A Tale of Two Rose Bowl streaks

PASADENA — Reynolds Crutchfield is his name, and on Monday, New Year’s Day 2024, he attended the Rose Bowl game here in his hometown for an 80th straight year.

Which is remarkable and admirable and puts me 10 behind the 93-year-old Mr. Crutchfield, who was a high school teacher and basketball coach. 

Behind in games, not years. 

And while I wouldn’t mind catching up in age (I’m more than 10 back of him in that statistic), I’m sure I’ll never equal his number of Rose Bowls.   

Then again, all he’d do was show up, enter the stadium and watch.

My resume is a little more complex and includes the selling of programs, working as a press box usher and writing stories and columns for publications as varied as the late Santa Monica Evening Outlook, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune and of late my very own non-profit (but semi-rewarding) web site, artspander.com.

Those courageous and you could say magnificent men who climbed Everest and other great mountains had a ready answer when asked why: “Because they’re there.”

So to my connection to the Rose Bowl. This was before the majors came west. Before the NBA expanded. For a kid growing up in southern California virtually the only sporting event of importance was, yes, the Rose Bowl Game.

My first was Jan. 1954, Michigan State-UCLA in beautiful weather. My father, who had a mom-and-pop grocery store in the Highland Park district of L.A ., near Pasadena, dropped me off. I wore a white shirt and signed up to peddle programs. I made $10.

I even went to the end zone and picked up a small piece of the goalpost, which in those days was wood and traditionally brought down by celebrating fans.

No cell phones, no ESPN. For a kid in high school, this was nirvana.

As opposed to the next year, 1955. Of course I returned, but alas, for the first time since Stanford-Columbia in 1934 (no I wasn’t there, I wasn’t even in high school), it rained—a steady downpour.

People literally were giving away $20 tickets but the tickets went unclaimed. Hundreds of seats remained empty. It was Ohio State against USC, and even though the Buckeyes won, 20-7, their demanding coach, Woody Hayes, was in a snit because the USC band performed on the soggy field at halftime.

I’m emphasizing that the references here are only the Rose Bowl games that actually were played in the Rose Bowl. I conveniently skipped the one in 2021 that shifted to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, because of Covid restrictions in California.

Not sure if Crutchfield was there or not, and if he smartly avoided traveling to deep in the heart of what we know as Jerry‘s (Jones) World, whether he now really has gone to 80 in a row or 79?  

Or whether in the great scheme of things it counts?

What counted for me on Jan. 2, 1978, was getting from Denver to Los Angeles.

I was the Oakland Raiders beat writer for the Chronicle, and the paper’s sports editor was only concerned with me covering the game against the Broncos that day.

Not with my string of Rose Bowls.

The Broncos defeated the Raiders that New Year’s afternoon, in part on the controversial call on the Ron Lytle non-fumble for a score.

I met my deadline and dashed to the airport, somehow arriving in time for the Monday, Jan. 2 Rose Bowl. I was relieved and elated. Until the sports editor found out and threatened dismissal.

Hey, you have to take chances when you’re on a streak.

Michigan’s D made the stop that matters

PASADENA — You try against Michigan, you run into trouble. And you are also run out of the College Football Championship.  

In one of those games that had too many timeouts and not enough action, everything turned on the final play of only the second Rose Bowl ever to go overtime.

They now are 14-0 and it is because of their defense.                                                                    

They stopped Alabama quarterback, Jalen Milroe, around the two on a fourth and goal carry.

So the Wolverines, ranked No. 1 the past few months, defeated the Crimson Tide, 27-20, dealing another blow to the school that for so long dominated the college game. 

“We obviously were disappointed in the outcome of this game,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who for a third straight year will be kept from the place his team occupied for so long.

“The clock was running down,” said Saban about the way things ended, “and a couple of times we mis-executed.” 

That probably was because of the D, the part of a Michigan team that survived every opponent, and even the controversy created by coach Jim Harbaugh where he was accused of spying.

He was suspended for three weeks, but as you can see from his record it had as little effect on Michigan as everything else.

