New Year’s Day in most households across the country, mean one thing – a day’s worth of bowl games. Yes, the NCAA did their best to host the national semi-finals on New Year’s Eve, which may become a natural occurrence, much like the NFL on Thanksgiving, and the NBA on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, if you read about the initial ratings, the New Year’s Eve experiment was a bust. Maybe it will catch on in subsequent years, much like all those revelers in Times Square, waiting hours to watch a ball fall.
The staple of college bowls however, remains the 1st of each year. Original games, like the Orange, Cotton, Sugar, and the ‘granddaddy’ of them all – the Rose Bowl – take center stage, when most folks are either nursing hangovers, or just want to chill after a long holiday season of eating, drinking, and dealing with kids home from school.
This year’s Rose Bowl, which continues to rely more on tradition than corporate sponsor buyout (they’re the only bowl that doesn’t have a corporate name before the bowl), was the most compelling of the day, despite the one sided score, and blowout that Stanford dealt to Iowa. Like the Thanksgiving Day Macy’s Parade, this is an all day spectacle, commencing with the annual Rose Day Parade, and ending with the penultimate match in the historic Rose Bowl, with the San Gabriel mountains as a backdrop.
Stanford University, first and foremost, is one of the bastions of education in the country. If they were located in the Northeast, it would be part of what they consider an Ivy League school. The difference, Stanford continues to produce outstanding athletes and top notch sports programs each and every year. For alum, like Andrew Luck, Tiger Woods, and even former President John F. Kennedy, went to the tree lined campus in beautiful Palo Alto, California, a mere 30 minute drive from San Francisco.
The day, and the game, belonged to Cardinal standout Christian McCaffrey, this year’s Heisman Trophy runner-up, who tried to show the national audience why he should have taken the award home this season. It was, arguably, one of the best single performances in Rose Bowl, if not bowl game history games anyone has ever seen. McCaffrey has his parents to thank for an incredible pedigree. His dad, Ed, played for two Super Bowl champion teams in Denver with John Elway, and his mom, a former star soccer player, who also went to Stanford. Good genes indeed.
The game was virtually over on the first play from scrimmage, as McCaffrey took a pass in the slot, and galloped past the entire Iowa defense for a 75 yard touchdown. McCaffrey’s day just started, and he seemed to be on a mission for the entire contest. The contest was over at halftime, with the Cardinal up 35-0, going into the locker room, but McCaffrey wasn’t done with his torrid record breaking day.
McCaffrey ended with 368 all-purpose yards, a Rose Bowl record, and set two other records with 100 yard passing and rushing yards, something no one had ever done in the over 100 year history of the bowl. It truly was a remarkable individual performance, and McCaffrey played like it was their national championship game. It’s a wonder that the Cardinal lost 2 games in the regular season, displaying an offensive and defensive prowess that rivaled Clemson and Alabama.
McCaffrey was a human highlight reel, breaking tackles, outrunning a tough Hawkeye defense, and even running back a punt return for a touchdown. It was as if, he was the only player on the field, and all eyes were focused on the new football hero from the west coast. This was the New Year’s Day feel good story, a real life ‘Rudy’, and a great start to 2016. His parents, who say they get very nervous before each contest, should be very proud of their son and, no doubt, his very bright future with an NFL team.
To put the final numbers into perspective for the non-Heisman winner, McCaffrey ended the game with 172 rushing yards, 105 passing yards, in just his sophomore season. Entering the Rose Bowl, he had a FBS-record 3,496 all-purpose yards. McCaffrey can do it all, run, catch, perform on special teams, and doing it on the biggest stage in college bowl game lore, against a one-loss and almost playoff Iowa Hawkeye team. NFL scouts are salivating at a potential top 3 choice, which may be only one year off.
For those fans who had the pleasure of watching this game, and this performance, were truly lucky. The game, is held at the perfect time of day, not too early, not too late, so peak viewership was at it’s peak. The Rose Bowl, and all it’s splendor, was the big winner of the bowl season, and so were the fans in attendance, and around the nation, who witnessed a memorable day from one of the future stars of the NFL. Andrew who? Tiger who? The day belonged to a kid named Christian McCaffrey. Much like the legacy of the Mannings, this could be the start of another storied family legacy for many years to come. Who wouldn’t root for something as good at this, as we head into 2016.
