World Financial Group

As you know, World Financial Group is a proud sponsor of Pac-10 football.  So far this Bowl Season, Pac-10 teams have gone three and zero in bowl games played in Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Diego.  All three of the locations have one thing in common: they're all in the same time zone.  The Rose Bowl, of course, is also in the Pacific time zone.  But today's bowl game featuring a Pac-10 team will be played outside of the Pacific time zone.  The Brut Sun Bowl will feature the Pittsburgh Panthers of the Big 12 against the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac-10.  The game will be held in El Paso, TX at 12 MT (11 PT) on CBS.

This Sun Bowl is special for one reason.  This will be the 75th anniversary of the contest held in El Paso.  Of those 75 games, Pac-10 teams have appeared 21 times.  In fact, all but the California Golden Bears have appeared in the Sun Bowl at least once.  The first Pac-10 team to appear in the Sun Bowl were the Arizona Wildcats in 1968.  But it would take nine years for another Pac-10 team (Stanford) to win in the Sun Bowl.  Since 1995, the Pac-10 has played in the Sun Bowl on a consistent basis.  All time, Pac-10 teams have a 12-9 record there.

For the Sun Bowl's 75th Anniversary, an All-Sun Bowl team was announced.  Ten Pac-10 players are among the list.  They include Drew Dunning, a place kicker from Washington State; Jonathan Stewart, a running back from Oregon; Fenuki Tupou, an offensive tackle also from Oregon and Pat Tillman, a linebacker from Arizona State.  And not to be left out, Washington Huskies coach Don James was enshrined as a "Legend of the Sun Bowl" for coaching teams there in 1979 and 1986.

Oregon State was last in the Sun Bowl in 2006.  Then, they defeated Missouri 39-38 (close game!).  In fact, that game set a Sun Bowl record for most touchdown passes (4) and most passing first downs (24).  And not to be outdone, the Beavers only received two penalties all game.  Will this be topped this afternoon?  I'll definitely be tuned in to find out.

One more thing: the "Helen of Troy" halftime show will feature an attempt to set a Guinness World Record of for "most people participating in the song 'YMCA'".  The attempt will be led by the originators of the disco tune, the Village People!  Hopefully CBS will carry that during the broadcast.

I'm sad to say that I didn't get to see as much of the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl as I would have liked.  I was plain tuckered out come halftime and, with Oklahoma State in the lead over Oregon, I fell asleep.  Sometimes blogging for WFG can just make a man tired.

Then I woke up this morning and saw the final score.  Oregon Ducks 42, Oklahoma State Cowboys 31.  Obviously, I could call the second half of the game a shootout, especially with a team called the Cowboys in contention.  The Ducks scored five touchdowns in the second half.  That figure boggles my mind.  But the Pac-10 is now 3-0 in Bowl Season.  That's pretty cool.

Oregon quarterback Jason Masoli ran three of those touchdowns himself with distances of 1, 17 and 41 yards.  All together, he rushed for 106 yards, coming second only to his fellow Duck Jeremiah Johnson who had him beat by 13 yards.  Not to be outdone, Johnson set a single rushing touchdown record for the Holiday Bowl with a 76 yard sprint to the end zone.  The record was held previously by one Barry Sanders- yes, that Barry Sanders.

MVP honors went to Masoli on the offensive side and Oregon defensive back Jarius Byrd.  He had an interception for 39 yards.  But not to be forgotten are Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant.  His 13 receptions for 168 yards eclipsed previous records for receptions and yards set in 1984 and 2001.

Next on the bowl docket is Oregon's rival Oregon State.  They'll be playing in the Brut Sun Bowl today.  Look for coverage on this game later today.

Some time ago, I lamented about the fact that the 2008 college football season was coming to an end.  Little did I realize that, with five World Financial Group sponsored Pac-10 teams playing in the college "post season", college football wasn't ending anytime soon.  Since that proved to be the case, I take back what I said about being sad about the end of the season.  It's only getting longer.

So far this bowl season, two Pac-10 teams won in locales such as Las Vegas and San Diego.  Another two name town, San Diego, plays host tonight to the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl.  In Qualcomm Stadium, the Oklahoma State Cowboys of the Big 12 will face the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-10.  The game will be televised by ESPN with kickoff scheduled for 5 PT (8 ET).

