Any News on a Parade

[injuredinmelee]

To celebrate in Austin yet?

[Bubba-Joe]

probably start on 6th street then turn and head up Congress
Lead by Mack, Vince, Bevo, Tom DeLay, and that 6th street entertainer -
LESLIE
aka Black Magic

BAHAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW

I don't care who you are that is funnnnnie, right there that is funnnnniee
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[oh well]

Bubba sounds like you have been there is that where you lost all your hair?

[Bubba-Joe]

Okay it is a looooong article
but the picked USC to score 40 points
even that many wouldn't have been enough
what do Yankees know anyway



Nothing Ever Rains On Carroll's Parade
January 4, 2006

PASADENA, Calif. - The 2005 Orange Bowl was going to be the greatest game in college football history. There was unbeaten Oklahoma. There was unbeaten USC. There was a national championship on the line, or at least the BCS version of one. There was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback going against a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and his running back prodigy.

And there was, of course, the magnificent specter of 2005, which was better than 2004, which was superior to 2003, ad infinitum. The next greatest, as we have come to learn in this hype-a-minute world, is always the greatest of all time.

College football junkies were drooling from where Rodgers and Hammerstein told us the wind comes sweepin' down the plain to where Albert Hammond told us it never rains.

Then they played the game.

Matt Leinart threw five touchdown passes and USC humiliated the Sooners, 55-19.

The Trojans had been a one-point favorite over a team featuring Jason White and Adrian Peterson, but the only point worth making by halftime was Auburn should have been in the title game instead of Oklahoma. Forget game of the century, as Chris Fowler of ESPN said recently, it wasn't even the game of the day.

There always is a danger of hyping events and making guarantees, and that danger is becoming an even bigger fool than you ordinarily are. Contrary to Mr. Hammond's assertion that it never rains in Southern California, it even rained on the Rose Parade for the first time in 51 years. Camille Clark, the Rose Queen, had to wear a poncho and hold an umbrella Monday as she rode along drenched Colorado Boulevard.

The oddsmakers have made USC a seven-point favorite over Texas in another one of those games-for-the-ages tonight at the Rose Bowl. Both teams are averaging a shade more than 50 points a game. Both are unbeaten.

The touchdown difference seems like a solid line for this BCS title game.

The oddsmakers also have made the over-under 69 points. If we carry out the logic, that calls for a 38-31 USC victory.

But here's what nobody - including the oddsmakers - knows.

Nobody knows if immensely gifted, if unpolished, Texas quarterback Vince Young will produce the game of his life. If he does, hey, we could be in for one of the most thrilling college football games ever. If he doesn't, there's no way the Longhorns will keep up with a USC offense that racks up points like one of those old pinball machines on the boardwalk arcade. We could be looking at 55-19 redux.

So you get only two guarantees here today:

Pete Carroll will have lots of fun watching his offense, perhaps the greatest offense in college history.

Pete Carroll will have fun anyway.

Los Angeles has no NFL team. L.A. shrugs at the mundane. That's what makes what is going around the Trojans these days glitteringly similar to the "Showtime" Lakers of the '80s. This isn't John Roseboro appearing on Mr. Ed in the '60s. This is way bigger. This is Jack Nicholson, Dyan Cannon and all the beautiful people hooking into Magic and Kareem against Larry Bird's Celtics.

Everybody from the Fonz to Snoop Dogg are part of a Hollywood entourage almost too big to count. There's Dr. Dre. There's Nick Lachey with ... whoops, who used to be with Jessica Simpson. There's the ubiquitous Will Ferrell and the equally ubiquitous Alyssa Milano. There's George Lucas, Spike Lee and Kirsten Dunst. The A list goes on.

They roam the sideline at games. They show up at practice. Leinart's tight with Lachey. Snoop's tight with LenDale White. Heck, Snoop is even going to wear a mike during the game for ESPN Hollywood. Carroll embraces the celebrities so fondly, you almost expect Henry Winkler to come charging out on a white horse in Trojan gear.

Could you imagine Woody Hayes allowing this?

Or Bear Bryant?
Forget the old-timers, how many other big-name college coaches today would allow this?

Coaches are control freaks. They are wrapped tighter than some of the outfits the Hollywood starlets will be wearing in the Rose Bowl tonight. They are CIA operatives. They want to know this, that and the other thing. They are paranoid beyond belief. They are convinced reporters are communists.

Scowling is their definition of quality recreation time.

And then there's Pete. Happy Pills Pete.

When he was coach of the Jets and Patriots, he was described in this space as a third-grader mainlining Milk Duds.

That punch line demands an apology. Carroll is much more mature than that.

He's a fifth-grader mainlining Milk Duds.

Call him the world's only 54-year-old high school sophomore and he'll probably respond, "Thanks, dude."

In the end, recruiting the best players may be a much bigger key than a sunny disposition. Maybe Reggie Bush and Leinart and White and Dwayne Jarrett are why he never stops joking and smiling. Jarrett said the other day he never recalls Carroll being in a foul mood.

College coaches major in foul moods and minor in screaming.

But spending his time counting the number of missing strawberries, Carroll spends his time having fun. He believes in inclusion. He wants everyone to believe they are part of something special. He smiles. And they smile back. He's the only perky male coach in captivity, and damn if his mood isn't infectious.

Carroll's NFL record (33-31) was better than the critics gave him credit for, but the problem is he didn't engender the belief that he could command enough respect to lead a team to its greatest heights. He didn't seem to bleed enough. He didn't seem to bully enough. The other day he told USA Today, "There's a level of seriousness that takes the fun away from it - the No Fun League. I was real good at being me. They just didn't like it."

Well, don't look now, Coach Happy Pills has won 34 in a row and is on the verge of a third successive national title. They love him now. The Trojans will take the field tonight with two Heisman Trophy winners. They will take the field with a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard receiver and two 1,000-yard rushers. None of that stuff has happened before. Good grief, their offense has five first-team All-Americans, three second-teamers and, thanks to their coach, 11 All-American smiles.

So in a sports world with too many guarantees, here are two more:

USC scores at least 40 tonight.

And Pete Carroll will jump around on the sideline like a puppy on Christmas morning.

There are times when the "fun" seems like the only word in his vocabulary, but maybe that's his biggest weapon of all. Maybe a whole generation of alpha-dog control freaks with coach's whistles should take a look in the mirror and say, "Maybe I should be a little more like Pete."

[CHS_Grad '85]

Originally posted by injuredinmelee
To celebrate in Austin yet?
UT will not hold a formal victory celebration in Austin until after Jan. 17, according to Chris Plonsky, UT women's athletic director. Parade plans have not been set, she said.

DallasNews.com

[injuredinmelee]

that sucks. I know the tower will be lit for 4 days.