3rd Quarter
14:52: Adrian Peterson busts a play for 8 yards and then fumbles the ball. This will surely be a rare occurrence that will never occur again, especially when he’s in the NFL!!!
14:30: ABC shows stats of the Half. USC 24 points off 4 Oklahoma turnovers. Ouch!!!
14:07: ABC just showed the USC Cheerleaders. Me like!
13:48: OU punts the ball to USC’s 15.
13:38: USC gained 15 yards on a pass to the fullback. Oklahoma I don’t think it is your night.
13:12: LenDale White goes for 14 yards. You know in both BCS Championship games (this one, and the Texas one the next year) he played much better than Reggie Bush did. Just saying.
12:04: ABC shows graphic of all the quarterbacks under Norm Chow. The list includes Jim McMahon, Steve Young, and Ty Detmer at BYU, Phillip Rivers at N.C. State, and Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC. As Adam Sandler says in the Hanukkah Song “Not to Shabby!”
12:04: Lynn Swann asks with such a great resume why isn’t Norm Chow a head coach. It is now 2010 and he still isn’t a head coach.
11:55: Matt Leinart hits a bomb to Steve Smith to the 5. What a great game Smith had. You know of all those great USC guys on that team he really is the one who has had the best NFL career so far. He already has one more Pro Bowl than Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, Dwayne Jarrett, and LenDale White combined. Who in the world would have ever predicted that?
10:43: On 3rd and Goal Matt Leinart hits a wide open (who else) Steve Smith for a touchdown. Leinart has a record 5 Orange Bowl passing touchdowns now. USC 45 Oklahoma 10.
10:41: Brad Nessler while reading a promo for the upcoming season of Bachelorette “25 men fight for just 1 woman. I think that used to happen in college.”
9:46: Jason White runs for a 13 yard gain on 3rd down. Clearly USC’s defense if starting to break down!
9:46: ABC shows a montage of Jason White’s lowlights from the Sugar Bowl game against LSU last year. Pretty sure every OU fan at this point would be trying to gouge their eyes out.
7:25: Jason White on 3rd down hits Will Peoples for about a 30 yard gain. Too bad OU was called for holding. At this point couldn’t the refs just let that go? I mean OU is down 35! A little break at least refs!
7:10: Jason White eats grass again. He watches the scoreboard replay to see just how bad it was.
6:25: Reggie Bush breaks free. If it wasn’t for a shoe string tackle by Rodney Poole, Bush would have been gone. 33 yard gain by Bush.
6:07: Bush has a shit grin smile now like Pete Carroll had at halftime which just screams “I’m on top of the world, you’ll never catch me bitches!!!”
5:38: ABC has a computerized graphic of Reggie Bush video game style. They describe his play as ankle breaking and show Reggie Bush literally breaking off the ankle of a player’s leg with his hands. Why?!?!
5:17: Brad Nessler says with apologies to Auburn there is no doubt USC is the best team in the country.
4:54: On fourth and inches from OU’s 28 USC goes for it rather than kick a field goal. LenDale White gets 4 yards and a first down. Suddenly I don’t feel so bad for the way Stanford and Coach Jim Harbaugh ran it up on USC and Pete Carroll last season. You know what? Actually I never felt bad about that.
4:07: Todd Harris interviews Reggie Bush’s parents, Lamar Griffin and Denise Griffin. Denise says she is proud of our and the family is enjoying themselves in Miami (I bet they were!). Somehow Harris neglected to ask how they were traveling game to game when they were as poor as dirt while Reggie Bush was in high school. Actually everyone neglected to ask that.
4:01: USC kicks a 42 yard field goal. USC 48 Oklahoma 10.
3:43: ABC shows graphic of running back comparison between Bush and Peterson. Bush 6 carries for 75 yards. Peterson 20 carries for 65 yards. Just shows you it wasn’t ALL Jason White’s fault.
3:30: Oklahoma is now running a no huddle hurry up offense. Way to wait until you’re down 48-10 to run that offense Big Bob.
1:09: OU doesn’t convert on a 4th and 5 play from midfield. At this point what else can I say?!?!
0:00: USC comes up short on 3rd down.
End of 3rd Quarter USC 48 Oklahoma 10.
