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By Jon Sauber | @JonSauber Sports Capital Journalism Program INDIANAPOLIS – Saquon Barkley is no stranger to turning around a football team. At Penn State, he was the face of the team that brought the Nittany Lions back into national relevance in the past two seasons. Of course, if you ask Barkley, he’ll deny that …

“Attention media: This is the first-ever overtime game in Rose Bowl history.” The announcement carried through the Rose Bowl Stadium press box as reporters grabbed stat sheets, refilled coffees and prepared to type like hell as they readied for overtime. After Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield’s first-half marches down the field gashed Georgia to the tune …

By Alaa Abdeldaiem | @Abdeldaiem_Alaa PASADENA, Calif. –– The second he heard the sound, he knew. The second he saw it––the ball flying sideways, flat, short and too far to the right––it took no time at all for Oklahoma’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield to realize the reality that was settling in. The game had …

If you stuck your nose into a cupboard-under-the-stairs-sized closet with all the world’s flower shops crowded inside, then inhaled for a solid 60 seconds, you’d have a pretty good idea of what Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade smells like. Roses mingled with magnolias alongside asters bundled with buttercups. After passing by one particularly fragrant float …

The preservation of the walk down the hill might just be the best decision the College Football Playoff made. The walk takes place soon after 10 a.m. Pacific on New Year’s Day, except when January 1 falls on a Sunday and the celebration steps off on Monday. For all the technical wonders that television has …

By Sarah Bahr | @smbahr14 Sports Capital Journalism Program LOS ANGELES — What’s the first item on a 242-pound man’s to-do list when he’s dropped in the middle of an 8-year-old girl’s princess-packed paradise? Georgia linebacker Lorenzo Carter had Mickey on his mind. “The first thing I had to do was get my ears,” Carter …

By Alaa Abdeldaiem | @Abdeldaiem_Alaa Sports Capital Journalism Program LOS ANGELES –– For a few seconds during his career debut as his team’s head coach, Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley simply stood on the sidelines, waiting for the game to continue after the University of Texas at El Paso was called for a holding on third down …

By Sarah Bahr and Alaa Abdeldaiem | @smbahr14 @Abdeldaiem_Alaa PASADENA, Calif. – The 104th Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual will feature programs appearing for just the second time in their histories. Oklahoma, which won here in 2003, and Georgia, which won 75 years ago, will meet in a semifinal of the College Football …

By Alaa Abdeldaiem | @Abdeldaiem_Alaa Sports Capital Journalism Program LOS ANGELES –– As the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia prepare to meet in Monday afternoon’s Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual, Andrew Coats, Dean Emeritus of the College of Law at Oklahoma, is aware of the headlines surrounding the game’s national …

By Sarah Bahr | @smbahr14 Sports Capital Journalism Program PASADENA, Calif. — We don’t play against black players. The Washington and Lee College coach, Jimmy DeHart, leader of an all-white football team from Lexington, Virginia, balked at letting his team square off against the black-quarterback-led Washington & Jefferson College squad from Washington, Pennsylvania. The coach …