Four Guys on a Mission in the Name of College Football

College football replaces fall as one of the four seasons in the South, and four guys from Washington are fixated on traveling across the country as often as possible for some coveted SEC football and tailgating experiences.

Jeremy Joseph, Justin Turner, Marty Dawood and Kyle Wall went to small universities nowhere near SEC country with less than 3,000 students and little athletics.
A few years ago, the CFB guys (as they call themselves) went to visit an acquaintance of an acquaintance who was an Auburn University alum. He and his family invited the four northwesterners into their home and treated them to true Southern hospitality: they went on campus tours, enjoyed homemade dinners and made it to a real football game.
“Honestly, I can’t even remember who won that game,” Joseph said. “I don’t remember the game, but I remember everything else around the game — before and after, all the people we ran into, the tailgating, the Tiger Walk, all the traditions and things behind the game is what stuck.” Since then, the four have visited Tennessee and LSU in the SEC as well as Oregon, USC, Washington State. But two weeks ago, the guys made it to the Holy Grail of SEC tailgating for Alabama at Ole Miss.
“We’re big college football fans, so we had known that Ole Miss had good recruiting, we had known the teams should be good, and Alabama, of course, is always decent at the minimum, so we figured this could be a really good game,” Joseph said. “We’d never been to Oxford, we hear it’s the place to go but we didn’t know one person. We knew nothing.”
Before the trip, they sent one a small tweet asking for suggestions of things to do and see while in Oxford for the week. Rebel nation came out in droves, offering cell phone numbers for contacts they’d never met and personal tours around town and campus from Ole Miss and Oxford natives.

The CFB guys made some athletics department contacts via Twitter and were given a golf cart tour of the campus as well as the football practice facility and met athletics director Ross Bjork.
Originally, the plan was to bring a videographer along for the Alabama weekend, but that fell through last minute. The boys still took the trek and discovered a new world in Ole Miss tailgating that many back home still don’t believe to be true.
“I’ve been telling people, if we had all sat around the table before we left, all four of us, and said let’s throw out our wildest ideas of things we wish could happen to us while we’re in Oxford this weekend,” Joseph said. “After that, if we had gone over that list, we would have blown those ideas out of the water.”
Though many of the stories from past school visits focus mostly on the tailgating and experience, but when Ole Miss thumped Alabama 23-17 at home to continue their undefeated streak and end the Crimson Tide’s, the game became an integral part of the memory.
They snagged tickets on row 10 near the 30-yard line and watched the game as if they were already Rebel fans. As Senquez Golson’s interception becomes official, they looked at each other and knew what was coming.
“We see the students pour over, and we’re like ‘We’re rushing the field — this is a less than a once in a lifetime opportunity,’” Joseph said. “If our goal is to experience it like a student or a true fan does, we did it as much as we possibly could. We’ve been to a lot of places, and no one can touch Oxford.”
They partied on the field with the fans, they helped hoist the goal posts out of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and they were treated to a true Rebel celebration.

Upon returning home, the regret immediately sank in about their lack of videographer to capture all of the beautiful chaos in Oxford. A friend recommended Kickstarter, a website where users can fundraise for private projects like indie films, video games and new business ventures, and their followers encouraged their return.
So far, the group has raised about half of the $3,500 needed to bring a videographer along plus cover production costs after shooting. The group is working hard to scrape up enough money for plane tickets, lodging and other expenses to return for the Auburn game Nov. 1.
“The response is there, we have more than 800 followers now, but we’re not seeing a huge flood of money since the launch,” Joseph said. “We know when you want to see a show on TV, you don’t personally pay for that to happen, so we get it. In my gut, I still have hope that we’ll make our goal.”
Joseph said the goal of the project is to make a documentary that truly showcases the beauty of SEC tailgating and the Grove and hopefully find an avenue to be broadcast on national television.
Until their goal is met, the CFB guys will continue to tell anyone who will listen about their unfathomable trip to Oxford while searching for a team to claim.
“We joke about how maybe we were born in the wrong region. We love this, and we eat it up,” Joseph said. “And it’s not just Washington — the entire Pac12 is not even close to the same as far as hospitality and even knowledge of the game. We want to show people what the SEC and Oxford and everyone else has to offer.”

To donate to their project and bring four of the most dedicated college football followers in the country back to Oxford for the Auburn game, visit their Kickstarter page.
Amelia Camurati is managing editor of HottyToddy.com and can be reached at amelia.camurati@hottytoddy.com.