LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD; BRUINS REFLECT ON THEIR 1994 ROSE BOWL FIASCO.Byline: Jon Wilner Daily News Staff Writer Shawn Stuart, who was a UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX recruit on Jan. 1, 1994, remembers a Wisconsin fan offering $750 for his $75 ticket. Bruins assistant Bob Field remembers raucous rau·cous adj. 1. Rough-sounding and harsh: raucous laughter. 2. Boisterous and disorderly: "the raucous give and take of American democracy" Badgers fans tossing footballs up, up, up - and out of the Rose Bowl during warmups. Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez Barry Alvarez (born December 30, 1946) is a retired college football head coach and current Director of Athletics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On July 28, 2005, Alvarez announced that after the 2005 season he would step down as head coach. remembers walking into the stadium and thinking he had a home-field advantage 2,000 miles from campus. Every memory is different, yet they inevitably return to the same lasting image - of the Rose Bowl awash Awash (ä`wäsh), river, E Ethiopia, rising near Addis Ababa and flowing c.500 mi (800 km) to a swampy lake near the Djibouti border. The Awash Valley is important agriculturally and has hydroelectric plants. in Wisconsin red, with UCLA feeling very much the visitor. ``Isn't Camp Randall painted up beautifully today?'' Alvarez asked, referring to Wisconsin's home stadium in Madison. There are other images from the '94 Rose Bowl: more Wisconsin fans than tickets available; the Badgers pounding UCLA with physical, prototypical Big Ten football; the Bruins committing six turnovers; and, of course, UCLA quarterback Wayne Cook scrambling futilely as the clock expired. ``Wisconsin didn't play great, we just turned the ball over,'' said Stuart, who was days away from enrolling at UCLA when the Badgers defeated the Bruins 21-16. No players in uniform that day will play in the 1999 Rose Bowl, but the '94 game is relevant this week. Specifically, Wisconsin will use its punishing running game and massive offensive line to test UCLA's defensive mettle met·tle n. 1. Courage and fortitude; spirit: troops who showed their mettle in combat. 2. Inherent quality of character and temperament. . Five years ago, the Badgers rushed for 250 yards. Will they do the same Friday? UCLA tight end Bryan Fletcher, whose brother, Terrell, was a Wisconsin tailback tail·back n. Football The back on an offensive team who lines up farthest from the line of scrimmage. tailback Noun Brit a queue of traffic stretching back from an obstruction in '94, believes the Badgers will try. ``Terrell said Pac-10 teams were finesse and Big Ten teams were smash-mouth,'' Fletcher said. ``He didn't believe UCLA could hang with a smash-mouth team. I expect them to do the same thing this year. It'll be physical, physical, physical.'' Wisconsin devoured its ticket allotment this month, just as it did in '94. Back then, Badgers fans were celebrating their first Rose Bowl in 31 years and purchased approximately 70,000 tickets - 30,000 more than UCLA. Many who believed they had tickets were left without, and in the parking lot $46 seats went for at least 10 times face value. The stadium was red from first row to last and all around. When the Bruins charged out of the tunnel and onto their home field, they were the enemy. ``I watched it,'' said UCLA quarterback Cade McNown Cade McNown (born January 12 1977 in Portland, Oregon) is a quarterback who played in the National Football League. He attended played college football at the University of California, Los Angeles. , a high school junior at the time. ``It was pathetic. A lot of people they sold tickets to were not really behind UCLA. Guys were shocked. If that happens again, I'd be surprised.'' The Bruins clinched the '94 Rose Bowl on Marvin Goodwin's dramatic interception against USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. . But from that moment and through the game itself, little went right. There was no fan support, no interest on campus. Quarterback Wayne Cook missed three game-week practices because of the flu and recuperated at his parents' home in Newbury Park. UCLA led the nation with a plus-19 turnover margin during the '93 season, but the Bruins had six against the Badgers. The mistakes, combined with Wisconsin tailback Brent Moss Brent Moss (born January 30, 1972 in Racine, Wisconsin) is a former American football running back for the Wisconsin Badgers from 1991-1994. In the 1993 season he led the Badgers to a Big Ten Conference title and their first Rose Bowl berth since 1963. (158 yards rushing), proved too much for UCLA. Wisconsin jumped to a 7-3 lead in the first quarter on Moss' 3-yard run and never trailed. ``They were very physical, very similar to what they do now,'' Field said. ``They had big backs - not as big as (current tailback Ron) Dayne - and they moved the ball on us. ``This year, they'll want to play smash-mouth again. If that's a trademark of Barry Alvarez teams, then they both have that stamp.'' Alvarez dismissed comparisons between his Rose Bowl teams. The '94 version had a solid quarterback (Darrell Bevell Darrell Bevell is the current Minnesota Vikings Offensive Coordinator and former University of Wisconsin-Madison four-year starting quarterback. He led the Badgers to a 10-1-1 record in the 1993 season and their first ever Rose Bowl win that year, as well as a Hall of Fame ) and respectable passing attack. This year - with Dayne, a massive offensive line and mediocre quarterback Mike Samuel - the Badgers are the unbalanced antithesis antithesis (ăntĭth`ĭsĭs), a figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure. Parallelism of expression serves to emphasize opposition of ideas. of UCLA's dynamic attack. Wisconsin passed for 204 yards per game in 1994, just 110 this season. There is no secret to the Badgers' attack this year. They will run, then run some more. ``We're a totally different team,'' Alvarez said. ``We were a more balanced attack back then. We felt we could throw the ball around (in '94). I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how this game will go. The two teams are at the opposite end of the spectrum. I mean, totally opposite. ``We're not going to get crazy with the ball. We'll be somewhat conservative. We play best when we're in a heavyweight fight going toe-to-toe. I don't know if they're going to let us play like that.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez thought he had home-field advantage in the 1994 Rose Bowl when the Badgers fans bought about 70,000 tickets. Andy Manis/Associated Press |
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