 |
| Available at Amazon.com |
Being a longtime sports fan, I’ve seen some incredibly crazy games, plays, players, seasons, and everything in between. But it was the 2007/2008 college football season that might have quite possibly blown me away for all time. It was just totally insane. First there were tremendous upsets including the biggest of them all, Appalachian State defeating Michigan in Ann Arbor. Then there was the sheer unpredictability of the season as teams that were expected to be doing well were tanking horribly. Added to that were the teams like South Florida coming out of nowhere to dominate. It was just an interesting season with each week bringing not only more confusion, but also much more excitement with every game.
Near the end of the season, it was coming down to who would end up playing in the BCS Title Game. Ohio State had their bid locked until being upset by Illinois and pretty much falling out of the picture. USC had lost in a thriller to Stanford that all but knocked them out of the hunt. LSU lost in the last week of the season to Arkansas and also lost their shot. But LSU and USC got some help and ended up leap-frogging back into it and heading to New Orleans. USC wouldn’t fall too far though and got a Rose Bowl bid to play what was essentially a home game for the Trojans. They would be facing the team that had almost knocked the Buckeyes out of title contention, the Illinois Fighting Illini.
On January 1, 2008, the ninety-fourth annual Rose Bowl was set to take place in Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. The USC Trojans went into the contest ranked sixth in the nation while the Fighting Illini was ranked thirteenth. Considering how Illinois had looked against Ohio State, this game promised to be one of two great teams battling for the win. It was a promise that fans would soon see broken right after the opening kickoff.
Illinois got the ball to start the game and couldn’t get much of anything going offensively so they ended up punting the ball away after only four plays. It was then time for quarterback John David Booty and the USC offense to do their thing. Taking the ball, Booty marched his team seventy-two yards down the field in the matter of two minutes for the game’s first score. Everyone seemed to get into the action as the Trojans proved they weren’t only there to win, but to also have fun.
The Fighting Illini got the ball back and started to prove that they belonged there by putting together a decent drive, but that didn’t last long either. Trojan Ray Maualuga stepped in front of Juice Newton’s pass on a second down and raced the ball back nineteen yards before being taking down. John David Booty and company came back out for their second offensive series of the day and it didn’t last long. The first play from scrimmage in the series saw Booty lateral to wide receiver Garrett Green who then threw a thirty-four yard touchdown to Desmond Reed. The route was on from there.
The rest of the afternoon would look quite similar for both teams as the Illini could never quite get started while the Trojans never really slowed down. As both teams went into their locker rooms for halftime, USC was up 21 – 3 and it would only get worse from there. The second half saw the Trojans light up the scoreboard for twenty-eight more points while Illinois could only muster up half of that. As the final gun sounded, the final score read 49 – 17 in favor of USC and Illinois’ dreams of showing they belonged in the big games were already a distant memory.
The film is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and it looks just great. ESPN’s quality for games and programs has really turned a big corner by going with HD and it shows here in their DVD releases.
The film is heard in Dolby Digital Stereo Sound and it sounds very good. Every hit, smack, and thud can be heard nicely.
Remembering Mario Danelo – Mario Danelo was a twenty-one year old kicker for the USC Trojans that was found dead at the bottom of a cliff on January 6, 2008. This five minute feature is a recollection of his short life and his NFL dreams. His family and friends give views on him as a person and how much he will be missed.
USC’s “Waterboy” – Ricky Rosas makes the ninety minute trip on two busses every day to the USC campus to watch the practice and now be their waterboy. Coach Pete Carroll realizes Ricky’s eagerness to be a part of the team so the position of volunteer waterboy or “special assistant to the head coach” was born. Ricky’s bone marrow disease has stunted his growth and kept him from playing sports, but he has always wanted to at least be a part. This past season Ricky even got to be on the sidelines for home games and go to a road game at Oregon. Here is a feature that is only four minutes long but truly inspirational and very moving.
John David Booty’s “Core” Workout – This is a two minute feature focusing on how quarterback John David Booty came back from back surgery and got into shape for the past season.
Road To The Rose Bowl – This eleven minute feature takes fans through the ESPN highlights of a couple USC games as they made their journey to the Rose Bowl. Showcased is their prominent victory over then fourteenth ranked Nebraska.
Post-Game Interviews & Trophy Presentation – Here is a five minute feature simply showing the Rose Bowl trophy being presented to Pete Carroll and his team. They also speak a few words on the big win.
GameDay Post-Game Analysis – The ESPN College Gameday crew gives their final analysis of the game and especially the USC Trojans’ dominant performance. It is only a two and a half minute feature but it gives some good insight into how nicely put together this USC team was.
Trailers – High School Phenoms
It is really hard to recommend a sporting event on DVD unless you are a true fan of either team or unless it is one historic game. Considering I am a sport fanatic, I didn’t mind watching this game even though I could care less for either team, it wasn’t that good, and I also had already seen it when it first aired. Still, it is a certified blowout and Illinois never really put up a good fight. Future NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall is fun to watch as he gives a good performance for the Fighting Illini, but it was all for naught anyway. The special features have some touching moments, but overall they only add up to about half an hour of extra stuff. I’d be hard-pressed here to recommend this to anyone that isn’t a USC fan, but it may be worth a rental sometime if you care to check out…umm, care to…care to continue your streak of seeing every Rose Bowl on DVD? I got nothing.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
ESPN presents 2008 Rose Bowl. Running time: 154 minutes. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: February 26, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
About Danny Cox
