By our estimation, Monday’s New Year’s Bowl games – up until the exhilarating Boise State-Oklahoma show – were probably the most boring and uninteresting in recent memory. It’s tough to get excited about games that mean absolutely nothing. Truthfully, we spent New Year’s Day setting up our new Roomba, clearing out space in the closet for some new gear, and organizing the ol’ scrap book, so we missed most of the bowl games. (How can we take the games seriously when it takes three quarters for the announcers to mention the Arkansas parents badgering the AD about playing time for their sons?)

Still, we caught most of the Rose Bowl, where USC pounded Michigan, 32-18. Outside of Dwyane Jarrett’s braggadocio, about all we enjoyed were the two thrilling discussions between Kirk Herbstreit, Brent Musburger, and Bob Davie about how BLOGGERS!!!! would react to yet another Lloyd Carr late-season letdown.

It was shocking, really – who knew Musburger even knew what a blog was? Bob Davie responded with some incredulity, as can be expected from a 52-year-old.

It was Herbstreit whom we loved. Our ears perked up when he started the conversation with “what are the bloggers going to say about Carr?” Five minutes later he came back to the point, leading us to believe he reads blogs. Which is equal parts scary and exciting, because all of a sudden, we wondered – damn, did the guy see us hammer him in our 2006 media awards last week? Who are we kidding. Of course he didn’t.

Either way, Herbie, just for mentioning a medium that is universally ridiculed, you’re out of our doghouse. Assuming, of course, you apologized to Joe Schad. Don’t want to go into the New Year with any negative chi.

Carr and Mason (Wizblog)
Happy New Year (The Conglomerate)

[For the record, Lloyd Carr is a big-game choke artist, and - enter Mariotti voice here - absolutely must be fired! Given the option of coaching a bowl game tomorrow, we'd sooner tab our remote control-hording significant other to roam the sidelines and call plays before we selected Carr to run the show.]