see them, that are there. I mean, they come from all different angles, and that's the beauty of tailgating, is it is this big melting pot, right? Everybody can come in from every different livelihood, ethnicity, and have a great time and enjoy each other. So class is the same way.

Luke 18:45

Excellent. Have you had any student go on to pursue, can I say a career in tailgating? Is there anybody that did something like amazing, like in tailgating or sports management or something afterwards that really stands out from your classroom?

Dr. Andy 19:00

Well, I I we have several since uh at least a half of the group that's in there is always going to be sport management, luckily enough. That it's interesting how many of them are glad they've had the information about tailgating. And even I bring it up in a couple of my other classes as a component of some research to do or another important component of hosting an event. It's thinking about these ancillaries. But and so they go on now and they take their new jobs and they have a much better understanding of why this is important to do and why if your university or your professional team isn't encouraging it or doing something with it, how it's a it's a missed opportunity. So, yeah, we've had several go out and talk about, you know, to their new employer, hey, we don't have tailgating, you know, rules and guidelines and we need to set all these up. And sometimes organizations are hesitant, but when they realize why they need to do this and how it protects the organization and enhances the tailgating, they're all in.

Shoutout to the time zone — 2:20am where Dr. Andy is

It's 2:20am — that's how important tailgating is

Luke 20:08

Excellent. Excellent. All right, so and we I didn't say this at the onset of this, but but shout out to U82 because for those that don't know, he is overseas traveling right now, and it's like what, like 2.30 in the morning, and you're like, I will jump on here at any time to talk about tailgating.

Dr. Andy 20:23

Amazing. Yes, I am. It is 2.20 in the morning, so I'm happy to be here with you, but that's how important I think tailgating is.

Luke 20:32

No, you're putting your money where your mouth is, right? You'll say, This is good stuff to talk about. Tailgating's always something we could talk about, probably any day, night, week, month, year, all that good stuff, too. So, Andy, tell me this. I know you're a big tailgating aficionado now, and we we know, right? We know game types have awesome tailgating. Tell me about another tailgate or another school or somewhere you've been that has another amazing tailgate that you would recommend people to check out.

Dr. Andy 21:00

Oh, well, I you almost have to immediately mention you have to go to the grove at Ole Miss. Okay. Because you want to, you want to, you want to go to tailgates that offer a different experience than what we have. You know, again, it goes without saying we have a fantastic environment at the University of South Carolina, all biased aside. Ole Miss has a really neat setting with the Grove where you don't drive your car in there, you've got to wheel everything in there, or hire the companies uh to put it together. And Ole Miss has done a great job over the years of managing that tailgate because it is a massive setup. So that's a good one you have to go to. Uh you have to go to LSU just for the fun. The atmosphere around it is terrific. Uh, the other fun places I like to go, and I'll be there in a few weeks. It'll be at Oklahoma State University. Theirs is they're they're one of the colleges that has the the football stadium right on. campus so that tailgating is all over campus. Nice. I mean you talk about a great way to engage your alumni and future students at the really nice setting and they've they've done a great job. So those schools are ones I tell people to go visit and go see what can be done because each one of them had to make some changes in the way that they were doing things to a to make the environment more accommodating and to make you know to safeguard themselves. Another school that's interesting coming up close by is to go to Mississippi State. There's two Mississippi schools but they've done a neat job. They reconfigured their campus.

Luke 22:42

Okay.

Dr. Andy 22:42

And they turned it in Yeah they took out they had the kind of like five points in Columbia they had what we used to call malfunction junction where it was all the roads kind of blurred. They took that out turned it to a green space and it is one of the neatest tailgating areas I've been around in a while. So anyway all kinds of cool things.

Luke 23:04

Excellent no that bit I didn't know that about Mississippi State so I need to need to get down there maybe do a two for one and and stay in Mississippi and do both schools while we're there if we get we can time that up at some point. I think that'd be great. Do you have a a bucket list whether it's an NFL or college campus that you haven't been to but you really want to go to oh absolutely I I'd love to go both to Penn State because I understand they have a terrific tailgating I I can speak to that. It's pretty awesome out there.

Notre Dame is on the short list

Dr. Andy 23:38

I'd like to go to Notre Dame and just go see and that goes that goes more to a historic I want to see and from my standpoint some events that occurred at Notre Dame actually helped promote the changes that I was involved with about how do we need to do this to make this safer, better, greater environment so I'd like to go see that one. For the NFL I've been to New Orleans I've been to Atlanta I've got to go to Buffalo I have to go see the Bill's mafia is different aren't they?

