Rose Bowl

The Double Dog Dare

2006-09-25T07:11:00.000-07:00

Showdown.

It can be early in the year or late in the year, but eventually each team that is serious about a national championship or conference title will face the “make or break” game. One, two, or several games on everyone’s schedule will define their season to come or it can reside at the end of the year – a showdown waiting to happen.

Below is a list of teams, by conference, that will decide their fate, when and where. You could also double this list as my conference contenders.

Ohio State’s mea culpa is definitely in Austin, Texas on September 9. Win that game and the Buckeyes will stay #1 all year long to the National Championship Game in Phoenix, er Tempe, er Glendale. Michigan spreads things out, having one proving game a month, albeit all on the road. Michigan has Notre Dame on September 16, Penn State in October (14th), and Ohio State in November (18th). The Wolverines would have to prove themselves to be road warriors even to win their conference. For Lloyd Carr a win in one of these games might ease the pressure, but I would recommend that it’s Ohio State (see John Cooper). Iowa for me has their crucial test at home on September 16 against Iowa State. The Hawks are 2-3 against the Cyclones since 2001. Lose this game and Iowa could move themselves into a contender for implosion. Win and then they can think about Ohio State two weeks later. The Hawks also have a trip to Ann Arbor (Oct. 21) on the horizon, so I will believe the championship talk when I see it.

USC is the prime example of not one game that will define them but a whole string of games when put together form the hurdle that could derail the Trojans from even getting back to the BCS for a fourth straight year. The good part for SC fans is that it’s the last four games of the year. By then they will have the kinks worked out and should be at their top form. The question is whether the top form of what is left is good enough to run through Oregon (Nov. 11), Cal (Nov. 18), Notre Dame (Nov. 25), and then UCLA (Dec. 2) at the Rose Bowl. Each one of those teams will be well motivated due to last year’s results against the Trojans. For each of them it’s their game of the year. The other positive is three of four in L.A. for that stretch. All other programs in the Pac-10 will have their day against the Trojans. For the other nine it’s the only way for me to take you seriously.

Texas is two-fold. Beat Ohio State early in the season then the Oklahoma showdown is the last hurdle to getting back to the title game. A lot of prognosticators want to write off a team when replacing a quarterback, but I find it interesting when more people are writing off Texas than USC. Oklahoma is another likely title contender but the Sooner program is still reeling from the USC Orange Bowl loss. The natural inclination is to go with their annual Red River Shootout with Texas (Oct. 7) but Oklahoma also scheduled a game at Oregon (Sept. 16). Lose in Eugene in September and Oklahoma could have its fragile psyche crushed. For now, that is their game, then worry about Dallas. Nebraska is getting some play, but they’ll have to perform awfully well at USC (Sept. 16) for me to start believing. At Kansas State (Oct. 14) then home against Texas (Oct. 21) will be their chance to make a conference statement.

Louisville and West Virginia define each other’s seasons on November 2nd. True, Louisville plays Miami earlier in the year (Sept. 16), but even a loss to the Canes won’t affect the Cards’ BCS hopes. This game will decide your rep from the Big East, likely to the Orange Bowl.

Florida State and Miami also set the tone for each other on Labor Day. Winner keeps thinking national championship while the loser has their work cut out for them to get back to the ACC title game. (I still say it’s a shame that this game is played on Labor Day. I’ll have more on that another day.) Clemson has the two-step road bender in Boston (Sept. 9) and Tallahassee (Sept. 16). Win that and we’ll talk because after that it’s a trip to Blacksburg on a Thursday standing between them and being undefeated.

Mentioned before, Florida is setting the table for 2007. Their crucial game is either at Tennessee (Sept. 16), LSU at home (Oct. 7), at Auburn (Oct. 14), the Cocktail Party (Oct. 28), or at Florida State (Nov. 25). Take your pick. If this team were to somehow get to 12-0 then cue up ESPN because this would be the greatest team of all time. LSU could also enter the discussion having beat Auburn (Sept. 16), Florida (Oct. 7), Tennessee (Nov. 4), and Arkansas (Nov. 24) on the road if they’re undefeated. BCS-wise, Auburn and LSU will define each other. However, Auburn won’t prove anything to me until their 11-0. Alabama is their hardest road game and they would be undefeated headed to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 18th. Not good. Georgia always will have their prove it moment at the Cocktail Party on Oct. 28th. This year is no different.

Notre Dame has several turning points in their season, while any game can be considered huge for a national title run it’s the back-to-back games with Penn State (Sept. 9) and Michigan (Sept. 16) that will launch the Notre Dame title run. Win these two and then we Irish fans can start to begin thinking national championship.

