Congratulations to USC

[cshelz Member Find all posts View Profile Close cshelz]

First off congratulations to USC for a dominating performance in the Rose Bowl over my Illini. It was a deserved victory. The Illini played scared (I dont think they threw a pass the whole 1st half), had a horribly called game by their offensive coordinator, and turned it over 4 times, multiple penalties, just everything went wrong, but it didnt matter, USC was the better team.

Secondly, I hope all who were able to attend had a good time. It looked like a beautiful day in SoCal.

Enjoy the victory USC fans your team is REAL good.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Clarence,

Your Illini team is probably 2 years from being a REAL good team. You need to get your quarterback situation corrected. The Illini looked like the Minnesota Vikings, all run, no passing ability.

It's hard to go from 2-10 to a BCS bowl game because the intensity and intangibles to win a BCS bowl is so different. I think the reason that Texas beat USC for the National Championship 3 years ago was that they had played in the Rose Bowl the year before and beat Michigan. They understood what to expect and how to handle it.

Also, don't forget, this was like a home game for USC.

Congratulations on a great season.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Clarence,

Your Illini team is probably 2 years from being a REAL good team. You need to get your quarterback situation corrected. The Illini looked like the Minnesota Vikings, all run, no passing ability.

It's hard to go from 2-10 to a BCS bowl game because the intensity and intangibles to win a BCS bowl is so different. I think the reason that Texas beat USC for the National Championship 3 years ago was that they had played in the Rose Bowl the year before and beat Michigan. They understood what to expect and how to handle it.

Also, don't forget, this was like a home game for USC.

Congratulations on a great season.

LOL. USC just won the National Championship for the two years in a row prior to losing to Texas. We lost by ONE play. We were more than adequately prepared mentally and emotionally to play and win that game.

The primary reason we lost was Vince Young is an unbelievable star. If he doesn't play that game, we win by 28 points or more.

The secondary reason we lost was we had a ton of injuries on defense. We had 3rd and 4th string players in the game, especially in the secondary. Not an excuse. Just an explanation. Texas deserved to win and Vince Young deserves his place in history for single handedly beating one of the best teams of all time.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

First off congratulations to USC for a dominating performance in the Rose Bowl over my Illini. It was a deserved victory. The Illini played scared (I dont think they threw a pass the whole 1st half), had a horribly called game by their offensive coordinator, and turned it over 4 times, multiple penalties, just everything went wrong, but it didnt matter, USC was the better team.

Secondly, I hope all who were able to attend had a good time. It looked like a beautiful day in SoCal.

Enjoy the victory USC fans your team is REAL good.

Clarence,

Thanks for the classy congrats. We had a good day yesterday and a lot of balls bounced our way which didn't seem to happen much all season.

I'm not very happy with the unsportsmanlike conduct of a few of our players. I am speaking of Desmond Reed's sommersalt into the endzone and Fred Davis' pointing and taunting of the Illinois linebacker. Most of our fans give Desmond some slack given how tough he had it at USC with the injuries. I am not so forgiving. I hope Coach Pete Carroll does something about it. We had way too many 15 yard penalties this past year. Some justified. Others not. We certainly don't want to become the Miami of the West.

What perplexes me is that the last two times we beat Michigan, we actually beat them much more badly than the score indicated. The opposite was true yesterday. The game was closer than the point spread would suggest. It's just that when the momentum changed after the fumble in the endzone which would have closed the game to 4 points, the flood gates opened and we gained a ton of yards and scored a ton of points.

As a USC Alum, we have had an unbelievable 6 year run. We are truly blessed for having a coach like Pete Carroll who has brought the program back to national prominence after being an also ran team for almost 20 years.

What is truly amazing is that over the past 6 seasons, we won 11 or more games, we are 5-1 in BCS bowl games with 2 national championships, one near miss, 2 almosts and 1 unbeatable team at the end of the season (Carson Palmer's 2002 team). And, this will be our 6th straight finish in the top 5 nationally. All of our losses in those 6 years were by 7 points or less which means our team was in it until our last drive of the game.

Believe it or not, there are many Trojan fans who view this as a sub par season. We call those fans bandwagoners since many of them are fans only because we have been winnning. I've been an Alum since 1985 and a fan for about 30 years now. Our darkest period was in the 90's and I wish I could just erase those years from my memory. All it does it make me appreciate more what we have today.

Me, I'm thrilled that we got to play in the Rose Bowl. We got lucky backing into it. If we have a season like we did this year, I'll always be happy. In fact, if we did it every year, just like we did this year, all Trojans everywhere should be thankful. What a run. I hope it continues. I am going to savour every moment because it can't last forever. It never does.

Fight On!

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

LOL. USC just won the National Championship for the two years in a row prior to losing to Texas. We lost by ONE play. We were more than adequately prepared mentally and emotionally to play and win that game.

The primary reason we lost was Vince Young is an unbelievable star. If he doesn't play that game, we win by 28 points or more.

The secondary reason we lost was we had a ton of injuries on defense. We had 3rd and 4th string players in the game, especially in the secondary. Not an excuse. Just an explanation. Texas deserved to win and Vince Young deserves his place in history for single handedly beating one of the best teams of all time.

