Iowa, Stanford give no bulletin board material at 'Happiest Place on Earth'

LOS ANGELES — Give Disney credit for this, they didn't stage any fake gruntfest baloney. You know the stuff. It happens time and time again at bowl sites. Team A and Team B get together in a small area and do the fake hate thing and act like they can't even spend a few minutes on a stage with that other team.

No fake hate from the Disneyland stage on Saturday. Players from Iowa and Stanford crossed paths and even smiled and shook hands during the official opening ceremonies of Rose Bowl week.

No fake hate, no staged vitriol, just a smidgen of irony at the 'Happiest Place on Earth.'

Wait, wait, there was this. Iowa cornerback Greg Mabin was asked about finally meeting Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, the Heisman runner-up and the nation's leader in all-purpose yards with 3,496. Ever since this matchup was set, all Iowa has heard about has been McCaffrey, for good reason. He averaged 8.5 yards in 410 touches this season.

'Well, he's a lot smaller in person than I thought,' Mabin said of the 6-0, 201-pound McCaffrey.

But before the Cardinal ran and pasted that on their bulletin board, Mabin also said, 'His film speaks for itself. His film says a lot of words about him. He's a tremendous football player. Size doesn't mean anything. We're definitely going to have our work cut out.'

The players who spoke at Disneyland got a chance to get to know each other before they went out on stage in a hospitality area. The Iowa guys said the Stanford dudes were really nice.

'Seeing those guys off the field, seeing their personalities, it's really cool and they are good guys,' center Austin Blythe said.

And the Stanford players said the Iowa players seem very cool.

'We met them before and they're really good guys,' Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan said. 'I think both teams understand that you put so much work in and effort through the season and offseason, you know you're going to give it your all on game day. We respect each other for that. It makes days like this easy. It's easy to talk to them because you respect them as players and people.

'There's no hatred or whatever or animosity. It's all fun.'

This is what the 'Happiest Place on Earth' likes to hear. It likes to hear happy things.

So, Saturday's festivities were pretty heavily staged with the Rose Bowl committee serving as the main audience. Yes, college football players, or any athletes really, are often accused of trotting out cliches. The players were the most authentic voices on the stage at Disneyland.

Is it possible that Iowa will wilt under the pressure of its first Rose Bowl appearance in 25 years? Does it help that Stanford has been here three of the last four seasons?

Can finally showing up after a long absence mess with a team's head?

'Absolutely not,' Hogan said. 'I played (Iowa free safety) Jordan Lomax in high school. We met up and I said, 'What's up? And enjoy this as much as you can, because we are.' It's an unbelievable week. It's something you shouldn't take for granted.'

In one two-minute period, Stanford guard Joshua Garnett, who does happen to be the reigning Outland Trophy winner, fielded questions about McCaffrey's athletic skills that ranged from hitting half-court shots in basketball to a magician metaphor that worked perfectly with McCaffery's ability to make himself, seemingly, disappear on a football field.

Blythe talked about shopping in Los Angeles Hills opposed to Tanger Outlet Mall in his hometown of Williamsburg.

'I would definitely say LA has an edge,' Blythe said. 'It's funny, everyone knows Williamsburg by Tanger Mall, but probably LA.'

The Rose Bowl is six days away. The run-up begins in earnest Sunday with Stanford defensive coordinator and players talking plans and personnel and Iowa's offensive people doing the same. That's the football part. There's also the Lawry's Beef Bowl. That's the fun part.

Saturday at Disneyland, that was the fun part, too. 'This is just a place where you should feel happy,' Blythe said.

How do you play such nice guys?

'It's still football,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said, minutes after standing on stage with Mickey Mouse.

'When you're on the field you have that sense of competition and, yeah, it's there,' running back Jordan Canzeri said. 'Outside of it, they're just like us, just trying to make a living and win a game for their team and everything.'

The Rose Bowl will be the other 'Happiest Place on Earth' for one of these groups of nice guys on Friday night.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com