Will USC win tomorrow? I sure hope so? I see the game being close in the first half and USC taking over in the 2nd half. Wait, I also see it as a really close game down the line. It's tough to predict. I know our defense will play well, but tough to say how our offense will play out. They played pretty well after an off week against the Buckeyes, and came out really flat after another bye week against the Beavers, a game that brought us back to the Rose Bowl. Anyway, I still see a USC win which is all we can really ask for.

So looking a little further ahead, it looks like USC will close out a pretty solid recruiting class. The arrival of Matt Barkley would result in USC landing the #1 ranked QB in 4 out of the last 7 high school classes from 2003-2009. (Booty, Sanchez, Mustain, Barkley)

At the tight end spot, USC recently lost the commitment from Morrell Presley(#1) which is perfectly fine since we have Blake Ayles from last year's class that has already shown great potential to be USC's top offensive stars in the next few years.

Honestly, I think if PC can land the likes of Devon Kennard and Manti Te'o, we would have a pretty solid class to go along with other talents like TJ Mcdonald, Fangupo, and Vontaze Burfict who will surely add to USC tackles, sacks, and late hit penalties.

Clearly USC didn't attract any top RB talents, but with the likelihood of Stafon and CJ returning next year, I guess we can wait another year. Besides we do have a pretty solid commit from Patrick Hall out of St Bonaventure High School here in Ventura, CA who can easily convert to a RB. Hall along with Te'o and Kennard are actually the recruits I'm most excited about.

Looking even further ahead in to next year's season, I can't wait to see the development of TJ Bryant, Blake Ayles, DJ Shoemate (who has really impressed me with his work ethic and maturity), McAllister, and Nick Perry.

Well back to tomorrow's game. Go Trojans! Happy new year and fight on!!! Read the full story

Oooh. The Irish beat Hawaii. Oooh they ended their 9 bowl losing streak. Who cares. Seriously. Are we suppose to be impressed? The Irish have 4-5 star recruits. Hawaii has 1-2 star recruits. If they're lucky they'll get a 3 star recruit. I guess I'm surprised Irish actually beat someone considering how good they're suppose to be according to the fat man. But this is not something to be impressed about. This is like a 6th grader beating up a 1st grader and taking his lunch money. That's what's suppose to happen. Read the full story

I was completely shocked when I heard the news today. Morrell Presley, the No. 1 ranked tight end in the nation has changed his mind and has committed to FUCLA. He is going to enroll for classes at UCLA which begins on the 5th of January 2009.

I wrote about all the recent transfers hurting USC's reputation. I'm sure many coaches are using that to convince prospects to turn their back on USC. Well I think Presley is going to be an amazing tight end. UCLA will probably have more use for him since we have the likes of Blake Ayles who can catch as well as make blocks on the line. It would have been great to get an amazing athlete like Presley, but I guess we can live without him. I hope? Read the full story

I doubt either one will try to reinvent the wheel. Pete Carroll has a great system and clearly his way of doing things produce great results. Carroll's success is a result of great recruiting, great defense, and extremely competitive practices. I'm sure there are other intangibles that adds to his success, and I'm quite certain that during their time with Pete and USC, Sark and Kiff have picked those up as well.

Do you remember that ridiculous article awhile back ago when Oakland Raider Players complained of how hard Kiff was making them practice? I found it amusing. Chances are they were put through a Pete Carroll type of practice, and we end up with players making millions of dollars complaining.

Anyway, I'm curious to see what happens. Two great young coaches will take a winning formula and implement it in two programs that definitely needs a boost. I'm not at all worried that they will take key recruits away from USC. (If one of them do, I think it would likely be Kiffin considering the Vols long tradition and of course his geographic location) I am very curious to see if they'll be able to replicate USC's success or at least something close to it. Cause even if they are half as successful as Pete, I think they would still be considered more successful than the average college coach. What do you think? Read the full story

Don't you just hate that. You're starving but the girlfriend wouldn't let you eat anything on the way to the restaurant because it might "spoil your appetite." Bah! So you get there and your girlfriend's best friend's stupid date forgot to make reservations so you're spending the first half hour of couples night waiting to be seated.

You spend the next half hour smiling, nodding, and acting like you're having a good time. On top of that, you just nod at whatever the stupid guy who forgot to make reservations is saying as he tries to make it seem like he knows a lot about sports, but really outside of Tom Brady whom he seems to have a secret man crush for, he really can't name another player in the NFL.

