Archive: January, 2009
PASADENA, Calif. --
1. Southern Cal won the coin flip and deferred until the second half. Josh Gaines started at left defensive tackle instead of at end.
2. On USC's first possession, it looked like Penn State linebacker Navorro Bowman dislocated a finger when he tried to wrapped up Trojans QB Mark Sanchez. He ran to the sidelines and had it checked out. He was back out for the next series.
PASADENA, Calif. -- The pageantry of the Rose Bowl is on full display. The Penn State blue band just finished its pre-game show and the famous Southern Cal band is about to take the field. Here are some other game-related notes as we near kickoff.
-- Joe Paterno was not on the field for pre-game drills. The 82-year-old Penn State coach will watch the game from the press box today. Paterno is still recovering from hip-replacement surgery. There was a chance Paterno might be down on the field before the game, but it appears he chose to avoid any chance of further injuring himself.
-- This is Paterno's 35th bowl game. He has a 23-10-1 record in the previous 34. USC coach Pete Carroll is 5-2 in bowl games.
PASADENA, Calif. -- Welcome to Pleasantville, home of the Rose Bowl. The weather is perfect for today's showdown between Penn State and Southern Cal. The skies are a clear blue and the temperature is steady at 70 degrees. There isn't much wind.
The bowl is pretty much empty, save for some workers, photographers and media types. The teams are expected to arrive about an hour and a half before kickoff. There was a case of food poisoning or a flu bug that affected many of the reporters that stayed at the Marriott last night. This reporter managed to avoid the illness. The Trojans, though, stayed at the Marriott last night, so it will be interesting to see if any of the players were infected.
I'll be back with more updates.
LOS ANGELES -- Let's jump right to this morning's news on yesterday:
-- When Maurice Evans got in trouble and missed three games, Aaron Maybin stepped in and had an all-American season. Now he's the hot ticket right now, a possible first round pick, while Evans' stock plummeted.
-- Pete Carroll calls Joe Paterno the living embodiment of Benjamin Button.
This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.
Emily Kaplan is the Inquirer’s fall intern covering the Nittany Lions. She is a senior at Penn State and has covered a variety of sports for the university’s student-run paper, The Daily Collegian. Over the last two years, she has reported for The Associated Press from State College.
A Montclair, N.J. native, she has also interned at MLB Network, NHL.com and covered the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her on Twitter here @EKaplan24.
