NCAA Football – Trojans deny Buffs a Senior Night win.

I had considered not going to the game, but since it was the last game of the season, and I did have to turn in my PAC-12 media vest I decided I better go.  It actually turned out to be a fun night.  Cold, but fun.  The highlights for me were not of the game itself, but things that happened during breaks in the action of the game.

Before the game, while sitting with the other photographers, a USC photographer was throwing trivia at us and one of the questions he through out was, how many consensus football National Championships did the Pac-10 have before adding Colorado and Utah, and he claimed the answer was 8.  UCLA had one and USC owned 7 and I said, “Wrong!”.  He looked at me and said “Colorado was not in the Pac-10 in 1990 when they won the Championship.  And I said true, but in 1991 the University of Washington Huskies were the USAToday National Champions and Miami was the AP Champions.  It was the second to the last time there would be co-champions (happened again in 1997 with Michigan and Nebraska) and was one of the seasons that fueled the misguided need for the BCS.  Go DAWGS!

Between the first and second quarter, all in attendance witnessed a world record as cheer squad member Ozell Williams set a new world record with 59 back handsprings, starting from one end zone and finishing in the opposite end zone.

During halftime there was a snowboard rail jam, which was fun, but the most fun came for the Buffs mascot Chip later in the second half when he started sledding down the ramp the boarders had used hat halftime.

Things did not pick up for the Buffs until the start of the second half.  A stripped ball returned for a touchdown, and finally getting the offense into the end zone were bright points, but USC proved to be just too much and downed the Buffs 47-29.  The Buffs have one more regular season game left as they travel to the other side of the Rockies to face the Utah Utes.  If they can pull off a road victory, that would give Colorado 3 more wins than they had last year and would be a good start to a new era in Buffaloes football.

Here is my 10 Shot from the game.  All photos are available for media use only through Zuma Press.