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At LAX yesterday, I typed up some of the official notes from the Rose Bowl, but my computer -- or more accurately my Internet connection -- ate them. Here they are a day late but hopefully not a dollar short. Oregon's win over Wisconsin gave Pac-...

PASADENA, Calif. -- It takes a lot for a football program to tear up 95 years of frustration and cast it into the trash. It takes spectacular plays, smart plays, clutch plays, unexpected plays and opportunistic plays. It takes stars, supporting playe...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Couple of injury notes. Big Ten Blogger Brian Bennett just reported this: "Wisconsin center Peter Konz worked out with the first team before the game, as he has all week. Konz will start, marking his return from a dislocated an...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Sometimes storylines become so redundant that they feel like cliches. Reporters get just as bored with them as coaches and players do. But redundancy itself implies that something has been there and is there again and hasn't yet g...

LOS ANGELES -- If reporters weren't going to ask Nick Aliotti interesting questions this week, well, maybe he'd ask them a few. "I always find it interesting, not to be religious or anything like that, because I don't want to go there," Oregon's d...

Let's look at three keys for Oregon in the Rose Bowl against Wisconsin on Monday. 1. Win the battle of styles: At first, this was going to be: "Run and stop the run." But the key for Oregon might be flexibility. What the Ducks want is to get their...

The Granddaddy looks like a heck of a matchup between high-powered teams that do things very differently but equally effectively. WHO TO WATCH: LaMichael James. He's had a brilliant career and is likely off to the NFL after this last hurrah, but ...

LOS ANGELES -- LaMichael James didn't win the Heisman Trophy. He didn't defend his 2010 Doak Walker Award. He wasn't again a unanimous All-American. So, yeah, maybe some would say that the nation's leading rusher, who led his team to a third conse...

The more you read about Wisconsin, the more impressive the Badgers are, particularly on offense. Here are some factoids, numbers and notes Oregon fans might find interesting in advance of the Rose Bowl. The takeaway from the below numbers: Wiscons...

The ink was barely dry on Rob Mullens' new contract to become Oregon's athletic director when he faced what perhaps will be considered the most important task of his tenure, even a decade down the road: Make football coach Chip Kelly happy. It was...

LOS ANGELES -- The 2012 Rose Bowl media day is now history. We'll have heaps of reports and videos the rest of the day. But some quick impressions. Oregon was the smaller team against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl two years ago and against Aubur...

Many words are spoken at BCS bowl games. Many words are transcribed. And many words, while amusing or informative, don't get to you in stories. Here are some highlights from the Rose Bowl press conferences on Thursday. Oregon offensive coordina...

LOS ANGELES -- Oregon's football team is either the nation's best-dressed or the nation's worst-dressed -- depending on your new-school or old-school college football fashion tastes -- but at the very least one can say for sure that no other team's g...

Let's play a quick game of fill in the blank: Oregon fans are ... What comes to mind? Keep it clean, folks. Behave! Yes, it is fair to say that Oregon fans have eagerly, zealously and vociferously embraced the recent success of their team. The see...

Oregon clearly was in trouble. Its opponent had all summer to prepare for the Ducks gimmicky offense, and we all know what that means. The defense could train its eyes. It could memorize the Ducks' feints and misdirection and personnel groupings. The...

Chip Kelly has an, er, way about him. "I think the media around here is the smartest people I've ever been around in my entire life." He can be funny, biting, pithy, strange, fiery and surprising when talking to reporters. "Opening statements? Is ...