Losers again...

As we were walking towards the stadium yesterday morning, I threw out the question, "So what if we do win? What happens, do we keep going to these things, or do we stop?" Well, it's a quandary that can wait at least one more year, since the Wildcats were unable to overcome a variety of deficiencies on both sides and lost their 5th bowl game of the last 10 years.

This was probably the wildest one of the bunch, when the 'Cats took an early 22-0 lead, capitalizing on 3 straight interceptions in the first quarter from the UCLA quarterback who'd only thrown 3 others all season. But Rich prophetically said it would be tied by halftime, and he was correct, as the defense went to sleep in the second quarter and allowed huge plays on ground in rapid succession. The Wildcats defnese the other 3 quarters was pretty solid, but in spite of their repeated efforts at stopping the UCLA offense, the Wildcats couldn't get anything going until late in the game. Down by 11 with less than 4 minutes in the game, there was still every reason to believe that the offense would suddenly come to life, and sure enough they drove down the field for a touchdown, but on the ensuing onside kick the Bruins special teams took the ball and ran it in unmolested for a score of their own. So we got the ball back and did it again, and kicked another onside kick, which was returned again by the same guy for another special teams touchdown, and the game was over.

I didn't go to the Motor City Bowl two years ago, so my last bowl experience was in 2000 at San Antonio, where we never had a chance and we were never in the game after the first quarter. I think the Wildcat fans have increased their expectations since then, and while very appreciative when things were going our way, they were less inclined to be forgiving of questionable play calling or broken plays. Nestled between Smith and Cohen, I got a running commentary on what Walker was doing wrong, and it does seem that in the big games he goes a little conservative. Basanez did not have an all-star performance, but he threw 70 passes and more than a few of them just bounced off the numbers of the receivers for no apparent reason.

So all the locals who showed up were treated to quite the performance, and while UCLA looked foolish in the first quarter they pulled things together and played consistently the rest of the game, keeping things interesting with a couple of stupid penalties on the last two NU drives that kept the Cats in the game longer than they should have. The Wildcats on the other hand looked formidable in the first quarter but then fell apart in the second, and while they evened things out in the second half those onside kicks were the deathstroke. People on both sides of the field could only laugh at the last one that clinched the deal and sent us back to the rental cars, pondering where we will next be witness to thrills, chills and cold harsh reality of Wildcat football.

Getting to the game yesterday morning was easily accomplished, and we arrived early enough that parking wasn't a problem (and it was free). We were inside before 11am, and for pre-game festivities they had a few army guys parachute onto the field, and halftime act Diamond Rio played a twangy country song that featured the word "bible" in the first stanza, which amused the NU fans around us and I would imagine brought a similar reaction from the UCLA crowd.

Off to breakfast now, I fill in the rest of the details later.

one last pre-game entry

The big game is four short hours away, and there's purple everywhere in El Paso. Wildcats fans were well represented at the "Fan Fiesta" at the convention center yesterday, and definitely made more noise than the UCLA contingent, which didn't look particularly large. The news last night says they're within a couple of thousand tickets of a sellout, so it should be a full house.

After everyone had their afternoon nap (this first bowl of middle-age certainly has different characteristics than previous ones), Nate and I drove into beautiful downtown El Paso and into the sun to check out the previously mentioned fan fiesta, which has grown to such proportions that this year for the first time it was downtown rather than out by the stadium. There were quite a few booths set up for various local organizations, a few companies like Cingular, and free samples of Vitalis and Brut (personal hygiene seems to be a major focus). There was food to be had, also, but we were planning on dinner later, so we just sampled some gorditas from one local establishment (much different than the Taco Bell variety), and watched some of the "battle of the bands", which of course was soundly won by NU, at least in my opinion.

Smith was charged with picking up Liz and Adam, who were arriving on the same flight from New Jersey at around 7, so with the remaining time we had to kill, we walked across the street to the Camino Real hotel to check out this lobby I keep reading about, and walked another block or so to the downtown plaza where all the Christmas lights were still up along with a honking big nativity scene. Then we hopped back in the car and headed for dinner at a local place called Kiki's, which had been recommended to us earlier in the afternoon by a ranger at the aerial tram, and seconded by the locals who were riding in the tram car with us.

The other contingent arrived at the restaurant around 8:30 or so and we chowed down on Mexican food (being a local place, they had run out of chicken, of all things, but that didn't seem to bother anyone, including the manager). Nate claims he was still digesting his Sonic burger from lunch, so he didn't eat much, but everyone else did. It was cheap, too, the whole meal was under $50. Just before 10, Rich called to say he had arrived (how did we do the Rose Bowl when nobody had a cell phone?), so they went off to collect him and Nate and I headed back to the hotel to crash.

