Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in rosebowlamerica's LiveJournal:

Monday, January 29th, 2007
7:14 pm	Holiday Bowl For those fans who do not know anything about Texas A&M and want to bone up on the opponent prior to tomorrow's game, please check out Tightwad Hill. He has done a great job of breaking down all the units of Texas A&M and also has a great Q&A with a rival blogger. Here is our take on the Holiday Bowl: 1) Cal needs to win this bowl to shake the "soft" rep it has slowly been developing nationwide. Tedford has closed practice to the public and the media so it seems like the team is taking this game very seriously. There should not be any let down like in 2004 and the Bears should be ready for this game. 2) Texas A&M has one of those offenses that can really mess up DC Bob Gregory's bend but don't break approach. They have two good tailbacks and a QB that plays with a lot of heart. Texas A&M runs a variation of the option. Sometimes it is the spread option, other times it is the straight options and sometimes it is a pound it between the tackles run game. Is Cal disciplined enough to not over pursue and play assignment football? I am not sure... Cal always seems to give up some sort of big play at the wrong time. The key is Bishop. He needs to be able to quickly shed blockers and get to the point of attack. 3) The offense needs to get back on track. Let's send Marshawn out in the grand style he deserves. (Side note: SI had a small blurb about Marshawn being ROY in the NFL next year.) Also, it is time to start the DeSean Jackson Heisman campaign. No way, Texas A&M can keep up with DJax. Give Longshore sometime and let him air it out to Jackson. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Ayoob or Levy get in the game. Prediction: 42 - 31 Cal over Texas A&M This will be a shootout. Tedford will have the troops ready but the defense will have a hard time against the option. Special teams (read Jackson) will play a role in deciding the game. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
5:58 pm	End of the year Well, it's that time. 2006 is coming to a close and everyone is spewing out their precious lists. (Actually, here's an entertaining one.) So why not pile on, just a little? To me, the athlete of the year is Roger Federer. Without question. 92-5 record this year, 12 singles titles including three grand slams (and he says he dedicating himself to winning the French Open in '07, so watch out!). It has to be Roger, this year, and the two reasons he isn't dominating Tiger Woods and LaDanian Tomlinson for the honor are 1) he isn't American and 2) because he plays tennis. That's just poor, Associated Press. There are several moments that stuck out for me in '06. Agassi retiring, George Mason beating UConn to advance to the Final Four (among history's greatest upsets), the arrival of Ovechkin and Crosby. But here are the three moments, in descending order, that made me lose my mind 3. Liverpool winning the most dramatic FA Cup -- perhaps ever -- over West Ham United. The comeback was largely thanks to English Player of the Year and now living legend, Steven Gerrard. 2. The Lakers weren't supposed to beat the Suns in the first round of the playoffs (and they didn't), but Kobe's winner at the buzzer in game 4 was one of those magical moments in Lakers lore and it had everyone believing that LA had a real shot of winning this thing (they were one rebound away in game 6 from doing so). Anyway, this shot had me screaming "Black Mamba!" and jumping around for a good five minutes straight. 1. His name is Fabio Grosso and he's my personal hero for 2006. The Italian fullback scored the decisive penalty kick that won the World Cup for Italy over France (I haven't been so mental in my life, I think), but he etched his name in glory the match before during the semifinal where, in the 128th minute (final two minutes of extra time), he famously broke German hearts. Everyone in the bar lost their minds. It was the best. Some predictions for 2007 Orange Bowl - Louisville vs Wake Forest: Doesn't matter. Fiesta Bowl - Oklahoma vs Boise State: Doesn't matter. Rose Bowl - Michigan vs USC: Doesn't matter. Sugar Bowl - LSU vs Notre Dame: Doesn't matter. All of the above games are as relevant as the prestigious MPC Computers Bowl or the Papajohns.com Bowl. Maybe not as much as the prestigious Emerald Bowl, though. BCS National Championship game - Ohio State vs Florida: Chris Leak throws not one, but TWO shovel pass interceptions in the first half, allowing the Buckeyes to set the pace early and coast to the 4th quarter where the Gators salvage some dignity, but fall