Matt Leinart on the Rose Bowl

by Cyrus on Jul 31, 2007 7:06 PM CDT Comment 9 comments

Matt Leinart: "I think Texas deserved it. They beat us fair and square. hands down!"

That's what he said in a segment in ESPNU. ESPN ran a program on the best single-player game performances of all time and obviously Vince's rose bowl was #1.

PS. Surprisingly Vince's 2005 rose bowl was not on the list though.

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That show's list was crap

with a few good choices sprinkled in.

#7 was Bush against Fresno State.

Give me a fuckin break!!

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Jul 31, 2007 7:23 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Why?

Its pretty damn hard to rack up 500 APY versus anyone.

What/where is the whole list?

Fight On! Beat the Wolverines!

by USCLink on Aug 1, 2007 3:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Of all time?

Are you telling me it ranks up there in the pantheon of greatest single player performances of all time?

Didn't a running back from San Diego State or something rack up 300 yards the very next weekend against Fresno State?

I believe LT had over 400 (rushing alone)in a game against either UTEP or Rice when he was at TCU.
So I don't know how common it is.
Some guy from Utah St. holds the all purpose record of 578 in 2000.

I couldn't find the whole list, but essentially they all were big time games with historical significance. Fresno St. just doesn't fit that criteria, IMO. A .500 Fresno St., at that.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Aug 1, 2007 4:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

No

The week after they played us, Fresno State lost to UNR. I remember because my friend got frostbite at that game (said it was worth it though). After the UNR loss, they lost to a school in Louisiana, then lost the freedom bowl. I'm pretty sure Jeff Rowe (UNR's QB) had a good game, but I don't think they gave up anywhere near that much yardage the rest of the season.

And Fresno was better than .500. i think they went 8-5 with their bowl loss.

That said, while the opposition wasn't great, you can't argue that Reggie didn't carry the team to maintain the streak, the 3-peat hopes, and all else that losing that game would have cost us.

Honestly, I don't know a ton of history that's not USC, but at least in my mind, it was one helluva performance. Reggie was transcendent in that game, and I feel that the game met that criteria...not because of who it was against, but because of what it led to, one of the best NC games ever, a 34 game win streak, two teams entering w/ a combined 54 game streak between them, two of the best offenses in CFB history...

My 2 cents.

Fight On! Beat the Wolverines!

by USCLink on Aug 2, 2007 11:44 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

APY is highly overrated

His real yardage is 362 (294 rushing) which is impressive, but this was against a defense that completely fell apart at the end of the season and had allowed 37 against Oregon in the year. Sometimes yardage doesn't tell the whole story and that is why I believe this performance shouldn't even be on the list.

by wtfitzhomie on Aug 1, 2007 4:29 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

so true. I remember Cowherd and Jim Rome

raving about how Bush put up 279 apy's in the Rose Bowl. This is such a classic example of using the stats to hide the truth. Over a third of those yards (102) were kickoff returns, and considering Texas kicked off 7 times, those yards were useless. Then take into consideration that most of his 95 recieving yards came on two catches - one for 37 yds where he lateraled to the Texas 2ndry and the other for 27 yds when the game was already decided. Of his 279 all purpose yds, 166 of them were totally useless. But the commentators totally ignored this. I'm not trying to bash Reggie, it's more like I dislike people's use of apy's.

As for Bush being part of the ESPNU thing...
He really needed to be a part of the countdown. That 05 season really was awesome, and the Fresno St. game was probably his signature game. So to me it made perfect sense to take the best game from one of the best running backs.

by DogTown on Aug 1, 2007 9:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

didn't catch the show...

but no way is Bush's Fresno State game the #7 best all-time. Truth is, I could probably come up with at least 5 better games just from USC backs alone!

Between OJ, Ricky Bell, Sam 'Bam' Cunningham, Anthony Davis, Charles White, and Marcus Allen, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that better games have been played against teams that aren't middle-of-the-road small conference teams in the midst of a season-ending defensive collapse.....

And if you're looking for kickoff returners, give me Anthony Davis vs. Notre Dame over Bush vs. FS every day.

Thing is, he's the most highly hyped back of the last couple of decades, and he's very, very good, so you feel like you have to get him on the list somewhere, and as mentioned earlier, that's his signature game. I just think out of that list, he's hard-pressed to make the top 3. And that doesn't even begin to take in the Eric Dickersons or Herschel Walkers or Bo Jacksons or Earl Campbells or Billy Sims or... well, you get my drift.

by agent orange on Aug 2, 2007 1:42 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Try to come up with 5

It's much harder than you think. There was a huge gap between Vince's '6 Rose Bowl and the second best single-person performance. Vince's '05 rose bowl should have been #2, but they combined 05 rose bowl with 06 for the #1 spot.

My point is: there are not that many great single person performances and Bush at #7 is not that far from fair.

Go Horns, Go Vince, Go Mavs

by Cyrus on Aug 2, 2007 12:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sanders against Wyoming

Rocket Ishmail against Miami
Bo Jackson against Bama
Ricky against the Corn people

4 off the top of my head without internet assitance.

It just seemed like a contrived blatant, "Bush needs to be on this list moment".
If it hadn't been him, it would not make the list. People would say, "it was Fresno State?!"

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Aug 2, 2007 12:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs