The Other Side of the Rose Bowl: The Rose Parade and the Beef Bowl

USC band members and players weigh in.

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"Ugh, how many more miles?"

The mentality at USC is "Championship or bust" but for some at the school, there are other reasons to wish they were going to the Orange Bowl instead of the Rose Bowl—and it has nothing to do with wanting a shot at the National Title.

"It's not the Rose Bowl we don't like," explains Trojan marching band member Caitlin Miles. "We like the Rose Bowl, but we hate the Rose Parade. We have to walk six miles in it! We dread the Rose Parade."

Some players on the football team feel sympathy for their fellow Trojans. "Six miles?" senior wide receiver Patrick Turner says, shocked. "I'm sorry, band. I didn't know that. That's more than I run in a game."

Others have advice.

"They better put their walking shoes on," quarterback Mark Sanchez suggests. "That's a long, long way. But they're up for it. They'll just drink one of those energy drinks or something and get ready to go."

Although the No. 5 Trojans insists they're proud of their Pac-10 title and eager to play No. 6 Penn State on Jan. 1, they're the first to admit they deserve to be in Florida.

"Of course we want to be in (the National Championship)," Sanchez says. "Its just not going to work out with the system we have and that's unfortunate. We feel like we're one of the best teams."

Going to the Rose Bowl will be USC's fourth consecutive bowl game in Pasadena, which many joke is the Trojans' home turf.

"It's a great bowl game and there's not another experience like the Rose Bowl but when you live here, it's a little anti-climatic," explains Orange Bowl committee member Ford Gibson. "It's kind of like dating your sister."

Both Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl committee members were on hand at the Trojans last regular season game in Pasadena on Dec. 6, a 28-7 victory over cross-town rivals UCLA. The Orange Bowl members insisted at the time there was still a "theoretical possibility" USC could make it to the National Championship game in Florida, which quickly proved untrue when Oklahoma and Florida received invites to the title game.

USC band members were begging Gibson and another committee members not to leave as they walked off the field just before half time at the UCLA game. "Orange Bowl people come back!" they heckled at the two members clad in crisp Sunny D-colored jackets. "Where are you going? Take me home with you!"

No one feels the pain more than senior band member Jeff Andersen. He will march his seventh straight year in the Rose Parade, including three years in high school on the L.A. All City Band. "I'll have marched 42 miles," Andersen says.

"Going to the Rose Bowl is a great honor for the school but the football team doesn't have to march six miles," says the band's assistant director Mark Santos.

"Last year Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters was my favorite ride and there was probably nobody over the age of 12 on it." - Jeff Byers

The band isn't the only one who wants out of Pasadena for a bowl game. After all, the players are also subjected to a fourth year of obligatory events. The trip to Disneyland on Dec. 26 is just one of the many pre-Rose Bowl traditions the Trojan team's become accustomed to. And while Disneyland isn't exactly a six-mile death march while carrying a trombone, it can get quite monotonous.

"This will be my fourth one," says Turner. "We've done a lot of the same activities. It could be a sense of guys wanting to see something different. But we're going to make it fun and make the best of it."

Some players on the team can't wait to head to "The Happiest Place on Earth."

"I love Disneyland, I'm a sucker," red shirt senior Jeff Byers says. "I mean everybody else probably hates it, but I'm still a little kid. Last year Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters was my favorite ride and there was probably nobody over the age of 12 on it."

Others traditional events include a trip to ESPN Zone in Anaheim, a comedy show at the Improv in Hollywood and the traditional Beef Bowl at Lawry's Prime Rib where rival teams participate in a meat-eating competition.

"My least favorite is Lawry's. I don't like bloodiness. For real, I'm on a diet. I don't like the bloodiness and the fat on the steak." (Over the past 52 years, the winner of the Beef Bowl wins the Rose Bowl about 70 percent of the time.)

"I'll win the Beef Bowl," Sanchez says with confidence. "And at Disneyland, I'm tackling Mickey."

USC coach Pete Carroll contends he's only worried about New Year's Day.

"The activities, yeah, we have been around them but we make it fun for our guys and we'll have a lot of fun doing it," Carroll says. "It's really the game that it comes down to and we're playing Penn State and it's a great matchup."

As for Carroll's advice for the band?

"They're tough and they'll be alright," Carroll says. "They're lucky to have that experience when they get it. It's a challenge but they're up for it."

Neither the team nor the band should get sick of smelling the roses any time soon. The National Championship rotates to the Rose Bowl next year, making it a possibility the Trojans could play in Pasadena for a fifth consecutive year, especially if key players return, including Sanchez, who says he has "no clue" whether he'll stay and Byers, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility on Friday and says he'll stay a Trojan in 2009.

"Potentially five is a lot," Byers says. "This might as well be my home field right here."

So while the fans and band members are wishing they were eating oranges this year, next year they'll be once again chasing roses.

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