Monday, January 11, 1999
Rose Bowl crowd had UCLA squad seeing red
FOOTBALL: Although game played on Bruin turf, Badger fans set
noise level, led Wisconsin to victory
By Rocky Salmon
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Rose Bowl lived up to its name as the crowd took on a
crimson glow. With an announced attendance of 93,872 fans, over
half of them appeared to be bleeding red in the stands.
With so many Badger fans in attendance, both end zones looked
like they had been transported from Wisconsin.
The constant roar from the end zones appeared to have the Bruins
wanting to run into hibernation.
"Cade (McNown) was getting a little fed up," Wisconsin
cornerback Jamar Fletcher said. "The crowd was just into it. Like I
said before, we have the best fans in the world. They came and made
all the noise in the world and it helped us a great deal.
"The UCLA players had this look on their face like ‘God, when is
this going to stop? Why is this happening?’"
But the UCLA players had a different feeling about the stands.
"It feels great when people want to see me lose, especially when
you win," Freddie Mitchell said. "If you can’t get excited then you
shouldn’t play football."
In fact, some of the Bruins did not even think that was the
loudest crowd they had faced all year.
"Arizona was much louder than the crowd today," DeShaun Foster
said, echoing many of his teammates’ own words. "So sound was
definitely not the factor."
But it was Foster who was involved in a pivotal play in the
third quarter with 9:02 remaining.
After a 44-yard pass play to Danny Farmer, the Bruins had a
first down and goal to go on the six-yard line. Trailing by 10
points, it seemed like the Bruins would capitalize and then only be
down by three points.
But then the red storm arose in the end zone where the Bruins
were.
Trying to audibilize, McNown had to call a time-out as not all
the players knew the call.
Trotting back onto the field for the play once more, the crowd
reawoke and this time appeared to be louder.
"Before the play, I was telling the defense to just keep them to
a field goal," Wisconsin defensive end Tim Burke said. "The crowd
picked up and gave our defense confidence. Someone said, no, we are
going to cause a fumble and it happened."
Foster missed a check back after an audible and instead of
running a sweep right thought the play was a dive straight ahead.
Foster missed the play because of the noise.
"It was supposed to be a toss right, then (McNown) audibilized
to a dive, then checked back," Foster said. "I didn’t hear it and
he tossed the ball, but I was too close."
The football immediately ricocheted off of Foster’s body and
created a huge momentum change.
The rest of the way, the Badgers would ride the decibels from
their fans to a victory over UCLA.
The Bruins broke the season attendance record for the Rose Bowl,
and had several sell-outs in a row but after a disappointing loss
to Miami, the wind came out of the sails.
Instead of a sea of blue controlling the atmosphere at the Rose
Bowl, it was the red waves of Wisconsin fans that turned the
tides.
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