SFN Barbecue – The Choice of Mario Williams & Willie Young! (updated 4/19)

General19

The results are in. The pig cooked by the StateFans Nation Barbecue Team was chosen as the favorite of celebrity judges Mario Williams and Willie Young in a blind taste test at the first-annual Wolfpack BBQ Bowl! And, I just received in the mail the results for all the teams. We placed FOURTH out of 25 teams in the official competition and were only 14 points out of third place! From the outset, our goal was to represent the Statefans Nation readership in a positive manner, spread goodwill about our online community and cook up some amazing ‘cue. I’d say we easily accomplished our goals.

The banner is unfurled.

From the moment on Friday afternoon when we put up the Statefans Nation banner on our canopy, we had folks coming by to say hi. There was plenty of Wolfpack fellowship to be had as the 25 competing teams set up camp in the RV parking lot at Carter-Finley. The piggies were given to each team starting at 8pm.  Once we gave our piggy a loving bath in olive oil and kosher salt and then injected him with the secret sauce, it was time to go slow and low.

Piggy gets a bath

Time and heat do wondrous things to a piece of pork. After cooking for 11 hours at about 225 degrees, we reached pork nirvana.

Don't You Wish Your Piggy Was Hot Like Me?

And then it was time to let the pork speak for itself. There were actually two competitions. The first was the NC Pork Council sanctioned cookoff. While the StateFans Nation Barbecue Team did not place in the Top 3, we learned that the top score was 1400, the low score was 1000 and our score was 1296. The judges didn’t list placements outside the Top 3, but based on that scoring, you had to figure we were near the top. That’s not too bad for a first time competing!

The second competition was a blind taste test of celebrity judges Mario Williams, Willie Young, Jay Jennings and Julius Hodge. We would not be denied glory and were chosen as favorites by both Mario and Willie – the only team to win over two different judges! Here’s the closest thing we get to a “trophy” for StateFans Nation;

The designation as Mario and Willie’s favorite turned out to be quite a good marketing hook and once it was time to serve the public our samples, we ran out of ‘cue very quickly. We gave so much away that the team members had less than a pound apiece to bring home for ourselves! I guess that’s the price of success.

Besides the fun of spending the entire evening with my teammates, it was really nice to meet many of you in person.  We always knew that Statefans Nation was a special community and putting faces to keyboards confirms that we were right. Our readers are the best!

It’s not everyday that you have two NFL players avow their love for your barbecue, but I’m already planning for next year to win over the NC Pork Council judges!

Thanks to the management of StateFans Nation for sponsoring our team and thanks to you, the readers, for showing your support.

 

About SMD

SMD graduated from NC State at a time when beating UNC-CH in both major revenue sports was a regular occurrence. This was well before a time when I could express my frustrated attempts at being a writer on the "internets." When I'm not talking about the Pack, I'm probably arguing politics.

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19 Responses to SFN Barbecue – The Choice of Mario Williams & Willie Young! (updated 4/19)

  1. kool k 04/17/2011 at 1:55 PM #

    Didn’t they say injecting was illegal?

  2. SMD 04/17/2011 at 2:03 PM #

    Nope. The lady from NC Pork Council said not to do it, but never that it was “illegal” and the official rules did not list that. She said she’d have no way of knowing if you did, but that if you won and went to the state championship, they’d know. Once we heard that, not really thinking we’d win anyway, we decided to still inject. I really just wanted to make good ‘cue rather than whatever might be technically correct. And more than a few of the other teams I talked to did the same thing.

  3. kool k 04/17/2011 at 2:15 PM #

    Damn. I feel like Les Robinson for no reason. Kudos on the celebrity award. That was a fun experience. There was a 5th celebrity judge that picked the guys with the flat bed set up. Who was he?

  4. tjfoose1 04/17/2011 at 2:19 PM #

    Missed my first Spring game in years due to weather concerns and other responsibilities, but thanks to SFN for their efforts and fellowship.

    Prayers and best wishes to those affected by the weather. I was lucky, just lost power for a few hours and cable for a day.

  5. VaWolf82 04/17/2011 at 5:23 PM #

    Congrats on the good results for your first time out. I wish that I could have been there, but work has me far, far away.

  6. packalum44 04/17/2011 at 8:34 PM #

    Mario and Willie, two of my favorites. Bet those boys could put a hurting on a hog. Wish I could have been there to try some good ole’ pork BBQ. I am in TX and just ate at Salt Lick BBQ – famous joint south of Austin, was on Man Vs. Food.

