It's the final weekend of the year! I'm taking you to three locales- Orlando, San Francisco, and Houston. These are three popular states for recruiting future football stars. Football is rich in the three states I'll be taking you in this report. So please make yourselves at home on this Charter Jet ride through three cities. I'll be your flight attendant (I've never flown in a plane in my entire life
The Champs Sports Bowl
Citrus Bowl - Orlando, Florida, USA
#14 Boston College {Eagles} vs. Michigan State {Spartans}
Michigan State Looks for a Huge Win in Orlando
New England and the Midwest have temperatures in the 30s. Meanwhile in Orlando, it was 80 degrees. 'Twas a balmy day in Disneyland. Mickey and Minnie Mouse were at the Magical Kingdom watching ESPN just like most of you for the Champs Sports Bowl. Mickey and Minnie love their football. So let's see if BC and Michigan State can work some magic in Orlando. We begin with Boston College. Boston College is the most popular Jesuit university in America. B.C. is better known for their football and even their hockey, but this is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in America.
-1- Michigan State led 7-0 until Boston College tied things up later.
-2- Boston College got another touchdown, but Michigan State got a field goal. So it's 14-10 at the half.
-3- With 5:02 left in the game, the scoreboard saw a field goals being traded by both teams. So we have a 17-13 score in favor of BC. This score was how it ended after three.
-4- Matt Ryan got himself another touchdown. Tack on the extra point, sweetheart! (Lee Corso reference) It's 24-13 now as Boston College continues to lead. Michigan State took it to the houst and wanted two points. They got them. At 5:33 left in the game, Michigan State was looking at a 24-21 defecit as Boston College still led. Can Michigan State tie or take the lead on this drive? Matt Ryan took a bad snap, fumbled the ball, and Boston College will have to punt with 2:45 left in the game. Michigan State got the ball on the 4-yard line after a BC punt. What happened afterwards was a long pass play completed... to an Eagle. They'll just try to run down the clock as Michigan State fans shown their sadness. Michigan State turned over the ball 13 times all season... yet committed five tonight.
Boston College's amazing season finishes at 11-3. They have won eight straight bowl games.
FINAL SCORE:
Boston College - 24
Michigan State - 21
DID YOU KNOW...
...that Jon Misch, a Linebacker for Michigan State, played piano impressively at a meeting in Orlando? He's played the piano all his life.
I now will have to watch two Bowl Games and cover them as best as possible. It's San Francisco on ESPN and Houston on the NFL Network.
The Emerald Bowl
AT&T Park - San Francisco, California, USA
Maryland {Terrapins} vs. Oregon State {Beavers}
San Francisco Ready for College Football
I personally love the city of San Francisco. For a guy who's never been outside the state of Texas in his life, San Francisco is one of the cities I'd love to visit along with New York, Miami, perhaps even Detroit as well. Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco long ago. Are you ready to leave your heart in the wonderful city of San Francisco? The city of San Francisco will soon not see their San Francisco 49ers play in San Francisco as the Niners will move to Santa Clara, California for their home games in 2012. The city of San Francisco does not have a college football team of any kind. San Francisco State University is a Division 2 school that uesd to have a football team. But now, the Gators of San Francisco State are no longer a football school. I've shared the deepest dismay learning about the story of the University of San Francisco's former football program. The Dons were one of the most powerful teams in all of college football. One year, San Francisco had an impressive season... all for them NOT to play in a Bowl Game. The University of San Francisco would have been the college football pride of San Francisco had their program existed today. But, this Catholic university no longer hosts football since perhaps the 1960s. Monster Park is the current home of San Francisco's NFL team. It's kind of old and uninteresting. So beautiful AT&T Park will be converted to a football field. I can tell you from watching a few San Francisco Giants' games (and even the MLB All-Star Game) that AT&T Park is one of the most beautiful ball parks in all of America. I love San Francisco. There won't be any kayaking in the waters. Why so? When do you see footballs getting thrown out of outdoor stadiums? Too bad there's no college football in the San Francisco area unless you go to California or Stanford. We do have two teams trying to be as golden at the Golden Gate Bridge. Let's meet them, staring with Oregon State. It used to be that Oregon State University was better than Oregon. Now it's the other way around. Oregon State is returning to some prominence. These Beavers will dam up any threat that dares try to beat them. That threat will be Maryland. There's something about a team coming from the other side of the nation to play out in one other side of the nation. The Terrapins will get ready for a match in San Francisco against the boys of Oregon State. Sean McDonough and ??? ??? had the call from AT&T Park on ESPN.
-1- A cloudy day in San Francisco marked the first-ever football meeting between these two schools on two different sides of the nation. A controversial moment was there when a receiver was clearly out of bounds, yet came back in to complete a long pass play. It was clearly Illegal Touching, but the play was never reviewed. Next up was a touchdown strike by Maryland that led to a 7-0 score. Oregon State scored a touchdown and the Extra Point With about 6:00-something left in the first quarter. Tied at 7-7 in San Francisco. Maryland cashed in another TD with 33 or so seconds on the clock for the first quarter.
