After a missed field goal that would have won the game for Penn State, the #3-ranked Nittany Lions are going to overtime against #22 Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

If Florida State wins, Josh Rubin will clinch the Irish Trojan’s Bowl Pick ‘em contest. If Penn State wins, Brian Dupuis (a.k.a. DUP) will stay alive, needing a Texas win over USC tomorrow to overtake Rubin.

UPDATE: Another missed FG (one by each team, actually) and it’s on to a second overtime.

UPDATE 2: Both teams scored a touchdown, so we go to triple overtime!

FINAL UPDATE: Penn State wins! The kicker redeemed himself with a game-winner in the 3rd OT, and the Nittany Lions win 26-23. Penn State finishes 11-1, and could easily be ranked #2 in the final polls depending on whether the Rose Bowl is close or lopsided. Congrats to Joe Paterno, who just a year ago was the subject of criticism alleging that he had stuck around too long and should retire. It’s hard not to like JoePa and the Lions!

In the pick ‘em contest, the battle between Rubin and Dupuis will go down to the wire. If USC wins, Rubin wins the contest. If Texas wins, Dupuis wins.

P.S. Definitely looking forward to Notre Dame’s home opener next year. September 9 against… yup… Penn State!

The Nakalele Blowhole. Cool!

Turns out, I didn’t leave my cell phone behind in Arizona — I just inexplicably packed it in my suitcase! I found it just now while looking for toiletries. So, I’m connected to the outside world again. Yippee! :)

Speaking of the outside world, Tropical Storm Zeta is, like Hurricane Epsilon before it, inexplicably maintaining its strength. Indeed, it’s up to 65 mph, and further strengthening is possible today; we could see an incredible January hurricane. The cold, dead hand of the 2005 hurricane season is reaching into 2006 and still smashing records…

Also, scientists recently saw an explosion on the moon. Talk about waking up the echoes! (Something Notre Dame was not able to do yesterday, alas.)

Okay, enough of that. Becky and I are off to explore the northern parts of West Maui. Adios! Go Penn State!

P.S. Pick ‘em standings here. Josh Rubin has a five-point lead. Doing some quick math here, I believe the only person with a chance to catch him is DUP (Brian Dupuis), and only if Penn State and Texas both win. A Florida State win today would clinch the pick ‘em contest for Rubin. If Penn State wins, it’ll come down to the Rose Bowl tomorrow: Rubin wins if USC wins, Dupuis wins if Texas wins. I think.

Guestblogger: Josh Rubin

Da Bears? Nah … 14-inch tall Pete Carrolls could take on the Longhorns!

(Take that, ESPN)

Becky and I have arrived safe and sound in Maui. The condo that Toni is letting us use for the next two weeks is gorgeous (well, it’s nighttime, so we can’t actually see the surroundings yet, but the inside is gorgeous, and the sound of nearby crashing surf is promising. :)

Unfortunately, I’m having trouble getting the wireless Internet to work (I’m actually sitting outside the condo right now, using someone else’s open wireless network to post this), so between these wireless troubles and my aforementioned lack of a cell phone, blog updates by yours truly may be sporadic-to-nonexistent for the foreseeable future, unless I can get these issues ironed out. And I must say, solving technical difficulties is not my top priority… this is my honeymoon, after all. :)

Anyway, in case I don’t get a chance to say it before Wednesday… FIGHT ON TROJANS!!! BEAT THE LONGHORNS!!!

FINAL SCORE
West Virginia 38
Georgia 35

Overlooked and underranked #11 West Virginia of the oft-maligned Big East conference were able to hold off a comeback surge from the #9 Georgia Bulldogs to win the Nokia Sugar Bowl.

West Virginia finishes the season 11-1 and cements their place (along with TCU and the loser of the Rose Bowl) as one of the seasons 3-4 remaining 1 loss teams in the nation. If Penn State wins tommorow they would also remain a one loss team.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

Ohio State 21
Notre Dame 7

The Irish started off the game strong scoring on their first drive to lead the game 7-0 with almost 13 minutes remaining in the 1st quarter. Since then the game has belonged to the Buckeyes however who have scored 21 unanswered points, and quarterback Troy Smith has more offensive yards than the whole Irish offense. It started with a 56 yard pass from Smith to an untouched Ted Ginn. Then Ginn ran the ball for 68 yards at the start of the 2nd quarter for score number two. Touchdown number 3 came from wide out Santonio Holmes, a Fiesta Bowl record breaking 85 yard pass. Ginn and Holmes have both passed the 100 yard mark for recieving in the game.

