Now that I am fully thawed out from sitting at the chilly and chilling Holiday bowl, I have the following observations...
Holiday Bowl environment....The Good stuff: It was great to see and hear the Trojan Marching band up close at the Tailgate. Sitting near the Brass section was literally a blast. The game entertainment was decent- from the 4 parachutists landing in the stadium to the fireworks at halftime (I think I still saw some icicles on the exploding fireworks). The bands at halftime with the Wisconsin band high stepping, and the Wisconsin crowd mooning over "100 years birthday celebration of Frank Sinatra"...many of the Badger fans were snapping their fingers to the music. And the USC comeback from the 7 -20 deficit was great and I thought they had that one.
The bad stuff....Did I mention it was cold? The Wisconsin crowd was more interested in drinking and schmoozing than the game. Wisconsin party animals? Who Knew? Well, maybe Ring-a-ding swingers (See above). Wisconsin scored the winning points on a FG in their only drive since their last TD in mid Q3. A slow start again by USC. Under Helton USC was behind by the second quarter in every game, but mounted comebacks. Some became wins. USC was hurt in its OLine and LB spots and that's where the pressure came from by the UW defense (3 sacks, 6 near sacks) and the UW offenses attacked (mostly in LB areas in passes).
UW is a very good defense and lived up to their top defense rep against scoring (13.9 ppg) and their control of opponent offenses (268 ypg). Their offense looked better than advertised but in reality USC held UW to 3 punts from mid Q2 until that FG drive.USC missed C Tuerk and MLB Cameron Smith a lot. The USC Oline was mostly different than early in the season with 1 FR, 3 Sophs and 1 Jr (Mama in the same position and Banner in a different position) starting this one. AND C Rodgers gave way to Falah during parts of the game. Yet USC was there at the end with a potential grab by Juju Smith at the UW 20 with 0:30 to go, for a potential winning FG. If he had 2 good hands....
In other bowls....the last two days looked like matches made by Don King (a notorious mismatched promoter in Boxing). The games were won by 14 or more points, with 6 of the 8 by 20-39 points. The semi-final games on New Year's Eve were a financial blunder....Media numbers were down by 35% or more from last year.
The Rose Bowl showed the best team IMO Stanford, trounce Iowa, and the best player in America , McCaffrey make the Heisman voters look sick as was the final four selection committee. Did any of these guys actually see McCaffrey after the Northwestern game? Stanford would probably beat Clemson and be a 1-2 point underdog to Alabama. The Stanford OLine is one of the best in the country and 4 guys (seniors) will likely play on Sundays next year. And the 5th may declare early.
To date the Bowl Standings of conferences: Pac12 and SEC are 6-2; CUSA is 3-2; Big10 is 5-4; MWC is 4-4; Sun Belt is 2-2; ACC is 5-6; Mid American is 3-4; Big 12 is 1-3; AAC is 1-5; Independents(BYU, ND) are 0-2.
Holiday Bowl environment....The Good stuff: It was great to see and hear the Trojan Marching band up close at the Tailgate. Sitting near the Brass section was literally a blast. The game entertainment was decent- from the 4 parachutists landing in the stadium to the fireworks at halftime (I think I still saw some icicles on the exploding fireworks). The bands at halftime with the Wisconsin band high stepping, and the Wisconsin crowd mooning over "100 years birthday celebration of Frank Sinatra"...many of the Badger fans were snapping their fingers to the music. And the USC comeback from the 7 -20 deficit was great and I thought they had that one.
The bad stuff....Did I mention it was cold? The Wisconsin crowd was more interested in drinking and schmoozing than the game. Wisconsin party animals? Who Knew? Well, maybe Ring-a-ding swingers (See above). Wisconsin scored the winning points on a FG in their only drive since their last TD in mid Q3. A slow start again by USC. Under Helton USC was behind by the second quarter in every game, but mounted comebacks. Some became wins. USC was hurt in its OLine and LB spots and that's where the pressure came from by the UW defense (3 sacks, 6 near sacks) and the UW offenses attacked (mostly in LB areas in passes).
UW is a very good defense and lived up to their top defense rep against scoring (13.9 ppg) and their control of opponent offenses (268 ypg). Their offense looked better than advertised but in reality USC held UW to 3 punts from mid Q2 until that FG drive.USC missed C Tuerk and MLB Cameron Smith a lot. The USC Oline was mostly different than early in the season with 1 FR, 3 Sophs and 1 Jr (Mama in the same position and Banner in a different position) starting this one. AND C Rodgers gave way to Falah during parts of the game. Yet USC was there at the end with a potential grab by Juju Smith at the UW 20 with 0:30 to go, for a potential winning FG. If he had 2 good hands....
In other bowls....the last two days looked like matches made by Don King (a notorious mismatched promoter in Boxing). The games were won by 14 or more points, with 6 of the 8 by 20-39 points. The semi-final games on New Year's Eve were a financial blunder....Media numbers were down by 35% or more from last year.
The Rose Bowl showed the best team IMO Stanford, trounce Iowa, and the best player in America , McCaffrey make the Heisman voters look sick as was the final four selection committee. Did any of these guys actually see McCaffrey after the Northwestern game? Stanford would probably beat Clemson and be a 1-2 point underdog to Alabama. The Stanford OLine is one of the best in the country and 4 guys (seniors) will likely play on Sundays next year. And the 5th may declare early.
To date the Bowl Standings of conferences: Pac12 and SEC are 6-2; CUSA is 3-2; Big10 is 5-4; MWC is 4-4; Sun Belt is 2-2; ACC is 5-6; Mid American is 3-4; Big 12 is 1-3; AAC is 1-5; Independents(BYU, ND) are 0-2.