short. Final score: Buckeyes 36 Gators 22 Allen Iverson and the Denver Nuggets will finish either 7th or 8th in the Western Conference, then get knocked out of the playoffs in five games. Roger Federer will win all four Grand Slams. The Colts will not reach the AFC Championship game. The Bears will not win the Superbowl. The Spurs will win the NBA title, beating Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals. The representative from the East will be swept by either team. Sidney Crosby will win the Hart Trophy. Florida will repeat as champions in college basketball and UCLA will repeat as runners-up! Greg Oden will go #1 in the draft. It doesn't matter who the Oakland Raiders select with the top pick in the NFL draft, they'll screw it up. Daisuke Matsuzaka will have a relatively strong first half of the season before completely folding after the All Star break. The Phoenix Coyotes will finish ahead of the Los Angeles Kings this season. I will get $10 from my dad. The fans will screw up balloting for every All Star game. Again. Terrell Owens will not be in Dallas next season. If Barcelona doesn't win the Champions League, it'll be because they lost to Olympique Lyon. The Pittsburgh Penguins will miraculously find a way to remain in Pittsburgh. I still won't give a crap about Nascar or golf. Your mom. (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
1:38 pm	Bears Move Up in Polls After the previous two wins, which were closer than expected, Cal moved down one spot in the ranking after each victory. Coming off a huge bye week, Cal moved up 2 spots in the AP poll and 1 spot in the USA Today poll. Cal leapfrogged Notre Dame, who handily defeated Navy, in the AP poll. I am sure Charlie Weis will have more to say about how he does not understand the polls or voters. Some thoughts on the new rankings and how the national championship race and Rose Bowl race are looking: - Pac 10 respect Voters must respect the Pac 10 more by only dropping USC to 9th following its loss to an unranked Oregon St. team. Or, USC is still living off its past legacy and gets the benefit of the doubt in voters minds. In the AP poll, there are 4 Pac 10 teams in the top 25. USC is 9th, followed by Cal in the 10 spot. Oregon and Washington St. round out the poll coming in at 24 and 25, respectively. Even Oregon St. gets a mention in "others receiving votes" with 9 votes. - Ohio St. received 63 of 65 possible first place votes with West Virginia receiving the other two. Granted Michigan did not look spectacular in its win over Northwestern while Ohio St. crushed Minnesota, but can all 63 of these voters believe that Ohio St. will beat Michigan. If a voter believes Michigan will beat OSU, than shouldn't Michigan receive at least a couple first place votes? - Undefeated teams - down to 6. Ohio St., Michigan, West Virgina, Louisville, Boise St., and Rutgers. Logically there can only be, at most, 3 undefeated teams by the end of the season. Ohio St. and Michgan play each other and West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers all still have games remaining head to head. My prediction is that Michigan and Boise St. are the only undefeated teams by the end of the season. How you say? Michgan over Ohio St. West Virginia over Louisville, Rutgers over West Virginia and Louisville over Rutgers. (Maybe even Pitt can knock off one of these Big East teams). - The Best One Loss team This has been a point of discussion over the past couple weeks by many of the talking head on ESPN. Let me remove Cal from the conversation for the moment and list my top 5 one loss teams - 1) Florida - played well against a down Georgia team. Looks to have a clear path to the SEC championship game. Imagine if they had a running back. 2) Tennessee - a little dinged up. But Ainge is playing well enough to carry the team. 3) Arkansas - Surprised? Everytime, Arkansas wins a close one against a middle of the pack SEC team, people say it shows their true colors as a mediocre team. Florida or Tennessee win a close one against a middle of the pack SEC team and it shows the depth of the SEC. Arkansas blew out Auburn and has a great rushing attack. They are also in the drivers seat for a spot in the SEC championship. 