Entries from December 2008

Rose Bowl prediction

December 31st, 2008 · No Comments

On Tuesday the Rose Bowl brought both teams, in their entirety, to the media hotel for interviews. The players filed into a large ballroom, in their jerseys, and sat at round tables in groups of 6-8.
Penn State came first. The Lions mostly sat quietly unless being interviewed. USC followed and looked hopelessly bored, talking on cell […]

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Tags: Uncategorized

LA bowlin’

December 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Greetings from the land of the perpetual traffic jam, where everything that should be written about the Rose Bowl already has been. But, to paraphrase Fitzgerald, still we beat on, laptops against the current, borne ceaselessly to the media hospitality center….
Observations:
I have a lengthy piece in tomorrow’s Intell about the remarkable experience of attending a USC practice, but […]

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Tags: Rose Bowl

JoePa forever and ever, amen

December 17th, 2008 · No Comments

At Rose Bowl media day Saturday, somebody asked Joe if there was any news on his job/contractural status. The standard Joe reply would have been on the order of (in squeaky, Brooklyn/Italian accent), “I don’t know… I’m not even thinking about that… You guys…”
But that wasn’t how he replied this time. He acknowleged that he […]

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Tags: Joe Pa · Penn State

Conlin on Moyer

December 11th, 2008 · No Comments

It’s my like/despise relationship with Bill Conlin again. The Philly Daily News columnist had a pretty good take on the Phillies/Jamie Moyer situation Wednesday (I still don’t understand why the club didn’t offer him arbitration. If he wants a second guaranteed year, and since he’s 46 you’d of course rather not give it to him, isn’t offering […]

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Tags: dumbness · Phillies · baseball

Devlin to transfer

December 10th, 2008 · No Comments

This came from Penn State at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

“Statement from Penn State Football

Sophomore quarterback Pat Devlin has informed Coach Joe Paterno that he intends to transfer. He will not participate with the team in the Rose Bowl. The Penn State football program wishes him well at his new school.”

Not a surprise, really, and […]

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Tags: college football · Penn State

Bowl shopping

December 10th, 2008 · No Comments

RazorGator “the official ticket package provider of the NCAA and the Rose Bowl  as well as the fan2fan ticket exchange provider of the Orange Bowl and BCS Championship Game,” sent along this guide to ticket prices and availability for all 34 bowl games.
Note that a ticket to the Orange Bowl can be had for as […]

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Tags: college football · Uncategorized

College football: regular season post-mortem, etc…

December 9th, 2008 · No Comments

Over the next month you’ll read a lot of stuff like this, from an AP story than ran Sunday:
“That logjam at the top of the rankings wasn’t so hard to figure out.
Nobody dominated the last two months of college football like Oklahoma and Florida. Every poll and pretty much everyone outside of Texas […]

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Tags: college football

Rose Bowl presser

December 8th, 2008 · No Comments

This isn’t earth-shattering stuff, but I thought I’d share the transcript of Sunday’s Rose Bowl press conference. Let the gushing platitudes begin…. 

 
ROSE BOWL TELECONFERENCE
Penn State Coach Joe Paterno and USC Coach Pete Carroll
December 7, 2008

THE MODERATOR: On behalf of the Tournament of Roses, welcome to the Rose Bowl Game
Presented by Citi BCS conference call. For tonight’s […]

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Tags: Grandaddy of em all · Joe Pa · college football · Penn State

Just wondering

December 7th, 2008 · No Comments

When Andy Reid yanked Donovan McNabb out of a game two weeks back, the unanimous consensus was that this was a desperate, irrational, indefensible move. Are we still sure about that?

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Tags: Uncategorized

In the wake of the news…

December 6th, 2008 · No Comments

It’s a rare Saturday night in the office. SEC championship (and BCS semifinal) game about to start. In high schools, Wilson just lost 38-35 in triple overtime to Bethel Park in the state AAAA semis. Both teams scored TDs in first two OTs. In the second Wilson faked an FG and threw a pass that got […]

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Tags: college basketball · high school football · Phillies · Penn State · football · baseball