Written by : Jacob Patterson
Let me explain to you what it was like growing up a sports loving little kid. When I was growing up, on Saturday and Sunday I would turn on the TV and I was always changing the channel straight to 23. Since I had Comcast that was ESPN with 24 being ESPN 2. I would sit there all day just to watch College GameDay. I would dream of being up there with Herbstreit and the one and only Lee Corso. I watched him do some of his most famous college picks. Lee Corso man, what a guy, a guy whose voice can’t be mistaken. Tell me how many times your heard his famous catch phrase “Not so fast, my friend!”. The man is just awesome, and was a great athlete back in the day playing defensive back for Navy and he was also signal caller for FSU. The man was roommates with Burt Reynolds guys, I mean come on. I’m getting off track because I could basically write you a book on how awesome Corso is but we will save that for another time.
I would watch college football all day and this was when college football was going through an awesome period in the sport. For any of you who did not watch much college football between the years of 2000–2008 I feel sorry for your loss. I still remember the first time I saw Trojan legend Mr. Reggie Bush. Imagine a 10 year old kid who just started his sports loving career and the first thing he sees is a speed demon in red wearing #5
This is when I started to believe that the impossible was possible. I had landed right in the middle of an era that included players that will be remembered for ages. Reggie Bush will always hold a special place in my heart however, the man was a freak, im sorry that’s all I can say. He made fast guys look slow and he made some of the most incredible runs I have ever seen. To this day, I have still never been wowed by someone like I was whenever I watched that man. If you would like to see the impossible just watch this below.
USC was the unstoppable force, they were THE team. No one could step up to them nor did it look like anyone could even compete with them. However, the bigger you are the harder you fall right? This was around the time that I understood that a team with enough heart could take down even the toughest opponent. I also learned 2 simple words meant “clutch”. Those two simple words were Vince Young.
Vince Young, you remember that guy right? The guy who against my better judgement slayed the dragon that was USC and took coach Mack Brown and Texas to the promised land. I’m not trying to take away any credit from the rest of a superb Texas team. I mean they had Jamaal Charles at running back. They had some great studs at defense like Griffin and Orakpo. With all this said, Young was the alpha and the omega on this team. It was like the man was on a different level, and sadly for USC, that didn’t change in the Rose Bowl.
USC holds a late lead in the 4th quarter and Vince Young had driven his team down the field for a chance to win the Rose Bowl over the heavily favored Trojans. It was under one minute left in the game and Vince Young is facing a 4th and 5 on USC’s 15. The ball is snapped and Young stays in the pocket then rolls to the right where he sneaks into the end zone. Granted this was only possible because of the important block that Blalcok gave that helped Young. Now, keep in mind that I was 11 at the time and had gone to bed halfway through the 4th quarter. I knew USC would win, in the short time I had watched sports, I knew the one constant was USC always winning. I woke up to see the replay over and over on ESPN and was in shock. This play changed the way I saw sports.
It’s funny, the thing that I learned the most from this is that no matter the odds or how big the challenge, nothing is impossible when you fight for what you want. That night Texas wanted it more.
This was my beginning, seeing this game and seeing the heroics against all odds had me hooked and made me the sports addict I am today. The 2005 Rose Bowl was the Big Bang of sports to me as an 11 year old.