2001 Miami Hurricanes "Greatest Team Ever"

2006-08-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

The 2001 Miami Hurricanes are considered one of the greatest teams in college football history, and some would argue the greatest.

In 2000, Miami was shut out of the Orange Bowl BCS National Championship Game by the BCS computers. Despite Miami beating Florida State head-to-head that season and being higher ranked in both human polls, it was Florida State, and not Miami, that BCS computers selected to challenge the Oklahoma Sooners for the National Championship (Oklahoma would win, 13-2). The experience led to alterations in the BCS rankings system to ensure that the situation would not repeat itself in the future. Nevertheless, Miami was left with a bitter sense of disappointment, believing they had been deprived of a national championship, and stewed over an early-season loss at Washington, 34-29, that was their only slipup in an 11-1 campaign. That off-season, the team resolved to take the matter entirely out of the discretion of the computers by going a perfect 12-0. However, they had to do so under a new head coach, Larry Coker, who was named to the post after Butch Davis left to become head coach of the NFL's Cleveland Browns.

University of Miami head coach Larry Coker hoisting the 2001 National Championship Trophy, Miami's 5th in a span of 18 years.Led by quarterback Ken Dorsey, running back Clinton Portis, free safety Ed Reed, tight end Jeremy Shockey, and offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie, Miami dominated the 2001 season from start to finish.

The Hurricanes began the season with a nationally televised primetime rout of Penn State in Beaver Stadium. After the Hurricanes put together a 30-0 halftime lead, coach Coker pulled his starters and Miami cruised in the second half to a 33-7 victory. The 26-point margin tied for Penn State's worst home loss under Joe Paterno. Miami followed up the victory with blowout wins over Rutgers, Pitt, and Troy State University. After building up a 4-0 record, the 'Canes defeated Florida State in Doak Campbell Stadium, 49-27, ending the Seminoles' 54-game home unbeaten streak and 37-game home winning streak. The 'Canes then defeated West Virginia, 45-3, and Temple, 38-0, before heading to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College.

Miami was put to the test against Boston College. After jumping out to a 9-0 lead over the Eagles, Miami's offense began to sputter as Dorsey struggled with the swirling winds, throwing four interceptions. The Hurricane defense picked up the slack by limiting BC to just seven points. However, in the final minute of the fourth quarter, with Miami clinging to a 12-7 lead, BC quarterback Brian St. Pierre led the Eagles from their own 30-yard line all the way down to the Hurricanes' 9. With BC on the verge of a momentous upset, St. Pierre attempted to pass to receiver Ryan Read at the Miami 2-yard line. However, the ball ricocheted off the leg of Miami cornerback Mike Rumph, landing in the hands of defensive end Matt Walters. Walters ran ten yards with the ball before teammate Ed Reed grabbed the ball out of his hands at around the Miami 20-yard line and raced the remaining 80-yards for a touchdown, icing an 18-7 victory for the Hurricanes.

After surviving the scare from Boston College, Miami played inspired and utterly dominating football, demolishing #14 Syracuse, 59-0, and #12 Washington, 65-7, in consecutive weeks. The combined 124-7 score is an NCAA record for largest margin of victory over consecutive ranked opponents.

The final hurdle to the Rose Bowl BCS National Championship Game was at Virginia Tech. Miami jumped on Virginia Tech, leading 20-3 at halftime, 23-10 after three, and 26-10 midway through the fourth quarter. Virginia Tech added a couple of late touchdowns, but it was not enough against a stiffling Hurricane defense and an offense that outgained Virginia Tech by 134 yards, gained 12 more first downs, and controlled the ball for nearly 10-minutes more than Hokies. Miami's 26-24 victory earned the top-ranked Hurricanes an invitation to the Rose Bowl to take on BCS #2 Nebraska for the national championship.

Nebraska proved to be no competition for Miami. Miami roared to a 34-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 37-14 rout of the Huskers to capture Miami's fifth national championship and put the finishing touches on a perfect 12-0 season. Dorsey passed for 362-yards and 3 touchdowns, while receiver Andre Johnson caught 7 passes for 199 yards and 2 touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Miami defense shut down Heisman-winner Eric Crouch and the Huskers offense, holding Nebraska 200-yards below its season average. Dorsey and Johnson were named Rose Bowl co-MVPs.

