Blogging with the Devils

Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter is sacked by Texas safety Drew Kelson during the Holiday Bowl on Thursday.

I was on the sideline at Qualcomm Stadium as Arizona State’s football team came out for pregame warmups prior to the Holiday Bowl on Thursday and noticed quarterback Rudy Carpenter running by the Texas players already on the field, clearly saying something in spirited fashion.

My thought was that it was just Carpenter being Carpenter — the intense, passionate player in the process of psyching himself up. The Longhorns did not seem to think much of it either, as they simply continued with their warmups. If they took offense to anything Carpenter said, they masked it well.

As a result, I was surprised on Friday to see Carpenter taking a beating on the Internet, accused of trash-talking to Texas in the days before the Holiday Bowl.

During ESPN’s broadcast of the game, analyst Kirk Herbstreit said: “This week, I guess, Rudy Carpenter let the Longhorns know at every event how he feels about them, kind of taunting the Longhorns leading up to this game.” He did not elaborate.

This Internet column about Carpenter talking smack contains not a single quote from the quarterback, not a single quote from a Texas player in response — not a single quote, period.

I stood inches away from Carpenter at each of the three post-practice interviews he gave before the game and heard nothing about the Longhorns that could be classified as trash talk. If I had, I certainly would not have hesitated to get it in the Tribune.

Carpenter, Dec. 19: “Texas is obviously a storied program. They’ve got four national championships. They got one in the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago. They’re a really good team. It’s going to be fun to play a team with the great amount of tradition that they have. I think it’s going to be exciting for us.”

In that same interview, on the Longhorns defense: “They’ve got a guy named Marcus Griffin, he plays safety for them. He’s a pretty good player. He’s fast, big, strong, physical. They also have a middle linebacker, (Rashad) Bobino who is a very good player, too. He’s a fast guy who plays really hard. Those two guys really stick out to me. They’ve got a good defense.”

A lot of the pregame chatter was centered on if Texas would be motivated to play after a disappointing loss to rival Texas A&M to end the regular season. If Carpenter had served up such motivation on a platter, would that not have made Lone Star sports headlines for at least a day or two? I saw no such reports from the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, whose UT football coverage I have read daily since the Holiday Bowl matchup was announced.

Yes, the Longhorns had four sacks and frequent hurries of Carpenter. But if someone points to that as evidence of a fired-up defense, that person has obviously not seen ASU play this year. The Sun Devils gave up a school-record 55 sacks.

Carpenter speaks his mind, and on occasion, some ears burn as a result. There is a reason that he was allowed to talk to the media only after games and on Mondays during the regular season.

Could he have said something — perhaps to Texas players during a bowl function, with no reporters present — that was insulting? Could he have offered some friendly banter that was misinterpreted? Absolutely. However, if that were the case, I certainly would have expected some sort of reaction from the Longhorns as Carpenter ran onto the field on Thursday.

In some corners, Carpenter is getting vilified for something he allegedly said. Before jumping on that train, however, we should at least have an idea of what — if anything — he said.

Right now, we do not.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 1:07 am and is filed under Holiday Bowl 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.