Meet the SC coach who survived the fantasy football Waffle House Challenge
On Jan. 12, an assistant high school football coach walked into a Waffle House in Lexington, South Carolina with an empty stomach and a long day ahead.
“Two waffles, please,” Tyler Renew told a waitress around 6:21 a.m.
That was his first order of the day. But far — very far — from his last.
Over the next 11 hours, Renew’s social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) read like the diary of a sea captain who realizes he’s leading a doomed Arctic mission.
7:54 a.m.: “3.5 waffles down. Hitting a wall.”
10:11 a.m.: “6 waffles down. Declining fast.”
12:20 p.m.: “Waffle 8. … Tastes like cardboard.”
Thirteen waffles and 5,300 calories later, though, he somehow finished the infamous “Waffle House Challenge” — and captured the attention of millions.
They’d followed online with varying levels of respect and disgust (and sometimes both) as the Columbia native posted his way through his end-of-year fantasy football “punishment” with a viral social media thread.
Renew’s punishment was ridiculous but straightforward enough. The person who finished with the fantasy league’s worst record had to spend 24 consecutive hours at a Waffle House (which, famously, is open 24/7). But each time they ate a waffle (a full waffle, not a partial), they’d reduce their overall stay time by one hour.
Renew, 30, remembers thinking over the summer that it sounded easy enough.
Now that he’s completed it, with nearly 15 million people keeping tabs?
“I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone else,” he told The State.
A lost season
Renew, of course, never expected to be in this position in the first place. A former all-state player at Ben Lippen High School in Columbia and an FCS All-American fullback at The Citadel, he’s a longtime fantasy player and takes his leagues seriously.
And his 2024 roster in “League of Legends” — the 10-team ESPN league that Renew plays in annually with some of his closest college friends — wasn’t exactly a disaster.
His lineup included Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, Ravens running back Derrick Henry, Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey and Cardinals tight end Trey McBride.
“I felt pretty dang good about what I came in with,” he said.
Henry was a star, finishing as ESPN’s No. 4 scoring running back. But injuries and inconsistencies throughout the rest of his lineup sank Renew’s season. He clinched the league’s worst record with two weeks to go and finished 3-11.
An honorable fantasy man, Renew was 100% committed to completing his Waffle House Challenge after clinching the punishment in early December.
Scheduling it was tougher.
Renew is a busy guy: He works full-time at an exercise equipment store, does morning shifts as a personal trainer and coaches tight ends at Hammond School in Columbia each fall. He and his wife, Julia, also have a 2-year-old daughter, Blakely.
But the stars aligned two weekends ago. Renew’s family had Sunday afternoon plans that fell through. Skip church, and Renew had a wide-open day.
“I’m gonna do my fantasy punishment tomorrow,” he told his wife on Saturday.
“I don’t think she actually thought it was gonna happen,” Renew said.
But the league’s ultimate loser was very serious, figuring that if you’re going to do the Waffle House Challenge – and risk a lifelong aversion to one of the world’s favorite breakfast foods in the process — you might as well do it spontaneously.
No research. No gameplan. Just vibes.
“Full send,” Renew said.
Man vs. 13 waffles
The next morning, Renew made the short drive from his house to the Waffle House at 289 Charter Oak Road in Lexington.
He clocked in his for punishment at 6:21 a.m. Sunday, on his walk into the restaurant, and started his morning off with two waffles and a polite warning:
“I’m gonna be spending a lot of time with you guys today.”
The first two waffles arrived at his booth looking delicious. He ate them with syrup and butter in 15 minutes, ordered two more and updated his progress on X around 6:50 a.m., to an audience of (at that point) just a couple hundred people:
“First two are sitting real heavy. This is going to be a long road ahead …”
The next 11 hours were a learning experience, to put it lightly.
Some takeaways from a Waffle House Challenge survivor:
Don’t be afraid to use syrup and butter — in moderation. Renew did this for his first six to seven waffles, predicting (correctly) that he might as well mix up the flavor profile early. Alas, “every bite” still started tasting like of cardboard around noon. He compared it to gorging Halloween candy as a kid: “lt looks gross. It smells gross. You can hardly stand it. You kind of hit this insulin wall.”
Bring something else to do: A book, a magazine, a portable charger, a laptop for streaming. Renew walked into Waffle House with nothing besides his cell phone and quickly realized his options were twiddling his thumbs, people-watching and eating waffles. This prompted him to declare he was on the verge of “death by boredom” at 7:54 a.m., about 90 minutes into his 11-hour stay.
Get some fresh air. Impressively, Renew did not throw up at any point during or after the challenge — although there were two or three “scares” where he felt like vomiting, he said. Per the challenge’s rules, Renew was allowed to step outside as long as he didn’t leave the premises. He ended up taking 10 laps around the building to escape the overwhelming smell of breakfast food.
Embrace the madness. Along with updating his progress on X, Renew entertained himself by keeping “stats” from his stay: How many customers walked in, how many coffees he drank, how many screaming toddlers he heard. Friends and family also played their part. One of Renew’s buddies dropped in after making a grocery run at the nearby Publix, and Renew’s wife, daughter and in-laws met up with him for breakfast before church. Their reactions, he joked, ranged from “highly impressed to highly disappointed I was actually going through with it.”
Never again
Late in the afternoon, Renew finally started to see some light at the end of the tunnel. At that point, he’d been in the restaurant for eight hours, and he’d worked through nine full waffles — cutting his departure time to 9:21 p.m. Sunday night.
“If I can get two or three more down …”
From 2 to 4 p.m., he trudged through two more waffles, his 10th and 11th. His departure time was now 7:21 p.m. Then Renew’s wife texted him: Their daughter was “off-the-walls energetic,” she said. She needed him home as soon as possible.
He kicked it into high gear on Waffle No. 12 and had his 13th and final waffle on his plate by 4:30 p.m. Finish that one, and he was back home at 5:21 p.m.
“I may lose all of it, but I’m going all or nothing at this point,” Renew wrote online.
He dug deep and took his last bite of his last waffle at 5:09 p.m., filming the moment and posting it in his thread to celebrate. He walked out 11 minutes later, exhausted.
Renew spent the rest of the night playing outside with his daughter and relaxing at home with his wife, trying to think about anything but waffles.
As the night went on, though, his phone kept buzzing. His social media thread was spiking – much, much more than anything else he’s ever posted.
As he fell asleep overnight Sunday, 1 million people had viewed Renew’s Waffle House Challenge journey. By the time he woke up the next morning, it had jumped to 10 million. The thread topped out around 15 million views.
Some were impressed. Some were underwhelmed. Everyone was entertained.
Renew, funny enough, had another viral moment 10 years ago when he scored the game-winning touchdown in The Citadel football team’s upset win against South Carolina in 2015 — the only time this century USC has lost to an FCS team.
“I think this time is bigger than that, to be honest with you,” he said, laughing.
The final cost of Renew’s Waffle House Challenge? A $90 bill, including a big tip for the staff. Roughly 5,300 calories, enough to trigger a three-day water fast (that lasted from Monday to Wednesday of last week). A lot of laughs.
And a promise to himself — and everyone who relished in his misery.
“I’ll never lose fantasy football again,” he wrote.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 9:30 AM.
