OH I'm in love!!!
I did mine differently. I did use freshly rendered lard in the crust but I had played around with 'bacon' powder but didn't do that the night of my final. He missed a step by not putting candied bacon IN with the pecans in the filling and then topping it with candied bacon ice cream, bacon infused Jack Daniels hard sauce, and Traca's candied bacon toffee.
In hind sight, I think it needed a little chocolate - like a derby pie. When I did one sample run and drizzled it with chocolate, even that little bit really made it sing.