Northwestern University Athletics
Nate Tackles Dallas: A Nate Williams' Bowl Blog Entry I
12/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 29, 2010
Nate Tackles Dallas: A Nate Williams' Bowl Blog
Entry One
Happy Holidays from the Wildcat family, hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season as my teammates and I prepare for our New Year's Day bowl against Texas Tech. Everyone on the team was able to go home for the holidays and enjoy Christmas with their families and friends. My brother Quentin, Jeravin Matthews, and I (all Pittsburgh natives) were able to get back to the Steel City, luckily for us we drove. I say luckily, because nearly all of our east coast teammates had to fly home and were crushed with inclement weather as a few had to miss our Sunday report date, and even practice on Monday due to all the delays and cancellations. However, they weren't quite lucky and fortunate enough to miss the "exciting" Monday migration down to Dallas which I'll highlight later.
| Nate Tackles Dallas Bowl Blog |
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• Dec. 28, 2010:
Entry One • Dec. 29, 2010:
Entry Two • Dec. 30, 2010:
Entry Three |
Upon arrival to "The Palace" (the classy establishment we call home in Evanston), it was obvious we missed some pretty heavy snow. Brian Arnfelt had the genius idea to leave his car in our back yard parking spot over break, and as we passed through the alley way we saw nothing but a car sized snow mound with a few streaks of his pearly blue Saturn sticking out, needless to say "Arnie" had some trouble getting it out. When my brother and I walked into the house we were welcomed by our roommates, Dan "topcat" Persa, Jack "the manager" DiNardo, and Andrew the "duckmeyer" Struckmeyer. We all shared our stories from home and went into the awesome gifts we received over break. Dan and Struck both got a new pair of Timberland boots which should now make Dan a true 6-footer, and Jack got season one of the Sopranos on DVD and a new track sweat suit to watch them in. My awesome father got my brother and I Steelers tickets to their game against Carolina (which we obviously won). Shortly after we found ourselves in the team room at the stadium gearing up for our final week of preparation for Texas Tech. After meetings were over, we all went back to our homes to pack up for our "3:15" departure to the fair weather city of Dallas.
Monday morning we get back into the swing of things as we started our first practice of the week before we departed for Dallas. Practice went well for our first practice since the break but we still had a some things to polish up, fortunately we still have time to do so. Post practice we all packed up for our "3:15" departure time. As most of the guys got their gear loaded up, we got the great news that our flight is delayed and wouldn't be leaving until 4:45. So to make the best of the situation, we were able to watch film of the day's practice. Once we were done watching film we hung around a little longer, got dressed in our Sunday best, and eventually got on the bus. We arrive to the front airport gate only to wait a half hour just to get cleared to have the buses come in, go through security, get back on the bus to go to our plane, only problem..... STILL no plane. Apparently our charter plane got caught up in Jacksonville, so we waited a little while more. By now everyone is getting a bit restless, were doing nothing but sitting on a bus in suits for what seemed like eternity and to make things worse, we haven't eaten in hours. After about another hour, we finally make our way to the plane. Thankfully so, because apparently if it was any later we would turn the buses around and return to the winter wonderland in Evanston. Once we took our first step onto the plane our luck seemed to have reversed itself, as my fellow seniors, starters and I stare in awe of the first class seats we got to sit in. Complete with fully adjustable reclining seats with lumbar support, footrests, personal TVs with movies on demand, and adjustable reading lights for our nerds to make use of. Cameras and phones were at hand to capture the luxury we get to experience for the two hour flight.
Once we land in Dallas it was already 11 p.m., and we did not arrive at our hotel until midnight. Once we arrived at the classy host hotel in downtown Dallas, we are able to get our keys, a quick snack and a half hour later, our luggage. Everyone quickly scurried to their rooms to unpack and get to bed as our 7:50 a.m. team meeting quickly approached.
Meetings for Tuesday morning's practice began abruptly at 7:50 and everyone dragged themselves out of bed on six hours of sleep (at the most). We ran through meetings and headed to our practice site, Mesquite high school, home of the "Skeeters" (short for mosquitos). The facilities there were great and they even had luxury suites that rivaled Ryan Field. Once we got dressed we headed to the practice field and the weather was at a cool 45 degrees. We went through walk-throughs, and started to warm up, and as if getting delayed for hours upon end, and barely getting any sleep weren't enough, we were immediately hit with a downpour of rain. Some might say, "What a way to start off a bowl week" but enough was enough for the Wildcats. We stormed right back with a tremendous attitude and everyone was hyped up and had tons of fun soaking up all the rain as we started practice. The juice didn't run out until we left the soaking wet field and we had a great practice given the conditions. Post practice we had some good old country food catered in at the high school, chicken friend steak was on the menu. As we finished up we head out to the buses and departed from the home of the "Skeeters." I really want to get my hands on some Skeeter gear, maybe someone can hook that up.
We got back to the hotel only to have some more meetings. Once meetings adjourned everyone rushed back to their rooms to get some well needed and deserved rest. After a good nap, we got ready to go the House of Blues here in Dallas for our welcome party hosted by the bowl reps. We received tons of southern hospitality as we got to indulge in some Texas BBQ complete with brisket, bbq chicken, ribs, cornbread, coleslaw, beans, and sweet potato tater tots which were an interesting yet delicious addition. Everyone received their TicketCity bowl watches and Dallas' best wrist watch adjusters finely tailored them to our wrists. Before we left, our linebacker coach Randy Bates had to get our annual linebacker photo, and it is always a pain to get everyone together as of course Ben Johnson was no where to be found as he was walking around aimlessly trying to take in all of the House of Blues. We eventually headed back to the hotel as some guys enjoyed some R&R and a few others saw what the "fair weather" city of Dallas had to offer.
Drake Dunsmore and I enjoyed the amenities of the hotel as we enjoyed a romantic night for two in the hot tub on the roof top. Once I headed for my room, I heard a commotion coming from the room next door and ventured in only to find a few guys playing NBA 2k11 on Xbox, where Davon "Spaceman" Custis was getting worked over as Texas native Will Hampton was taking advantage of being back in the Lone Star state. I left at the half as Will had a healthy lead and the others were getting after Spaceman to hand over the sticks (controllers) after his dismal performance. After the long day, I headed back to the room to write this blog. Hope you all have enjoyed it thus far. Hope your continue to enjoy the holiday season and we are looking forward to seeing you in Dallas on New Year's Day. Until then... GO CATS!
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