Happy New Year!
Sorry I'm a day late, but it wasn't officially a Happy New Year until the Rose Bowl game ended. :) And boy, it couldn't end soon enough for the Illini. Final score, 49-17. (The Trojans could have gone over 50 pts if Pete had called a time out with 10 seconds to go so we could set up, but that would have been adding insult to injury, so the game just ended.)
It did sort of irk me that the cameras kept showing closeups of the Illinois fans, making it look like they had taken over far more than the 1/4 of the stadium that they actually got. And there was a bit of taunting, sure -- the Trojan players didn't really need to be dancing on the sidelines when the game started, and Desmond Reed didn't need to do a front flip into the end zone on a TD (which resulted in a penalty), but to have unsportsmanlike conduct called at the end of every other play in the fourth quarter... that was a bit much. Of course, by that point, it was just as often called on the Illini as it was on the Trojans -- big games will do that to you.
If Booty hadn't broken a finger... if we'd beaten Stanford (and/or Oregon), would we be playing OSU (or LSU) in the national championship next week? Yes, probably. But as the Rose Bowl is about to be our home field for a year, it was nice to start there, and for Booty and the other seniors, it was nice to end there. Of course, even Pete says they'd keep playing if they could. (Don't we love Coach?!)
Happy New Year, y'all!
It did sort of irk me that the cameras kept showing closeups of the Illinois fans, making it look like they had taken over far more than the 1/4 of the stadium that they actually got. And there was a bit of taunting, sure -- the Trojan players didn't really need to be dancing on the sidelines when the game started, and Desmond Reed didn't need to do a front flip into the end zone on a TD (which resulted in a penalty), but to have unsportsmanlike conduct called at the end of every other play in the fourth quarter... that was a bit much. Of course, by that point, it was just as often called on the Illini as it was on the Trojans -- big games will do that to you.
If Booty hadn't broken a finger... if we'd beaten Stanford (and/or Oregon), would we be playing OSU (or LSU) in the national championship next week? Yes, probably. But as the Rose Bowl is about to be our home field for a year, it was nice to start there, and for Booty and the other seniors, it was nice to end there. Of course, even Pete says they'd keep playing if they could. (Don't we love Coach?!)
The No. 7 Trojans are better than both No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 LSU, which will play for the BCS championship Monday night in the Louisiana Superdome. The Buckeyes couldn't even beat No. 13 Illinois, which was so clearly overmatched by USC. It's a shame the Trojans can't play the winner of the BCS title game in two weeks. (Mark Schlabach, ESPN)Ah well. We'll just have to be content with the knowledge that we'll kick everybody's asses again next year! :)
Happy New Year, y'all!
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See ya next year. Hook 'em!