2006 ROSE BOWL PREVIEW

2006 Rose Bowl Preview - Texas vs USC

On January 4th 2006 Vince Young will get a chance to make his argument for the Heisman, on the field, as he goes toe-to-toe with Heisman trophy winner Reggie Bush in the “Grand Daddy of them all.” Bush, who won by a landslide in the polls, will be playing to let the nation know that college football exonerated the right man, and it always helps to have a former Heisman Trophy winner, Matt Leinart, on your side, or does it (I’ll discuss that more in a bit)? There is no room for talk of possible BCS blunders in terms of this matchup, like last year when some felt Auburn didn’t get a fair shake, as the only two unbeaten teams in college football will deservedly be facing off in what is shaping up to be a bigger game than the Super Bowl.

No matter how you look at it USC has the home field advantage playing in Pasadena. I’m not sure how big of a factor it would be if this was the Trojan’s first time in the spotlight, but it’s not. The Trojans will be gunning for their third straight national title. They are already comfortable in these big games and staying close to home will reduce the butterflies that Texas has to be feeling as they will be playing for their first national title since 1970 and haven’t turned in an undefeated season since 1969. And that goes without saying that these Longhorns are from the State of Texas, a state that lives and breathes football. Their geography alone has placed an awful lot of pressure on the shoulders of these young men.

I didn’t want to bring up USC’s 55-19 slaughtering of the Sooners in last year’s Orange Bowl for Texas’ sake, but this year’s Rose Bowl shares some similar themes that are worthy of mentioning. In last season’s Orange Bowl matchup former Heisman winner Jason White and Heisman runner up Adrian Peterson had a chance to show the country who the best player in college football was, but it didn’t take Leinart long to silence any stubborn contenders. But perhaps last year’s Orange Bowl game has started a new curse, “The Curse of the former Heisman winner.” Because Jason White won the coveted award the year before, already reaching the pinnacle of individual athletic accomplishment, and by not winning the award a second time, in essence not having as good of a season, he was inevitably doomed to fail. This might sound far fetched and I’ll admit my reasoning is, but this same scenario could occur in the Rose Bowl. If the Trojans go down, you’ll all look at me in astonishment and we’ll all have a new sure fire trend for bowl game wagering. I’m guessing, however, that by Bush winning the Heisman, a player on the same team as the former winner, the curse is offset. If runner up Adrian Peterson would have took home the honor last season, who knows, maybe Oklahoma would be the defending champs. But enough gobbledygook, here are some stats that Texas is up against.

USC has 8 perfect unbeaten seasons. The Trojans are 3-0 when playing a #2 team when ranked #1. They are 5-0 in bowl games when ranked #1, winning national titles each of those seasons. With this kind of history maybe the state of California should be synonymous with football in the same way Texas is. Although many factors point to USC having the upper hand, I definitely see some advantages for the Longhorns. Texas will be the best defense USC has faced all year, and the best offense, as the Longhorns average 50.9 points per game, nearly a point more than the Trojans, and only give up 14.6 to USC’s 21.3. Several teams, most notably Fresno State, have been able to put up high point totals on USC. Also the Trojan defense is yet to face a running quarterback like Vince Young who is capable of beating you through the air as well, silencing many who doubted his passing ability going into the season.

This has the makings of one of the best bowl games ever played. Let’s hope college football’s best won’t disappoint on the grand stage.

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