Luke 24:11

I mean it looks I haven't been yet but it's it's on my short list to get up there maybe maybe this season to go check out you know guys getting sprayed and ketchup and mustard and jumping through tables. Like it's a it's a different scene.

Dr. Andy 24:24

Yeah it looks it looks a little bit uh active for my taste so to speak but I'd love to be jumping through a table I I never say never at my age it's probably not a good idea though.

Luke 24:41

My age is probably not a good idea at this point, but um I digress on that. All right so we got we got Buffalo we got some good uh bucket list items out there let's talk about like since you're the doctor of tailgating let's talk about what in your opinion is the most important thing to bring to a tailgate one thing.

Dr. Andy 25:02

Oh gosh you've got to be open-minded and inviting how about that okay you know yeah you've got to you've got to be in the right mindset it's not the me or the universe you know we hate everybody else man when you're in your tailgate that's the that's your front porch invite everybody in enjoy everybody's company whether they're wearing that orange from that school up north for us or the you know the the the other the other teams invite them in this is what we're supposed to use sport for anyway and particularly tailgating so I think you've got to have that agreed okay now I'll shift it so one tangible item so you got to have the right headspace but what's one tangible tailgating gadget gear what would you say? You got to have a tent.

Varying weather means rain or snow protection too

Luke 25:58

Okay. You got to have a great in the south you really need one because that sun can be brutal.

Dr. Andy 26:02

Oh and you know and even in the varying parts of it you might be keeping off the rain or keeping off the snow who knows true but I think a good a good tent that you can lock down weight down tie down uh some really cool ones and I have one that hooks onto the back of the truck I mean all of those are great things to have then from there now you can build your tailgate. I think that's the basic forms. Of course I think you know you have to have a terrific cooler you've got to have great chairs for people. I think if you have those you know everything else is just we'd call it lanyop right that's just extra. But if you've got those basics there, you can enjoy it and you've got the basics to have a terrific tailgate and we can become super elaborate but I think with those you've got to have it it all starts to me with that tent. Got to be able to get out of the sun for a little bit.

Traffic is the biggest factor

Luke 26:59

All right Andy what is the proper amount of time someone should arrive to the tailgate before kickoff this is hotly debated all the time depending on who you talk to how many hours do you need to be there if the kickoff's at six what time should somebody be there? What's the proper time in your opinion?

Negotiating with the spouse about arrival time

Dr. Andy 27:16

Wow there's a huge factor that comes into that is traffic. You've got to know how long it's gonna take you to get to and then might as well add in away from the stadium. Sometimes it's just as long to get out if not worse than to get in. So it will depend on that. So I usually would end up going if we had a six o'clock kickoff we'd be there about two to be set up and ready to go so we could enjoy it. So I think that three hour range is about right because you're not going to stop at six you're gonna stop at five ish start breaking things down start cleaning up and then start your walk to the stadium. So that gives you a good three hours to enjoy everybody's company. Now that's for me that's my preference I've got friends that they're gonna be there at eight o'clock for a seven o'clock game, right?

Sweet spot depends on who you're going with

Luke 28:07

So they're they're out there allowing yeah so because again I I negotiate with my wife sometimes and she's like oh we we can get there at 24 and I was like what about getting there at 12 for the six o'clock kickoff.

Dr. Andy 28:22

So trying to find the sweet spot depending on who you're going absolutely but it's it is on it is a debatable thing because now if you go back to my side of the fence uh from a management standpoint that's one of the first things we had to deal with is that wait a minute we opened the gates and suddenly our parking lots are full and it didn't matter if it was two hours four hours six hours twelve hours before kickoff whatever time we opened that they came so then it became a matter of what could we budget for to be able to safely accommodate so it was kind of that gives you again tie back to the class the kind of things that we look at and that's a big factor.

Luke 29:04

Fair all right Andy I know since I know you I know you're a big cook you're a big food guide what is your favorite tailgating grub? Right? You don't have to worry about making it you don't have to worry about paying for it but it's going to show up on your plate what are you going to pick wow you know it's I think my actual favorite thing to have at the tailgate is has been chili.

