With my maze Michigan shirt sitting in a pile on the floor beside me, I must swing into the blog to give some post Rose Bowl reflections on a tragically marvelous day in the Arroyo Seco canyon. The day started spectacularly with the Gaines-Aldrich crew hitting Colorodo Blvd to take in the Rose Parade. It didn't disappoint. After the parade the ladies headed back home and the guys caught up with Drew and ate a late breakfast before walking down to the Rose Bowl. The whole scene is so surreal. Tailgate parties as far as the eye can see. The stadium before you set up against the backdrop of the San Gabriel Mts. on a picture perfect day. I'd guess around 30,000 UM fans all clad in maze and blue. We took our seats right in the middle of this Midwest mob, and hailed to the Victors while settling in for what we hoped would be (for Benny and me) our first victory in 4 tries at the Rose Bowl. Alas, "Hail to the Victors" got quieter and quieter as the game progressed. It became apparent that we would once again spell LLoyd with two "L"s and that Ben and I would once again make the walk up our of Arroyo Seco shaking our heads and wondering what could have been, while Andrew and Stuart polished off a couple of what I heard people calling "ghetto" dogs in the parking lot (hot dogs, wrapped in bacon, smothered in grilled onions and peppers). Perhaps UM is just not as close to that upper tier (USC, Florida, OSU, Texas) as we all thought. LLoyd got outcoached yet again, making few if any adjustments at halftime, and the only player who seemed fired up on the UM sideline was Sultan Mescew, our punter. That's when you know you're in trouble!
So, it's the day after and we all nurse the right side of our faces due to sunburn, mom and dad board a sad plane back to Detroit, and Ben and I get to go back to school next week and hear it from our students. But, all in all, it was a wonderful, memorable day. It's always fun to bring a little of the Midwest into SoCal and always a little sad to see it go. A big thanks to dad for scoring the tixs and making it all possible. Happy New Year to all!
2 comments:
yeah, but I'd rather have our two losses come from Ohio State and USC rather than Oregon State and UCLA.
and for the record, there was mayo on those ghetto dogs. and they were fantastic!
I still wish I could've taken in the game with y'all, I had to settle for my paw-in-law's high def flat screen (which by the way when I turned on Boise State game later on at home it looked liked I was watching ESPN Classic, I'm saving up)but yeah same take as Jake had, it was 3 to 3 at half time, they outscored us 16-0 in the 3rd quarter, and while watching Pete Carroll act like a lunatic on the sidelines I contemplated whether its worth it to bring in a "killer instinct-like coach" like Carroll, Tressel, or Saban (sorry Jeff). My thought is this, while yeah winning a national championship every four years is enticing, its more exciting when a guy like Lloyd Carr wins because he seems to have a life outside of football. he doesn't strike me as the work-a-holic type of coach who would give up one of his kids for a national championship, and I like that about him. Bring Lloyd back and lets take another stab at it next year.
Post a Comment