The Rose Bowl

The Rose Bowl was awesome. The whole thing. And I'm not even going to pretend to care about the history of the game because I don't really know anything about it. The Pac-10 has played 96 previous times, but all those games were between teams that I didn't really care about. And since I've really only followed college football for about 8 years, it's not like I'm a fan of the history of the game.

The Rose Bowl was awesome because the team that I do care about, TCU, was able to win the biggest game since World War II. And not only did they win their first BCS game, they were able to win in a convincing way over a Big Ten team that was very respected.

After all the big wins, this is the one it was all building to. Wins over Utah were nice. Wins over BYU were helpful. Wins over Baylor accomplished goals. Oregon State. Virginia. Clemson. Even Oklahoma. They were all going in one direction - 21-19 over Wisconsin.

The Rose Bowl legitimizes the Gary Patterson era in a lot of eyes. In many eyes, it was already legitimized by any of those wins before. In my eyes, it was legitimate a long time ago.

But when you looked at the national media, everyone expected Wisconsin to win. That is, except for TCU fans and Vegas. The money was on the Frogs, but the picks were all for the Badgers. I looked at the Wisconsin message board before the game, and it was full of questions.

- Why is TCU even in the Top 10?

- Could TCU even go .500 in Big Ten schedule?

- How many points will Wisconsin win by?

No one was worried about whether or not Wisconsin would lose. The only question was how many points Wisconsin would win by. And I guess the answer is "one" in the eyes of gamblers...because TCU didn't actually cover the 3-point spread. Unfortunately, that doesn't really count to anyone. Wisconsin wins the bets...TCU wins the game.

This was a win that TCU needed. Andy Dalton and two dozen seniors needed this to cap off an incredible run. Gary Patterson needed it to prove he could win a huge game on a huge stage. TCU needed to avoid going 0-2 in BCS games, particularly heading into a questionable year before heading into an Automatic Qualifying conference.

Boise had Oklahoma. Utah had Alabama. TCU needed Wisconsin.

And a lot of Wisconsin fans still don't get it. They blame the coaching staff and the players for making mistakes. I even saw references to TCU being a "Division 1-AA" and "Division II" team.

The problem is that Wisconsin did pretty much everything they wanted to do. Their offense committed no turnovers. They outgained TCU by 80 yards. They controlled the clock. They racked up 200 yards of rushing. They held TCU's running game and special teams.

If you just looked at the stats, it looked like a Wisconsin win. But TCU was able to win the game because they bent but didn't break. And their best players came up big when they needed to.

Wisconsin didn't lose the game. TCU won it when they had the chance.

I'm gonna write some more about this in later posts. Some of my experiences at the game. Interactions with Wisconsin fans. My time in LA with some good friends. A weird night at a fancy place called Ketchup.

But I just wanted to say that I'm proud of my little Horned Frogs. Who might not be so little anymore.