The Oregon football program has been good for so many seasons in a row that winning a meaningful game--that is becoming champion of something besides the PAC--was only a matter of time.
The Rose Bowl last night felt like just another game, which, interestingly, is exactly what Darron Thomas said in a post-game interview.
It hadn't sunk in for Thomas in other words that winning the Rose Bowl is a significant accomplishment. The game felt like any other to Thomas, who has lost just three games in two seasons as Oregon's starting quarterback.
Winning a lot in a sense makes one jaded, expectant of the desired results. Perhaps that is one way of measuring both the depth of my boredom at season's end and the stature of the Oregon program under the leadership of Chip Kelly.
Twenty years ago I might have been overwhelmed with excitement about what happened yesterday in Pasadena.
These days I prefer to rue last season when Oregon should have beaten Auburn in the national championship game.
(Always keeping that negativity close, because that's where one best controls it.)
The Rose Bowl is nice, if not the ultimate football prize. It'll be interesting to see how things play out next year, with Darron Thomas returning for a third season, with the stunningly gifted De'Anthony Thomas earning more carries in the likely absence of LaMichael James, and with 34 of 44 players returning from the two-deep roster, many of them young stars ready to shine.
Maybe I'll conjure interest in the championship game this week, but it's unlikely, because I really have no use for LSU and Alabama, despite knowing they are both excellent.
Feels to me like the season is finally over.
Good.
TS
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