There is a great post on Burnt Orange Nation about an easy way to post Fanshot’s from YouTube.

Following text taken from BON...

1) Go here and stick the Fanshot button on your browser.

2) Go to YouTube and find any USC highlight you love.

3) Use your Fanshot widget to send it to Conquest Chronicles.

4) Make sure you tag the Fanshot with 'youtube' and 'USC highlights', along with any other relevant descriptors.

And that's it. An instant vault of USC highlights, sortable by tag.

All right, I admit it I have been a bit lazy in posting. I really didn't feel like talking about the foregone conclusion of who would be the starting QB.

Anyway, here is what has been going on around USC and around the Pac-10.

Détente?

From Brian Grummel at Fanhouse?

Hey I'm all for it! This is one of those things that will make the rivalry fun again!

Sure, right...whatever you say!

Maualuga projected to be picked 31st in 2009? From Scouts NFL Experts.

They have Cushing going 24th so I'm not sure what they are thinking. Like Wolf said this is worthless information but interesting to see what some of the experts are thinking.

Johnson bolts Stanford for LSU

Well this is interesting

This was kind of surprising. I know that Stanford was expected to give Johnson and extension but with Stanford's season ending almost two weeks ago what was taking them so long?  With the Lopez brothers committing to the draft the writing on the wall was that Stanford was going to have a rough road ahead. I wonder how Mike Montgomery feels today. If he had waited just a couple of more weeks.....

I wonder what Cal is thinking?

So what about that Coliseum deal?

More going on behind the scenes?

Well, you know how government runs some one always has to have their hands in the pie. Here is an interesting question, anyone think some big SC donor would buy the Coliseum and donate to SC? I don't, but it's a nice dream.

Oregon State finally gets a new basketball coach

And the hire Obama's brother-in-law to be the new coach.

Of course there were some questions about the hire, but Jake over at Building the Dam does an excellent job at defending the hire.

Jake always gives the straight scoop and he makes some fair points.

Finally...

Orson, as usual, has some fun with Brennan Carroll and Mark Sanchez.

Just a couple of things to throw out there on a Sunday.

• The last two spots of this years NCAA Final Four will be determined today as #2 Texas will take on #1 Memphis in Houston while #1 Kansas takes on #10 Davidson in Detroit. I will check in on occasion but I'm not really interested. Should Texas win it would set up a great rematch with ucla in San Antonio.
• USC Baseball continues to struggle as they lost their second straight to #1 Arizona State. They have lost four straight and with SC heading to ucla for a 3 game set this week Chad Kreuter needs to step up and get this team motivated. The bruins are struggling as well with 10-9 record so this might the bump we need to get back on track. We are almost halfway through the season and things don't look promising.
• I noted in the diaries earlier this week that the situation in Tuscon was looking like a soap opera. Well Lute Olson has opened up as to why he sat out the season and why he plans to return this season. I know Kevin O'Neill said he plans on coming back but the question is will there be a place for him?
• Cal apparently went after Pitt's Jamie Dixon to replace fired hoops coach Ben Braun but Dixon appears to be happy in the steel city and is  uninterested in leaving. The real question is would Cal go after Mike Montgomery as AO suggests? Getting good coaches in the Pac-10 will only increase the positive image of the conference so let's hope Cal can get a get someone special.
• Will Tony Bennett leave Wazzu? Bennett has been getting a lot of good pub with how his team has played but will he look for greener pastures? He seems to be a hot commodity what do you think?

No good deed goes unpunished...such as taking a long weekend last week and to having to play catch-up while also having to cover for others who also need some well-deserved time off. I haven't pulled an all-nighter in surgery for quite a while but it was well worth it.

So here is what I have planned.

• AO, with an even busier schedule than mine, graciously agreed to do the Q&A with Bring on the Cats that will be up will be either later today or tomorrow.
• I will continue on my observations of tomorrow's game against K-State.
• I will post a few comments on what others think about SC chances in the tourney
• Finally, I have a neat story to tell about my trip to DC last weekend and the power of relationships.

