aXis August UCF cover shoot

This is the picture selected for the cover

This is the behind the scenes of the photo shoot.

Every year aXis Magazine does a UCF edition and it's their most popular issue. This years will probably be the biggest one due to Shanna Marie McLaughlin, UCF Knight and July 2010 Playboy Playmate. being on the cover. Also because of the behind the scenes video.

Here is what the local media thinks of the video that was done in the UCF locker room. Click HERE to view the WKMG video.

What do you think of the cover and the video? Let me know in the comments section, Facebook or twitter (@UCFBiggie). Feel free to ReTweet or share with others.

Kirk! Kirk! Kirk!

Today was a very sad day for me. When I started at UCF there was one coach that I bonded with the most and he has been with me throughout my life as a UCF fan. Kirk Speraw is a great man/great coach and I will truly miss him. Coaches have come and gone but Kirk has been there. AD's have tried to get rid of him in order to bring in their guy in and yet he survived it all. Heck we started Kirk's Jerks because we all loved Kirk and we wanted to cheer him and the Knight on.

I do not think it is fair what has happened with him and was fired unfairly. He has been a winner and his coaching peers all believe that. With the "resources" he was given he did some impressive things. However it is the end of an era and UCF's All Time Winningest Basketball Coach is gone. Keith Terrible will finally be bringing in "His Guy." His guy will be no Kirk. Kirk! Kirk! Kirk! Will miss you Kirk!

Would you get a tattoo of your favorite team?

I have pondered this many times- However I am not sure what I would get- obviously it would be a UCF tattoo- just not sure what UCF tattoo and where I would put it.

Would you get a tattoo of your favorite team and if so what team and where is it? If you have one- same question.

UCF vs Memphis

Final Score-  Tough loss for the Kirk and the Knights.

Met with Coach Calipari (not a good pic of me)

With former NBA'er Rod Strickland

The crazy scene at the UCF/Memphis game. Knights leading at halftime. Go Knights! on 12seconds.tv
The scene @ Halftime.

It was a tough loss for the Knights.  But man what a great atmosphere.  We have over 9K fans.  Everyone actually wore black to a BLACK OUT.  It had a feeling like we were playing at an NCAA opening round.  

In the end we just don't have the depth that Memphis has.  They turned it on and we could not keep up the output.  If we play with that level of intensity- we will do very well in conference play.

Check out the Jerk Twitter Game report.  Click Here 

Youtube dancing

Check out Tiny Baby Jerk dancing it up-  Amazing how such a small baby gets your attention and my dumb dancing does everything to distract you but you cannot stop staring at the little guy.

The life of a UCF fan

Last night was a tough loss for the Knights.  I get so frustrated with how we find ways to kind of look good (lights out Defense) in the 1st half and little by little the team sucks you in thinking that we will win and that the things will click into place.  However every 2nd half the other team makes the adjustments and we with our anemic offense die the slow death.  

It is really hard to swallow the UCF Kool Aid.  I would love to think that we will go to a Bowl game and we were done with the roller-coaster ride we go on every year.  I thought that after going on a 17 losing streak we exorcised the demons and were starting turn the corner. That the sleeping giant was starting to grow up.

As a fan you get tired of  being the one that has the losing team week after week.  I feel like UCF is more a Pretender then a Contender.  We do well and then crap the bed the next year.  I have been following the Knights for many years (since '94) and I have had more heart ache then joy because of them.  Yet I cannot turn my back on them.  I am emotionally, financially invested in them.  

I sometimes feel as if I am in an abusive relationship or I am a sport fan masochist and I like having UCF hurt me.  I do not know why I care so much about them but I do.  I am a Knight, my wife is a Knight and I love UCF.  I bleed Black and Gold.

I have gotten better with age and UCF losses.  It use to mess up my entire weekend and it would consume me.  Now I realize I have a wonderful family and a awesome wife and baby girl.

However it still bothers me and it still sucks.  

So lets see what this week brings.  

I remember George O'Leary saying that every time he lost he would die a little inside.  If that was the case he would be dead already being the coach @ UCF.

So who wants some UCF Kool Aid? 

UCF vs SMU hightlights

Watch CBS Videos Online

BELIEVE

I wanted someone to improve my UCF picture and I asked a fellow Knight to work his magic. If you want me it email me or leave a comment and I can send you the larger version of it for your wallpaper let me know. Thanks Chris Mesa aka Table Knight!

I think its a great reminder that the season is not over and we have a chance!! BELIEVE!!

Were Back!!!

UCF is back on the list no College Football team wants to be on. ESPN's Bottom 10. This is what they have to say about us:
"Sure, the Knights are 1-3. Sure, they lost 58-3 at former Bottom 10 member UTEP. How are the Knights lucky? Well, they are only 37 miles from Disney World."

