12/4/07
For Illini, the rush for
Rose Bowl tickets is on.
The University of Illinois says it's already received 12,000 requests for tickets to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where the Illini will play the USC Trojans on New Year's Day.
The surge comes a day after officials picked the Illini to play in their first Rose Bowl since 1984. It'll be their first bowl for the U of I since 2002.
Illinois will have about 26,000 tickets to sell.
School donors and season-ticket holders will get first crack at them. They have until Friday to put in their requests. Student season-ticket holders have until Wednesday evening.
Any tickets still left go on sale to the public next week.
11/30/07
The Pac-10 campaign concludes with a quartet of rivalry games, two of which could figure in determining the league's Rose Bowl entrant. No. 9 Southern California can simplify matters by beating UCLA in the Coliseum. The Bruins, who ruined the Trojans' national championship bid last season, will need help but could still claim a share of the title. That figures to be a taller order with USC healing and heating up. Trojans QB John David Booty had his best outing of the year Thanksgiving Day at Arizona State. TE Fred Davis remains a reliable target and physical mismatch in the middle, while RB Chauncey Washington has emerged as the top ground gainer. DE Bruce Davis and LB Christian Taylor lead a UCLA defense that pitched a shutout last week, but that came against a broken Oregon attack. The Bruins' offense has its own injury woes, but first-string QB Ben Olson should be back in the starting lineup along with RB Chris Markey.
11/28/07
PASADENA, CALIF. - When the Rose Bowl clock hit 0:00 Saturday afternoon, the ASU football team had accomplished more than just a 24-20 victory over UCLA.
The Sun Devils' win, coupled with an Ohio State loss, put ASU in prime position for a Rose Bowl berth, and has the Sun Devils believing they will return to Pasadena on Jan. 1.
"We're going to win out and hopefully we will come back here," said junior linebacker Morris Wooten, who finished the game with five tackles. "We're coming back."
ASU jumped one spot to No. 8 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings.
A win on Thanksgiving over No. 11 USC would all but secure a trip back to Pasadena for the Sun Devils.
Saturday's victory was the first for ASU in Los Angeles since Nov. 6, 1999.
And for a team with an assembly of players from Southern California, including junior quarterback Rudy Carpenter, getting a win in front of the people they grew up with meant a lot.
"It was good, I had a lot of family here, a lot of friends here," Carpenter said. "It felt good to get a win, especially in Los Angeles."
Carpenter finished the day 16 of 31 for 200 yards and one touchdown pass.
The Sun Devils again got off to one of their trademark slow starts before making a late defensive stop to secure the win.
Junior running back Keegan Herring led ASU's rushing attack accounting for 116 of the Sun Devils' 152 net rushing yards.
Herring was getting stuffed for short gains early on, but then broke off a 71-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, which gave ASU an 11-point lead at the time.
"The offensive line, they just opened up a hole," Herring said. "I saw a little crease and I just had to go and try to keep my speed.
"I was waiting for that all game."
Sophomore Dimitri Nance also ran the ball in for a score.
Nance finished the game with 12 carries for 54 yards to go along with his touchdown.
But perhaps ASU's biggest weapon on the afternoon was sophomore wide receiver Chris McGaha.
McGaha set career highs with nine catches and 123 yards, and his receptions seemed to come right when ASU needed a big play.
"Chris is a very smart player," Carpenter said. "He knows how to get open. He runs very good routes. And the biggest thing is that he catches the ball every time."
ASU's biggest weakness Saturday was the play of its special teams.
UCLA returned seven kickoffs and punts for a total of 228 yards.
The Bruins' senior wide receiver Matthew Slater tied a single-season Pac-10 record in the third quarter when he returned a kickoff 89 yards for his third kickoff returned for touchdown on the year.
Sophomore wide receiver Terrence Austin also had a huge return for the Bruins.
He took a punt back 68 yards before being stopped at the ASU 1-yard line by junior safety Troy Nolan.
"We just didn't tackle," coach Dennis Erickson said. "On the punt return, we missed about three tackles. And the same thing happened on the kickoff return. That's ridiculous."
UCLA jumped out to an early 10-0 first quarter lead courtesy of a 28-yard field goal from redshirt freshman kicker Kai Forbath and a 2-yard run from sophomore running back Chris Sheppard which came after Austin's long punt return.
But ASU countered midway through the second quarter when Carpenter threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Kyle Williams to bring the Sun Devils within three points.
Forbath added another field goal to put the Bruins on top by six, but then redshirt freshman kicker Weber made a 53-yarder right before halftime to bring the lead back down to three.
Weber has made 19 of his 20 field goal attempts on the season.
After ASU's two rushing touchdowns and Slater's return, which came with 7:40 remaining in the third quarter, the game turned into a defensive struggle.
In the final 22 minutes of the game, UCLA forced two fumbles and ASU senior safety Josh Barrett forced a fumble and made an interception which all but sealed the victory.
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