-2- The only score of the second quarter was Oregon State tying up the game 14-14 with sixteen seconds to go.
Maybe Oregon State ISN'T sorry anymore. Just ask Maryland.
FINAL SCORE:
Maryland - 14
Oregon State - 21
*** big win ***
EXTRA: Can College Football Be Revived in San Francisco?
Rob Stone had a segment on the challenges of making a baseball field into a stadium for football. There was a time in which the Boston College Eagles played some games at Fenway Park way back when. San Francisco and San Francisco State don't have football. AT&T Park provides a beautiful view of San Francisco Bay. If any sort of football stadium is constructed that captures the beauty of San Francisco like AT&T Park does... first of all, I don't know if there's enough space to do so since San Francisco is pretty small in overall area. It isn't like you have an extreme amount of space to make a fairly decent football stadium worthy of an FBS-style stadium. There probably is, but what hope do you have? When you think about sports stadiums, you sometimes have to think about the atmosphere and surroundings of what you try to capture. AT&T Park is impressive with the view of San Francisco Bay and (set me straight if I'm wrong) Marin County across the bay from AT&T Park.
A dream stadium that could host some great college football (and maybe some high school football) in San Francisco would have to really be a lovely stadium that captures the loveliness of San Francisco. Monster Park doesn't really do it. What if [the University of] San Francisco returns to football and plays in FBS in a shiny new stadium? Never know.
The Texas Bowl Presented by Radio Shack
Reliant Stadium - Houston, Texas, USA
Texas Christian {Horned Frogs} vs. Houston {Cougars}
North vs. South: A Texas Clash
Finally, I welcome all of you readers to my hometown of Houston, Texas. The city of Houston is often dubbed as America's Space City, Screwston (for all the local hip-hop stars here like UGK, Scarface, Mike Jones, and people like that), and names like that. I always say that Houston is usually noted for a lot of negatives in sports. No one giving us a chance. You know... people saying my Texans are terrible (well, what about Atlanta and Miami?), my Astros can't do s:censored: on the baseball field, my Rockets can't even get past the First Round of the playoffs... every bit of ESPN (and I'm generalizing) bias drives me crazy. Oh, by the way... we're usually hounded to death about how Houston was so great... until North Carolina State and Georgetown beat us in men's basketball. It's always as if the city of Houston doesn't have any great sports teams. We do have the San Jose Earthquakes who are now the Houston Dynamo. They've given us two championships with the awesome coach, Dominic Kinnear. We've had the WNBA's first dynasty- the Houston Comets... who I now hear are playing their home games at Reliant Arena in the shadow of the Reliant Astrodome, Reliant Stadium, and the Reliant Center (where the Houston Auto Show usually takes place). Another thing about Houston- this is a big city. You don't realize it at first, but there is a lot of ground to cover here in Houston. You'll drive yourself mad realizing just how much of city limits there are here in Houston. My mother drives about 30 miles to work in northwest Houston while still generally in the greater Houston area. Reliant Stadium seats over 75K or so people, and it's where I saw my first-ever college football game at. It was a match between Prairie View A&M University and Southern University. Tonight, we have two Texas schools. Texas will win, but which one- the former National Champions of TCU? Or the University of Houston who has never been National Champions in any sport besides golf? Let's meet them! Texas Christian University is a Mountain West school who used to compete in Conference USA (Houston and Rice's current conference). Houston and TCU used to be Southwest Conference rivals. The Horned Frogs were National Champions back in the late 1930s. They aren't in a BCS conference, but they've been pretty impressive in the Mountain West. Now for Houston. There's a move to TRY to make Conference USA a BCS conference, but they are still far from being a fearful conference. Houston has had some impressive teams in the past with great players. So it isn't like we've been sorry for the longest time. I'm actually surprised Houston made the postseason because Houston hasn't been truly impressive since Kevin Kolb left for the NFL. Kolb brought the Cougar football back to where it needs to be- smashmouth, in your face, hard-nosed, never-apologize-for-beating-down-the-other team football. And of course, winning. Houston coach Art Briles will try to bring Baylor to relevance after this game. But Briles has taken the Coogs to four bowl games in five seasons. Only thing he HASN'T done was win one of those Bowl games. So let's see who takes home some heavy hardware. This was on the NFL Network. Maybe there just to actually give Houston some love since ESPN won't do it. Call it a glorified home game for Houston, but we got ourselves some Texas cooking. Come get your Texas football, players!
-1- Houston's 8-4 and 6-2 in C-USA West. Chris Thurmond's the interim QB coach for Houston. TCU's head coach, Gary Patterson, is 4-0 against Houston. Remember, I've been to Reliant Stadium before, so I know what this stadium is like. Houston went for it on 4th and 1 on TCU's 49 yard line, and had a pass blocked. So TCU gets the ball near midfield. Houston cashed in an amazing touchdown with eight seconds left in the first quarter. Keenum was the man with the master plan to give Houston a 7-0 lead early.