It wasn’t exactly three yards and a cloud of dust as was the situation with Ohio State under Woody Hayes, but Michigan played tough physical football on both sides of the ball.

What proved to be the difference was that Blake Corum ran 17 yards for the score that would win, contributing to him being selected as the offensive player of the game.

This has been a spectacular time for the Harbaugh family, who once lived on the San Francisco peninsula when father Jack was a coach at Stanford. A few days back, John Harbaugh coached the Baltimore Ravens over the 49ers, and now Jim leads his alma mater into the College title game.

“Happy New Year,” was the way a properly thrilled Jim Harbaugh, the Michigan coach, greeted the media. “A great way to start the New Year. That was glorious.”

Perfection so often is.

“Alabama had a great game plan for us,” said Harbaugh when told that until the final drive of regulation, the Wolverines had only 41 yards of offense in the second half.

A great game plan that wasn’t quite enough.

Maybe the best Rose Bowl game ever

PASADENA, Calif. — It wasn’t for the national championship, but that’s the only thing this football game on the first day of January 2022 wasn’t.

They’ve said the one in 2006, when Texas came back to beat USC, was the greatest Rose Bowl ever, and the most exciting. We’ll amend that contention.

The way a redshirt first-year quarterback from Ohio State amended the school’s and the game’s passing records.

C.J. Stroud grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, about 30 miles east of the Rose Bowl stadium itself, so maybe it was appropriate he would help lead the Buckeyes to a last-second win over Utah, 48-45.

The winning field goal from 19 yards with nine seconds remaining was by Noah Ruggles, but those were merely — merely? — the ultimate points in what had to be one of college football’s ultimate games.

It was a game that dragged before it erupted. Five touchdowns were scored in a three-minute stretch in the second quarter, Stroud responsible for six overall as he threw for 573 yards.

Never mind why Stroud left California, but a year ago as a freshman at Ohio State he never threw a pass, waiting behind Justin Fields, who of course was the No. 1 pick by the Chicago Bears in last year’s draft.

To recycle the line used about winning college football programs, the Buckeyes don’t rebuild, they reload.

But for the first time in eight years, they lost to Michigan in the annual matchup, which is why Ohio State was in the Rose Bowl while Michigan was in the playoffs getting pounded by Georgia.

Be assured, with Stroud back another couple of years, that won’t happen in the immediate future.

On the receiving end of Stroud’s passes were Jaxon Smith-Nigba, with 15 catches for 347 yards and three touchdowns, and Marvin Harrison Jr., the son of a onetime NFL star, with 8 catches for 32 yards and three touchdowns.

How times have changed. Ohio State, where the offense 60 years ago was often described as “three yards and a cloud of dust,” on this New Year’s afternoon ran for 110 yards but passed for almost 600.

Stroud said of his link with Smith-Nigba, “We came in together as freshmen. But me and him doesn’t have a good game without our offensive line. Our backs ran well. Our tight ends blocked well. When you get that combination, you get going.”

Stroud, who also was a fine basketball player in high school, has made it a habit of looking for Harrison. “I call him ‘route man,’” said Stroud. “His routes are amazing, especially against a good corner.”

This Rose Bowl was amazing. Utah was all over the field, but after leading through three quarters, the Utes couldn’t close.

“I’m sure the fans and the networks got their money’s worth out of this one,” said Kyle Whittingham, the Utah coach. “Our guys got nothing to hang their heads about.”

Ohio State has played in numerous Rose Bowls. This was the first for Utah.

“It was a heck of a football game,” said Whittingham.

That it was.

Woody and a Rose Bowl in the rain

PASADENA, Calif. — You know the song: “It Never Rains in Southern California — It Pours.” Written by a guy named Albert Hammond about not being able to find work in the movie business.

Could have been about the 1955 Rose Bowl game.

No question, the weather this time of year in SoCal is spectacular. For the most part, it’s blue skies. Chamber of Commerce stuff.