4) USC - Tough loss, they came out flat against a good Oregon St. team. But they really moved the ball at the end of the game and sometimes a loss can be a real wake up call for a young team. 5) Texas - Lucky win against Nebraska, who was blown out against Oklahoma St. Barely pulled out a win against a Texas Tech team that needs to learn how to run a QB sneak. Signature moment this season: Did not get blown out by Ohio St. in their only loss. This does not inspire confidence. - Rose Bowl Race With USC's loss, Cal is firmly in the driver's seat for a Rose Bowl berth. That said, nothing has changed in term of what the Bears need to do. They need to win all their remaining games. Unless USC drops another Pac 10 game (Oregon maybe?) Cal still has to beat the Trojans at the Coliseum to secure a trip to the Granddaddy of them all. - Not Poll Related but Cal related Check out this month's ESPN the Magazine. There is a great article about Bears, Mike Tepper and Rulon Davis. Both were run over by cars in separate incidents and the article talks about how they are now linked because of it. These are some tough guys. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 18th, 2006
11:58 am	8.10 - Right, Wrong, Accountability and Michigan Travis Thomas ain't goin' nowhere according to Charlie Weis: “I’d be surprised of turning back at this point,” Weis said. “At this point I’m not in any big rush to pull him back over there.” So there you have it... Notre Dame will have its most athletic LB corps possibly in history this year if the Thomas-Crum-Thomas trifecta holds. As covered here before, I think it's a great move that may pay dividends next year as well. And major Kudos to Weis for taking a stand on smear reporting. About time. A few hairpullers attempted some strange sort of retribution, but in keeping with the theme, not one even bothered to read the articles in question, which is kind of funny in that sad-funny way. Shame on the SBT's Bill Bilinski for not examing his own writers work in addressing the issue again on 8.9. He certainly would have gained more credibility in the eyes of readers if he and his paper owned up to the laughable Google example or in presenting completely unbalanced points of view. He never even bothered to address his own paper's obvious twisting of facts in an attempt to create a "series." That the authors defend their writing as issue oriented is insulting to anyone with a base level of intelligence. How many "issues" are there really in covering a local college football team? In Carroll's case this is simply code and cover for muckraking. There really just aren't any big issues right now (other than positive ones,) so they created a negative issue that didn't exist and defended themselves by saying that's the kind of writing they want to do. Circular reasoning 101. If there aren't warning signals shooting up everywhere, then no one's paying attention. What's the next issue to be concocted at the SBT? Perhaps posters' idea of staging a boycott of SBT advertisers has merit. As they say, voting with the pocketbook is the ultimate form of free speech. Here's the bottom line. Charlie Weis has brought accountability to Notre Dame. Kids must go to class or they're in Charlie's office early in the morning -- a fate worse than... just about anything. Assistant coaches can't excuse their breakdowns, they must produce. Players must show up at practice and work. And reporters can't pen lazy, hatchet jobs designed to sell papers and make reputations without repurcussions. Charlie himself set the standard by calling himself out after losses. The result has been winning, the highest GPA in team history, a slew of feel good stories from Pass Right to the Navy salute and a renewed commitment all around to excellence. Of course, such changes bring wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who don't meet that standard. That's good. It's a sign that it's working. Eventually lazy, agenda driven "issue" hacks like Carroll will be driven out by their own misguided intent and ethics. Oh, they'll complain and cry and make all sorts of charges, but no one of any credibility has read his and Weineke's articles and defended them. No one. They're just whining about being held accountable and in a college football world of virtually none. That's a good thing. Charlie is right to defend his program and his players and he deserves your support. For too long Notre Dame's let such reckless reporting go unchallenged and it has inflicted serious damage over time. And it's just plain wrong to think that Charlie "has it in" for writers who pen negative articles, he's actually friends with many reporters who've been negative toward him and has been for years. He respects them and their mission and their work, but respect is a two way street. If you write ill-researched, smear pieces, you don't get respect and the carrot, you get the stick. Weis is completely in the right. Speaking of shame... isn't it one that Michigan has become, as one poster put it, the General Motors of college football? It's bad enough that