The positive in all this is we are playing a team that ESPN Bottom Ten Waiting List this week- SMU.

So I will not lie and say i am not frustrated and upset with how we are playing. However I do know that we lost our Senior QB, our NFL RB (Kevin Smith), and our Lunch Pale go to work Offense and Defensive line. So that is hard to replace.

I do not expect to repeat as Conference Champ but I did expect a Bowl game this year and at least 7 wins.

So I have made this image below to help me keep the faith. We are only 4 games into the season with a 1/3 of the way left. So I am going to wait and see and most of all BELIEVE that we will figure out a way to win some games. Maybe they will open up the offense?

It is not Knight Time on my Birthday!

My birthday is Sept 20th and being a big UCF fan. You can see below that the Knights have not been very kind to me on my birthday or in the weekend of my birthday. Lets hope the Knights will begin to turn around for me. Since it looks like the Boston College game will not be a gimme game for the Knights who are 10.5 point underdogs in Boston.

So if you want to wish me a Happy Birthday- Give a good luck wish to my Knights. Not that if they lose they will spoil my Birthday, but it will totally make that much better!


Sep 17, 1994 vs Bethune Cookman W 48-17
Sep 23, 1995 @ Florida State (#1) L 46-14
Sep 21, 1996 @ Ball State L 31-10
Sep 20, 1997 vs Idaho W 41-10
Sep 19, 1998 @ Purdue L 35-7
Sep 18, 1999 @ GEORGIA TECH(#12) L 41-10
Sep 23, 2000 vs William and Mary W 52-7
Sep 22, 2001 @ Tulane W 24-7
Sep 20, 2002 @ Marshall L 26-20
Sep 20, 2003 vs Syracuse L 38-14
Sep 18, 2004 @ Penn St L 37-13
sep 17, 2005 @ USF L 31-14
Sep 16, 2006 vs USF L 24-17
Sep 22, 2007 vs Memphis W 56-20
Sep 20, 2008 @ Boston College ?

Go Knights!

Saturday Knight

I figure I 'd post since it has been awhile. I know I have been posting about Bella- but I figured I would write about my Saturday. Thanks to Kristen for letting me enjoy tailgating and UCF football!

Of course it was a hot day! This season has been different for me since Bella's arrival and I am not Mr. Tailgate with getting everything and planning and setting the tailgates up. The cool thing is our tailgate crew is great and we have fun together.

I should have known that our Survivor Flip Cup game would be very similar to the football game vs USF. How was it similar? We played a team that has beaten us consistently. We started off strong and then it looked like it would be over and we surged back and in the end we still found a way to loss.

Survivor flip cup is a great version of Flip Cup- the winning team kicks off a member of the losing team so they are now one man short. You do that until you take out the entire team. The hard part for the losing team is that the person has to drink more times to make up for the losses. For Team Motorboat- I was the lone person left and knocked off 4 members of Team Boobs (Yes it guys vs girls).

In the end I fell short and it sucks. Just like the UCF game.

Now to the game: I am still not sure what team we will have this year. I know we have lost some key members of the offense- Kevin Smith and the senior leadership of Kyle Israel. Also some member of the Offensive and Defensive Line.

Mike Greco was starting in his 2nd game of his career and we have 4 Freshmen RB running the rock. The positives of this year is that our Defense is solid and Defense wins championships.

I have said it before and I will continue to say it- I am UCF addict. I drink the Kool Aid and just when I am spent and done- UCF brings m back again. I had no expectations for the UCF/USF game. After the previous 3 games I was like- I want to beat them bad- but we probably won't.

I was pretty even keel with a few criticisms of the team for most of the game and thought it would be over- We are down 24-10 and its like 4 minutes left in the 4th. I actually considered to leave early. Then Bruce Miller gets an interception and our offense scores a touchdown and then the D stops them again and we score again- We are now tied and all hell break loose!

Going into OT- all i am thinking about is that it has to be our moment. 0-17 vs ranked teams and we are on a 7 game win streak- I am basically BELIEVING that we are going to win. We are due.

Well I was wrong and it stinks. It is not as painful for me as when I was younger- it use to mess up my weekend when the Knights lost (yes I had many bad weekends). It still hurts since you want something you love to win and be successful. No one likes a loser.

I think the Bella will be good for me- UCF won't cause me to have a heart attack or broken heart. Since in the end its a just a game.   I will continue to support the Knights and hope that I get to see them when they break through and "wake up".  I will forever bleed Black and Gold!

I think the bye week is good for the fans and bad for the team. I think if we played BC and Coach O'Leary could use that pain to be successful.

