EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORNS BOWL GAME HAS MICHIGAN, USC FEELING A LITTLE PUT OUT.

Byline: BILLY WITZ Staff Writer

When University of Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr gathered his team before its first bowl practice three weeks ago, he told them of the first Wolverines team that came to the Rose Bowl 105 years ago.

They traveled west by train, stopping along the way to practice, and didn't arrive in Pasadena for more than a week. You guys, Carr told his team, would arrive in a matter of hours on a chartered jet.

That same night, when USC coach Pete Carroll sat down with his team at its awards banquet, a video montage of the season highlights included footage from every game -- except the loss to UCLA. The Marv Goux Award, given annually to the best player against their crosstown rival, wasn't handed out for the first time, either.

The message, implied or expressed, from Adams Boulevard to Ann Arbor, was the same: Look on the bright side.

Michigan and USC are playing in the Rose Bowl today amid the usual pageantry and postcard backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, but never before have both participants in the Granddaddy of Them All been required to see their presence through, well, Rose-colored glasses.

Pasadena is wonderful, but all things considered the Trojans and Wolverines would rather be in Glendale ... Arizona, that is -- the site of next week's Bowl Championship Series title game.

The two teams playing for the national championship, Ohio State and Florida, went through, over and around the Wolverines and Trojans to get there.

No.1-ranked Ohio State beat then-No.2 Michigan 42-39 in a thriller Nov. 18 in Columbus between two of the last three unbeaten teams in the country (Boise State was the other).

UCLA shocker 

Under the BCS ranking system, a formula that includes voting polls, computer polls and strength of schedule, USC appeared set to meet Ohio State until it was shocked two weeks later by UCLA 13-9.

Michigan thought USC's loss would open the door for a rematch against the Buckeyes -- this time on a neutral field -- when the bowl lineups were announced the next day.

Instead, many voters in the human polls -- mainly coaches and sportswriters -- frowned on a rematch, jumping once-beaten Florida over Michigan. It was enough for Florida to slip past Michigan in the BCS rankings by one-hundredth of a percentage point, the slimmest margin in the system's nine years.

And thus the stage was set for the unofficial theme for this year's Tournament of Roses: Misery loves company.

Or as USC linebacker Dallas Sartz dubbed it: ``The Pissed-Off Bowl.''

Of course, there's been no such moaning coming from the mouths of Carroll or Carr. To them, a Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

``The day will never come in my lifetime where there'll be a disappointment in playing in the great tradition of the Rose Bowl, where every kid in the country will be watching and cheering for somebody,'' Carr said. ``It's been a special team, a special year. We'd like to win one.''

Meanwhile, Carroll has been miffed at the suggestion his players will not get over their opportunity lost.

``That's well over and gone,'' he said. ``That's a long time ago already for us. We're not supposed to play better in this program because we're playing Michigan or in the Rose Bowl whether there's something at stake or not. We're supposed to play the same and give it our best every time. The difference is in the following, the hype, the conversation about it.''

Still, these are 18- to 22-year-old players, a demographic that's old enough to have a mind of its own, but young enough to still be learning how to use it.

Fewer boosters

For example, a year ago, when USC practiced for the Rose Bowl it was in front of hundreds of boosters and family members who squeezed along the sidelines at Howard Jones Field. At a recent practice, there weren't many more than a dozen.

The Trojans also were disappointed three years ago when they were sent to the Rose Bowl instead of the Sugar Bowl for the BCS title game, despite being ranked No.1 in both polls. But then Carroll had a carrot to dangle: if they won that game they'd at least earn a share of the national championship. They beat Michigan 28-14, and did.

This time it's different.

``As a player you want to live in a fantasy world of winning every game and winning national championships,'' Trojans junior defensive end Lawrence Jackson said. ``We can't say, `Oh, man, we should be playing this bowl or that.' In hindsight, we should. But we lost. We've got to get over that.''

And so how's that going?

``It's a lot easier said than done,'' Trojans senior receiver Chris McFoy said. ``I'm cool with it now, but I'm not going to lie. I was hurting. I was distraught. Now, it's more trying to be content, learn from it, trying to build a stronger foundation -- I guess.''

USC, at least, has only itself to blame. Michigan can point fingers elsewhere.

The Wolverines played well enough at Ohio State that they didn't drop in the polls. But when USC crushed sixth-ranked Notre Dame, its third consecutive win over a ranked team, they jumped past Michigan to No. 2 in the polls. When Florida, ranked fourth, beat Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference title game, it also leapfrogged Michigan.

All this came after Michigan had completed its regular season.

``As a team, a lot of guys felt we lost three weeks back-to-back,'' Wolverines senior linebacker Shawn Crable said.

``We lost games we didn't even play in. The media was talking bad about us. We're like, `Dang, did we play this week? Did we look that bad this week?' We were joking that maybe we should have brought cameras in and showed us working out. (But) we can't control this at all. We lost our leverage, so we just have to go with the flow.''

Eight years ago, UCLA players and coaches said many of the same things that USC and Michigan are saying now.

The Bruins were forced to settle for the Rose Bowl after having their 20-game winning streak and shot at a national championship berth in the Fiesta Bowl vanquished in a loss at Miami.

The Bruins, a 10-point favorite, lost 38-31 to a Wisconsin team that TV analyst Craig James called ``the worst to ever play in the Rose Bowl.''

Nobody is saying anything unkind about these teams -- especially now that Florida coach Urban Meyer, who took shots at Michigan when he was politicking for his team, is in the BCS title game.

In fact, it could be one of the best bowl games on New Year's Day, better, some have suggested, than the BCS championship.

It features two of the best defenses in the country, two schools with long and proud football tradition, and two teams that will wake up this morning with the same goal as many other on New Year's Day -- getting rid of a hangover.

billy.witz(at)dailynews.com

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