[NU Sports] NU bowl stuff plus signing day

Fri Jan 5 10:50:48 CST 2007

 Interesting thread ...
 I was also at both the 1996 Rose and 1997 Citrus games, and I
respectfully beg to differ with Mr. Levinson. I think Ismaeli would have
made a difference. He remains the best defensive back Northwestern has
had in recent memory, and while of course we will never know what impact
he would have made in the game I think it would have been significant.
 Sherrick McManus evokes memories of Ismaeli, doesn't he?
 Alamo Bowl 2000: let's not forget the Iowa loss that year, which
consigned the Wildcats to Texas and, ultimately, that 66-17 beating.
 1996 Rose Bowl: Wildcats wore black, USC white jerseys. That would have
made Northwestern the home team. I covered this year's Rose Bowl and
wore my 1996 NU Rose sweatshirt in the press box. It drew a few
comments.
  Also on my mind:
 -- Now that this year's bowl season is almost over, I think it's time
for Mr. Truog to start keeping a list now -- in the spirit of his weekly
picks -- about which bowl the Wildcats will grace next season. Assuming
Bacher is healthy, I am very optimistic about the next campaign.  
 -- In basketball, Cats lose, 83-57, to Penn State. Revolting. I was SO
hopeful that the 10-3 start presaged a real Big Ten campaign -- sigh ...
  -- Notre Dame in the BCS. ND has a unique and special place in the
college game. It always has and always will. To not acknowledge that is
to be blind. We can argue about it all we want and about whether they
deserve to take home $17 mil, or whatever, but, ma'am, the facts is the
facts. (Disclaimer: though I now work for NBC, I have nothing to do with
the macro picture of Notre Dame's football coverage. My only connection
to ND this year was covering the ND-USC game.)
 -- My 10-year-old son has discovered football this year and has become
a complete and total USC honk. This may have something to do with the
fact that his uncle went there, his cousin went there, etc., or the
notion that, like all 10-year-old boys, he is a front-runner and he and
his fourth-grade crew have seen USC lose only a handful of times since
the crew started out together in kindergarten. It's something of a
mystery to me since, of course, Northwestern football is my own
particular brand of mental illness and the boy's mother, the hot blonde
wife, went to Berkeley. (Many mother-son bets were made in the stands
this year during the Cal-USC game.)
  By the way, few things in life are as fantastic as the moment when
your son becomes conversant enough in football so that you can have a
real discussion with him about, say, John David Booty's worthiness as a
successor to Matt Leinart or whether the Saints with Reggie Bush are
likely to make it to the Super Bowl. At any rate ...
  - All of you USC haters out there: Pete Carroll is an extraordinary
college coach. I'm not sure, as I wrote the other day in a column,
whether the investigations into dealings last year by Bush or Bush's
family go anywhere. Let's say for the sake of argument that they don't.
Look at Carroll's record since he came to USC. He plays anyone,
anywhere, and almost always wins.
  - USC has, under the current president, Steve Sample, become a far
more rigorous academic institution. It's now much more than just the
stereotyped University for Spoiled Children. It is indeed more than a
good school. It's a legitimate world-class institution as befits the
second-largest city in the United States. None of this is intended to
besmirch UCLA's academic standing or take away from the 13-9 Bruin win
or anything. Just saying for anyone out there still stuck on a 1970s or
1980s version of USC -- time to wake up and smell Tommy Trojan's coffee.
 And now, Mr. Bendat, and others, I await your spirited replies! I don't
intend to take up a full-scale defense of USC. Just noting what anyone
who has paid attention to what's been going on down there at Figueroa
and Exposition can readily see ...
 Alan

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
On Behalf Of NEONRye at aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 7:37 AM
To: Hakirsch at aol.com; mlinhardt at netzero.net; nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] NU bowl stuff plus signing day

Having been present at both games, I think Harry may be right about the
Rose Bowl, but I beg to differ on the Citrus Bowl.  I don't think we
could  have beaten Payton Manning that day if we were permitted to play
13 men on  defense! 
 He was too good, and Tennessee had too much speed and athleticism  for
us, even if we did make a great comeback.  The vision of Manning
hitting Peerless Price on that slant pass and Price taking it all the
way down  the field, passing our defenders like they were sign posts,
and going to "the  house" just before Halftime will always haunt me, as
it was the pivot on which  the game 
turned against us for good.  Would Ismaeli have made the  difference
there?   Not 
in my humble opinion.

Paul Levinson
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