they received a disqualification for minority graduation rates, and that Llloyd is mentioned in every coach on the hotseat article, but now they're so bad that Amani Toomer said on Mike and Mike, "I don't watch them as much as I used to. They are such consistent underachievers. They are just difficult to watch." That's Amani Toomer, folks. How about this: A Michigan fan wrote us to stop bashing Michigan because they'll "beat Notre Dame AFTER LLLOYD RETIRES AND WE GET A REAL COACH." That's tellin' us. Dionte Allen, a top CB prospect for Michigan, BTW, just verballed to FSU and Taurian Washington, another top recruit, just verballed to OSU. These guys are out of their own backyard. I'd say Llloyd's days are quickly coming to an end, but he's just keeping up the mediocre legacy of Bo Schembechler who said just the other day, "We don't need Notre Dame. They need us more than we need them." Look, if I couldn't beat Davieham, I'd want out too. Without further ado, the Bo legacy by omahadomer: They have a fine program that is noted, in particular, for coughing up hairballs in big games. Let's review the record of their greatest coach, Bo Schembechler -- 1969: Michigan wins the Big 10 but then loses the Rose Bowl to USC 10-3 1970: Michigan is 9-0 heading into Ohio State but comes up short 20-9 1971: Michigan is 11-0 and facing heavy underdog Stanford in the Rose Bowl: 13-12 Stanford 1972: 10-0 heading into OSU: 14-11 Buckeyes 1973: 10-0 and Michigan has Ohio State at home: 10-10 tie and the conference athletic directors vote to send the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl 1974: 10-0 heading into Columbus: 12-10 Buckeyes 1975: 8-0-2 and have OSU at home: 21-14 OSU. But good news, the Big 10 now allows other Big 10 teams to go to a bowl. 14-6 Oklahoma over Michigan in the Orange Bowl 1976: Inexplicable 16-14 loss to Purdue, but Michigan finally gets by Ohio State and goes to the Rose Bowl. Oh goody: 14-6 USC 1977: Another dumb conference loss, this one 16-0 to Minnesota. But they beat the Buckeyes and they're back in the Rose Bowl and a huge favorite over 7-4 Washington, so finally Michigan's going to win the Rose Bowl. Oops: 27-20 Washington 1978: This time the conference gag is against MSU but the Wolves beat the Bucks again and are back in the Rose Bowl. Same song, 18th verse: 17-10 USC 1979: Michigan has Devine's worst team in Ann Arbor and the Wolves have already tuned up on Northwestern and it's ND's opener. No matter, Bob Crable blocks a game-winning FG attempt and ND wins 12-10. 8-3 Michigan finally gets an easy bowl opponent, UNC in the Gator Bowl. Thanks for playing Bo: 17-15 UNC. 1980: Finally Michigan wins a Rose Bowl (over Washington). But a 51-yard FG by Harry Oliver beats UM in ND stadium. The next week the stunned Wolves also lose to South Carolina, removing them from NC consideration. 1981: Bo finally beats ND (Faust's 5-6 team) and beats UCLA in a bowl game. The bad news? It's the Bluebonnet Bowl. 1982: Bo gets beat by Faust but still makes it to the Rose Bowl at 8-3 and plays UCLA. UCLA wins of course, 24-14. 1983: Good news: ND's off the schedule for Bo. Bad news, they have to play Washington again and lose 27-25. 9-2 Michigan gets invited to the Sugar Bowl where they lose to Auburn 9-7. Bo has now managed to lose 3 of the then-Big 4 bowls. 1984: Michigan flops around to a 6-5 record and then makes history as the weakest opponent ever in a bowl game for a national championship team as BYU gets by them 24-17 to claim the NC even though BYU would've been a 2-touchdown underdog to either Oklahoma or Nebraska. 1985: A conference loss to Iowa and a tie with Illinois keeps UM out of the Rose Bowl and NC consideration. UM does beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. 1986: Familiar scene. ND is jobbed by a bad call as the game-winning TD is ruled out of bounds. UM somehow loses to Minnesota in Ann Arbor but still makes it to the Rose Bowl where the Wolves lose 22-15 to ASU. ASU is now the 5th Pac 8 or 10 team to beat Bo's teams in the Rose Bowl. 1987: Lou drills UM 26-7 in Ann Arbor. Michigan suffers 3 more losses to go 8-4. 1988: Gillette's miss allows ND to win 19-17 setting up ND's 12-0 season. UM does finally manage to win the Rose Bowl over USC. ND defeats both participants in the Rose Bowl during the regular season. 1989: Rocket runs back two kickoffs and Michigan loses 24-19. Michigan plays well and wins the next 10 before losing the Rose Bowl to USC. ND beats both participants in the Rose Bowl, again. And thus concludes Bo's career. Llloyd's football epitaph to probably be written after this season. Did I mention that I LOVE the move of Thomas to LB? ~ The Rock (Comment on this)