But as the lyrics of another song go, into each life (and region) some rain must fall — the “region” line is my own personal addition, because it was raining here on Thursday as far as the eye could see.

That was also the case more than 60 years ago for the event with the copyrighted nickname, “Grandaddy of Them All.”

The label was created by the good people around here because they believed the Rose Bowl, in a way responsible for the multitude of postseason college football matchups, was being pushed out of the headlines by lesser games.

But on that New Year’s Day, that afternoon in ’55, the Rose Bowl received attention it never wanted.

For the first time since 1934 and the last time ever — not counting some fourth-quarter heavy mist in 1996 — it rained on the Rose Bowl.

What a literal mess on the field. What a virtual stink caused by Woody Hayes.

He was a grumpy, demanding, un-merry old soul who coached Ohio State — which, interestingly enough, will play Utah on Saturday in the 2022 Rose Bowl.

In ’55 Hayes and Ohio State would beat USC, 20-7, but Woody was displeased because the Trojan band had been allowed to march at halftime on turf already soggy, thereby transforming the Buckeye attack to three yards and a clod of mud.

That was only one of the controversies for what, you should excuse the term, became a quagmire of a game.

USC shouldn’t even have played. UCLA not only was the No. 1 team in the land in the UPI poll but also the undefeated champion of the Pacific Coast Conference, from which the West Coast team in the Bowl normally would be chosen.

But the PCC had a no-repeat rule. UCLA had played (and lost to) Michigan State in the 1954 Rose Bowl. Thus USC got the call.

That game was our first formal introduction to Woody, who the late Jim Murray once said was graceless in victory, graceless in defeat. Hayes once punched Los Angeles Times photographer Art Rogers when Rogers, doing his job, aimed a camera at Hayes.

My job at the Rose Bowl, before I became a journalist, was to peddle programs. The first Rose Bowl game I worked, 1954, I ended up with $10 and, because the goal posts were made of wood and people could swarm the field, a few memorable slivers. I was in high school and thrilled.

But one year later, everything was different. Before that 1955 game, the heavens opened up around 10:30 in the morning. I was unprepared. So was everyone else.

The usual 100,000 tickets had been sold (at $15 each, if I recall), but attendance was around 89,000. As I slogged through the stadium trying to sell before the game started, a spectator stopped me and asked if I wanted to buy a ticket for 25 cents. No thanks.

I was wearing one of those high school letterman-type jackets, blue with fake leather sleeves over a required white dress shirt.

By the time I left, the shirt was blue from the jacket color leaking. I had earned $1.25. Happy New Year. Glub.

For the Rose Bowl, and Alabama, location is second to the result

By Art Spander

In the end, the location became less important than the result. Which despite traditionalists, and that includes me, is what counts.

To paraphrase Shakespeare about a certain flower, what’s in a game? If a pathway to another national championship for Alabama smells just as sweet, call it what you choose.

The red rose logo was on the turf at AT&T Stadium. The Crimson Tide seemed to be everywhere and Notre Dame virtually nowhere.

If one tradition was upturned, the Rose Bowl Game being held in Texas — and not even Pasadena, Texas — another remained: domination by Alabama, a 31-14 win over the Fighting Irish, in the event copyrighted as the “granddaddy of them all.”

Because of the Covid-19 surge in California and restrictions against spectators, for only the second time in its more than 100-year history the game had to be played somewhere other than the 92,000-seat stadium in Pasadena, Calif. 

Notre Dame might believe it shouldn’t have been played anywhere.

The Fighting Irish were down quickly. Alabama (12-0 and deservedly ranked No. 1) was ahead 14-0 with some four minutes to go in the first quarter.

And trying to ignore the critics from the media, most located someplace in Middle America, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly agreed with the announcers who did the game for ESPN.

“They made plays on the perimeter,” said Kelly, an acknowledgment that Alabama had too much speed, particularly receiver DeVonta Smith, who caught three touchdown passes.

That’s as many as anyone ever has caught in a Rose Bowl. But just as whether a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear makes a sound, there could be a question from purists (guilty, your honor) whether a record not set in the Rose Bowl is really a Rose Bowl record.