Just a few thoughts on this Super Bowl Sunday

USC over ASU

Briefly, I missed the 2nd half of last nights win over ASU. A long morning with my accountant coupled with those Saturday errands that always seem to pile up wore me out after what I thought would be a light work week, so I fell asleep with remote in hand and laptop on my chest. Needless to say I am happy that SC won but without actually seeing the game it would be pointless to do a game write-up. Moving on...

Trojans in the Super Bowl

Even though I live in the NYC area I don't root for the local teams, except the Jets because that's my wife's team, so I am fairly ambivalent about tonight's game. Frak wrote up a great diary that probably expresses how we all feel about success and those who would criticize success. I really only care to see former SC players do well. It would be great for Junior Seau and Matt Cassell to get a ring, but it would also be neat to see Steve Smith get one as well. If New England pulls it off you have to tip your cap for that incredible accomplishment. I will watch some of it but I'm not really interested, but I wish any former SC players luck.

Neuheisel's Comments

I saw in a couple places where it was rumored or speculated that Slick Rick may have made an unsavory comment about USC during halftime of ucla's win over Arizona last night. I usually don't pay too much attention to that sort of thing but when I saw a few of the regulars over on BN asking about it I knew something must have been said. RN can say what he wants; I realize that as an alumnus RN may get caught up in the rivalry and spout off but I'm not sure that, if true, he should making statements that might not only embarrass his program but also might be tough to back up next season. I am also not sure what this big obsession with USC has to do with what he needs to fix at ucla. Call me crazy but I was always taught that its ok to mindful and wary of your rival but to worry about their every move is counterproductive and it could cause to make a mistake somewhere down the road.  Surely he has more important things to worry about than us.

Chow=Championship?

Also at last night's ucla/Arizona game Norm Chow made a comment during that halftime "pep rally" that "we're going to bring you a championship." OK I get it, what else was he going to say? But lets get the team together and the playbook set before we start making those types of promises. IF ucla doesn't win a championship does that mean that Chow is a bad OC? Of course not but it sure will look funny if it doesn't happen. A lot has been made of Chow and how SC hasn't won an MNC since he left and that's true but it wasn't all because of Norm Chow so he needs to put up or shut up now.

Recruiting

With National Signing day just around the corner the rumors are flying and the speculation is beginning about just how well SC and Pete Carroll will do this year in recruiting. I am really not that worried about it as SC always seems to pull in a great class and PC always finds a way to pull a rabbit or two out of his hat. Yes, some of the other programs may have "better classes" base on what recruiting rag or site you read but for my money it is not always about quantity but more about quality. The big question to me is did SC fill all of its needs with this class. To me that's the sign of a good recruiting class. Simply having big numbers with a lot of stars behind those names is more about flash and not necessarily about substance. SC continues to be at or near the top of the CFB mountain because of their consistency, so until all the signatures are in I don't place much stock in all the hype and speculation once the class is assembled then I will start to speculate on just how good the class is.

Feel free to discuss as you wish, enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday.

FIGHT ON!

Editorial note: I'm not planning to let the weekly review of opposition games slide this late on a regular basis, but it's been a busy week and it's not like there's a game preview for Saturday anyway...

Nebraska throttled Nevada, 52 - 10. The Huskers rolled up 625 yards of offense, of which 413 were rushing yards... easy to achieve when Marlon Lucky posts 233 yards and 3 touchdowns. Sam Keller was 14 / 5 for 193 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. Nevada managed 108 yards passing and 77 yards of rushing. The guys at SBN's Corn Nation liked what they saw. That kind of power running and stout defense is going to make for an interesting game on the 15th.