Friday, August 11th, 2006
11:20 am	8.10 - Right, Wrong, Accountability and Michigan Travis Thomas ain't goin' nowhere according to Charlie Weis: “I’d be surprised of turning back at this point,” Weis said. “At this point I’m not in any big rush to pull him back over there.” So there you have it... Notre Dame will have its most athletic LB corps possibly in history this year if the Thomas-Crum-Thomas trifecta holds. As covered here before, I think it's a great move that may pay dividends next year as well. And major Kudos to Weis for taking a stand on smear reporting. About time. A few hairpullers attempted some strange sort of retribution, but in keeping with the theme, not one even bothered to read the articles in question, which is kind of funny in that sad-funny way. Shame on the SBT's Bill Bilinski for not examing his own writers work in addressing the issue again on 8.9. He certainly would have gained more credibility in the eyes of readers if he and his paper owned up to the laughable Google example or in presenting completely unbalanced points of view. He never even bothered to address his own paper's obvious twisting of facts in an attempt to create a "series." That the authors defend their writing as issue oriented is insulting to anyone with a base level of intelligence. How many "issues" are their really in covering a local college football team? In Carroll's case this is simply code and cover for muckraking. There really just aren't any big issues right now (other than positive ones,) so they created a negative issue that didn't exist and defended themselves by saying that's the kind of writing they want to do. Circular reasoning 101. If there aren't warning signals shooting up everywhere, then no one's paying attention. What's the next issue to be concocted at the SBT? Perhaps posters' idea of staging a boycott of SBT advertisers has merit. As they say, voting with the pocketbook is the ultimate form of free speech. Here's the bottom line. Charlie Weis has brought accountability to Notre Dame. Kids must go to class or they're in Charlie's office early in the morning -- a fate worse than... just about anything. Assistant coaches can't excuse their breakdowns, they must produce. Players must show up at practice and work. And reporters can't pen lazy, hatchet jobs designed to sell papers and make reputations without repurcussions. Charlie himself set the standard by calling himself out after losses. The result has been winning, the highest GPA in team history, a slew of feel good stories from Pass Right to the Navy salute and a renewed commitment all around to excellence. Of course, such changes bring wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who don't meet that standard. That's good. It's a sign that it's working. Eventually lazy, agenda driven "issue" hacks like Carroll will be driven out by their own misguided intent and ethics. Oh, they'll complain and cry and make all sorts of charges, but no one of any credibility has read his and Weineke's articles and defended them. No one. They're just whining about being held accountable and in a college football world of virtually none. That's a good thing. Charlie is right to defend his program and his players and he deserves your support. For too long Notre Dame's let such reckless reporting go unchallenged and it has inflicted serious damage over time. And it's just plain wrong to think that Charlie "has it in" for writers who pen negative articles, he's actually friends with many reporters who've been negative toward him and has been for years. He respects them and their mission and their work, but respect is a two way street. If you write ill-researched, smear pieces, you don't get respect and the carrot, you get the stick. Weis is completely in the right. Speaking of shame... isn't it one that Michigan has become, as one poster put it, the General Motors of college football? It's bad enough that they received a disqualification for minority graduation rates, and that Llloyd is mentioned in every coach on the hotseat article, but now they're so bad that Amani Toomer said on Mike and Mike, "I don't watch them as much as I used to. They are such consistent underachievers. They are just difficult to watch." That's Amani Toomer, folks. How about this: A Michigan fan wrote us to stop bashing Michigan because they'll "beat Notre Dame AFTER LLLOYD RETIRES AND WE GET A REAL COACH." That's tellin' us. Dionte Allen, a top CB prospect for Michigan, BTW, just verballed to FSU and Taurian Washington, another top recruit, just verballed to OSU. These guys are out of their own backyard. I'd