USC proves to be a thorn in their sighs
By: The News-Gazette
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Hope, contrary to what you have been told, does not spring eternal.
But it does spring in the first quarter of a Rose Bowl where your team is already down 14-0 with 4:59 to go.
"There's plenty of time left," said Ryan Brault of Urbana, a University of Illinois alum dressed in Fighting Illini gear, like most of the thick, cold-and-snow-defying crowd at Billy Barooz Pub and Grill on Village Green Place in southwest Champaign.
"It's early," Dennis Ohnstad of Urbana assured, watching the second quarter begin across the way in Jupiter's at the Crossing, also on Village Green Place.
"It's not impossible," added Marilyn Resch of Casey, sitting next to the orange-clad Ohnstad.
"You gotta convert on your turnovers though," said John Laroe of Champaign, who arrived with friend Megan Pickens of Effingham at 1:30 p.m. to secure a table for the group, one positioned directly in front of a big-screen TV ... and a toe-warming fireplace.
"We're pretty happy," Laroe said.
"Happy with the seat, not the result," Ohnstad said.
Hope springs as well in the second quarter, when, moments after noting that your team has held its opponent at 14 for quite a long time, said opponent makes it 21-0.
A little depressing, Alex Brittin, 17, of Champaign and Elliot Campos, 13, of Champaign admitted while watching the game in Jupiter's at the Crossing. But the Illinois team was better than it looked and capable of showing it yet, they said.
"We got points on the board," Brittin said after the Illini kicked a field goal as the first half dwindled. "That's all I wanted to see before halftime."
"If we win, it's gonna be within two points," Campos said.
Hope springs, in particular, when early in the third quarter your all-star running back rips off a lengthy touchdown run, your defense gets a stop and your offense is driving again.
"I knew it would be an uphill battle for us," Joe "Train" Gordon of rural Villa Grove said, watching at Bunny's Tavern on Water Street in downtown Urbana. "We're only two scores out. It's looking good if we can hold them and, I think, not turn the ball over. I think we've got a chance."
Hope even springs when your team subsequently fumbles the ball into the end zone and the other team falls on it.
"Plenty of time, plenty of time," Gordon said. "Got over a quarter left."
"Anything's possible," said Ryan Pittman of Urbana, sitting a couple stools over from Gordon at Bunny's "Just got to stay positive."
Hope apparently stops springing, however, when your opponent scores with 3:42 left in the third, to make it 35-10, and with 14:10 left in the fourth quarter to make it 42-10.
By then, the audience at the venerable Rose Bowl – the bar on Race Street in downtown Urbana, not the stadium in Pasadena – had dwindled to fewer than a dozen.
"We did have," bartender Marsha Hector said, when asked whether they had had much of a crowd earlier in the game. "But a lot of them said, 'I want to go home and cry.'"
Owner Steve Campbell put out a spread of eats and also produced a stash of plastic drink cups left over from the 1984 Rose Bowl, the last time the Illini played in the big game, alas with a similar result.
"I think we gave away about a dozen of them," Hector joked. "They even had the dust from '84."
"We'll have to settle for having beat Ohio State," Campbell said.
No, hope, contrary to what you have been told, does not spring eternal.
But hey, every cloud may have a silver lining – in this case, as far as Roger Paintner of Mahomet, a former Los Angeles resident, an Oregon native and a Pac 10 fan, is concerned.
He snuck into Billy Barooz before the game in a nondescript, green-and-gold Oregon Ducks turtleneck, but changed before kickoff into a maroon USC warmup jacket – a friendly dig aimed in the direction of his friend and neighbor Peter Ruedi, confirmed Illinois and Big Ten fan.
"He's my best friend; otherwise, I'd hate him," Ruedi said.
Before a down had been played, Paintner said he figured the final would be 48-7 Trojans.
"You're sick," Ruedi said.
But close. The final score: 49-17.