Season long Irish star Jeff Samardzija has struggled along with quarter back Brady Quinn. Jeff has only 3 receptions for 22 yards so far, and Quinn is 7/17 with 95 yards passing, most of them to Maurice Stovall (73). The Irish haven’t been able to capitalize on two Buckeye turnovers but both teams have had some costly penalties.

Ohio State will recieve to start the second half, updates to follow.

UPDATE
FINAL SCORE
Ohio State 34
Notre Dame 20

Despite a pair of long scoring drives by the Irish, and two blocked Ohio State field goal attempts, the Buckeyes continued to control the game ultimately scoring one last time to seal the game in the final minute and a half.

This win marks the Buckeyes third in the Fiesta Bowl in the last four years, including the national championship game in 2002. It also continues the Irish post season drought, their last post-season victory having come in the 1994 Cotton Bowl over Texas A&M.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

We’re at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, getting ready to leave for Maui. Our flight boards in less than 15 minutes.

I’m blogging now thanks to free Wi-Fi in the terminal, but alas, I won’t be able to post live updates when we board the plane, when we land, etc., because I accidentally left my cell phone behind at the Zaks’ house. D’oh! So, this will be my last update until we arrive at Toni’s condo (which has wireless Internet… hooray!).

The lack of a cell phone also means I won’t be able to check the Fiesta Bowl score the instant we land… dammit. But perhaps I’ll ask a flight attendant if the captain can provide us with occasional in-flight updates. We’ll be in the air by the time the game starts, and it’ll be over by the time we land.

GOOOOO IRISH, BEEEEEAT BUCKEYES!!!

Here’s another wedding picture that I like a lot:

Photo by Rick Boeckler. In addition to the beautiful bride and the beautiful scenery, I particularly love how you can see my cell phone in the foreground at right, as the liveblogger — apparently Janelle subbing for Dan at that moment — reaches into Uncle Rick’s field of view to snap this shot. Heh.

Many, many more wedding photos to come, as I keep saying. Stay tuned!

Oops, I forgot (until now) to post yesterday’s quote of the day — the first of the year — uttered by Mike Wiser during the drive back from Silly Mountain shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, after someone suggested “a kidney” in response to the rhetorical question “what I wouldn’t give” for a late-night meal from a certain Buffalo-area fast-food restaurant: “Somehow I don’t think Mighty Taco would be worth dialysis.” Heh.

Watching the sunrise from atop Mount Haleakala is universally described as an absolute must-do when visiting Maui, and I’ve read and heard several times that going there your very first morning on the island is a good idea because you’ll naturally wake up early anyway, thanks to jet lag. Well, I think I just found another reason to follow that advice, thanks to SpaceWeather.com:

The first meteor shower of 2006, the Quadrantids, peaks on Jan. 3rd at 18:20 Universal Time. The timing favors Japan and, to a lesser extent, Hawaii where dark-sky observers should see 40+ faint meteors per hour just before dawn (Tuesday morning in Hawaii, Wednesday morning in Japan).

This site puts the estimated meteor count for Hawaii at “up to fifty Quadrantids per hour and perhaps more.” Still, such a relatively moderate meteor shower alone wouldn’t be worth the cold, dark, very early trip — but stargazing, meteor-watching and the apparently near-religious experience of the mountaintop sunrise sound like a thoroughly worthwhile combination. Now I just have to convince Becky to get up even earlier for Haleakala than she was planning on… :)

Under normal circumstances, Sunday would have been a heavy blogging day for me, what with historic Tropical Storm Zeta prowling the waters of the Atlantic, the Notre Dame-Ohio State Fiesta Bowl looming Monday afternoon (and the USC-Texas Rose Bowl not far behind), a ton of other bowl games and bowl pick ‘em contest standings to talk about, and a new computer (and hopefully the end of my long PowerBook saga) to discuss.

But these are anything but normal circumstances. I’m still in recovery mode from the wonderful-but-exhausting wedding (and New Year’s) festivities, and meanwhile I also have a honeymoon to pack for. What’s more, the computer purchase has disrupted my digital world once again, forcing me to go through the now-familiar ritual of restoring backed-up data, re-installing applications and so forth. And blogging promises to remain light tomorrow and beyond as Becky’s and my honeymoon begins. Some things are more important than the blog! :)

So I figured I’d better at least post a brief update on Zeta, and a few Fiesta-related links and thoughts. I’ll start with the latter. Here are previews of the game by SI, Yahoo and ESPN, and here are columns by Jerry Bonkowski and Pat Forde. For an Irish-tinged perspective on the game, ND fanblog extraordinare The Blue-Gray Sky and Irish Buckeye blogger IrishLaw are probably your best options. The latter has a whole list of additional relevant links if you’re interested.