Washington State traveled to Madison and lost 42 - 21 to Wisconsin. Wazoo kept it respectable through the third, when they were down 28 - 21, but the Badgers scored 2 TDs in the 4th to close the game down. The Cougars were fairly close to the Badgers in the running game - 157 to 182 - but got killed in the passing game, 328 to 426. (This is Wisconsin we're talking about, right?) Wazoo went 6 - 14 on third down conversions to Wisconsin's 11 - 15. I'm guessing that the Coug's D was gassed by the 4th quarter. If Turner is healthy and either Hazelton or Ausberry step up, that could be a long game for the Cougs.

Continue reading this post »

I will be on the road for business later today. I will have a few things to post later this evening once I get settled in Indiana.

Lots of good things happening around the football program so stay tuned.

Some odds and ends for Tuesday morning, including some alumni mentions - a little late in some cases, but there you go...

• Jamie Lovemark has been selected to the US team for the Walker Cup, which is roughly the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup as it used to be before they started letting Continental players in... (/British bias). The Walker Cup will be played at the Royal County Down Golf Club in Ireland on September 8-9.
• SBN's New Orleans Saints blog, Canal Street Chronicles, gets a quick (and well earned) jab at Reggie Bush's off-season activities, and then puts forward his idea of how the Saints' offense should like up for 2007, with Bush in a class all his own to complement the WRs and HBs. Meanwhile, SMQ is giddy about the return of pro ball (does this man ever sleep?) and the photo caption makes me think he's willing to overlook Reggie's various indiscretions in exchange for a few more soaring TDs...
• Meanwhile, over at SBN Titans' blog Music City Miracles, they've been wondering about how productive LenDale White will be this year. Early returns from training camp appear to be that White is practicing as if he'll be the starter, so hopefully he'll keep his injuries and weight under control and show them some of that power running that I (for one) miss greatly.
• Dwayne Jarrett signed a contract with the Carolina Panthers, shortly after Ryan Kalil. Jaxon from SBN Panthers blog Cat Scratch Reader went to practice last week, and came away impressed with Jarrett's catching abilities. Jaxon is also very much impressed with the attitude of Ryan Kalil, who is practicing both on offensive lines and special teams as well:
  I reported last week that Kalil was playing on kick-off returns and appeared to be with the first team. He seemed to doing pretty good with it. I then read in his camp diary that he has never played special teams before in his life. I love his attitude, he seems to be willing to whatever the coaches ask of him. No attitude problem here.

  As mentioned in that quote, Kalil is keeping a blog on the official Panthers site, which included the sad news of his grandfather's death - condolences obviously to the Kalil family.

• Finally, Jim Harbaugh isn't just getting people in the Pac 10 all riled up - Yost over at the M Zone relays a few choice words from various Wolverines in response to Harbaugh's claims about Michigan's handling of academics for football players. You know that people are pissed when they start to crack out the old DUI episode. Suffice to say, Yost is now calling on other Wolverine blogs to refer to Harbaugh as Fredo. I think we can get behind that, don't you? (There's a poll for you to record your opinions, FYI, but until I can work out how to get it into the main article, you'll have to click through...)

Our SBN colleagues over at Building the Dam recently pointed out an Oregon State figurine that frankly frightened the hell out of me:

In fairness, it should be noted that this... item has been discontinued.

Once I recovered my senses, I realized that it reminded me of a famous picture that spoke to me also:

Continue reading this post »

A big thank you to DC Trojan for minding the store while I was away.

I have to say that Germany is one tremendous country. I have been lucky to see a lot of Europe when I was in the service but I never saw Germany until this week. No European country has gone through more in the previous century and come out so strong than Germany.

They are a true economic machine, and they have continued to thrive even after reunification and turned Berlin into city very much like New York. The people are friendly and gregarious and their thirst for life is intoxicating.

Our German host's went way above the call of duty in making our stay enjoyable, informative and relaxed, as best it could be. I have made a new friend on this trip and I look forward to sharing that same hospitality when he comes over here for a visit.

A hearty thank you to them for a wonderful trip.