    Very delicious no doubt, and honestly, it was the best BBQ SAUCE I have ever put to my lips. But smoked beef brisket is simply not BBQ where I come from (Wilson). Nothing better in the world than a vinegar based sauce doused over finely chopped pork coupled with Brunswick stew.

    Good job fellas, and never take the Q for granted. Those of us living elsewhere miss the hell out of it.

  7. GAWolf 04/17/2011 at 8:45 PM #

    PGH?

    Congratulations, gentlemen!

  8. WolftownVA81 04/17/2011 at 8:54 PM #

    Wish we could have been there – sounds like it was a good time in spite of the weather. Moved our son into his first home this weekend so we’ll have to make up for it next year. Congrats the success your team enjoyed.

  9. ncsustash 04/17/2011 at 9:27 PM #

    By the time I got there at 11:30, there was no sauces left on the table, but Debbie Yow was passing out the boxes. Mine needed a little better sorting on the cutting table. About half was not meat. But it was an awesome event that will hopefully be a tradition going forward.

  10. SMD 04/17/2011 at 9:38 PM #

    Yeah, they started to run out of everything. I give the Wolfpack Club major kudos for putting on the event in the first place, but there were some logistical snafus like that to improve upon next time.

    Each team had two trays of our pork collected from us for serving the public line. It has to be hard to control quality and consistency with so many different sources of pork feeding the buffet line.

    I told the WPC in an email today that next year, they should just sell tasting tickets to go from booth to booth. That might work a little better.

  11. Wufpacker 04/18/2011 at 7:58 AM #

    Looking at those pics made my mouth water. What I wouldn’t give for a plate of NC BBQ, Brunswick Stew, slaw and cornbread (or even hushpuppies). Toss in some collard greens and I’d be in heaven.

    Out here in the desert southwest, such fare is hard to come by. A few years ago, an acquaintance who claimed to be from NC told me about a place out here that serves NC style BBQ. Much to my chagrin, but not to my surprise, it ended up being beef with BBQ sauce. *sigh*

  12. anti-smurf 04/18/2011 at 3:18 PM #

    Hate I missed that. I spoke with TC and he was keeping me up to date on what was happening. Weather concerns kept us away, otherwise we would have been there for sure!

    if you need a helping hand next year – let me know.

  13. Moox 04/18/2011 at 3:46 PM #

    So which one of you did I have the privilege of speaking to down at the Legislative Office Building earlier today?

  14. section2chuck 04/19/2011 at 2:22 PM #

    ^”I told the WPC in an email today that next year, they should just sell tasting tickets to go from booth to booth. That might work a little better.”

    I love that idea…Luckily for us we had some friends competing so we were able to get plenty of Pig to take home with us….thanks to my buddies from ‘Pig Sexy’….

  15. SandhillsWolf 04/22/2011 at 8:31 AM #

    weird…just realized that mario’s number is 90 (09 backwards) and willie’s is 79 (97 backwards)! WEIRD Y’ALL!

  16. highstick 04/22/2011 at 10:58 AM #

    “When we hongry, we eat NC State BBQ”!

    Sir Julius Hodge, 2011

  17. Cincinnati Wolf 04/22/2011 at 12:51 PM #

    It does appear that Willie has forgotten his jersey #.

  18. SandhillsWolf 04/22/2011 at 1:27 PM #

    ^sorry if i wasn’t more specific…the reversed numbers are their NFL numbers.

  19. DividedWeFall 04/22/2011 at 3:06 PM #

    (I know this doesn’t belong under this topic, however I am unable to start my own topic)

    Did anyone read the WRAL article (by Tim Hall) regarding the need for additional funding in order to be a top 25 program?

    Of course I agree that more money would definitely benefit all of our programs, but I don’t think that it is “necessary” in order to be a top 25 program. I know that we have a low endowment, but I don’t like this article one bit.

    This, along with the accusations of “search sabotage”, paints AD Yow as someone who is quick to find excuses. I think that Tim Hall “did it again” (see past articles on SFN that show how much bias he has against NCSU). I respect her way too much to not be disturbed by both incidents. BLAH

    ——-

    You can start a thread in the forums on the subject of your choice. In fact, we had two different threads (now consolidated into one) on this very subject today.
    VaWolf82

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