So finally your pager thing vibrates, you breathe a sigh of relief and decided that once seated at the table you'd rather take part in the women's girly talk rather than listen to this "guy" talk about sports and soccer. Finally waitress takes everyones order. You got the biggest steak they have and stupid "guy" eventually makes a decision whether he'll get the soup or salad.

One hour has passed and still no food, but plenty of boring conversation.

Then finally the food comes. Your girlfriend gets a gigantic chicken salad and she will probably eat your fries. Her BFF gets some other form of "healthy" salad, and she will probably stare at your steak all night. Girly man gets his side of house salad to go w/ his smoke salmon that matches the color of his man blouse. Finally... Finally the server puts your plate in front of you and its.... its....

Well it doesn't matter. It's not what your ordered. It's nothing close to what you wanted. It's nothing close to what you would consider to be edible. You are mad... and very hungry. So you yell out loud in frustration, "THIS IS NOT WHAT I ORDERED!!!"

Anyway, that's how I feel about former USC star, Reggie Bush. What happened to the next Gale Sayers? I remember the year he came out everyone talked about how he would make Sportscenters' Top 10 every week. He has shown some flashes, but that's all it is. He is no Adrian Peterson, and I'm sad to say he is not even a Pierre Thomas.

I'm not a big stat guy so you can look it up and see what I'm talking about. Last night was a sad night. My opponent in my 1st Fantasy Football League had Pierre Thomas on his team. I had Reggie Bush. Boy who would've seen this coming? I got burned.

I didn't get what I ordered. I'm hungry. The fans of New Orleans are hungry too. While they may not have gotten exactly what they ordered and expected, they at least have Pierre Thomas to satisfy their hunger. Based on last night's game, Reggie Bush is no filet mignon compared to Pierre Thomas. Read the full story

I still remember a little over a year and a half ago when I was still working for a very big bank, I was sitting at an office lobby for a business appointment. While I sat there checking my numbers on my PDA, I was also watching the news on a plasma tv they had in the lobby. A so called expert on the news made a bold statement saying, "we have hit the bottom and it's only going to go up from here." He made that statement because the DOW bounced back and had a gain of about 200 points that day.

I remember laughing at that guy the next morning as I was getting dress for work as I saw the market drop at the opening bell. I said to myself, "expert! riiight." The market has dropped even more since and things are a lot worse than many had expected. So that so called expert was dead wrong.

Now, I'm not questioning his intelligence at all. He was referred to as an expert surely due to his high level of education and very successful career. But still, his "expert" opinion was absolutely wrong. After days of huge losses in the market, he finally saw a big rebound and proclaimed the market to be on it's way up. He did what the people who make up the college polls do every season after every game - he reacted.

Now all these so called football "experts" say one team is the best. Then they get blown out and just like that their entire opinion of that team completely changes? Penn State who they were ready to send to the National Championship game all the sudden gets dropped? USC who they all proclaim to be the best team in the nation is all the sudden not even worthy of being the 4th or 5th best? Remember how before the season started all these "experts" said Georgia is the absolute best team in the country. Well what happened? What's their ranking now? 13th? Well gee whiz I can understand a small boo boo but you're way off.

This is why I laugh at the guys on the news who make a new prediction each and everyday. This is also why I can't take these weekly polls in college football seriously. It's just their latest reaction to what happened. All their logic and reasoning from the week before that they put their reputation in the line for just completely goes out the window.

What I really hate is when they say USC will probably beat anyone, but they can't vote them that high because the Sooners lost to the Longhorns and the Trojans lost to the BEAVERS! Riiiiight. Read the full story

I still remember the good ol' days of selling my college books from the previous quarter. They won't make me any money sitting on a shelf and I sure as hell won't sell it back to the bookstore so they can give me $50 so they can turn around and sell it to another student for three times that amount. Besides, I had two things going for me. One, I have great personality. Two, my books were good as new. In some cases, they were brand new since I never even read the book. So I would spend the first day of school running to the different classes where my old books would be of use and sell them to the highest bidder. It worked out great. It meant reinvesting mom and dad's money to something other than education.