I did some reading up on the Holiday Bowl and found out some interesting things: 

• Qualcomm Stadium was originally opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium. 

• The first Holiday Bowl was played in 1978, with Navy defeating BYU. 

• The named changed for the first time in 1982, becoming Jack Murphy Stadium.  The Super Bowl was played three times here.  The first two games featured the Denver Broncos. 

• And the San Diego Chargers currently call Qualcomm Stadium Home.

Despite the bowl game being held in Pac-10 country, Oregon will be the visiting team in tonight's contest.  But that's not to say that both teams hadn't been visiting the area.  Both the Ducks and the Cowboys arrived on Christmas Day and, in between practicing, the teams had been on many a fun excursion.  For example:

• On the 26th, the teams visited the San Diego Zoo.  The next day, it was a trip to Sea World.  There's a Wizard of Oz joke here, but I can't think of it right now. 

• Yesterday, both teams were featured in the "Port of San Diego Big Bay Balloon Parade", which has been billed as "America's Largest Balloon Parade".  The Grand Marshall this year was Kermit The Frog. 

The Ducks are no stranger to the Holiday Bowl.  This will be their third appearance.  In 2000, Oregon emerged victorious over Texas.  But in 2005, they lost a close one to Oklahoma.  As for the Cowboys, this is their first apperance here in twenty years.  And that last game was no contest: a 62-14 win over Wyoming.  Will these teams remember their previous records?  Among the Ducks, Joey Harrington was the Offensive MVP of the 2000 game while in 2005, Anthony Trucks earned Co-Defensive MVP honors.  Among game records, Matt Dragich of the Ducks has the most punting yards with 361, including one going for 56.  Will Oregon and Oklahoma State break any of these records?  We'll find out tonight!

The Emerald Bowl was played at storied AT&T Park this past Saturday.  And for the second time this Bowl Season, a Pac-10 team found itself in the "W" column.  In the Pac-10/ACC match-up, the California Golden Bears eked out a 24-17 victory against the Miami Hurricanes.  It wasn't the best performance from Cal QB Nate Longshore, but the running game and defense secured the victory.

Emerald Bowl records were set abound on Saturday.  Cal running back Jahvid Best rushed for a record 186 yards and two touchdowns.  Cal QB Nate Longshore completed a 74 yard pass to Verran Tucker.  Golden Bear linebacker Zack Follett sacked Miami QB Jacory Harris twice; once causing the fumble that sealed the Bear's victory.  And the attendance topped out at 42, 268, also a record. 

Awards were given to Best as MVP and Follett as top defensive performer.  We at World Financial Group salute the California Golden Bears for their Emerald Bowl Victory.  Look for more WFG Pac-10 bowl coverage here.

The Emerald Bowl will be played this Saturday at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  The game will be shown on ESPN starting at 8ET/5PT.  This year's Emerald Bowl consists of a Pac-10 team and an ACC team.  From the ACC is the Miami Hurricanes.  And from the Pac-10 is the California Golden Bears.  We at WFG took a look at some of the the Emerald Bowls of the past and here's what we found out:

Did you know the first coin flip in the Emerald Bowl was won by Virginia Tech?  Or how about the first field goal was kicked by Air Force's Joey Ashcroft?  That went for 45 yards, which was a career long for him at the time. 

For the Pac-10, their Emerald Bowl "first" is James Rodgers's fumble return for a touchdown in 2007.  In that same game, Beaver tailback Yvenson Bernard rushed for 177 yards, marking the highest rushing total yet.  Bernard was also named the Outstanding Offensive Player of the game with a record 38 rushing attempts.  His defensive teammate Derrick Doggett was the Outstanding Defensive Player for that game.  Not to be outdone, another Pac-10 player, UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan, has the longest touchdown pass (78 yards) in the 2006 Emerald Bowl (teammate Brandon Breazell caught the ball that day).  On the special teams side, UCLA punter Aaron Perez has the longest punt of 53 yards.  When it comes to punt returns, Oregon State returner Taylor Kavanaugh had a 26 yard return to add to 54 yards over four returns.  As for kick returns, though, the pendulum swings back to UCLA, with a record 166 yards in 2006.

Needless to say, a college bowl game will have a history behind it.  Let's see if the Golden Bears can add to that storied tome.