Based on the short UCF/USF history- the years that we play USF close- wWe are not as good as the years we get the doors blown off. Those years we win the conference and go Bowling! Of course the next time UCF plays will be my Birthday! So lets see if my Knights give me a BCS win or I should expect the usual gift on my birthday!

24k to the Detroit Lions!

Congrats to former UCF RB getting drafted with the 1st pick of the 3rd round to the Detroit Lions.

Best of luck to him.  UCF is getting sprinkled around the NFL.  We will be watching.

Rest in Peace: Ereck Plancher

Today is a sad day to be a Knight. Ereck Plancher was a Freshman wide receiver and he passed away during conditioning drills today.  He was a 19 year old from Naples.  What a sad day.  My heart goes out to his family, friends, teammates and the rest of the Knight Nation.  Rest in Peace Ereck.  Once a Knight, Always a Knight.

Vote for Knightro!!!!

EA is letting fans decide which college football mascot will be on the cover of NCAA Football '09 on the Wii - the first of the franchise to appear on the Nintendo system.

To vote, go to ncaafootball09.com
Click on the big VOTE NOW button on the right.
Click Conference USA
Click Knightro

How amazing to see Knightro on the cover for a video game.  Keep voting.  It ends on March 14th!  So Vote!!!

UCF Fan Appreciation video

Watch the video and see if you recognize anyone?

AWESOME!!!!!

Liberty Bowl Memphis!

Here are all the pictures from the trip!



Click HERE to see the album.

Want to see the Graceland Album? Click HERE

Memphis Day 3- The day after!

- Tony flew 1st thing this morning and Gary drove to New Orleans.

- We woke up and TOMTOM lead us to the closest Blue Plate Cafe for breakfast. I am not a big breakfast person and I loved breakfast at this place. Holy cow! They give you biscuits and gravy to start off while waiting on our breakfast. The gravy was so good that we started putting it on everything. I ordered the ham and cheese omlette with the side of pancakes. The pancakes had a little sweetness in the batter- It was great- Jason Lucas recommended this place and so did a few locals. I would go there again if we ever go back to Memphis. Very good.

- Day 1 with no Grizwald Gnomer- Zoe Gnomer was on her own adventure now.

- Next stop- Graceland! Graceland is a place you have to visit while in Memphis, but not a place I would visit again if we go back to Memphis. I am glad we did it- but by the time we left Graceland- I was Elvispent! No more Elvis- Thank Thank you very much!

- The funniest things about Graceland- you take your picture of a mural of the Graceland gates instead of the real thing and they short bus you over across the street to his go to his house.

- I will say you do get to see into the life of Elvis. I was 3 when he died so did not know much about him. We got to see his plane- the Lisa Marie; his motto/logo- TCB- Taking Care of Business in a flash! We saw his car collection and his rooms. He had a nice car collection and impressive room with all his platinum records and Movies. The man was a living legend.

- After that we went to something I had researched on RoadsideAmerica.com- We went to see the statue of Liberation- it is a 70ft replica of the statue of Liberty however instead of the torsh there is a cross. It is in the middle of big intersection and there stands Ms Liberty. We all thought they should have put the 10 commandments in her arm but it wasn't.

- If it couldn't get any stranger- I also found on the site that hear the Statue was a 20ft Buddha statue on someone s front lawn. So off we were looking for this interesting lawn ornament. When we got there I got out and had to take some pictures of it. I mean how would you like to be the neighbors and walk out and see this 20 ft Buddha outside everyday. It looked like they were building a temple out back. I was told by everyone in the van that as I got out of the car someone looked out the window from the house watching me. I was just on there sidewalk so I did not invade there space. At the same time you put something like that in your lawn - You are asking for spectators.

- After that we were ready to see more so we drove to see the University of Memphis. As we drove to see there campus we saw 3 people in medieval armour fighting each other and we decided we wanted a picture with them.

- I thought there were LARPERS -Live action role player- (Don't ask how I know that). They were not LARPERS but instead they were The Barony of the Grey niche and are a division of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Well since I wanted a photo with them I listened attentively and listen to the head guy tell me that they live the life of the middle ages and have unchoregraphed wars and it was about honor. It was interesting to see these people be so into it. They also told us that there are various Kingdoms across the state. At the end we got the picture with them and we found out that "DUCT TAPE was PERIOD!"

- From there we visited the Mississippi River and saw the Pyramid. We also crossed the bridge to Arkansas and then back to Tennessee.

- We ended up going back to Miss Polly's for dinner and say good bye to Charles. At Miss Pollys a majority of us had the Chicken and Waffles for dinner. John had to have the Pecan butter fried pie one last time. (I think I can recreate a healthy version of it).