Anyway as I sat in my office today thinking about college, I started thinking about my economics class. I honestly spent more time playing that Snake game on my old Nokia phone instead of paying attention in class, but I do slightly remember something about the principle of maximization. He explained by talking referring to the number of cooks in the kitchen. One cook outputs a certain amount. Hiring a second cook doubles that amount. Then eventually hiring more cooks just means you have people getting in the way and the increase of output per cook decreases and so you're no longer maximizing your results. I translated that to real life college terms to pass the test. Beer #1 makes me feel good. Beer #2 makes me feel better. Beer #3 makes me feel great. Then it hits the point where beer #4,5, or 6 really have no effect and I could've stopped spending money at Beer #3. Yes I was a light weight.

Well now that the football season is just about over and as we begin to focus our attention towards recruiting I can't help but think about this lesson in economics. Pete Carroll has been a master at recruiting. He's like a copier sales man who sold 10 new xerox machines to a paperless company. (the ice to eskimo analogy is old) In 2006, PC was able to attract the likes of Stafon Johnson, Moody, and CJ Gable. They are all great RBs in their own right. The following year, in the same class, USC landed the #1 and #2 ranked RBs in the NATION with JoeMac and Marc with a C. In addition, they landed Broderick Green who has been my favorite of the three.

Do we really need all those great running backs? Well in many ways yes, and in some ways no. In today's game, the two back system has been very effective. Stafon Johnson and CJ Gable have both been very effective. One brings speed and the other brings a lot of power. Having Joe Mcknight thrown in to the mix gives us a back with an added dimension to add even more production in our backfield. Plus, if helps us deal with potential injuries by having a 3rd top caliber back. Now this is where our lesson in economics come in. Is having so many more high caliber backs standing in the sidelines hurting our overall output? Do we simply have too many cooks in the kitchen or in this case too many running backs in the backfield.

There's a lot of of talk about the running backs not really getting in rhythm because of the constant substitution. Back in the Reggie and Lendale days, the other backs wouldn't really get on the field unless it was garbage time. So Lendale and Reggie got in rhythm and became the Thunder and Lightning combo that we all miss. Are our current backs not able to maximize their production because of having too many in the rotation. If we stuck to CJ and Stafon, would we have better overall production in the offense?

Another good question is whether or not USC is able to maximize its success with having so many "cooks in the kitchen." USC has not been able to attract any top rated backs in a couple years. I understand that we really don't need it so USC hasn't really aggressively recruited anyone. But in the long term... The big picture. It just doesn't look good to have so many top recruits leave the program to transfer somewhere else.

I didn't care to mention Vidal Hazelton in any of my posts because he has been a disappointment. He had a great year last year, but let the other receivers outwork and outshine him this year. Vidal was a #1 ranked WR when he came out of high school. He was ranked ahead of Percy Harvin. Now him leaving, to me, leaves another bad impression.

So back to my question. Is USC maximizing its production with having so many star recruits in each position? Are the transfers going to hurt USC in the future? Would CJ and Stafon be better of if there was less of Joe? If I were in my microeconomics class would this be the classic example of having too many cooks in the kitchen?

I know this. Sanchez and Mustain were #1s. Vidal and Patrick were #1s. Our running backs were all HS All Americans. But when I turn on Sportscenter and watch the highlights and the top plays and listen to Heisman chatter, I never hear a Trojan in the conversation. Read the full story

Yes, herpes. You know, that sexually transmitted disease. First off I always find myself laughing at those drug commercials. They show a woman and a guy playing frisbee at the park or running around by the water at the beach. It's funny, cause they get me every damn time. I'm like what's this about? Then they zoom in on the girl and she says with Kodak moment type of smile, "I have genital herpes."

Luckily, I've never had a first hand encounter with anyone with genital herpes. If I did, I'm sure they wouldn't announce it with a smile like those people in the commercials do. Anyway, if you have met someone with this STD, I'm sure you haven't forgotten about them and probably never will. There are just some things that really stick! Herpes is one of them.

In USC's case the past few years USC's herpes have been Texas, FUCLA (13-9), Stanford. This year the Beavers is USC's herpes. Beavers and herpes in the same sentence just sounds so wrong and inapproriate in so many ways. But as we said, it just sticks. So I can totally understand how Pete Carroll was feeling when he said, "All year, for whatever reason, the loss we had hung on us... It didn't seem that the opinion of that loss ever changed."