The record for Notre Dame in Rose Bowl games, whether in southern California or north Texas, is now 1-1, the win coming over Stanford in the 1925 game.

The Notre Dame record for the year is 10-2, which would thrill the fans and alums of all but three other teams in the land but apparently displeases those who remember the glory days of the Golden Dome, and say as much — in print or on air.

Alabama has become what Notre Dame used to be. And that point rubs on Kelly. Or at least the comments in the media do.

The Fighting Irish are now 0-7 in either BCS or New Year’s six bowl games, going back to a rout by Oregon State (Oregon State?) in 2000.

Notre Dame has been outscored by 161 points in those games, with the closest loss by 14 points. So Kelly wasn’t happy with the postgame questioning.

“This wasn’t a matter of not getting knocked off the ball or not having enough players to compete against Alabama,” he said. “I’m sorry if you don’t like it and if the national media doesn’t like it, but we’re going to go back to work and we’re going to put ourselves back in this position again.

“We came up short with the firepower. There is not a wider story than with the firepower and making a few more plays.”

Alabama has the firepower and has been making plays for many seasons under head coach Nick Saban. He missed a few days during the schedule when he tested positive for Covid, but the Crimson Tide never missed a beat. 

What he did miss, however, was the place that gave the game its identity.

“I don’t think there’s anything quite like the Rose Bowl, the tradition, the setting, the mountains,” said Saban. “It’s just a phenomenal experience. I wish our players had gotten the opportunity.”

He’s not the only one. Hey, Rosie, it wasn’t the same on New Year’s Day without you.

Wisconsin couldn’t overcome itself or Justin Herbert

By Art Spander

PASADENA, Calif. — He didn’t even make the top 10 in the Heisman Trophy voting, a comedown for Justin Herbert after a cover story in Sports Illustrated. The other guys — the winner, Joe Burrow of LSU, and Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma — had more yards and more attention.

The NFL scouts remained high on Herbert, however. He could throw the ball, which was expected of a top quarterback. And as he proved once more, on a beautiful blue-sky New Year’s Day in the 106th Rose Bowl game, he also could run with it.

Herbert rushed for three touchdowns, the most by a quarterback in a Rose Bowl in 13 years, and carried the University of Oregon to a 28-27 win over Wisconsin — which gave Herbert and Oregon the opportunity by losing three fumbles and throwing an interception.

“We didn’t overcome ourselves,” a downhearted Paul Chryst, the Wisconsin coach, said of the four turnovers.

But Herbert, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior who grew up near the Oregon campus in Eugene, overcame his failures and disappointment against Arizona State — a loss that knocked the Ducks out of the chance to play for the national championship but in a way may have been advantageous.

Oregon instead of Oklahoma would have faced LSU in one of the semifinals last weekend. The Sooners were battered, 63-20. Instead, Oregon goes to the Rose Bowl the first day of 2020, gets a thrilling victory on Herbert’s 30-yard run in the fourth quarter and may get a spot as high as No. 5 in the final rankings.

Wisconsin, which appeared to have the majority of the usual sellout crowd of 90,462 on its side — if you lived in the Midwest, wouldn’t you head for California in winter? — also for a long, long while seemed to have the game.

There was a six-play sequence in the first quarter that included a 95-yard touchdown kickoff return by Wisconsin’s Aron Cruickshank, a Herbert interception and another Badger TD, which gave Wisconsin a 10-7 lead.

And Oregon was virtually offensive on offense, their combined passing and running yards total of 204 was the fewest in a Rose Bowl game in 41 years.

But you can’t keep giving the other team the ball. Eventually, you give it the game.

“We would have liked to finish it differently,” said Chryst. Wisconsin finished it, the season, 10-4, Oregon 12-2.

Not surprisingly, Oregon coach Mario Cristobal called Herbert the best college quarterback in the land.

