"It may not feel like it when you're in this moment right now and what happened today, but I can tell you it's a fine between being here and being at the top," DeBoer said. "We got to put the work in, you got to believe, you got to be consistent, you got to have discipline and we'll get back to work and start all over again."
Even the "Granddaddy of Them All" has a dad. That's the late and legendary ABC Sports announcer Keith Jackson, who coined that term for the Rose Bowl Game and it stuck. He clicked off his microphone for the last time precisely 20 years ago after Texas beat USC on this storied field. The game was a classic and so was Jackson, the Saturday evening soundtrack for generations of college football fans.
Adversity brings opportunity and this was an opportunity to make things right. I know that not only was I getting scrutinized, but our head coach was as well. As much respect as I have for him, I had to scratch and claw and find some way to get better. With more time, more reps, more games in general, I got better.
The allure of a "pop-up" tour from the Midwest Princess herself was one that attracted droves of fans - in pinks and blues and reds - from across the States to the grassy knolls of Brookside at the Rose Bowl. It's a rare feat that an artist has such a pull, only recently repeated by that of Oasis, whose draw was more than a decade in the making.
It was in the midst of winter - if you can even call it that in L.A. - and the arena was packed. "Who'd have thought Oasis, the Britpop holdover that seemingly couldn't be more out of vogue, could fill Staples Center?" the Orange County Register about the evening. "For that matter, who'd have thought a band with such a fractious history and spotty track record would still be together at this point, let alone still visiting the States?"