4th Quarter
15:00: Remember when I said earlier that Mickey Mouse had a big announcement to make? Well here it is! Every fan in the stadium who bought a ticket to the game got a free ticket to Disneyland or Disney World to celebrate Disneyland’s 50th anniversary. I’m sure plenty of USC fans would enjoy that in Disneyland, especially the Bush parents. I’m sure every single Oklahoma fan could have cared less. A Disney ticket is not going to drown their sorrows.
14:27: Another ABC graphic. Oklahoma’s 1st Possession: 92 yds, TD. Oklahoma’s last 8 possessions: 167 yds, FG.
13:18: ABC shows highlights of Lofa Tatupu and his game on the night. He really was all over the ball. At this point he has 12 tackles.
12:45: Jason White throws an INT to Matt Grootegoed. I think it’s time to let White sit for the rest of the game. Let the backup gets some snaps in a BCS National Championship Game.
12:33: LenDale White busts through another gaping hole, this time for about 40 yards to OU’s 17. It’s USC’s 18th play of 10+ yards.
11:21: Bob Griese on the USC football program: “USC does it right. They are well behaved and disciplined…First class all the way.”
9:46: USC goes for it from 4th and 1 from the 8. LenDale White takes it in for a TD. Really Pete Carroll you couldn’t just kick a FG their? USC 55 Oklahoma 10. USC gets two unsportsmanlike penalties for celebrating after the TD. One is from LenDale. Like Griese said USC is “first class all the way.”
8:30: Another celebrity sighting on the sideline…former USC QB Rodney Peete…ooooooohhh haha!!
7:18: OU punts the ball to USC’s 1. Pressure is on USC now haha.
7:18: ABC goes to a commercial break showing Reggie Bush carefully holding the crystal ball trophy. Nothing says irony more than that.
6:34: Leinart fumbles the ball in the end zone for a safety. Upset he spikes the ball to the ground in disgust resulting in a penalty. Meanwhile Pete Carroll pretends to be upset and yells at someone. USC 55 Oklahoma 12.
6:08: I feel bad for Brad Nessler. He gets stuck calling this stinker of a National Championship Game. He also called the 2001 Oklahoma 13-2 win over Florida State National Title Game (why am I reminding myself of this game?!?!). Meanwhile Keith Jackson, who in the 2000’s was well past his prime as an announcer and could barely see a thing, got to call the 199 Fiesta Bowl National Championship game that Tennessee beat FSU 23-16 in what was a pretty good game, the 2003 Fiesta Bowl classic between Ohio State and Miami, and the 2006 Rose Bowl Texas vs. USC greatest college football game of all time (sorry it was better than Boise State vs. OU). Some guys just don’t get all the breaks. But hey at least Nessler gets to be the voice of EA Sports NCAA Football Series. So he’s got that going for him.
3:59: Jason White throws a TD pass to Travis Wilson. The monkey is finally off Jason White’s back he has thrown a TD pass in a BCS National Championship game lol!!! USC 55 Oklahoma 19.
3:59: Bob Griese: “No question in my mind USC is the best team in the nation.”
3:59: Oklahoma kicker kicks it out of bounds trying to avoid Reggie Bush. Really?!?!
3:59: ABC shows a comment Oklahoma DT Larry Birdine said about Matt Leinart prior to the game. “Matt Leinart, he’s the Heisman Trophy Winner but he hasn’t been driving them- or he hasn’t been winning games. Up till the last 4 or 5 games, Reggie Bush has been their difference-maker.” He would go on to say Leinart was overrated. Well first off all great grammar by Birdine. And second of all how did that turn out for Birdine and OU’s defense?!?!
3:59: John David Booty is in the game for USC at QB!!! One of the greatest QB names of all time!
1:42: Carroll gets doused with Gatorade. Reggie Bush dashes by him as it happens nearly getting hit too. Oh the irony!
0:52: USC is getting the BCS Championship hats. Wouldn’t it be funny if the BCS asked that all the former players now give back those hats and t-shirts they got from that night in the Orange Bowl?!?!
0:00: Game is finally over. USC 55 Oklahoma 19.
ABC Postgame Coverage
John Saunders admits that he, Craig James, and Aaron Taylor had all picked Oklahoma. So those three, Trev Alberts, Mark May, and Kirk Herbstreit all picked Oklahoma. The only ESPN/ABC guy who got it right was Lee Corso. Yoooo!!
Aaron Taylor says he’s nearly speechless, because he never thought Oklahoma would get dominated like that.
Lynn Swann is ready to present the trophies on stage.