Dr. Andy 29:29

Okay. You know something about that to me just screams tailgate whether it's 110 or 10 below it seems to me to be that's 110 and chili seems kind of crazy right but then all of a sudden you're making that walk in taco with that again you know my cryo chili pies in my hands it doesn't have to be doesn't have to be I can make nachos out of that to me and you can do you know you can have meat chili you can have chicken chili you can have vegetarian you can accommodate a lot of things for a lot of people with a big bat of chili and that either you make it or I make it we don't have to cook anymore and we can keep it hot all day. I mean some of the cool stuff that we have for our tailgates anymore I mean we can keep it warm all day. But I like that uh it's hard to beat a good hot dog. I mean you put chili on it that's what I mean buddy now you're making me hungry it's it's 2 30 in the morning and I'm hungry thanks.

What's in the cup? Depends on the weather

Luke 30:34

Midnight munchy time there you go there you go all right so we got we know chili is a it sounds like a staple of that that's a that's an easy way to do a lot of different things with it. But now what's gonna be in your cup?

Shout out your favorite beer brand

Dr. Andy 30:46

It's game day it's tailgating season you got your cup what's in it again depending on the weather on the hot weather it's for me it's hard to beat a good cold beer. So you're gonna have to have a good cold beer when it's hot as the season cools as the weather cools my my beverage of choice changes a little bit let me throw in there my here's my go back to my administrator days always got to have lots of water though. That's a root tip hey the rules at my tailgate for every one whatever other drink you had one water and go back and remember that sometimes personally so thanks for the reminder.

Local lager is always the right call

Luke 31:30

Yeah yeah it it keeps it keeps everybody safer all right shout out your favorite do you are you uh are you brand loyal do you like a particular style of beer like what what does that look like I I tend to vary I used to have a little bit of an ownership in one company so I won't yell that one out uh I like a good lager.

Dr. Andy 31:57

I mean it's for me it's it's easy it's to me that screams tailgating more than some craft beers because with craft beers I'm really we're talking about beer now right uh with a craft beer I'm more about appreciating the Yeah now I'm thirsty thanks uh it's more about it's more about the appreciating the and savoring the drink and all that good stuff so to me sometimes I don't necessarily want that at the tailgate even though if you offer me one I'm gonna take it.

Go local — whatever fits what you're eating

Luke 32:28

You'll take it okay I got you I'm with it.

Favorite tailgate game — cornhole

Dr. Andy 32:30

Yeah I tend I like to go local as well. So if we're coming to your place I'm gonna look for a local beer and I again I tend to look for the lagard because that will go with no matter what we're gonna eat. I know that's gonna work. Whereas if I go to Dublin and I have a Guinness to me it may not fit everything I'm gonna eat but I'll still enjoy it.

Luke 32:49

It's fair. That's fair. All right we got your food we got your drink now I need to know tailgating game what is your favorite tailgating game you've ever played I've ever played?

Dr. Andy 33:03

Well you can't get away from cornhole. I mean you know in my case I have to have to concede to you here the king the world record holder of all that's cornhole. But uh I I I think to me because that was really one of the first things we ever did, you know, that and akin to the washer game where you could just stand and throw and talk and it wasn't necessarily very serious. So I really enjoyed that I think any of the games that just again that encourage the interaction between the two of us those are the games that are good. So I like I like those my favorite's probably still cornhole probably always will be even though I think I've played a million different ones that actually became part of the class where we were going through all the different tailgating games and how we which ones were missing and I was amazed at what the students brought in.

Luke 33:58

What was the craziest one you saw the craziest one?

Why tailgate games that encourage interaction work best

Dr. Andy 34:05

Uh I think the the one the one that I don't the one you play with the frisbee in the trash can where it's got a little jam right yeah can jam it or all its cousin games that are like it that one's crazy and that one's evolved it's turned into all kinds of crazy things. I I think Cornhole itself has changed whereas I've seen you play many different variations of it over the years now. Yeah you might not see some of those change I think one of the fun things I do like I like the ring and hook game and now you can just mag put the magnet put it on the side of your car or your truck or your tent you can play that and you can do that for hours, right? And everybody can do it. And think about the magnet one is you move it up and down so kids can play. So they're not just sitting not just eating not just drinking uh they're also interacting and playing makes it all work well but I yeah I'm a cornhole guy.

