The 2018 PAC-12 American Football Championship Game

Monday, November 26 - Monday, December 3, 2018

After last Friday night's big Washington (9-3) win over Washington State, the focus of this week was attending and winning the PAC-12 Championship Game against the Utah Utes (9-3) at Levi's Stadium, the state of the art home of the San Francisco 49ers, in Santa Clara, California.

Laurie and I attended the regular season Huskies-Utes game last September with Jenn, Andy and Kevin in Salt Lake City. The Huskies won that hard fought contest 21-7.

It was the Huskies second time in a

PAC-12 Championship Game and the

Utes first time to vie for a title

The PAC-12 only started playing a post-season title game in 2011.

With Utah's initial appearance this week, all six Southern Division schools have now appeared in this game.

The other five Southern Division colleges (including their number of appearance) are Arizona (1), Arizona State (1), Colorado (1), Southern California (2) and UCLA (2).

Only three schools have represented the Northern Division in these first eight Championship games. They are Oregon(2), Stanford (4) and Washington (2).

The three Northern Division universities still looking to make it to Santa Clara for the first time are California, Oregon State and Washington State.

The game was scheduled for Friday night, so we still had things to do starting with the first meeting on Tuesday morning of my new Italian Conversation class led by outstanding teacher Elisa Degli-Henke at the Conejo Valley Adult School.

We had a great 90 minute session to start off the new quarter after the local wildfires had closed down the school for the previous two weeks.

It was a good week to start putting

up our annual UW Christmas ornaments

Collectively these 15 yearly ornaments, thanks to the generosity of Paul Sabolic, weigh too much to put on a tree, thus we use our hall tree to proudly display them during the yuletide season.

GRAZIE PAOLO!

We also proudly display

a Husky Santa that is not part

of the above collection

 GREAT sign at the Camarillo Library

Paul Sabolic is Croation

I wonder if he attended this mega-important Croation National Championship American football game in Zagreb this weekend?

This was the seventh CroBowl with the Patriots having won the crown in 2012 and the Sea Wolves being the two time defending champions having won the 2016 and 2017 titles.

Finally, it was Friday, GAME DAY! 

We were out of the house at 6:10 a.m. to start the five hour drive to Santa Clara for the Washington-Utah game.

We stopped for breakfast at about the

half way point at a new spot for us

but definitely NOT a new place in

San Luis Obispo

Their good, hearty fare hit the spot!

The last half of our journey went smoothly and at our hotel in San Jose, we hooked up with our Seattle contingent made up of Mike Carlin and Mark and Susie Johnson.

After checking into our hotel and getting settled, we were off in search of a good spot for our necessary pre-game meal.

EUREKA!

This BBQ joint was only about a half mile from our hotel.

It was not up to the standards set by Tuscaloosa's Dreamland, Memphis' Rendezvous or Syracuse's Dinosaur BBQs but it was quite good nonetheless.

ON TO LEVI'S STADIUM!

L. to R.: Mark Johnson, Susie Johnson, Mike Carlin, Laurie and yours truly

At the Husky Alumni Tailgate Party

 The Husky Band joined us . . .

. . . as did the Husky Cheerleaders

The Husky Marching Band . . .

. . . was . . .

. . . ROCKING!

Love the brass section!

 The strange sights one sees at

a Husky Alumni Tailgate?

A Cougar sporting a Go Dawgs pin . . .

 Enough of the tailgating . . .

. . . let's get in the stadium!

Levi's Stadium is WONDROUS!

It really points out the inadequacies of the ancient but beloved Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

Can you name the 49er greats

who wore these numbers?

The view from our seats

 The Husky Marching Band

working hard as always

 The BIG W!

 Old Glory

 The "visiting" Utes take the field

 HERE COME THE HUSKIES!

Let the game begin

It was a defensive game with

LOTS of hitting . . .

. . . by both teams!

UW RB Myles Gaskin ran tough

as usual but for only 71 yards

You HAVE to hold #25 Burr-Kirven

if you want your QB to survive the night

At the half, the Huskies were leading 3-0.

I said it was as defensive game.

So it was only fitting that the defense scored the only TD in the game.

In the Third Quarter, Utah kicked a 53 yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3.

Soon after that long distance boot and still in the Third Quarter, the Husky defense won the day. 

 Game MVP CB Byron Murphy

picked off a pass that ricocheted off

of a Utes receiver's hands

The old Tipping Drill . . .

Murphy raced 66 yards to pay dirt

and the Huskies led 10-3!

And that was it.

No one scored in the Fourth Quarter so with a hard fought 1930s type game over, the Huskies parlayed their 10-3 win into the 2018 PAC-12 Championship.

Which also means that the Huskies . . .

. . . are going to . . .

  

The 2019 ROSE BOWL!

It is the #9 ranked, PAC-12 Champion Huskies (10-3) first trip to Pasadena for the New Years Day Classic since beating Purdue with Drew Brees at QB in the 2001 Rose Bowl game 34-24.

Careful what you wish for. Our opponents in the Row Bowl will be the #6 ranked, Big-10 Champion Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1).

We may have to score more than ten points to beat the Buckeyes.

A lot more . . .

We had a GREAT time at Levi's Stadium!

This will be our eighth trip to Pasadena to see our Huskies play in a Rose Bowl Game.

Our record so far in these seven "Grand Daddy of Them All" classics is a highly respectable 5-2 with the five wins coming against Michigan (1978, 1992), Iowa (1982, 1991) and Purdue (2012).

The two losses were both to Michigan (1981, 1993).

I searched through our archives to find . . .

 Our 1978 Rose Bowl Game

Souvenir Program

Note the incredibly low cost of only $2.50!

Our 1978 Rose Bowl ticket

End Zone seats for a mere $17.50!

That same seat will have a face value of $160 on January 1, 2019!

Also note the very last line, in black, at the bottom of the ticket . . .

FREE AUTO PARKING

It will cost $50 to park at the 2019 Rose Bowl!

So, what cost us $37.50 for two tickets, a program and parking in 1978 can now be had for a mere $385! 

Making America Great Again . . .

After the Huskies' big win against Utah, we just had to go celebrate . . . 

In San Francisco . . .

. . . at this iconic spot . . .

 The Buena Vista Cafe famous

for their Irish Coffee!

We celebrated the trip to the

2019 Rose Bowl with an Irish Coffee

Or three.

While we were driving back to Camarillo on Saturday . . .

Kevin was taking his

first piano lesson

AWESOME!

While . . .

Mary and . . .

 . . . Jacob were in the Santa Clara

Elementary School Parade

We again stopped in San Luis

Obispo for a break on the long

drive home in constant rain

 We shared the Apple Farm's

famous Apple Dumpling

We were assured of its low calorie status by our server.

Interesting architecture in

downtown SLO

Big flip-flops too!

We made it home at a reasonable hour, none the worse for wear.

Then on Sunday . . .

The Rams did it AGAIN!

10-1, the BEST record in the NFL!

We could not have beaten the Lions today

without the efforts of Army's Heisman Trophy

winner Glenn Davis toting the pigskin

Monday called for one more game of American football, this time a flag playoff game between the Las Colinas Mustangs and the Mesa Union Tigers.

The Mustangs' #1 Dylan Moore was

the reason for our attendance

Laurie freezing and seated with

Cyndy, Debi and their friend

Mo watching

Cyndy is Dylan's Mother and Debi is his Grandmother.

 Running an inside route

Open in the end zone

It was a good game as one would expect as these two teams split their two regular season head-to-head games.

Mesa Union took the rubber game by a score of 18-12.

Reading Is FUNdamental! 

Another great insight into

the psyche of the people

of Venice