“He can beat you in so many ways,” said Cristobal after a game in which Herbert basically beat the Badgers on the ground, running four yards for a TD in the first quarter, five for one in the second and then the big 30-yarder with 7:41 left in the game.

“You see the legs,” said Cristobal, “you see the arms. But what you don’t see is the leadership and the heart.  And in the end, that was the biggest difference, in my opinion.”

Herbert said of his winning TD dash, “It’s a rare opportunity. It’s something I haven’t experienced very often. But it was great.”

Oregon wasn’t great, but it was effective. The school’s athletic program (Nike U?) is on a roll. The basketball team, No. 5 in the rankings, very well could be better than the football team.

“We go hard now,” said Cristobal, an implication that the team was soft the previous year. “What we do is not kind and cuddly, and it’s certainly not for everybody. We stuck to a blueprint that is as demanding as it gets.”

A blueprint and a quarterback who runs and, most importantly, wins.

The Athletic: So many Rose Bowl memories, and Georgia and Oklahoma did their part to add to them

By Art Spander
Special to The Athletic

PASADENA, California — Not a bad Rose Bowl. For football. A lot of scoring. Several long runs by Georgia and Oklahoma. First overtime ever.

But no earthquakes. Or rain. Or card stunts or scoreboard mischief by students from good old Cal Tech, a school a few blocks away — or if you consider the chances of it ever playing in the game, a million miles away.

They’ve held the Bowl 104 times, which probably is long enough to earn the label traditional. I’ve been to the most recent 65 games, which also may be long enough to make me considered traditional. Or insane.

I started in 1954 A.D, Michigan State-UCLA (Spartans won 28-20) and haven’t stopped since. The way the swallows return to Capistrano each March from their winter grounds in Argentina thousands of miles away (or about the distance of Rodrigo Blankenship’s game-record field goal for Georgia), each January I return to the Rose Bowl. And why not?

There’s nothing like watching the sun set over the San Gabriel mountains east of the stadium. (Although Monday there was little sunshine, and plenty of haze).

Weather, mostly good, is so much a part of the Rose Bowl the late, great Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray would moan in print, “Oh no, not another beautiful day; another 20,000 Midwesterners will be moving here.”

I didn’t have to move. I’m an L.A. native. When I was a kid, L.A. didn’t have tall buildings, espresso stands or the Dodgers. It had movie stars and the Rose Bowl. I had no chance with the actress Jane Russell, so I signed up to sell programs at the game.

And year after year, as a West Coast guy, suffered while the Big Ten pummeled the western teams, taking 12 of the first 13 … Yikes!

That came to a halt when Jim Owens showed up at Washington and John McKay at USC. “What do you mean we’re not good enough?” McKay had told a reporter. Blush.

That song, “It Never Rains in Southern California”? Well, it’s rained on the Rose Bowl, if infrequently. The last time there was more than a mist, however, was 64 years ago, 1955. And it poured. So much so that Woody Hayes, the scourge of Columbus, whined about the USC band marching at halftime, even though Ohio State was able to march to a 20-7 victory. Days later cars were being towed out of the mud of the golf course which surrounds the bowl and is used as a parking lot.

Some people, like Hayes, who another New Year’s Day slugged photog Art Rogers, find disenchantment at the Rose Bowl.

Until the 1947 contract that matched champions of the Big Ten and Pacific Coast Conference, the Rose Bowl would bring in any Midwest or eastern school — Georgia in 1943 for example — to face one from the Coast.

UCLA wanted to play Army in that ’47 game, but was obligated to meet Illinois. Oh, the grumbling. Oh, the embarrassment. Illinois, with a back named Buddy Young running everywhere, won 45-14.

I’ve been attending the Rose Bowl so long I saw Cal (or as Millenials call it, UC Berkeley). Play in the Rose Bowl. Really. That was 1959. Before the Free Speech Movement.

Joe Kapp was the Golden Bears quarterback. He didn’t play defense. No one played defense for Cal, which had a 178-pound tackle, Pat Newell. “We’re going to make a freeway over him,” Forrest Evashevski, the Iowa coach, supposedly said. The Hawkeyes did that, Bob Jeter running for TDs and Iowa winning, 38-12.