Pete Carroll is presented the Orange Bowl trophy with a bunch of oranges. This is one trophy USC won’t have to give back.
Now Carroll gets the crystal ball. That one will stay with USC forever hahahaha!!!
Carroll talks about the “class” USC has. Yes I agree. What class USC exhibited during the Pete Carroll era!
You know I will say this. At least Carroll enjoyed the celebration. In this past season’s celebration grouch Nick Saban looked like he was constipated the whole time.
Swann asks Matt Leinart if he has one more year as USC fans go nuts chanting “one more year!”.
Matt Leinart “to do a 3 peat I don’t think that’s ever been done before.”
Swann interviews Reggie Bush. Bush is holding the crystal ball like it’s a football. No one will get that from him! If he finishes the interview doing the Heisman pose with the crystal ball. Oh the class of Reggie Bush and USC!
Swann says that coaches like Pete Carroll have raised the bar for how future collegiate athletes will handle their business in college. Oh the irony and unintentional comedy in that statement hearing it now.
Todd Harris interviews Bob Stoops (someone got the short straw in who interviews who after the game). Bob Stoops says he will look at the game film. He says turnovers cost them. USC scored 31 points on 5 Oklahoma turnovers so I would say that was an accurate statement.
All the ABC guys finish the program talking about how USC is primed for a dynasty under Pete Carroll. While USC would win a few more Rose Bowls, who knew this would be the last national title (well at least AP) for USC under Carroll.
My Thoughts
Alright as for the actual game itself. At the time it happened, and in these years afterwards I put pretty much all the blame on Jason White. Looking back on it now I can see it wasn’t all his fault. While I would still put the majority of the fault on his shoulders, he certainly was not alone. On both sides of the ball the offensive and defensive lines of USC dominated Oklahoma’s lines all night. USC’s offensive line gave Matt Leinart all day to throw. And they gave LenDale White and Reggie Bush gapping holes to run through. On the defensive side the USC D-Line never allowed Adrian Peterson to get going, and put constant pressure on Jason White all night.
Also the Oklahoma skill position players kept slipping during the 1st half. Why exactly this happened I don’t know, but it was a huge factor in the first half, and it even caused one of the INT’s Jason White threw. Like Stoops said you can’t turn the ball over 5 times and expect to win. And the Mark Bradley fumble on the USC punt, when the game was tied 7-7 in the second quarter was a huge momentum swing. Overall, USC had more speed than Oklahoma. And while I was critical of Bob Stoops in this retro diary, and I do think Carroll outcoached him on this night, I think even if Stoops coached a good game OU probably would have lost.
In the end though I still put the majority of the blame on Jason White. He’s your Heisman stud, and he delivered another dud in a BCS Championship Game. It did then, and always will be part of his legacy. And even a diehard OU fan would understand that.
Now to present day 2010. And how the NCAA sanctions on USC and Reggie Bush forever change how this 2005 Orange Bowl will be looked at. After these sanctions I will forever call the 2005 Orange Bowl
"The Game that Happened, but didn't, but did." It happened, because the game was actually played on January 4, 2005. We have video proof, photos, and written accounts of the game to back this up. But it didn’t happen according to the BCS and NCAA. Reggie Bush was an ineligible player so the NCAA said that win would be vacant as well as other games, and probably his Heisman from the 2005 season. The BCS has agreed and is in the process of taking away that BCS/Coaches Championship that USC won in the 2005 Orange Bowl. Those USC players so wanted to get the Crystal Ball they could not get a year before. When they won it all the players and fans probably thought "and they can never take this away from us." Well not quite. Now the BCS is taking it away for good. And finally the “bud did” part is the fact that the AP is not going to have a revote and will let USC keep that AP National Championship. So USC did win a National Championship that night, and Pete Carroll and those Trojan players did win back to back championships. I agree with this decision. Unlike the AP revote for Brian Cushing’s Rookie of the Year Award in the NFL, this happened 5 years ago. Memories can be forgetful, and the fact is not all voters are still around.
This still will not take away the pain Utah players, coaches, and fans will have that they thought they were the best.
They have to stick with their Fiesta Bowl trophy. Same for Auburn. They have to stick with their Sugar Bowl trophy.
Kofod
Here is the link to Part 1 ( http://kandkzone.blogspot.com/2010/06/retro-running-diary-on-2005-orange-bowl.html )
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