say Llloyd's days are quickly coming to an end, but he's just keeping up the mediocre legacy of Bo Schembechler who said just the other day, "We don't need Notre Dame. They need us more than we need them." Look, if I couldn't beat Davieham, I'd want out too. Without further ado, the Bo legacy by omahadomer: They have a fine program that is noted, in particular, for coughing up hairballs in big games. Let's review the record of their greatest coach, Bo Schembechler -- 1969: Michigan wins the Big 10 but then loses the Rose Bowl to USC 10-3 1970: Michigan is 9-0 heading into Ohio State but comes up short 20-9 1971: Michigan is 11-0 and facing heavy underdog Stanford in the Rose Bowl: 13-12 Stanford 1972: 10-0 heading into OSU: 14-11 Buckeyes 1973: 10-0 and Michigan has Ohio State at home: 10-10 tie and the conference athletic directors vote to send the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl 1974: 10-0 heading into Columbus: 12-10 Buckeyes 1975: 8-0-2 and have OSU at home: 21-14 OSU. But good news, the Big 10 now allows other Big 10 teams to go to a bowl. 14-6 Oklahoma over Michigan in the Orange Bowl 1976: Inexplicable 16-14 loss to Purdue, but Michigan finally gets by Ohio State and goes to the Rose Bowl. Oh goody: 14-6 USC 1977: Another dumb conference loss, this one 16-0 to Minnesota. But they beat the Buckeyes and they're back in the Rose Bowl and a huge favorite over 7-4 Washington, so finally Michigan's going to win the Rose Bowl. Oops: 27-20 Washington 1978: This time the conference gag is against MSU but the Wolves beat the Bucks again and are back in the Rose Bowl. Same song, 18th verse: 17-10 USC 1979: Michigan has Devine's worst team in Ann Arbor and the Wolves have already tuned up on Northwestern and it's ND's opener. No matter, Bob Crable blocks a game-winning FG attempt and ND wins 12-10. 8-3 Michigan finally gets an easy bowl opponent, UNC in the Gator Bowl. Thanks for playing Bo: 17-15 UNC. 1980: Finally Michigan wins a Rose Bowl (over Washington). But a 51-yard FG by Harry Oliver beats UM in ND stadium. The next week the stunned Wolves also lose to South Carolina, removing them from NC consideration. 1981: Bo finally beats ND (Faust's 5-6 team) and beats UCLA in a bowl game. The bad news? It's the Bluebonnet Bowl. 1982: Bo gets beat by Faust but still makes it to the Rose Bowl at 8-3 and plays UCLA. UCLA wins of course, 24-14. 1983: Good news: ND's off the schedule for Bo. Bad news, they have to play Washington again and lose 27-25. 9-2 Michigan gets invited to the Sugar Bowl where they lose to Auburn 9-7. Bo has now managed to lose 3 of the then-Big 4 bowls. 1984: Michigan flops around to a 6-5 record and then makes history as the weakest opponent ever in a bowl game for a national championship team as BYU gets by them 24-17 to claim the NC even though BYU would've been a 2-touchdown underdog to either Oklahoma or Nebraska. 1985: A conference loss to Iowa and a tie with Illinois keeps UM out of the Rose Bowl and NC consideration. UM does beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. 1986: Familiar scene. ND is jobbed by a bad call as the game-winning TD is ruled out of bounds. UM somehow loses to Minnesota in Ann Arbor but still makes it to the Rose Bowl where the Wolves lose 22-15 to ASU. ASU is now the 5th Pac 8 or 10 team to beat Bo's teams in the Rose Bowl. 1987: Lou drills UM 26-7 in Ann Arbor. Michigan suffers 3 more losses to go 8-4. 1988: Gillette's miss allows ND to win 19-17 setting up ND's 12-0 season. UM does finally manage to win the Rose Bowl over USC. ND defeats both participants in the Rose Bowl during the regular season. 1989: Rocket runs back two kickoffs and Michigan loses 24-19. Michigan plays well and wins the next 10 before losing the Rose Bowl to USC. ND beats both participants in the Rose Bowl, again. And thus concludes Bo's career. Llloyd's football epitaph to probably be written after this season. Did I mention that I LOVE the move of Thomas to LB? ~ The Rock (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 3rd, 2006
