My football weekend actually began on Friday night. I attended the home opener of my high school alma mater, which is a little Catholic school called Damien. As a player, father, fan, scout and hanger-on, I've seen just about every Damien home opener since 1963, but I've never seen one sadder than this. It began with two national anthems, the 'Star Spangled Banner' and 'America The Beautiful'. These were followed by prayer and two different 'moments of silence'. One for former Damien player Rashidi Wheeler who died at Northwestern and another for former Damien player Lt. Col. Neil Hyland who died in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The game that followed was an afterthought. I hope I never see another Damien pregame ceremony like that... The next morning, Dave Francis and I trucked on down the 210 fwy to the Rose Bowl for Ohio State and UCLA. It was a Pasadena perfect day, with temps in the 80's and clear skies. We had plenty of Killian's Red, some sandwiches and cell phone. In SoCal that's a survival kit that will take you a long way. Incredibly, we found Tom Silver right away. The phone number he gave me didn't work for some reason, so I just walked to the big golf fence outside of the north endzone and there he was. He spotted me right away, without ever having seen me before, just as O'Keefe and Gentry did many years before. I guess I just look like a JO'Co...
The pregame ceremonies at the Rose Bowl were typical of the emotional displays that you saw at games around the country. Everyone had 'United We Stand' American flag placards and it truely was a united crowd. Ohio State fans and UCLA fans were amazingly alike. This was not a 'rich' crowd. These people knew how to work for a living, salute the flag and kick arse. The 'moment of silence' was so quiet, you could hear a dog barking in the homes above the Rose Bowl on the rim of the Arroyo Seco. It was a crowd spoiling for a fight...not with each other, but with the pukes who had attacked their country. It was not a great football game. The defenses dominated to the point of stifling anything resembling consistant offensive play, making analysis difficult, but I'll try... The Buckeyes have some MAJOR problems on offense. Their QB completed just 5 passes all day and I can honestly remember only one of them. He was absolutely horrible. Other UCLA fans I spoke with after the game said what I'd been thinking; You could probably find a better QB at almost any high school in SoCal just by throwing a dart out there. He wasn't really a QB at all, by local standards. He was that bad. The rest of the Buck offense looked talented, but young. They knew how to act like Buckeyes, but didn't have the experience to pull it off. The LA Times quoted Bruin players as saying that OSU's linemen came out talking trash, then went dead silent for three quarters as they were pushed all over the field, then acted like they didn't even want to come to the line of scrimmage near the end of the game. It was obviously the hardest they'd ever been hit, but that's part of the learning curve. They'll get better with more playing time and there were some young running backs and receivers who looked pretty good too. But I don't know if this OSU team can overcome these offensive problems this year. It looks pretty grim... The Buckeye defense did a tremendous job. They were up against an experienced, high scoring bunch, with terrible field position all day, thanks to the worst kickers I've ever seen in Division I and they saved their team again and again and again. It was hard not to stand and applaud their efforts along with the Buckeye fans, because it really was a special effort. They had no help from any direction and they just stood their ground and kept pounding away with everything they had... The Bruins were a different story. This is supposed to be the 'Big Year' over on the West Side and so far...I'm not buying it. They're a good team alright, but I'm not going to promote them for a BCS bowl until I see better execution. They're still dropping TD passes, to the point where Bruin fans groan when the ball is thrown at Brian Poli-Dixon. Heisman Trophy? For a guy who fumbled four times on a team that fumbled seven? No way. Even Bruin fans are talking about Fresno State's David Carr. DeShaun Foster isn't even in the picture and won't be until this UCLA offense executes the way it's supposed to. The Bruin's defense looks pretty awesome so far, but nobody here really believes it's for real...yet. Alabama, Kansas and Ohio State were one thing, but Pac10 offenses like Oregon, Washington and Stanford are yet to come, not to mention erratic Carson Palmer who threw for over 400 yds yesterday. If the Bruins stop those guys, then maybe they'll make some converts...
Speaking of the Trojans... They were in midseason form yesterday in the late TV game I got to watch. On a day when every other game in America, even high school games, were filled with emotional pregame, patriotic displays...the Trojans put on a display of their own. Taking the field at Eugene, Oregon, USC Dback Antwuan Simmons taunted, then head butted a Duck player, precipitating a full scale brawl before warmups had even started, that involved all of the players on both teams. Trog coach Pete Carroll then got into a screamimg match with the Oregon coaching staff, which was incredulous at the behavior of the visiting team. I don't know who 'America's team' is, but it looks like the Talibans and Ayotollah's have some real heroes in South Central Los Angeles... The best player I saw in yesterday's game was Robert Thomas of UCLA. He's deserving of his status as a first team All-American linebacker, based on this game. He shut down the middle and made most of his tackles in the OSU backfield. He's very fast and hard hitting. Biggest disappointment was Brian Poli-Dixon of UCLA. I was disappointed every time they put him in. Like the Buckeyes Steve Bellesari, he's a guy with a formerly bigtime reputation that's withering away fast. Both teams would be better off replacing them with younger players IMHO... All in all...it was a strange, sad and unique 24 hour football experience, quite unlike any I've ever known before. ...JO'Co [This message has been edited by JO'Co (edited 09-24-2001).]
Thanks for the report and the laughs... I'm quite sure that the scene at Damien was just aweful and I am sorry I couldn't be there. It sure has been a dark past month for the Spartan family... I see that the stadium looked pretty full but they announced the attendence at something like 77,500... Did UCLA hand out another free 20,000 tickets to school kids again? It always amazes me when I see a stadium that I KNOW is holding about 80 to 90k only to see the announced attendence at about 65 to 70k...
Remember that they redid the Rose Bowl with theater style seating on the sides, numbers further apart on the new benches and elimination of the ground level seats where nobody could see. The new seating capacity is right around 80,000 real seats. ...JO'Co
It was a lot of fun (except the drive home). Besides, you probably saved the cost of repairing the TV by missing your beloved Irish. Tom
Today's LA Times reports that the USC band may have precipitated the brawl between the Trojans and Oregon. I've told you about them before and how they almost started a brawl in South Bend the last time I saw them there. Apparently, they hunkered down in the OREGON end of the field during warmups and began playing 'Conquest' [their only tune] over and over and over as loud as they could at the Ducks, who couldn't hear their own signals. Players began yelling at them to pipe down and Joey Harrington lobbed a few bombs into the horn section. This brought Antwuan Simmons and his lads into the fray breathing fire and throwing fists... The Pac10 is the playpen of American college football... ...Kindergarten Cop...JO'Co