So, I just had to get this out there. I didn't have the energy to post about The Game and really get all of my thoughts out in a semi-articulate manner, but I had this to say in an email exchange with my buddy the other day. This dude's a fellow SEC man and one of Amanda's classmates at USC. For the record, we weren't upset with each other, though at times it looks that way, though I did find out later that he was just trying to egg me on, and, well, it worked.
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My Initial Email (to a bunch of USC folks and a few of the Texas faithful):
to the naysayers, i have only this to say:
STOP BEING NAYSAYERS
to the rest of you, i have this to say:
HOOK EM, BABY!! WE ARE NUMBER F#*%&ING ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
usc played one HELL of a game last night, but texas is just better. that's all there is to it. USC played an incredible season and an incredible game last night, both by matt leinart (who had about as perfect a second half as possible) and the forgotten superstar lendale white, who probably played himself into a top 10 pick should he leave school. hell, even the heisman trophy had almost 200 total yards, including 95 receiving yards, which is pretty good for a running back.
unfortunately, they were going up against a group of guys who just flat out wanted it more, led by the guy who maybe didn't deserve the heisman as much as reggie bush, based on the regular seasons they both had, but certainly deserved it more than the votes showed, and if they did the voting after the bowl games, like they should, there would be no question. the heisman trophy would be resting its weary head in austin, texas for at least a few more months, then possibly to houston or new orleans or green bay or whoever decides to grab vince in the draft. instead, vince didn't win the heisman, so he "settled" for the next best thing. singlehandedly kicking the collective asses of the "greatest college football team in history."
to be the best, you have to beat the best, there's no question about that. usc was the best, deserving of the #1 ranking all year, so i was glad that we had to go through them on our road to the top, otherwise it might not have meant as much. sort of like the red sox breaking through the yankees on their way to their first world series title in 86 years. either way, though, there should be absolutely NO question in anybody's mind that the longhorns are NOT to be dismissed, NOT to be ignored, VY's performance last night will go down in history as one of the probably 5 best single-game performances in NCAA history (along with reggie's heisman sealing 516 total yards against fresno state), and that the PAC-10 does NOT have what it takes to hang with the other major conferences (maybe the ACC), and that the streak is over.
'till gabriel blows his horn,
ben
My Friend's Response:
Um....I think that VY and Texas got lucky. They are not that good and that game was the biggest fluke of all time. If they played 10 more times it wouldn't even be close, USC would win every single one. VY can't hold a candle to Bush, Leinart, White or even Jarret. Young is slow, awkward and makes poor decisions. How he won that game, I'll never know. I almost want to review the game tape so I can figure it out.
As for being number one, I think it should be Penn State. Their incredibly impressive win over a healthy and talented FSU team in the Orange Bowl has convinced me that they should have been in that Rose Bowl, not a lousy team like Texas.
What a joke that game was. If I were a Texas fan I would be ashamed. Just ashamed of the way they played. USC practically laid down and tried to let Texas win and still it took a last second score by Young to win. Pathetic. Just pathetic.
That is all.
My Rebuttal to His Response:
first of all, let me address your erroneous recap of penn state's bowl game. i love penn state, my whole family went there before me (i'm the black sheep). they should have BLOWN AWAY florida state, who was unranked and lucked themselves into a BCS game by winning an inferior conference and by virginia tech blowing big games. penn state's win wasn't impressive, what was impressive was that florida state nearly won it with a much less talented team.
second of all, you need to go back and watch any game this season that texas played in, or any game last season. vince young does not get lucky, vince young is the human highlight reel. he might not have leinart's arm, but he still managed to pass for a paltry 267 yards, and leinart couldn't move like vince even if the payoff was a 3-way with jessica simpson and his boyfriend nick lachey.
vince might not have been the heisman winner this year, and bush definitely deserved it, largely due to his fresno state performance and vince's slow start against texas A&M, when we scored a measly 40 points and ended a perfect 11-0 regular season. the fact remains, though, that last night, vince blew away not only bush and every other player on the field (with a possible 8-10 nfl draftees this year), he blew away just about every player who has ever played college football. go back and watch the game (i have it on tivo if you want to come over). vince WILLED himself into the end zone time and time again, just like he did in the rose bowl last year against michigan, when the naysayers were whining about cal (CAL??) being left out.
not only that, but bush and white COMBINED only had 6 more rushing yards than VY. there was nothing about last night's game that was a fluke, except maybe bush coughing it up in the 2nd quarter. nobody expected that, least of all the guy he tried to pitch the ball to, who lost his chance to tell his grandkids that he was the first guy to congratulate bush on his first TD of the game of the century.
the only truly lucky thing texas got last night was that no-call on the knee down for the TD pitch, but even if he had been called down, it would have been first and goal from the 3. VY would have glided in on the very next play.
the other thing that we got lucky with was the RIDICULOUS coaching by USC. 4th and 2, to SEAL THE GAME. forget getting stuffed, that\'s not such a big deal. it happens to everyone. but to do it with your golden boy heisman winner sitting on the sidelines, not even in the game as a second option or even a DECOY, for crying out loud?? poor, poor coaching. that's what carroll was famous for in the NFL, and it's back to haunt him now. the second example of ridiculous coaching was that horrific play call on 1st and 10 with 0:08 left in the game, leaving leinart to scramble around and let your dreams of an illegitimate "three-pete" slip away (the only true mistake leinart made all night, by the way. even that interception was a good pass and 9 times out of 10 gets caught for 6.).
if you want to talk luck, talk about the fact that USC was even considered REPEAT national champions. their first one has an asterisk b/c it wasn't a BCS championship game. their second one has an asterisk b/c auburn was in the same position that USC was in when they "won"; their first one. you, as an SEC man, should know that. either way, their 2 titles were impressively played and they parlayed that into a season of infamy, but they couldn't finish it, and it's over. they're not even going to win the pac-10 next year, which is pathetic, and i'm glad i'll be around as a constant reminder of this game to all of you trojans next season. i fully intend to wear burnt orange every time i walk into the coliseum, to a tailgate, or even to sharkeez to watch one of those quidditch games on TV.
FIGHT ON
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Ok, in retrospect, maybe I went a little overboard in that one. Like I said, neither of us were really upset with each other, he was egging me on purposefully, and I was having a blast screaming the praises of the Horns.
I think we've got gluttony pretty well covered after last night's trip to the "am/pm All You Can Eat Pavilion." This was seriously the most disgusting display of eating I have seen or been a part of that did not involve either hazing or some sort of organized competition won by a 78 pound Japanese man. Our unofficial competition was won by Joshua Barkin, who is neither Japanese, nor 78 pounds. I thought about falsifying my eating accomplishments, and when I mentioned this to Josh, he said "Not me. I want the world to know what I did." So, here are our official unofficial tallies:
Josh: 8 (EIGHT!!) Dodger Dogs, 3 Nachos, 4 Diet Cokes (b/c he's watching his calorie intake), some peanuts, 5 mini Baby Ruth Bars, and a Bud Light. That's him with his 8th, emerging victorious from the concession line.
It was somewhere around Dodger Dog #3 that I started saying things like, "Do you think a 30 year old has ever had a heart attack?" and "You know what would have been perfect? If I had gotten a tapeworm yesterday." Jason also had what was probably the line of the night when he looks at Josh and me with a completely straight face and says, "Ok, serious question. Do you think Kobayashi shits solid or liquid?"
Guy #1 (seeing a bunch of mini Baby Ruth bars on the ground in front of us): Hey, man, get those Baby Ruth bars!