Luke 35:06

No that's fair I I love the Teo Gideon games because like you said it it brings that rapport building brings people together a little bit of competition and challenge like team building when you're on a team compete against another team as well with it. So I feel like I I gotta like how you talk about your class brought in all these games for you all to utilize what like how does one get graded on on your do they have to are they competing with it? Are they doing a business proposal for the yard games?

Dr. Andy 35:34

Like what does that look like for your class with like that yard game aspect or tailgate game aspect what was funny was that one that one was a relatively new addition to it but we brought that into the entrepreneurial part of it and it was a it really was to get the grade on it it was what did you find? So I immediately took cornhall off the table the original cornhole said I'll tell you that was too easy you can't have it I have it. And so then it was what could they find as a variation? And then they did do the breakdown from a cost standpoint from a space standpoint because some of these games are are great. You mentioned can jam but I need a little bit of room to play that versus how much room do you get with your tailgate. So we began to look at all those different aspects that they had to address not just here I have this game let's play cost the game that was involved I have a good friend up in North Carolina he has the coin hole where you bounce the coin into a small basement perfect but Jackson does that and Jackson had actually come to class uh with us before and uh sent down games so we could play so we we put all those pieces together so it it challenged them again to look yes the games are fun that was the fun aspect of it but then to start breakdown the game you know is this affordable can it be customized for the game cocks right yeah all those things became a factor in their analysis of the the viability of that product then for them to create one same thing you've got to convince me of the business plan will this really work and it's always it was always fun to see what they come up with.

Luke 37:22

No doubt I I would love to see some of those unique things that they came up with um I know like Pen Penn State actually did something similar with that and they and they sent me the uh the content on there to to check out what their students were making in yard games world so I was like that's kind of cool that's kind of cool absolutely so all right so with that being said being that we're game cot fans over here if you could tailgate with any current or past game cot player who would it be and why who would it be and why well I have to you know Steven Garcia is a makes me laugh so I'd have to say Steven you have to come join me again buddy I he'd be funny to be around on top being a phenomenal player I don't think it's all the credit for being how good he really was uh he was number one Alabama that night that was epic oh absolutely he was a great player you're gonna laugh I think I'd have to bring Coach Burrier out there with me just because he's hilarious.

Can people take the class? Right now — honors college only

Future possibility of online/open section

Dr. Andy 38:38

So you wouldn't have to once you get Steve rolling you wouldn't have to tell any more stories. He's just funny but there's been a there's been a lot of them though but I think those two would make it funny and if you put those two together at the same tailgate just their interaction you could just sit and watch the whole time if you wanted we could do a show on that I'd love to be a part of it yes oh good stuff.

Outro

Luke 39:04

All right well Andy tell us like can can people if they've been listening to this they're like you know what A I'd love to tailgate with Andy I'm sure you can find at University of South Carolina and B, if they wanted to actually somebody want to take this class like could they do it remotely or is this all in person, all honors college like it's gonna be pretty hard for anybody outside the school to get into this is that tell me tell me if I mess any of that up well right now no it right now it is only through the honors colleges only through the seminars is not on the books this year as I'm off gallivanting the world a little bit but there has been we have talked in the past about offering it as an open section and making it to where you could attend uh virtually so in in the future I think that could happen. We would love to be able to reach out and share the knowledge with everybody and anybody let them have some fun hey Andy one day maybe you and I put on a tailgating seminar and get out there we we preach from the parking lot hey I that would be perfect absolutely perfect for us to do that sometime I think it'd be great oh man I'm I am all for it even if it's just a one time thing to have a little bit of fun like being able to to learn from the doctor in case you haven't said that of tailgating over here I still get like I still think that's like so cool. It's so cool what you were able to do with all of this and be able to like spread some of that knowledge and passion you have for tailgating and and taking it deeper right the business aspect of of our our young folks of South Carolina of how they can take it out and do something bigger with this too. And I think it's awesome too that University of South Carolina is the first university to do something focused on tailgating as an honors class. That's right absolutely excellent well Andy thank you so much for joining us this evening we appreciate you getting up at 2 a.m to hang out with us on the Tailgate Connect podcast appreciate you literally dropping some knowledge for all of us that listen to the end of the show today. So thank you for being here thank you to our listeners for hanging out with us for the entire time with a doctor of tailgating and a guy that's still training to try to be a doctor of tailgating one day.

Dr. Andy 41:24

Appreciate you being here hope to see you at a tailgate soon have a good one everybody tailgating for you drinking friends