SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The football teams were brought to us media folk today at the J.W. Marriott Camelback Inn just outside Scottsdale.
First TCU, then MSU, two days before they meet in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in nearby Tempe.
For a third-tier game, this was quite the set-up, almost Super Bowl-ish or similar to a Stanley Cup Finals media day, with coaches at a large podium, key players at their own smaller podiums and every starter with their own table. That’s mostly because this is also the host site for the Fiesta Bowl next week, which has a bigger following.
The biggest news item from the day is that MSU All-Big Ten corner Johnny Adams likely won’t play Saturday night because of turf toe. The first clue was that Adams wasn’t among the players at the media day. Then coach Mark Dantonio confirmed it.
There was a lot of good material, surprisingly for a group whose story lines have been exhausted. Hopefully colleague Joe Rexrode and I will bring much of it to you with columns and stories over the next couple of days.
There were a couple funny and sentimental moments, as well.
Dantonio spoke of his memories coaching here a decade ago as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, when the Buckeyes won the 2002 national title in Tempe.
“My daughters were 10 and 8 when we came here in 2002,” Dantonio said. “They still want to go back to The Princess (hotel) a little bit and remember those times. I was talking to Jim Tressel today a little bit about our time here back in 2002 and 2003. But it was a special moment in our lives.”
And then there’s last night’s Buffalo Wild Wings gorging, where both teams indulged themselves and the bowl’s sponsor by taking down 7,300 wings combined. That’s more than 525,000 calories (if they were only traditional wings).
Michigan State sophomore offensive tackle Shawn Kamm apparently ate 65 wings himself. That’s at least 4,500 calories in one sitting, assuming he stuck with diet soda.
Andrew Maxwell, for the record, kept it to eight.
I once consumed 24 wings. Thankfully I didn’t have the calorie counting app on my phone back then.
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We talked our way into the Dantonio-Richt presser last year by telling McVay that he used to babysit Gene Washington. The podiums in the ball room were fewer in number in Tampa. Would you call the Outback a Second Tier Bowl then? Tough break for Adams. I know it stings for him to get out there and be a week away from being able to play.
Yup. Outback is definitely a second-tier bowl. Nothing wrong with a third-tier bowl. There are probably fourth-tier bowls, too. … Minus Adams, this’ll be a decent chance to see how ready MSU is for next year at corner.
Outback bowl last year was sure better than the crappy Sugar Bowl, seems to me 2nd tier bowls are better than first tier bowls
Couch sure does want everyone to know it’s a 3rd tier bowl, I guess he’s still upset about WMU….
Definitely. Just can’t get over the Broncos. Weeping here in Scottsdale as I type. … Nothing wrong with a third-tier bowl. Just off the radar a bit. Better than the Little Caesars Bowl, which would be classified in the fourth and final tier.
I’ll agree with you there, MSU-TCU will be better than a lot of the 1st and 2nd tier bowls
Still laughing about the WMU QB being better than Cousins, that’s a classic.
It’s best I stay away from this topic. I’ll just say, there are people you read and respect who, at the time the column was written (before Cousins’ senior year), very much agreed with me.
Well those people are clueless too, going up against MAC competition vs BIG competion, geez
Carder got owned by the same scUM team MSU and Cousins beat up.
We won’t have to watch Adams get scorched.
He’s definitely had a rough year but I think he’s had a pretty good career overall. I don’t think Mitchell White is any better.
He did get beat deep too frequently, but I don’t know how many of those fell on him. They put Adams on an island a lot and the front 7 didn’t generate much of a pass rush this year, which put a lot of pressure on the CBs.
that is exactly correct, damn we missed worthy and pickleman a ton this year !
Agreed.
OMG White is horrible ! We got lucky the TCU QB throws as bad as Denard.