The smiles on the kids' faces, to have literally thousands of people cheering for them, it's just really exciting. It's just a great thing.

This was one of the hardest races of the whole year because of the wind. There was no easy part to it. Last year there was 75-degree weather for the road race, with no wind, and it was hot.

It will be the first big race where the two teams are head to head.

I think this is such a cool opportunity for our kids. How many people are able to say they worked with NASA engineers while they were still in high school?

This definitely was a nice atmosphere, but I told my wife and our kids that it's hard for me to get overly excited about a Jan. 10th game. I don't want to say this game is meaningless because it definitely isn't. But it is what it is. It's Jan. 10th and no championships are won or lost on Jan. 10.

We gave up a big touchdown in the second half, uncontested almost. From that, our kids could have folded up but we came back and played hard.