Setting - My aunt's house. Eagle Rock, California (the next suburb over from Pasadena)
Characters - Matt, Tim, Ryan (Tim's brother), and me
We woke up early, ready to go to war. My aunt had generously allowed four guys to stay with her for the duration of our stay, and she lives only a couple miles away from the Rose Bowl. She had recommended getting to the stadium early, and we agreed that it needed to happen that way. We watched the parade kick off, and then we went to the Rose Bowl.
For those of you that don't know the geography of the Rose Bowl, it's positioned next to a golf course. In fact, a lot of the parking was actually located on the golf course itself. So Matt drove his little rental car up onto the golf course and parked. Next to a sea of red.
Everyone wondered if we'd parked in a Wisconsin section. I pointed out that, most likely, everywhere would be a Wisconsin section. I knew that we'd brought as many people as we could, and I still expected to be outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1. As we first started walking to the stadium, we heard some quick jabs. Nothing hurtful or memorable. Although someone asked me what kind of people wear purple, and I said..."undefeated people?"
And that was basically it. I've heard a lot of negative things about the Wisconsin fans, but they generally left us alone. We even walked all the way round the Rose Bowl, through the horde of fans, and I didn't really hear anything.
We started off our adventure by going to this free "fan zone" area. It was basically just a fenced-off area with a bunch of food and souvenirs. And a really, really terrible band that was playing really bad music. We watched the end of GameDay, including Lee Corso picking the Badgers to win, and one of the event guys asked us about TCU.
"Where is TCU located?"
"Fort Worth"
"Where is that?"
"Its near Dallas"
"Is that in South Texas?"
*Sigh*
Then he started talking about the game. He seemed really surprised that Vegas had us favored. Everyone else the country was picking Wisconsin...why would the money be on the Frogs?
"Um...because we're good?"
Just a taste of things to come, I guess.
Like I said in last year's posts, I spent the entire day of the Fiesta Bowl with this terrible feeling in my stomach. Something was going to go wrong, and I knew it all day. But the day of the Rose Bowl, I felt great. Optimistic. No worries at all.
Which was strange...because I didn't really know what to think of the game. I knew that TCU was good, but I wasn't sure how good. The teams that TCU beat (Utah, Baylor, SMU, etc.) were all struggling in their bowl games...leading me to wonder if TCU was any good at all. And I knew Wisconsin was good...as they steamrolled through most of their schedule.
I thought that TCU had a pretty good chance of scoring points on a relatively average Wisconsin defense, but I knew we'd have trouble stopping the run. I knew the game would be close, and I was just hoping that it would end with our side winning.
So we ate at an overpriced official tailgate, and we hurried into the stadium. There's nothing special to the Rose Bowl...it's simply a bowl. There is no upper or lower deck. No huge JumboTron. Nothing flashy. Just a hundred years of history.
We watched as people filled the stadium. Walked around for a little bit. And finally took our seats. They introduced both teams. Skydivers carried in the team flags, game ball, and official coin. The coin was tossed, sides were assigned, and it was time to kick off.
We were loud, and Wisconsin took their first snap. Forty yards later, and we were scared. Wisconsin was going to run the ball, and it looked like it was going to be a long day. We were able to hang on, holding the Badgers to a field goal, and we all felt like we'd dodged a bullet. And a few plays later, as Andy Dalton led the Frogs to a touchdown and a 7-3 lead, we felt better.
You see (and any NFL scouts reading, take note), there are actually two Andy Daltons. One Andy showed up to the last BCS game that TCU went to. He's sloppy, inconsistent, and makes tons of mistakes. The other Andy is one of the best quarterbacks in college football.
I'd joked with Ashley that they needed to run their first offensive play as an easy pass to see which Andy we were dealing with. That's exactly what they did - and we had good Andy. My fears were set aside.
But then Wisconsin drove down and scored a touchdown of their own. TCU bounced back and made it 14-10, and we all settled in for a huge shootout.
Wisconsin felt the same thing and decided to slow things down. In the second quarter, TCU had three plays from scrimmage. Wisconsin owned the ball. And for the second year in a row, TCU allowed a damn fake punt in a BCS game.
It was halfway through the quarter. TCU was about to get the game's first stop, leading Wisconsin to a 4th and 4. They sent their punt unit on, and they snapped it to their punter. The whistle blew for a false start penalty, but the punter took several steps forward. Looked like a fake punt to me, but apparently the TCU coaching staff didn't think so.
The punter ran about 25 yards to successfully execute a fake punt. It led to 3 points and a one-point lead for TCU going into halftime. And I was pissed. Boise, Oregon State, and Wisconsin had all executed successful fake punts against TCU in less than one calendar year. Are you kidding me?
But things felt better when TCU raced down to start the half and made it 21-13. I looked up, and there was still 28 minutes left in the half. I was worried that Wisconsin was still able to go down...get a touchdown and a 2-point conversion...and we'd have a new ballgame.
My fears were realized with a few minutes left in the game. Wisconsin ran the ball right down TCU's throats, and looked like they were going to score. And they were doing a perfect job...they were running the ball well enough to run the clock down. Not only were they going to score, but they weren't going to leave enough time on the clock for TCU to do anything. The game seemed destined for overtime. Every time it looked like TCU might stop them, Wisconsin got another first down
And with exactly two minutes left, they scored. Three fourths of the stadium erupted. We hoped that we could, somehow, stop them on the 2-point conversion.
And we did. Despite running the ball for the entire drive (and for the entire game), Wisconsin decided to throw the ball on the most important snap of the game. A lot of people criticized the play...and I agree...but at the same time, the intended receiver was wide open. You can't ask for more than that. But Pat Forde did it best...an All American did what All Americans do. Make a play when the game was on the line.
Our side went crazy. We were still up 21-19, and they had to kick off to us. We started doing math in our heads to figure out how many plays were needed...and we realized that they were going to onside kick. We watched as the kick sailed into Bart Johnson's hands, and we cheered again.
More math. Wisconsin had one timeout left, and that meant we needed a first down. More calm fear. Optimistic hope.
First down. One yard. Timeout Wisconsin. Nine yards to go. Second down. Five yards. Third and 4.
And they got it. And we all went crazy. People were hugging. I was physically lifted into the air. Old people high fived young people. It was absolute insanity. It was the first time I'd really been present for any kind of major championship, and it was absolutely thrilling. We cheered as the clock winded down. We cheered as they brought out the trophy. Cheered through the speeches. Cleared as the Wisconsin band inexplicably took the field and did another set.
And my head hurt for an hour afterwards.
We had a minor with us so we couldn't do any major celebrating. We had dinner. Bought some souvenirs. Had some dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. And we went home.
We saw plenty of red out on Colorado Street in Pasadena, and we knew exactly how they felt. Last year, we went into a big BCS game against a "lesser" opponent and found a way to lose a game we all expected to win. We had thoughts of an AP National Title that were dashed by some random team from some random place.
And it was so great to be on the other side of it this time.
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