As for me, I wish I could watch the game, but I’ll be on a plane to Maui from the opening kickoff until the final whistle. (I know, I can feel your overwheming sympathy. Flying to Maui… it’s a tough life, but somebody’s got to live it.) Needless to say, I’ll be checking the final score on my cell phone the moment the plane lands.

Anyway…

GOOOOOO IRISH!!!!! BEEEEEAT BUCKEYES!!!!!

Regarding Zeta… the storm formed at 11:00 AM on Friday, tying 1954-55’s Hurricane Alice for the all-time latest tropical storm formation in recorded history. (Alice formed on December 30, 1954, but wasn’t recognized as a tropical cyclone by the National Hurricane Center until January 1, 1955; hence the “A” name. It’s unclear at exactly what time Alice formed on the 30th, so I’ll call it a tie between Zeta and Alice.)

In what has to be an unprecedented occurrence in the history of our relationship, Becky knew about Zeta’s formation before I did. She saw something about it on TV in the bridal get-ready room in the early afternoon. (In the best man’s room, where I was, we were watching old Rose Bowls on ESPN Classic.) I didn’t know anything about Zeta until around 8:00 PM Friday, when Chris and Nick mentioned it at the reception.

Commenting on Zeta’s formation Friday afternoon, InstaPundit declared, “I see this as Mother Nature’s way of marking hurricane-blogger Brendan Loy’s wedding.” Heh.

Zeta maintained its strength on Saturday, and on Saturday night into Sunday morning, it became only the second tropical storm ever to span two calendar years. (Alice, again, was the first.)

And now, much like Epsilon before it, Zeta is defying the forecasts:

THIS IS LIKE PREVIOUS TROPICAL CYCLONE EPSILON ALL OVER AGAIN. MOST OF THE CONVENTIONAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED THAT ZETA SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISSIPATED BY NOW…WELL IT IS NOT INDEED…AND ZETA IS PRETTY MUCH ALIVE AT THIS TIME. SATELLITE IMAGES STILL INDICATE A WELL-DEFINED CIRCULATION AND ALTHOUGH THE CONVECTION IS NOT VERY DEEP…THE CLOUD PATTERN REMAINS ORGANIZED WITH AN ESTABLISHED OUTFLOW IN THE NORTHERN SEMICIRCLE. IN FACT…THE LATEST QUIKSCAT AND AMSU DATA SUGGEST THAT ZETA COULD BE A LITTLE STRONGER THAN THE INITIAL INTENSITY OF 45 KNOTS GIVEN IN THIS ADVISORY. THE INITIAL INTENSITY IS BASED ON CONTINUITY AND SUBJECTIVE DVORAK ESTIMATES. ACCORDING TO THE SHIPS MODEL WHICH DISSIPATES ZETA BY 48 HOURS…THE COOLER THAN NORMAL 200 MB TEMPERATURE IS THE ONLY PARAMETER CONTRIBUTING TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE CYCLONE. ON THE OTHER HAND…THE GFDL INSISTS ON MAKING ZETA A HURRICANE IN A COUPLE OF DAYS AND IT IS HARD TO GO AGAINST IT. HOWEVER…WITH STRONG WESTERLIES ALOFT AND DRY AIR HEADING FOR ZETA…I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO FORECAST WEAKENING AGAIN AND AGAIN.

The Storm Track suggests that Forecaster Avila is being a wimp, and that he thinks Zeta will become a hurricane but “doesn’t have the guts to go for it” in his forecast. We shall see.

It looks like Wednesday’s Rose Bowl won’t be the last time Reggie Bush’s football career and the state of Texas cross paths. The Houston Texans will have the #1 pick in the NFL draft.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… my new 17-inch PowerBook. Hopefully this one won’t be a lemon!

I’ve changed the homepage back to its normal format — displaying the most recent 15 posts, instead of the most recent 55 — but you can view all of Friday’s liveblog posts here.

Of course, we have a ton of better-resolution photos. I’ve already downloaded about a thousand pictures from eight different digital cameras onto my hard drive, and there’s more where those came from, not to mention the many, many pics that we’ll be getting eventually from our official photographer. Organizing all these photos and putting them online will be an unprecedented challenge! It will take a while… but here are a few pics to whet your appetites:

As I keep saying, there are many, many more where those came from, so stay tuned!

Oh, and here’s a picture of the motley crew (minus myself) that climbed Silly Mountain last night to welcome the new year with a spectacular view of the Phoenix Valley:

We could see multiple distant fireworks shows to the north, west and south. It was very cool! The two audioblog posts below are both from Silly Mountain. (The 12:10 AM clip was cut short when my cell-phone signal faded.) I also videotaped our midnight countdown, and will post that clip eventually.