The 2001 Miami Hurricanes scored 512 (42.6 ppg) points while yielding only 117 (9.75 papg). The Hurricanes beat opponents by an average of 32.9 points per game, the largest margin in the school's history, and set the NCAA record for largest margin of victory over consecutive ranked teams (124-7). The offense set the school scoring record, while the stout defense led the nation in scoring defense (fewest points allowed), pass defense, and turnover margin. Additionally, the Hurricane D scored eight touchdowns of its own. Six players earned All-American status and six players were finalists for National Awards, including Maxwell Award winner, Ken Dorsey, and Outland Trophy winner, Bryant McKinnie. Dorsey was also a Heisman Finalist, finishing 3rd.

Among the numerous stars on the 2001 Miami squad were: Dorsey; running backs Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Najeh Davenport, and Frank Gore; tight end Jeremy Shockey; wide receiver Andre Johnson; tackles Bryant McKinnie and Joaquin Gonzalez; defensive linemen Jerome McDougle, William Joseph, and Vince Wilfork; linebackers Jonathan Vilma and D.J. Williams; and defensive backs Ed Reed, Mike Rumph, and Phillip Buchanon. Additional contributors included future stars Kellen Winslow II, Sean Taylor, Antrel Rolle, Vernon Carey, and Eric Winston. In all, an extraordinary 16 players from the 2001 Miami football team were drafted in the First-Round of the NFL Draft (5 in the 2002 NFL Draft: Buchannon, McKinnie, Reed, Rumph, and Shockey; 4 in 2003: Johnson, Joseph, McDougle, and McGahee; 6 in 2004: Carey, Taylor, Vilma, Wilfork, Williams, and Winslow; and 1 in 2005: Rolle).

The Scores From The Miami Hurricane's 2001 National Championship Season
9-1-01 at Penn State WON 33-7
9-8-01 RUTGERS WON 61-0
9-15-01 WASHINGTON** **postponed (due to 9/11)
9-27-01 at Pittsburgh (Thur.) WON 43-21
10-6-01 TROY STATE WON 38-7
10-13-01 at Florida State WON 49-27
10-25-01 WEST VIRGINIA (Thur.) WON 45-3
11-3-01 TEMPLE (HC) WON 38-0
11-10-01 at Boston College WON 18-7
11-17-01 SYRACUSE WON 59-0
11-24-01 WASHINGTON** WON 65-7
12-1-01 at Virginia Tech WON 26-24
ROSE BOWL @Pasadena, CA
1-3-02 Nebraska WON 37-14

Pac-10 Primer

2006-08-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

www.tucsoncitizen.com

There actually is a little room for debate.

USC has lost 11 starters, including the past two Heisman Trophy winners, so it has plenty of reloading to do after its last-minute loss to Texas in the national championship Rose Bowl.

This might be the time for the rest of the league to catch the Trojans.

But there is also little doubt that USC will be the anointed team to beat tomorrow when the Pac-10 conducts its annual media day in Los Angeles and announces the results of its preseason poll.

The race for the Pac-10 remains for second. It probably will be that way every year until coach Pete Carroll decides to return to the NFL.

The Citizen's John Moredich and Anthony Gimino each see California and Arizona State as the league's top challengers this season, but the Bears have a question at quarterback and the Sun Devils are still looking for a semblance of a defense.

The rest of the league is up for grabs.

With preseason coverage ready to kick off, here's a preview of some of the best and worst of the Pac-10.

Moredich's take

Offensive player of the year

California's Marshawn Lynch is good, but USC receiver Dwayne Jarrett scares the heck out of every defensive coach in the business, and rightly so. Jarrett caught 91 passes for 16 touchdowns last season. The chances of defending him one-on-one is as good as winning the lottery.

Defensive player of the year

USC junior defensive end Lawrence Jackson better prepare for double and triple teams trying to prevent him from getting into the backfield. Won't matter. Jackson will get there anyway. The proof is 16 sacks and 24 tackles for losses in two years.

Calling for Arizona isn't being a homer; it is just common sense. UA has 17 returning starters, an up-and-coming star quarterback in Willie Tuitama, and a stiff defense. It also helps that the bottom of the league isn't particularly scary.

Surprise team

Wrong time to give UCLA coach Karl Dorrell a contract extension. No Drew Olson, no Maurice Drew, no Marcedes Lewis, minus six key defensive starters . . . no chance of winning 10 games again.

Coach with a lot to prove

Washington coach Tyrone Willingham's military-type approach won't work, and he hasn't won over the fans.

Gimino's take

Offensive player of the year

Lynch is in line for a monster season. He averaged 8.8 yards per carry as a freshman backup and rushed for 124.6 yards per game last season. The plan is to get him more touches out wide in Cal's new spread offense, which would make him a lot like that Reggie Bush guy who used to be at USC.