- After dinner we headed back to the hotel and went online to see
Youtube videos of the SCA. Go check them out- fun stuff. We also found out that we all had Kingdoms in our hometowns.

- We finished packing and ready for bed- tomorrow we fly home.

Day 2 in Memphis!

- We had a good night sleep and were ready for GameDay!

- Bacon and Egg Microwavable biscuits @ the Faifield Inn. Good free breakfast as we waited for Gary and Tony to arrive from the airport.



- We went to Schnuks- the most backward ass supermarket in the most backward . Store layout was very odd. Nice staff. We decided to tailgate and not just show up to the game.

- Our original plans changed and we needed to needed to call and audible since we bought food to grill and had no grill! I talked my way into some UCF's fraternity that drove in and were grilling and got them to let me throw our burgers and dogs on the grill- No plates, napkins, table, or chairs. Just cold beer (no ice needed) and a bun to hold our burger and dogs. Nice kids- I ended up cooking the rest of their food for them.



- As we are walking in we ran into Pat Clarke and took a nice pic with him.



- It was pretty cold- cold enough to use- long johns, therma shirts- fleece jackets, knit caps. It was the coldest I ever seen the Knights play in and maybe watch a college football game in.



- The game was a slugfest with 2 teams defenses knocking each other off. Torres was off- Funny how he was from UMASS and the from NY and the Burrito missed some big kicks for us and the cold affected him.



- Kevin Smith did not break the record and Kyle did not have the game a senior QB finishing his career wanted to have - granted our receivers dropped some passes!

- After the game we headed Rendezvous to eat there famous Ribs. The wait was SOOOO long that the guys headed to Beale St and Joe and I got the Miss Pollys drink special- It was tasty and packed a punch.



- We headed back to Rendezvous and continued waiting. I think we waited close to 2+ hours for Ribs. It was good but not 2+ hours good. Kristen was done- We did meet some really nice MSU fans who were also waiting it out and we had some good conversation. Would not wait 2 hours for food again, but we were on Vacation.

- After that we decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep.

Memphis- Day 1

- Joe, Kristen and I flew Airtran to Memphis,TN

- We got to the airport early early and we saw all the UCF fans dressed in Black and Gold- It was awesome about 70% or more was flying to see the Knights play.

- We met some really nice people from the UCF Foundation and had a nice time talking with them.

- On the plane UCF fans were chanting Black- Gold and UCF! It was great.

- At one point on the trip- a girl walked up and down the aisle with a knight suit and the plane cheered. (I later came to find out that she was propositioned to wear the suit from these 3 UCF fans- one of them being Doug- who I went to UCF with and was a telecounselor with me- He was also the one to see me 1st drunk.

- Joe rented a 4 door sedan for the 3 of us, but when we got to the rental place- we had the choice of a pick up or a VW bug. Joe used his lawyer skills and we ended up with a Soccer Mom mini van- PERFECT for Memphis.

- One of the christmas gift we received was a TOMTOM and it was a lifesaver in Memphis. I had inputted all the important information for the trip. So we knew where the hotel was and some points of interest.

- It was cold in Memphis- granted almost everywhere is colder then Orlando.

- We got to the hotel and dropped our stuff off and headed to get some Memphis BBQ- We went to Germantown Commissary. (Thanks to Kristen's bosses husband for working at FedEx and recommending the place- it is AWESOME!) We waited for John and Heather to get there from DC. We had some great pulled pork sandwiches.

- We headed back to the hotel and then off to Beale St. Where we enjoyed walking and seeing a street full of Knight fans ready to celebrate. It reached a point that people were asking if we won already- I think we were just excited to be at a Bowl game and watching the Knights play one last time.

- Of course we bumped in to Kress- I call him the Mayor- everywhere Kristen and I go- he is there- with a bunch of people.

- We went to BB Kings and had a few beers and listened to Z'da she was great singing and enterntaining the crowd and having little contests with MSU and UCF fans- Can't get the song- "bend over and let me see you shake your tailfeather!" out of my head.

- After that since our group are not big drinkers we walked around and went to Miss Polly's Soul Food cafe for dessert- We were greated by Charles- He is awesome!- He was dressed to impress in a 3 piece suit, fur coat and fedora hat. Man was awesome- he sat us and recommended the buttered fried pie- the 5 of us tried the Pecan, Peach, Apple, Blueberry pie a la mode. Heather had a float. The pies were so good and each came in an iron skillet with vanilla ice cream- O my was it good!!!

- We decided it was time to head to the hotel and get some rest and get ready for the game. Good 1st day lets see what happens tomorrow.