Now if I can just get him moving (he claims he still hasn't finished with the Sonic burger), we can avail ourselves of the free breakfast here before heading off to the stadium. The restaurant manager last night confided to us that people in El Paso don't really like southern California people, whom they feel look down on the locals here, so that the city is really secretly or not so secretly rooting for NU. There were certainly plenty of locals at the fiesta last night, maybe some of them will come to the game too and add to our cheering section. We need all the help we can get. The hour is nigh. Go Cats!

greetings from el paso

I know I've been remiss in posting to this site lately, what with the mortgage, and its father dying, and BBC2 going out with men, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about doing it, I just haven't been that inspired lately. But now that the holidays are about over, what better time for a burst of inspiration than a hastily arranged trip to scenic El Paso, Texas (not El Paso, Illinois, which isn't far from where I grew up and as far as I know isn't el paso to anything)? Oh, and look, it just happens to be the Sun Bowl tomorrow, and the Wildcats are playing!

So the Cohens, Nate, myself, Daren and (briefly) Adam have congregated here in west Texas in yet another vain hope of bearing witness to the Wildcats winning a bowl game. The last time I did this was 5 years ago at the Alamo Bowl, and while the less said about the game the better (crushed by Nebraska), it was a fun weekend. Smith has pointed out that during his tenure as NU radio sports personality, that was pretty much every away game, a fun weekend if you overlooked the three hours you had to sit and watch the game.

This time around, everyone is expecting a shootout, since neither we nor UCLA have much of a defense, and after 10 years of bowls we aren't getting our hopes up, but hopefully things will be better this time around.

I arrived first, traipsing into the Quality Inn around 10:30 last night. My odyssey began by going into work yesterday and then heading straight from there to the airport, which I don't remember ever doing before. Needless to say there aren't a lot of choices when flying to El Paso (Nate flew to Albuquerque instead), and the later flight gave me 2/3 of a day at work, but stacked the deck if there were any problems. Which there were, upon arrival at Logan I discovered that the flight to Denver was already expected to leave 40 minutes late. I asked the ticket agent if that would work, since I only had a 45 minute layover to begin with, but she confidently assured me it would be fine, the flight didn't take as long as it was scheduled to take, and besides, "You don't have many options," she said ominously.

Well of course the flight didn't leave 40 minutes late, it left about 75 minutes late, so all the way to Denver I was thinking about what plan B would be if I missed the connection, but amazingly enough we were on the ground and leaving the plane at just about 8pm exactly, giving me under 15 minutes to make the 8:15 connection, a hundred miles away at the other end of terminal B. I couldn't run since I had my bag with me, but after a brisk walk I got within sight of the right gate just as they were announcing they were going to close the door in one minute, so I squeaked in with about 30 seconds to spare,and we left right on time, so I was on the ground in Denver for less than 20 minutes. Long layovers are a pain, but this was cutting it a bit too close. When I turned my phone on in El Paso there was an automated message from United telling me they'd rebooked me from Denver to El Paso for 2:15 pm the next day, so when the ticket lady said there weren't many options she wasn't kidding.

Since Nate was driving down from Albuquerque, he wasn't going to get here until noon, so this morning I carbo-loaded on the free breakfast and walked from the hotel to the Wyler Aerial Tramway, nestled into the Franklin Mountains that sort of bisect El Paso. It took about two hours and the last 1/2 mile or so was straight up, but I had some time to recover before Nate arrived (having collected Daren at the airport), and I convinced them to take the tram up to the top of Ranger Mountain, where you could see all of El Paso and off into Mexicos old and new.

Since Wolsky was a last-minute addition to the party, we have two rental cars total, so Nate was able to take advantage of a free upgrade to a convertible, so after we surveyed the landscape, we put the top down and drove back down Montana ave to get some lunch. Daren wanted to go to a Sonic, since they don't have those up our way, and that's what we ended up doing for a late lunch, where you order at the curb and they bring it out to your car and everything. Smith is off now to pick up the second rental car, take a nap, and then collect Adam and Liz at the airport. Rich doesn't arrive until late tonight, and the game is tomorrow at noon. Adam leaves within two hours of the end of the game, so we'll barely catch a glimpse of him.

The weather here is great, sunny and 60's, and even last night it wasn't especially chilly for someone used to December in New England. Still talk of going across the border to Juarez at some point, and plans to eat lots of Mexican food, now that Smith has Sonic out of his system (so to speak). BC's performance yesterday at the MPC bowl has given us hope for our chances in tomorrow's festivities. Go Cats!