A couple of years later, 14 of those future physicists from Cal Tech infiltrated the rally committee planning the card stunts for Washington before the 1961 Rose Bowl against Minnesota. So the card stunts included SEIKSUH.(Huskies spelled backward) and CALTECH. In 1984, when UCLA met Illinois, some other Cal Tech kids took over. It was hysterical, if you weren’t UCLA, Illinois or a Rose Bowl official.

“Granddaddy of them all,” is the copyrighted slogan the Rose Bowl people use to remind us it was in first in the business. I’ll raise a glass to that and to epic Rose Bowl played the opening day of 2018.

Copyright 2018 The Athletic

Newsday (N.Y.): Georgia outlasts Oklahoma in Rose Bowl to reach title game

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — You might say the national college football championship semifinal in that most historic of stadiums Rose to the occasion. In the end, so did the University of Georgia.

The third-ranked Bulldogs verified their nickname Monday night by coming back from repeated deficits to beat second-ranked Oklahoma, 54-48, in two overtimes and advance to the championship final.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2018 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Christian McCaffrey leads Stanford’s Rose Bowl rout of Iowa

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — Using the multiple skills of record-breaking sophomore halfback Christian McCaffrey to the maximum, Stanford ruined both Iowa and any sense of a competitive game with a 45-16 win in the 102nd Rose Bowl yesterday.

McCaffrey ran for 172 yards, caught four passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, returned a punt for 63 yards and a touchdown and returned a kickoff 28 yards. He set a game mark of 368 yards of total offense, 22 more than Wisconsin’s Jared Abbredaris had against Oregon in the 2012 Rose Bowl.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Oregon crushes Florida State in Rose Bowl to reach College Football Playoff final

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — The oddsmakers knew Oregon, even if most of the eastern United States did not.

The Ducks, the aptly named Quack Attack, were a 9 1/2-point favorite over Florida State, a team that hadn't lost a game in two-plus seasons. Some people wondered how that could be. They found out the first day of 2015.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota square off in national semifinal

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — One team, Oregon, is second in the nation in the playoff rankings. The other, Florida State, is third and undefeated. Each has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. What else do we need to know?

Other than who will win Thursday's College Football Playoff semifinal, of course.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Hollywood finish for Florida State — and the BCS

By Art Spander

PASADENA, Calif. — Isn’t this the way the scripts usually run down here Hollywood way? Drama every few minutes. Then when we’re all washed out, the hero comes riding — or passing and running — out of the distance to save the day?

When they’re bringing the curtain down, make certain you leave them something to remember.

Which in this final of the often criticized, soon-to-be-disposed-of Bowl Championship Series, is exactly what this ultimate title game did.

If it wasn’t one for the ages, it was one that left us pleading for more.

And left Auburn, watching and grasping as its magic of last-second success was filched by Florida State, wishing for more time on the clock, impossible as it would be.

On his 20^th birthday Monday, Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston did what Heisman-winning quarterbacks are supposed to do, throw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds to play, giving the Seminoles a 34-31 win over Auburn and the perfect finish to a perfect 14-0 season.

“It’s the best football game he played all year,” Florida State coach Jimbo Elliott said of Winston. “Because for three quarters he was up and down, and he fought . . . It’s not ‘my’ night, and you have two or three touches left, and you can lead your team to victory, that’s what a great player is to me.”

Winston, the red-shirt freshman, trailing, wanted to make the difference.

“That’s a storybook moment,” said Winston. “I was ready. I wanted to be in that situation because that’s what great quarterbacks do, That’s what the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Drew Breeses do.

“Any quarterback can go out there and perform when they’re up 50-0. That’s what you’re judged by. I’m pretty sure that drive, I got more respect from my teammates and people around me on that last drive than I got all year.”

Well, he got a great deal of respect from the people who voted him the Heisman.