Defensive player of the year

Gotta go with Jackson, too, even though CBs Daymeion Hughes (Cal) and Antoine Cason (Arizona) could be more valuable. But linemen and linebackers tend to win this award, and Jackson should be a force on a defense that should re-establish dominance.

Surprise team

Nothing is more valuable in the Pac-10 than a talented senior quarterback, and that's what Stanford has in Trent Edwards. His health is always an issue, but if he makes it through, the Cardinal won't be doomed to be last as many predictions indicate.

Coach with a lot to prove

Yes, the Bruins should take a step back this season, but their future looks good (although not exactly USC-good). The futures are cloudier for Washington, Washington State and Oregon State. And to think that the Northwest schools were the toast of the league just five years ago.

Easiest schedule

ASU coach Dirk Koetter had his contract extended in the spring, good through 2009, which should give him enough time to win a Pac-10 game in California. He's winless in 10 tries.

Oregon State must be afraid of a little competition. They have a tester at Boise State in what has been an intriguing series, but no team in the Pac-10 has two surer nonconference wins as OSU does with Eastern Washington and Idaho.

Toughest schedule

Oregon plays at Fresno State and has Oklahoma in nonleague tilts, plus has ASU, California and USC on the road. And a season-finale at Oregon State is no picnic because the Ducks have lost four in a row in Corvallis. That Pac-10 road slate will be their biggest obstacle to a run at the league title.

Roundtable time!

2006-07-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

The Texas Longhorns blog Burnt Orange Nation recently served up a trio of off-season roundtable questions to folks participating in the college football BlogPoll, and as someone who hopes to be a member in '06, I figured I'd give this a shot . . . so here are the questions, and my answers:

Which offseason story are you most tired of, and, on the flip side, interested in?

Honestly, I'm already tired of hearing how Charlie Weis is going to turn Notre Dame back into a powerhouse and make them the greatest dynasty to have ever taken to the gridiron in human history. No disrespect intended to my fellow Papists in South Bend, or to Weis in particular, who by all acounts is a genial, upstanding, guy, but the sportswriters and talking heads are going to be looking for a replacement for Southern California as they strive to re-assemble an OMG Most Awesomest Team Ever storyline, and I've got a sneaking suspicion that Notre Dame is who they've picked.

You could see the groundwork for it being laid last season, when some of the folks at ESPN were ready to call the Notre Dame-USC game the greatest game ever almost as soon as the clock hit 00:00 -- it was a good game, no doubt, but to call it the greatest game ever was more than a little bit absurd. It was a win-win situation for the Irish, though, because if they'd won, they would've automatically been hailed as giant-killers and picked as a mortal lock to go to the Rose Bowl; and even in the loss, they played USC way closer than expected and thus got to be the recipient of the "watch out for these guys in 2006" accolades. Since then we've seen them beat out Oregon and Auburn for a berth in the Fiesta Bowl, where the media hype machine continued churning unabated (and gave us the embarrassing Laura Quinn spectacle), and almost every recruit they sign, from the laughably coiffed Jimmy Clausen to some wide receiver I'd never even heard of, gets written up on ESPN.com and a bunch of other places. It's not that I hate Notre Dame, certainly not the way a lot of people do, I just don't buy into the idea that any team, whether it's the Irish or the Yankees or the Cowboys or whoever, gets to be anointed as "America's Team" based on stuff they did decades ago and thus we all have to accept them being shoved down our throats.

Yikes, not only is Charlie Weis already running the spread offense like a well-oiled machine, he's totally stealing Urban Meyer's pointing-and-staring steez.

What I'm most interested in -- even though there are some who might say that Urban Meyer's Sooper Geniusness is being shoved down our throats every bit as obtrusively as the Notre Dame ascendancy storyline -- is seeing whether Meyer's spread offense can overcome some of its growing pains in Year II at Florida and start achieving the kind of success it did at Bowling Green and Utah. Obviously, as a fan of a team that has to play the Gators every year, I'd prefer it if Meyer's offense didn't become too prolific in Gainesville, but it'll still be an interesting process to watch, and it seems like there's a lot riding on this will-it-or-won't-it question, not just for the Gators but for college football in general. If the spread blows up like the Godfather in Gainesville, you could see a lot of teams shifting over to it in the near future, hoping to replicate Meyer's success; if it doesn't, then the shift to West Coast/spread-style offenses you've seen not just in Gainesville but in places like Lincoln and South Bend could be dealt a setback. I don't really have a dog in that particular fight, so I'll just be sitting back to see what happens.

