Happy New Years!

Blogging will be light. 8-)

As a UCLA alum, I was sad but not terribly surprised by my teams failure at the Silicon Valley Bowl. Fresno State came out with a sense of urgency and got a 17 point lead. If you are a great team, that (1) doesn't happen and (2) you can come back and (3) you are not playing in the Silicon Valley Bowl. UCLA this year was a C+ team so a comeback was hoped for by me and my fellow UCLA alums at the sports bar (Busby's on Santa Monica and Berkeley) and being faithful fans we didn't give up until UCLA had a final pass intercepted ending their last drive.

Well, today, the big game is the USC vs. U of Michigan in the Rose Bowl. I don't want to be like the Boston Red Sox fans who define their existence by hating the New York Yankees. Under most circumstances I would root against USC. However, today, I'll either watch the game as an objective sports fan or maybe even root for them so they could stick it into the face of those East Coast media types.

U of M is in about the same situation as Ohio State was last year against Miami. And OSU won! U of M has a great running back and a solid QB. If U of M chews up lots of clock and gets some points on the board then USC could have trouble. As they say the best defense is an offense that keeps the other teams offense off the field.

The other factor is whether U of M can get past the USC O-line. If they give Norm Chow the chance to call on all his pass patterns from his top of the stadium perch, U of M is going to get blown out like everyone else USC has rolled over.

I can't believe I am about to write this... fight on?

USC 35 UM 17

UPDATE: Its a final, USC 28 UM 14.