I hate that regardless of how dominant USC has been since that fluke of a loss, our Trojans aren't even in the conversation for the National Championship. It sucks and it's getting old. Pete Carroll was dead on. USC really wasn't able to shake off this loss to the Beavers all year. Next time we go up to wet muggy Corvallis, we better come more prepared and wear a raincoat. Cause you just never know who will be next year's herpes.

I usually try to post a picture with each post, but doing a google image search for herpes was a bad idea. So here. gummi bears are safe Read the full story

Well I didn't wake up with the desire to really lay it on someone, but if I did I wasn't kidding about aiming for the left ear. Something about landing a perfect punch on that spot just gets my juices flowing. Ha, okay enough crazy talk. So even without the intent of hurting someone, I still woke up with that feeling, that drive to inflict pain. I woke up with the motivation to just kick ass!!!

I feel the same way I felt many years ago. It was around freshman year in high school. It was the morning after senior prom. My older sister got a ride home with her friends instead of her date taking her home. I was upset because it was his job to take her home, but he didn't because my sister refused to go to a "party" he wanted to go to after prom. So I woke up that morning PISSED. I woke up with iron fists ready to pound someone. I opened my eyes and the first thought that came to my head was opening up a can of whoooop assss.

So why did I wake up this morning with that same feeling? Well because it must be the Saturday our Trojans get to beat the crap out of those fuzzy little bears from UCLA. So I'm sure Pete got the boys fired up and I'm sure they all woke up this morning with that same FIRE to just inflict pain on their foes. I'm sure Kevin Craft, the Bruin QB will feel the exact same way my sister's date felt that afternoon after school in that dark hallway as we sent our "blitz package"

You want to partay???? Then partay with me!!!! (insert manly grunt noises here)

Go Trojans! Read the full story

read details here

My take here below...

It's really sad. Watching the judge's demeanor denying every motion with her evil grin. People's take on tv, especially that annoying chick on CNN that focuses on current court trials. I feel like Simpson got sentenced for a crime that occurred a long long time ago.

Do I think he's guilty here? Yes, clearly. Was he guilty years ago? I don't know. I wasn't there. I think that conversation can be placed under the same pile with religion, politics, Kobe vs Lebron, and choice of Vodka - everyone has their own opinion.

Anyway, he's going to serve his time. There are things that even one of the best running backs of all time can't run away from. So as far as this OJ is concerned, the glass is half empty

(like my photoshop pic?) Read the full story

you can read about it here

What's my take? I don't have one yet. I'm a little buzzed from drinking, tired, and sleepy. Oh life. Wake up, eat, shower, work, eat, work, go home, eat, drink, and sleep. Same routine w/ a few spontaneous things here and there. I guess that sounds familiar.

Wait for it... Wait for it...

Oh yeah, it sounds a lot like USC's offense under Sark. We run down the middle on every 4th down attempt. No surprise there. (well except that time Joe-Mac danced around behind line of scrimmage for a loss in that big game against the Ducks last year) Mark Sanchez will hand the ball to a RB. Mark Sanchez will roll out and pass. We'll do a screen thing and pass to Havili. Yawn.

There has been a huge drop since Chow left. Honestly, I think USC could've won the NC the past two years if Chow was calling the plays. Sark was good but he didn't really put us over the top. I will miss Sark, but I see this as a welcome change.

Hmm I guess that's my take. Okay, goodnight Read the full story

So today Pete Carroll announced that the Trojans will wear their home jerseys against UCLA this coming Saturday despite the fact that it will cost the team 2 timeouts - one timeout per half.

PC is quoted saying "I just thought it was a really cool tradition... I think it's the fun thing to do, and I think the fans will appreciate it over time."

I think it is fun. It has been 26 years since both teams wore their home colors when the two programs shared the same home field in the Coliseum. I think it's more than just a "fun thing to do" as far as PC is concerned. It's almost a sign of arrogance to be willing to give up timeouts that could prove to be crucial if the Trojans find themselves in a close game.

Does the arrogance bother me at all? No, not at all. Fucla is like that guy at work that everyone loves to hate, and wearing the home jersey is like going to that guy's house uninvited, putting your feet up on the coffee table and taking control of his remote control. Yeah it's a little disrespectful, but when it's against your bitter rival, as Peter Carroll said it's a "fun thing to do" Read the full story