Other storylines I'm kind of interested in: With Leinart, Bush and White gone, will somebody else win the Pac-10 for a change? Will Steve Spurrier's second year at South Carolina build on the promise of his first, or will he discover unequivocally that this isn't the SEC he left in 2001? And is the ACC really going to be a "superconference," or just 12 teams not really worth caring about all that much? Virginia Tech, Miami, and FSU were all expected to be the ones to lift the ACC to powerhouse status in its first year as a full 12-team, two-division conference, but all found high-profile, extremely embarrassing ways to screw up in '05 at various points. Somebody's got to win the conference championship, but whether that team ever so much as sniffs a shot at the national title is another matter.

Your head coach comes down with a mystery illness and has to step aside. You get to hand pick the replacement for the 2006 season. Who gets your vote?

I get to pick anybody? Hmmm . . . well, given that the Georgia football outlook for 2006 appears to involve breaking in a new QB whilst relying heavily on a loaded RB corps and a murderous D, the logical person to steer the ship would be Tommy Tuberville -- but like Kyle King, I'd rather disembowel myself with a table saw than voluntarily cheer for Tubbs. Not really crazy about making Jim Tressel a Bulldog, either. In the end, the college coach I'd probably pick first is Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. But then again . . . the BON guys never said my new guy has to be selected from the confines of college football so why not bogart somebody from the NFL? First choice there would be Joe Gibbs, but then he wouldn't be coaching the Redskins anymore, and that would suck, so . . . I'd go after Bill Cowher, coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's managed to go pretty far with a run-first offense -- even won a Super Bowl recently, or so I hear -- and it's not like he doesn't have plenty of experience coaching Bulldogs.

Slap a Georgia cap on him, and this look would make Phil Fulmer crap his pants.

Lastly, we'll mix the football and the blogging together here. If you could have anyone switch allegiances and start covering your team, who you gonna pick?

Well, Mayor T. Kyle King said it would be a loss for the sports blogosphere as a whole if the guys at Every Day Should Be Saturday restricted themselves to a single team. I say fuck the rest of the sports blogosphere -- adding Orson Swindle and Stranko Montana to an already loaded list of dedicated Georgia bloggers would be like recruiting Reggie Bush onto a team that had already signed Vince Young, A.J. Hawk, Adrian Peterson, and Leonard Pope. ("Which one of those are you, Doug?" you may be asking; why, none of the above, dear reader -- I'm Billy Bennett, the plucky, spot-on accurate kicker. I may not be the most imposing physical specimen, but I'm clutch, baby.) Except I'm pretty sure that Orson and Stranko have never been invited by an agent to live rent-free in a three-quarter-million-dollar house. But anyway, when I finally take home a nine-figure jackpot in the Mega Millions lottery, right after I offer UGA $25 million to change the name of Sanford Stadium to Sanford Field at Doug Gillett Stadium, I figure I'll offer the EDSBS guys each a Bugatti Veyron to renounce Florida and switch their allegiances to the red and black. Then it's off to St. Bart's for a year or two.

Red and black, of course, with 1,001 brake horse power for those moments when you've really got to make it to a rest area.

It is a small world after all…

2006-07-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

The blues

2006-07-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

In addition to my blue-eyed dad, whom I miss very much, and my blue-eyed hubby, who is currently downstairs in his home office, there has always been a lot of blue in my life. Here is some of it. There are more photos to take on another day. These I took on June 1, hoping to get them posted to start off this month's Project Spectrum. Best laid plans, and all that...

2006-05-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Pasadena voters to decide Rose Bowl-NFL initiative

PASADENA, Calif. Pasadena voters in November could help decide whether L-A gets a pro-football team.

Pasadena City Council voted unanimously to place a measure on the ballot aimed at luring a team to the Rose Bowl.

It proposes giving the league rights to play at the stadium for 25 years in exchange for a 500-(m) million dollar stadium renovation, 500-thousand dollars a year in rent, and other considerations.

City Councilman Chris Holden says passing the measure would relieve Pasadena of paying 200-(m) million dollars for renovations he said are needed at the Rose Bowl.

But the initiative is opposed by West Pasadena residents, preservationists, and other city leaders, including Mayor Bill Bogaard.

Meanwhile, a committee of N-F-L owners heard stadium presentations last week from Los Angeles, Anaheim and Pasadena.

They could decide later this month whether to approve a Southern California franchise.

Rose Bowl

2006-02-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the stadium of the same name in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday the game is then played on the following Monday. Twice (in 2002 and 2006) the Rose Bowl game was also the BCS National Championship Game.