The plot for the 16^th BCS championship was part Alfred Hitchcock, part Woody Allen and all engrossing, with gasps and grasps, fumbled punts and — a Florida State player taking off his helmet and drawing a 15-yard penalty after a touchdown — dumb moves.

But it was compelling. Five days earlier, Michigan State had held off Stanford in the 100^th Rose Bowl Game. Then almost before we could blink, we get another thriller in the same Rose Bowl stadium before 94,208 in weather that was like the song "June in January," 69 degrees at the start. 

Kermit Whitfield, untouched, ran a kickoff 100 yards for a Florida State touchdown to give Florida State a 27-24 lead, and a few minutes later Treason ran a handoff 37 yards to give Auburn a 31-27 lead.

Florida State, which hadn’t been behind by more than 11 points in any previous game this crazy year, trailed, 21-3 in the second quarter of his one, and the only thing you could think was that the Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference might be overrated. And under-tested. 

What if they played in the SEC? Or Pac-12? Or Big Ten?

No more questions. They’re legitimate. They’re also the first non-SEC member in eight years to win the MacArthur Bowl as the nation’s top college team.

Winston, confident, brilliant, was 20 of 35 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner. He was sacked four times by an Auburn defensive that was impressive when it wasn’t offensive. That 100-yarder was a game changer.

Winston also ran 11 times but his net distance, ruined by the sacks, was a mere 52 yards.

“He’s a freshman,” Auburn defensive end Dee Ford said of Winston, “and he started second-guessing his decisions, holding the ball. I think tonight we kind of exposed him.”

But who made the big play? Who won the game? Who left Auburn, which once had a 21-3 lead, in the end with a 12-2 record? Jameis Winston and Florida State, that’s who.

The greatest finish in a BCS championship game was when Vince Young scored with 19 seconds to go and gave Texas a 41-28 win over USC on Jan. 4, 2006, also at the Rose Bowl. This one, the last one, the ultimate one, ranks right with it.

Farewell, BCS. You had a great run. And pass.

Newsday (N.Y.): Connor Cook, Spartans defense rally Michigan St. past Stanford in Rose Bowl

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — It was one of 100 for the Rose Bowl, the "granddaddy of them all," as it is billed, but for Michigan State, the winner yesterday on the first day of 2014, it was one of a kind.

"Thirteen-and-one," bellowed Spartans coach Mark Dantonio, as he accepted the trophy, "can't get much better than that."

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Defensive juggernauts clash in 100th Rose Bowl

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — The oldest of the bowl games, the one known as the "Granddaddy of Them All," promises smash-mouth power football, a throwback to the old days, good or not.

For its 100th game, the Rose Bowl on Wednesday matches Michigan State, ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings, against No. 5 Stanford, two teams more concerned with substance than style, particularly in stopping an opponent.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Stanford gets fast start, shuts down Wisconsin in 2nd half to win Rose Bowl

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. -- The new year brought old-style football to the Rose Bowl, the pound 'em, ground 'em game of an earlier era. And Stanford -- contrary to its image as a school that relies on passing -- grounded and pounded relentlessly and effectively.

The Cardinal -- living up to the promise of coach David Shaw, who insisted in a pregame media session: "We're going go run the ball. That's what we do" -- ran it well enough.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Playoffs? Nah, Bowl Games Are Just Fine

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA, Calif. — Playoffs? Not to sound like Jim Mora, so let’s paraphrase him. In college football, who needs playoffs?

We have bowl games. We have the BCS. We had an overload of overtime. An abundance of suspense. What else do we need?

You think LSU-Alabama will be any better than Oregon-Wisconsin...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Newsday (N.Y.): Oregon gets 1st Rose Bowl win since 1917

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. — Oregon's "Quack Attack'' offense of rapid-fire plays, so effective until the postseason, finally showed up in one of the wildest Rose Bowl games ever, one that broke scoring records and in the end broke Wisconsin's heart.

