#74 UCLA

Pasadena, CA

Rose Bowl Stadium

September 28, 2024

Oregon 34 - UCLA 13 (ESPN Recap)

Many takeaways from my second visit to The Rose Bowl stadium.

I cannot think of a more iconic stadium in the country that gives me shivers as I enter. It is timeless and iconic, from parking on and walking through the golf course to get to the entrance, to the open-air concourse, and the views within the stadium. It conjures up memories of so many huge CFB games (and the ’94 and ‘99 World Cup Finals) that I’ve watched unfold in the building.

I attended the Rose Bowl game 12 years ago to see Stanford and Wisconsin play, and the experience was totally different. The UCLA/Oregon game was low-energy and had tons of empty seats (and 12 closed off sections) as opposed to the Rose Bowl Game which was electric and at capacity. Three reasons come to mind as why this is: 1) The stadium is FAR from campus/everything. It took an hour to drive from Santa Monica to Pasadena with little to no traffic, and then 40-45 mins of highway driving back to the west side after midnight. Most P4 stadiums I’ve visited are walking distance or within 10 mins of campus. 2) As my friend mentioned in this text, when Costco sells your home game tickets for you, it’s tough to take the program seriously. 3) Bruins football is in a bad place and is not talented. I am proud to have bet the season win total under after their coach spoke on media day.

Squeezed this game in on the way back from a work trip that took me to Oakland and San Diego Thursday/Friday. Visited sister-in-law Simo, tailgated at Jamesons and Elephante in SM, and brought her to her 2nd ever CFB game. Tony, my Rose Bowl stadium chaperone, was also in attendance for our 6th game together, and I was fortunate to crash at Casa de Lewis both nights.

I got a decent video of a successful 2-pt conversion for Oregon, and unfortunately, took an amazing video of the UCLA pick-6 with 5 seconds left before half which ended up being the sole reason the Oregon -23.5 ticket didn’t win.

I fear Oregon is in a bit of trouble in a couple of weeks when the boys from Columbus come to Eugene (a game that I will be at, as well as Tony/Stephen/Evan/Erik). Tez Johnson went for 11 Rec, 121 Yds and 2 TD...but doubtful he will be able to repeat that type of performance against a much better Ohio St secondary.

Nate and Will were two ex-Las Vegas strangers sitting in the row behind us who were eager to $5-$20 bet on a multitude of random outcomes during the game. Classic ones like “next play is run/pass?”, “will he make this FG?” and “will they score this drive?” As well as some new ones like “over/under number of plays this series.” “No first down or turnover this possession.” And my favorite “Dante Moore is going to

get in this game and attempt a pass!” (I faded Moore and won)

It was a really great weekend of work, close friends, gambling, and family…that I thought was over on Sunday. But then while deplaning the LAX -> FLL JetBlue flight on Sunday afternoon, I made a new best friend. I chatted with him about his college playing days at Virginia Tech and that the Alabama WR Ryan Williams changed his profile picture that same day to a picture of him holding a dog. We got some laughs out of the classic stories.