6:14 pm	Looking Back: 2004 Season, Part III Welcome to the final part of a look back on the 2004 season. In the first part you got a review of the 2005 Rose Bowl, featuring Michigan and Texas. The end wasn't so great, but up until that it was a game to remember. Part II featured the triple overtime thriller with Michigan State in which Michigan came out on top by a score of 45-37. Also, a second-half rampage was reviewed against the Northwestern Wildcats. Michigan only took a 7-6 lead into the third quarter, but came out strong and ended up winning by a 42-20 margin. The final part of the 2004 season will include the season opener against Miami (Ohio) and a Big Ten meeting with Iowa. **September 25, 2004 - #18 Michigan: 30 vs. Iowa: 17 A battle of two Big Ten powers. Iowa, who was coming off of a win in their last meeting with Michigan was looking to do the same thing, but instead in Ann Arbor. If you can think back to 2003, you'll remember that Michigan got up early 14-0, but ended up losing by three points. Michigan was looking to come out this year and get a win, which would greatly impact the Big Ten title race. The game got off to a rocky start when Drew Tate found Ed Hinkel on a diving catch in the corner of the endzone. 7-0, Iowa leads. That would be about all that the Hawkeyes had to offer. From that point on, Michigan went on a 30-3 scoring run. Michigan got on the board when Garrett Rivas successfully kicked a 46-yard field goal through the uprights. The defense was able to hold Iowa and get the ball back into the hands of Chad Henne. That would be a good thing for the Wolverines. Henne threw a 58-yard pass to Braylon Edwards for the exciting touchdown to put Michigan on top for the first time all day. Chad Henne once again helped things out by running into the endzone for another touchdown. Iowa added a field goal and then Michigan answered back with a Mike Hart scamper into the endzone. The play that put the game away came when a bad pass by Drew Tate was picked off by Grant Mason, and then somehow returned all the way for a touchdown. Iowa would add another touchdown late, but it wasn't enough as Michigan won 30-17. **September 4, 2004 - #8 Michigan: 43 vs. Miami (Ohio): 10 Following a loss to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl to end the 2003 season, Michigan would look to get things off on the right foot to start the 2004 campaign. The Wolverines would look to add a second straight Big Ten championship, and another trip to Pasadena to redeem themselves from the loss to the Trojans (which will be included in the next edition of Looking Back). The usual MAC opponent to start the season was Miami (Ohio) for the second time in the new millennium. Josh Betts had the very tough task of replacing future Super Bowl winner and motorcycle novice Ben Roethlisberger as the starting QB at Miami. He would get off to a bad start in 2004 as he threw a total of four interceptions by the end of the game with no touchdowns. David Underwood, the highly-touted running back that never really panned out to have a lot of success, had a good game with two touchdown runs. Braylon Edwards of course wouldn't be left out. He was on the receiving end of two touchdowns from true freshman Chad Henne. That was the biggest story coming out of this game. Not the fact that Michigan won by a score of 43-10, but that Chad Henne was the starting quarterback. For the hardcore fans that follow recruiting and every committ, they knew who Chad Henne was, and expected him to not see the field at all in 2004. Matt Gutierrez had waited out the graduation of John Navarre, and finally had his chance to be the leader of the offense. I found out that Gutierrez wouldn't be getting that chance about an hour before kickoff. It all started when my father and I got to our seats. We overheard two Michigan fans behind us talking about how Chad Henne would be the starting quarterback. The two fans looked like they were fresh out of college, and a little on the drunk side. We, of course, asked why Chad Henne would be starting. They said that they were friends with a member of the team and found out that Gutierrez was injured in practice about a week or so before the game, and Chad Henne would be called upon to start. At first, the thought was that they were misinformed, and/or exaggerating the story. It turns out they were right all along. When Michigan's offense took the field, a player in jersey #7 was the one taking the snaps. I could here fans yelling, "Why is Spencer Brinton on the QB?" from many, many people. But, when he used his right arm to throw, people just became more confused since Brinton was a lefty. I knew it was Henne not only because of the two people sitting behind us, but also because at media day I had the same confusion. Back in August I was in the autograph line and saw someone in a #7 jersey, but, much to my surprise, it was someone that I didn't recognize. I looked it up on the roster sheet and saw that both Brinton and freshman Chad Henne shared that number. Finally, when the PA announcer stated that the quarterback was Chad Henne, the reaction from fans was something I'll never forget. Just sheer shock was on the faces of everyone in the crowd. Partly because many didn't even