The Ducks had the ball 11 minutes less than the Badgers, but if they trailed in time of possession they didn't on the scoreboard, opening 2012 with a 45-38 win Monday night in the 98th version of what has been nicknamed "The Granddaddy of them All.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Dalton, defense secure TCU's 13-0 season

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PASADENA, Calif. -- Gary Patterson goes home now, goes back to Texas, atop  his figurative mountain, if not atop college football. He goes home knowing that his team, Texas Christian University, will be one of the last two unbeatens and believing it proved a point by keeping high-scoring Wisconsin from getting its usual share of points.

On the first afternoon of 2011, TCU -- outweighed but certainly not outplayed -- defeated Wisconsin, 21-19, in the Rose Bowl yesterday, showing that even though it isn't from a BCS conference (the Mountain West), it deserved to be in  a BCS game.

"This is the climax of 10 years,'' said Patterson, who coached the Horned  Frogs to a 13-0 record. "I've been telling people the last eight years there is parity in college football. I think 10 teams can claim the national championship.

"I'm looking forward to watching the national championship game, because I don't have to sweat, don't have to call a defense.''

That game will be played Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz., between unbeaten Oregon and unbeaten Auburn.

After TCU outmaneuvered Wisconsin (11-2) on both offense and defense, the suggestion was made to Patterson that maybe the Horned Frogs should have been involved.

"I'm going to have the opportunity to watch those two teams and see how mine compares,'' Patterson said. "I think we're better. My vote doesn't count.''

Wisconsin was one of the five Big Ten teams to  lose a bowl game on New Year's Day.

The Badgers had the ball for 13 minutes, 10 seconds longer than TCU. They had 385 yards total offense to 301 for TCU, and the Horned Frogs ran for only 82 yards, 28 of those by quarterback Andy Dalton,  who was named offensive player of the game.

TCU linebacker Tank  Carder deservedly got the defensive honor. After Wisconsin scored with two  minutes remaining, Carder slapped away Scott  Tolzien's potential tying two-point conversion pass.

"I was in the right place at the right time,'' Carder said.

After TCU grabbed the subsequent onside kick attempt, Wisconsin's time was  all but done, setting off a celebration among the purple-clad Horned Frogs fans who comprised more than a third of the 94,118 spectators.

When asked about the "Cinderella aspect'' of TCU, which has lost only three games in three years, Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema insisted, "I don't think they're a Cinderella story, because they proved it.''

TCU and Wisconsin, each averaging 43 points, each was held to its lowest  total of the season. But the first quarter was the highest-scoring in Rose Bowl
history, with TCU going ahead 14-10.

After that, the Wisconsin offensive line, averaging about 320 pounds, went nowhere against TCU's 4-2-5 scatter defense, particularly on third downs.

Dalton, who went 15-for-23 for 219 yards and one touchdown, was not sacked.  He was sacked only seven times all season.

"If we were going to win,'' Patterson said, "we were going to have to play a ballgame where we didn't do much to hurt ourselves.''

TCU didn't have a turnover. But neither did Wisconsin.

"I knew how important this game was to Andy [Dalton], because he was very  hard on himself after [losing] the Fiesta Bowl a year ago to Boise State,'' Patterson said.  "Now he's won 44 ballgames. He's the winningest active quarterback in college  football.''

And now TCU is no worse than the second-best team.

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http://www.newsday.com/sports/college/college-football/dalton-defense-secure-tcu-s-13-0-season-1.2581393
Copyright © 2011 Newsday. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Tradition No Longer Matters at Rose Bowl

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA, Calif. -- Hey, Gramps. Or maybe you would prefer Granddaddy, because that's the way you're always referred to in Rose Bowl literature, as "the Granddaddy of Them All."

Love you -- I'd have to, or I wouldn't have dropped by 57 straight times, planning to make it 58 Friday -- but you're becoming virtually unrecognizable.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

RealClearSports: Colt Is the Real McCoy

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- This is southern California at its luxurious best, the Marriott Hotel on a bluff, the Pacific in the distance, the outside temperature in the mid 70s.

Except the kid wearing the white jersey with No. 12 on the front is inside, and his view is of cameras, microphones and prying journalists.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010