Well, the 2008 bowl games got off to a strong start this past weekend.  The Pac-10 was first represented by Arizona in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl played at Sam Boyd Stadium.  As I recently reported, the game would be against BYU, a team the Wildcats have quite a history with.  And that history was remembered as Arizona beat BYU 31-21.  This was Arizona's first bowl game in ten years.  That's a great way to come back, and we at WFG congratulate the Wildcats for their victory.

Offensively, Wildcat quarterback Willie Tuitama had a heck of a game.  He threw for 322 yards (that's over three football fields, come to think of it) and two touchdowns.  He also rushed in the game winning touchdown in the third quarter.  Willie earned MVP awards for his play.  On defense, the entire unit kept Cougar quarterback Max Hall on his toes.  Their efforts led to lots of scrambling, a lost fumble and one interception.  The combined 653 passing yards from both teams is now a Las Vegas Bowl record.

The game was witnessed by 40,047 fans, making the game a sellout.  The game was also broadcast on ESPN (I got to see some of it where my wife and I were).  The Wildcat victory gives the Pac-10 a 5-4 record in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Up next for the Pac-10, bowl wise, is the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.  The California Golden Bears will be facing the Miami Hurricanes on the 27th.  Again, coverage will be provided by ESPN.  And we'll have more on the game soon. 

This comes to us courtesy Gordon Sheer of the USA Luge Team.  The luge team is taking a break for the holidays but will be back at work in 2009. 

Last week, I posted that California's Alex Mack winning the Draddy Trophy.  This week, he's won another award.  This time, though, he's not alone in his award winning.  Both Mack and Oregon's Nick Reed are the winners of the 2008 Morris Trophy.  And we at WFG want to congratulate both these fine men for this accolade. 

The Morris Trophy is named for its sponsor, the Morris Family of Woodway, Washington.  The award, though, is actually decided upon by the Pac-10 players.  The offensive lineman award a Morris to the league's best defensive lineman and vice versa.  It may be all fight for sixty minutes on the gridiron.  But these performances have been remembered and rewarded when it's all over.

Mack, as you may remember, started 37 consecutive games as center for the Golden Bears for the past three seasons.  He's also been named first team All-Pac-10 by the coaches of the conference.

Nick Reed, a senior defensive lineman, led the Pac-10 in quarterback sacks (13) and tackles for losses (19.5).  He is also a Pac-10 All-Academic team member with a 3.44 GPA in History.  This captain will certainly be missed by the Ducks come next year.

Mack and the Golden Bears will next appear in the Emerald Bowl on the 27th.  Meanwhile, Reed and the Ducks will play in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl on the 30th.  May the Pac-10 be victorious!

Elvis Presley sang a song called Viva Las Vegas back in the day.  It was the title tune of a movie that also starred Ann-Margaret.  I don't remember too many details about the film, aside from the opening credits and some car race towards the end.  But the song is still a favorite among the Elvis fans in our known universe.  And I kind of like it, too.

Why do I mention this?  I thought it'd be a good way to kick off World Financial Group's Pac-10 bowl season.  The first game to feature a Pac-10 team is the Las Vegas Bowl being held this Saturday (12/20) at Sam Boyd Stadium.  The game starts at 5 PT and will be broadcast on ESPN.

Oh, who's playing?  The Brigham Young Cougars will be facing the Arizona Wildcats.  There are so many animal jokes or puns running through my head right now, but I'll leave them there.  This will be the 26th time these two teams have faced each other.  And the Wildcats remember their last meeting: a 20-7 victory by BYU last year.  Oddly enough, this'll be the first time these teams will meet on a neutral site.  BYU, however, has appeared in the past four straight Las Vegas bowls.  Will that spell advantage?

Look for more info on the Las Vegas Bowl soon!

As I reported on Friday, the Nanaimo Clippers would be having a teddy bear toss against the Victoria Grizzlies that night at Frank Crane Arena.  The good news is that there was, indeed, a goal scored to ensure that the fans would be able to toss their stuff animals onto the home ice.  This created an impressive sight of flying fur, as it were, in the arena.

The bad news is that the goal that ensued the teddy bear toss wasn't scored until 1:45 into the third period.  And that Victoria scored four goals previously.  The Clippers lost the game 5-1 that night.  But the Great Nanaimo Toy Drive now has an impressive number of stuffed animals.  Just keep playing, fellas!  We at WFG are proud of you.