know who Henne was, and also because everyone expected Gutz to be on the field. Gutierrez did end up with a shoulder injury. One that to this day we never found out how it happened. A true freshman starting the season opener? Who would've expected that? Just so happens that true freshman has started every game since then too. Gutierrez never could recover from the injury in the sense of getting playing time. Carr never game him a chance last season, even with the struggles of Henne. That led to him packing his bags and heading to Idaho State where he has the chance to be a star player. This all just shows you that one little hit could change the course of not only one, but many seasons for a football team. That caps off the 2004 season in review. Heading onto 2003, MSC will get things started with another tough Rose Bowl loss. Until then, check out the other editions of Looking Back and Go Blue! (Comment on this)
Monday, July 31st, 2006
10:13 pm	A Rose Bowl by any other name In addition to the changes in nomenclature of certain schools with Native American nicknames is coming another change: the BCS national championship game has chosen to become anonymous. Though the game will be played in the metro Phoenix area this year, it will not be the Fiesta Bowl (that bowl will, as JoePa notes below, still be a BCS bowl, and will take place a week before the title game). It will simply be called "the BCS National Championship Game." In a sport that is so rich in tradition, this change should be very unwelcome. Names like Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Sun, and Gator have long been a part of the college football and New Year's Day lexicon. To make the biggest college game of the year a game without a name is a tragedy of epic proportions. The 2 for 1 in the same city was workable: just let each city come up with a new name for a new bowl. Now, college football is without a moniker even to match "The Final Four" or "The College World Series." The sport that invented tradition has now abandoned it. If the BCS persists in wanting a single name for its title game regardless of city, then I have a modest proposal: call it "The Orrin Hatch Bowl." As JoePa mentoned below, the primary reason for the creation of the 5th BCS bowl game was the fear of Congressional intervention, and Hatch, the meddlesome Mormon from Utah, was the primary agitator in support thereof. So, if we're going to wreck a century of tradition, let's at least pay homage to the man who made us wreck it. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 27th, 2006
11:07 am	Adios, Aqua? In 2000, the guerrilla pop art group Heavy Trash erected several gag signs around town (above) promoting a fake "Metro Aqua Line" from downtown to the ocean. When the MTA approved its Mid-City/Exposition Light Rail Transit Project, it actually took a cue from the Heavy Trash group and dubbed it the "Aqua line." Here's where it gets unnecessarily complicated: City Councilman Bernard Parks has decided he doesn't like the "Aqua line" name, the L.A. Times reports today. He also doesn't like the MTA's other suggestion, the Purple Line. Why? "Those are colors that don't resonate," Parks explained. Huh? Parks proposes that the new extension be called the "Expo Line" -- even though every other line on the MTA's rapid transit system are named after colors (Red, Green, Blue and Gold). His other option? The "Rose Line." Seriously. He doesn't think "Aqua" or "Purple" resonates, but "Rose" does. Writes the paper: Rose represents Exposition Park's rose garden, the city councilman said. It was his second choice. Parks and others decided his first recommendation — gray — was too similar to the San Gabriel Valley's new Silver Streak, a rapid 40-mile bus line from Claremont to downtown Los Angeles... The Friends 4 Expo Steering Committee and the Mar Vista Community Council Board of Directors endorsed the color aqua. Darrell Clarke, co-chairman of Friends 4 Expo, offered several reasons for rejecting Parks' color choice, including that it had not been vetted by the public. The color rose also "is most identified with Pasadena — the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade — on the other side of town," Clarke, who lives in Santa Monica, wrote in an e-mail to members of his group. The Aqua/Purple/Expo/Rose/Whatever Line is slated to run from downtown to Culver City, with a second phase eventually proposed to run from Culver City to Santa Monica (and the ocean -- hence the "Aqua" tag). (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 8th, 2006
2:18 pm	Rose Bowl 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. (Comment on this)