A Look Through Rose-Colored Glasses

What the nation’s press is writing

Michael Wilbon, The Washington Post: I’m going to say this and all you whining Tennessee fans can write and call if you want: I’d take Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning if I had the top pick in the NFL draft. And Leaf, who’s like Steve Young and Mark Brunell but 5 inches taller at 6-foot-6, has a posse of receivers, the kind Michigan hasn’t had to play against all season in the run-dominant Big Ten. Personally, I think the Cougars receivers talk a little too much smack, but they’ve backed it up all season.

Kevin Modesti, Los Angeles Daily News: Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State, traditionally among the Godzillas of college football, couldn’t do it. Michigan State, an inspired rival, couldn’t do it. The hostile crowds in University Park, Pa., and Lansing, Mich., couldn’t keep the Wolverines from an undefeated regular season and a shot at a national championship.

So why should anyone believe that Washington State, the surprising Pacific-10 Conference champion from the athletics backwater of Pullman, Wash., can defeat mighty Michigan today in the benign conditions of the Rose Bowl?

Because, although Washington State may not be the best team the Wolverines face this season, it’s precisely the kind of team that can upset them. With football, as with boxing and swimsuits, style matters.

Bernie Lincicome, Chicago Tribune: Depending on Michigan to win the Rose Bowl is like expecting change back from a teenager.

Michigan is to the Rose Bowl what linoleum is to a basilica. Not only is it out of place, it’ll never cover.

Two words. Bo and Schembechler. Ten Rose Bowls. Two victories.

Michigan doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions, it makes New Year’s apologies.

A half-dozen times undefeated Big Ten teams have come to the Rose Bowl ranked No. 1 and lost. Another half-dozen times Big Ten teams could have won national titles if they had won the Rose Bowl, but lost. …

The Big Ten has not had a national champion since 1968. Michigan has not won a national title in 50 years. It is a Midwest legacy that can suck the fun right out of the holidays.

Mark Wicker, Orange County Register: The expiring Rose Bowl format was comforting in its plotline.

The grunting, sweating infantry from the Big Ten, coming out to meet the blond, sweater-vested, smiling Pac-10 sky pilots.

Studebaker vs. Miata. Sousa vs. Hendrix. Drew Carey vs. Larry Sanders. Pepto-Bismol vs. aromatherapy.

The Big Ten always seemed to be favored. Always came out shortly after Thanksgiving and surrounded its practice fields with moats and machine guns. Always came to the game with a bad case of indigestion and road rage. And always died in the fourth quarter, hallucinating at the sight of a crossing pattern.

Today’s game is not like that.

Even though Michigan has backhanded the media and Washington State has embraced them, this game will be won by the team that separates itself from its cliche. …

Maybe the Cougars will win on vibes alone. Rose Bowls are comets in their part of the world, and they haven’t missed a rose to smell.

The Cougars’ unseen problem is the lack of something to lose. Michigan has much more to win.

Steve Kelley, Seattle Times: Pity the poor Cougars. Those waifs from the wheat fields of Pullman. Those little kids on the prairie.

Pity them all. These overmatched Davids against Michigan’s Goliath. These unknown, unwanted Rodney Dangerfields. These itty, bitty Lilliputians in the land of Gulliver.

These poor, poor Cougars. They are to college football what Rhode Island is to geography. If Michigan is Seinfeld, Washington State is cable access.

Poor Washington State. It doesn’t stand a chance. Ha!

Never has a greater hustle been perpetrated on the American sporting public than Mike Price has pulled at this Rose Bowl.

Listen to the Cougars’ coach and you’d think this was Idaho State about to play Michigan.

Win the Rose Bowl? If you listen to “Aw Shucks” Mike you’d think WSU would be fortunate to win the Ivy League.

“I just hope we have enough rocks in our slings,” poor Mike Price says.

This is Minnesota Fats slapping the cue ball into the side pocket. This is Michael Jordan launching an air ball on the playground.

This is the hustle, Pullman style.