Sorry Boca, but the BCS records show only 1 national championship for USC in that time period. Them's the rules.

ETA:

The year USC was no.1 AP but not BCS, I believe it was probably the best team in the nation, it was not the national champion though.

[JROBIN Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JROBIN]

Just got back home (Chicago) from the game

I too have to give USC congratulations on a very well executed game plan. The USC fans also seemed to be very gracious winners. I was in school when we last went to the Rose Bowl in 1984 and I also was at that game, which also did not go well for the Illini (we lost to UCLA 45-9). Illinois did have a good season, but I really was surprised that we were selected to go to the Rose Bowl and I think that the team just wasn't quite mentally ready for all the hoopla that surrounds the game. This is similar to the mistakes that the Illini made when we played Michigan on a nationally televised game and the mental mistakes cost us the game. USC is definitely a talented team and they were ready to play and it really showed during the 3rd quarter when we were trying to rally and suddenly it was 35-10.

I'm not very happy with the unsportsmanlike conduct of a few of our players. I am speaking of Desmond Reed's sommersalt into the endzone and Fred Davis' pointing and taunting of the Illinois linebacker. Most of our fans give Desmond some slack given how tough he had it at USC with the injuries. I am not so forgiving. I hope Coach Pete Carroll does something about it. We had way too many 15 yard penalties this past year. Some justified. Others not. We certainly don't want to become the Miami of the West.

This would be my only complaint, during the final possession by USC, it was clear that the Illini were beaten and yet the offense continued to press on for another score. Fortunately, the clock did run out, but it did leave a bad impression at the end of the game. I do have to blame the USC coaching staff for not calling off the dogs at that point.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Clarence,

. . .
I'm not very happy with the unsportsmanlike conduct of a few of our players. I am speaking of Desmond Reed's sommersalt into the endzone and Fred Davis' pointing and taunting of the Illinois linebacker. Most of our fans give Desmond some slack given how tough he had it at USC with the injuries. I am not so forgiving. I hope Coach Pete Carroll does something about it. We had way too many 15 yard penalties this past year. Some justified. Others not. We certainly don't want to become the Miami of the West.
. . .
Fight On!

Good point Boca. Unfortunately, it wasn't only USC. I saw the same flips and taunting by almost all teams that played in the bowl season. It is the ESPN effect that causes hot dogging. Anymore, it seems it's hard for a college football player to run or stride into the end zone.

This will keep up until one of the guys gets seriously hurt because they don't know how to tumble. Then the coaches will do something about it.

Boca, do you know if that kid who scored the flip touchdown got to play more in the game? If I had been Pete Carroll, he would have been warming the bench for the rest of the game.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Sorry Boca, but the BCS records show only 1 national championship for USC in that time period. Them's the rules.

ETA:

The year USC was no.1 AP but not BCS, I believe it was probably the best team in the nation, it was not the national champion though.

I did not say we won 2 BCS National Championships. That would have been a lie. We won an AP National Championship and a BCS National Championship. Those are FACTS.

Here is a picture of the AP Trophy. Look at it closely. You will see that is says "National Champion." This is Prima Facie evidence that we won a legitimate National Championship.



For the record, the AP National Championship has been in existence far long than has the BCS and other teams also count their AP Titles. If you don't count this National Championship trophy, then ALL AP trophies need to be destroyed from the records.

The BCS, formally known as the Coaches poll, are contractually obligated to award their NC to the winner of the BCS title game. The BCS' only purpose is to pit a number 1 vs. a number 2 and then cast their vote for the winner. This has never negated the AP National Champion.

As you can see from the pairings for this year's BCS Bowl games, the BCS got it wrong yet again. It needs to be replaced with some type of playoff system. I would be okay with a +1 scheme. But, I would prefer an 8 team playoff.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I just got back from Pasadena on Wednesday where my wife and I went to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. It is an awesome thing to witness it in person and just that much sweeter with the Trojans dominating victory.

One of the highlights was I got to talk to Marcus Allan who was one of my favorite players of all time. He was doing a live interview with ESPN right next to where we had our VIP lunch. I got to talk to him briefly after the interview.

If anyone is interested in attending the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game, I strongly recommend doing the Official Tournament of Roses Tour. It is a package deal that includes 4 nights at one of 4 luxury hotels in Pasadena, buffet breakfasts, VIP lunch at the game, all tickets and transportation to the events. The big advantage is that you get priority seating for all the events and you go ahead of everybody so you don't have to wait in long lines. We stayed at the Westin hotel which was great and only 2 blocks to shopping and restaurants. Pasadena is a beautiful city.

[khun hunter Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close khun hunter]

I am a USC grad and was at the game. If you will remember, in the final minutes we had the second and third string players in and this was, for many of them the last football game they would play in. And if you will remember although USC had a timeout left, they did not use it or score (although they most certainly could have), they just let the soon to be grads play and let the clock run. Also remember that the Illinoise coach Zook is a good friend of Pete Carroll's and he did not go out of his way to rub their nose in this loss. The truth is the Illini just shouldn't have been on the field with a powerhouse quality team like USC; and it will be worse next year as we have an amazing quantity of talent about to step into the places of the graduates including a quarterback that is the most highly rated high school prospect in the nation, from AR.