-2- TCU drove it down the field en route to a 7-7 deadlock with 10:24 left in the First Half. With 15 seconds left, Houston calls a timeout. The score is still a deadlock at this point. Houston is truly trigger-happy with their offense. They will take a 10-7 lead into two quarters of play pending any magic by TCU. Houston makes a swift kick to TCU and gives TCU tremendous field position on the 45-yard line. Houston still holds on two long passes by TCU to try to snatch the lead like a thief in the night. It's 10-7 after two.
-3- With 6:30 remaining in the game, TCU hit a 29-yard field goal to make it a 10-10 deadlock. Fun day of Bowl games, isn't it? That's how 45 minutes ended. It's 10-10.
-4- TCU opens up the fourth quarter with two good plays to hit paydirt. TCU takes their first lead of the game as they got themselves a 17-10 advantage. Houston's momentum was completely turned over to the boys from Fort Worth. Houston should be commended for holding them to a field goal. TCU's doubling up Houston with a 20-10 spread now. Houston gets the ball back with 7:22 left on the clock. Remmeber that Houston has NEVER won a Bowl Game since 1980 when they beat Navy 35-0. It's 7:22 left as Houston starts up their drive to getting two scores in 7:22. With about 5:56 left, Houston missed a long field goal wide right. Now Houston needs a miracle to have a chance at winning or at least tying the game. Let's call it 5:30 on the failed field goal. Now it's 3:14 left in the game. Long passing is needed for Houston to make a comeback. Now it's 20-13 in favor of TCU with 1:57 left in the game as Houston connects on a field goal as Houston could have had a touchdown. So on the Onside Kick, TCU snatches the football like catching a cat jumping from a tree. Now Houston's D needs to step up. And they did... but they now need 98 yards in 1:32 with no timeouts left. Can Houston do it?
Hell no. Houston's losing streak in Bowl Games continues as they failed to put away TCU. Houston can't seem to win a Bowl Game nowadays. They can make the postseason, but not win the damn game. I'm mad as a Houstonian, but they still did their very best to make magic happen.
FINAL SCORE:
Texas Christian - 20
Houston - 13
OFF-TOPIC
Learn more about my amazing hometown by going to <
http://www.visithoustontexas.com >. We're a city of about 4,000,000 people with a variety of cultures and languages.
John's Personal Comments
Even without Art Briles and their offensive coordinator, they still can't win a Bowl Game. I'm going to make an unfair comparison. Art Briles to Houston is kind of like a coach that doesn't consistently win National Championships at Kentucky in men's basketball. Art Briles was a great coach for Houston, but his greatness hasn't translated to Bowl Wins. If Houston is ever going to return to any sort of greatness. Houston has no problem making Bowl Games, but they need to WIN one for a change. If New Mexico (who I also highly respect) can pound Nevada into the ground and win their first bowl since the sixties, why hasn't Houston turned the corner yet in Bowl Games? Sumlin will need to get his team to win ball games. And when it's postseason time, win bowl games. Houston did good in this bowl until their momentum hit rock bottom. I take nothing away from TCU. I personally thought TCU wasn't as impressive of a team this season compared to past seasons. They still got it done. Houston has to win a bowl game for once. They could have made better plays and smarter decisions, but Houston has to improve on games played on national television including postseason games. Simply put. Houston needs to win and keep winning if the Cougars expect to return to greatness. I'm not talking about just football, but also basketball and any other sport where Houston has had great programs.
--- John's Student Lounge ---
John Remembers Benzair Bhutto
I don't have too many memories of Benzair Bhutto. I was a student at Beaumont, TX's Lamar University in 2002. I had a Speech class in which one of my assignment choices was to go to the Montagne Center (where Lamar plays basketball) to hear a speech from Bhutto. Then report on it. I never got to see or meet Bhutto. It's just sad to hear of her passing. Even more so about HOW the death happened.
Could Penn State Annihilate Texas A&M Tomorrow?
An Aggie yell leader made bad remarks made about Joe Paterno in a rally session. Paterno doesn't want this game to be about his 500th game
Something I Wonder...
The Appalachian State Mountaineers upset Michigan way back in Week 1. What if after App. State blocked a field goal, that Appalachian State ran it all the way back for a touchdown? What if this was a nationally-televised game on ESPN and this was pulled off? No matter how many times this is shown on TV and radio, this still stuns me. Michigan will get Florida in the Toyota Gator Bowl on New Year's Day. It's still shocking to see Appalachian State pull this off. Probably even more stunning that they beat Michigan AND won the National Championship in FCS. The thing that would have made Appalachian State one of the TRUE standout stories of 2007 is if they were undefeated from the Michigan game to the FCS championship game.
More Bowl matches for Saturday as 2007 draws to a close. Stay tuned for my next report!
