We are offiicially in the dogdays of the off season as there is not much going on out there.

Just catching up on a few things while I have been getting slammed at work.

USC and the LA Coliseum Commission appear close to a long-term lease possibly for 25 years and possibly as long as 47 years

From The LAT :

The 25-year deal, which can be extended to 47 years, is the first long-term contract in a relationship that has lasted more than eight decades.

"The fact that we could get such a complicated transaction done in 90 days shows the commitment on both sides to make this happen," said Kristina Raspe, USC's associate senior vice president for real estate and asset management.

Although the document will be submitted today at the Coliseum's monthly meeting, it is unlikely that the commission will vote on it immediately.

I will believe it when I see it. We've done this dance before.

A couple of Basketball notes...

After failing to qualify academically last year it appears  that Leonard Washington will in fact enroll in summer school making him eligible to play this fall.

A source close to the basketball program confirmed that Leonard Washington will enroll in summer school and play for the Trojans next season.

Washington signed with USC in November 2006 but didn't qualify academically and opened up his recruiting before deciding to stick with his original commitment. He gives USC another inside presence to go with Taj Gibson and is said to be a fierce rebounder even though he's only 6 foot 6.

That is great! Washington will give Taj a little extra help on the boards.

Demar DeRozan took his SAT's a second time  just to make sure that he has the minimum standards needed to enroll in the fall.

USC-bound shooting guard DeMar DeRozan took the SAT for a second time on Saturday and should receive his results in a few weeks, Compton High Coach Tony Thomas said Wednesday evening.

"He said he's confident and feels good about everything," Thomas said. "Hopefully, it works out."

Thomas said DeRozan described his first SAT score as "right there" as far as giving him the necessary standardized test score for entry into USC, but the 6-foot-6 senior wanted to take the test again in the event that he fared poorly during his final high school semester and needed a higher SAT score on the NCAA's sliding eligibility scale.

I would have felt better if he had scored higher the first time that way we wouldn't have to worry about it but thats the way it goes.

I saw this lat week but I didn't get a chance to comment on it.

We all saw how impressive Everson Griffen was last season. This kid is just a beast and fast off the line. Well now that he has had a year under his belt he will have a higher profile role to deal with in 2008.

From ESPN:

In a program in which spectacular athleticism is commonplace, Griffen stands out. He's powerfully built at 6-foot-3 and 265 pounds, but he runs like a tailback -- he's been clocked under 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

"He's one of those rare kids you find every once in a while who is really big and can really run," said defensive coordinator Nick Holt, who also supervises the defensive line. "His transition to major college football wasn't too hard."

Oh, there were a few bumps in the road, most notoriously when Griffen and the upperclassman whose job he threatened, then-junior Kyle Moore, got into a fight during a preseason practice. According to reports, Moore had been teasing Griffen because the freshman was complaining about his sore back.

"It wasn't anything big -- a big brother, little brother thing," said Griffen, who added that he and Moore reconciled and are now friends (notably, Moore is projected to line up at strong end, opposite Griffen, next season).

This will be another stout USC defense this season and we are really going to need them to step up and keep opposing offenses from scoring so that our offense can get in a groove this season.

Finally...

 A lot has been made in some circles about USC's APR for the basketball. I am not really concerned about it as the penalty was dished out this past season so we can put it behind us. its disappointing that we even had the issue come up in the first place but I can lay all of this on Tim Floyd. Simply put, Pruitt, Stewart and Young just didn't care about what affect their actions had on the program going forward. I was happy with how we performed in the NCAA's last year but I am disappointed that that they didn't didn't have enough responsibility to see the semester through. I was disappointed in the way Jefferson handled his decision to leave SC, he could have been more courteous to Tim Floyd in at least letting him know what his intentions were. But I commend him for finishing his classes so that his early departure doesn't hurt USC going forward, Same with Mayo!

Of course I would prefer that USC recruit players that were more committed to the program and to their studies but that is not up for me decide. This falls on Tim Floyd and Mike Garrett and until we get burned badly I am inclined to trust their judgment.

Some of you may remember that Kenechi Udeze was diagnosed with leukemia in February. The Vikings have been good enough to put him on the reserve/non-football illness list, which means that he can pursue treatment without going broke in the process.

SBN's Vikings blog, the Daily Norseman, has noted that Udeze has the good fortune of having found a match from his brother for a bone marrow transplant, which will give him a fighting chance of recovery. The folks at the Daily Norseman also noted that maybe 30% of leukemia patients who need a bone marrow transplant are able to find a match from the National Marrow Donor Program, and are encouraging people to consider registering as a potential donor, or to donate money to support research into treatment of leukemia.

Beyond basic human concern, this is a subject that I find compelling because my father-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia about 11 years ago. He needed a bone marrow transplant, but did not match at all with any family members - however, he got as near to a perfect match as possible via the registry, and was able to undergo treatment. It's a hellacious process and kicked his ass seven ways to Sunday - he was able, just and no more, to come to our wedding a couple of months after the transplant and was being mistaken for my wife's grandfather, not her father. But he's been in remission ever since, and is active in his teaching and life in a way that I should be emulating, frankly.

If you can see your way to helping out, please do - but I will pass on the one caution that we received from the Donor Registry people back when my father-in-law was diagnosed, which is this: if you have any reservations about making a donation, don't sign up. About the only thing as bad for a leukemia patient than no match at all, is a match from someone who has changed their mind about donating.

In the meantime, our best wishes for successful treatment and recovery go out to Kenechi Udeze and his family, and a tip of the hat goes to the Daily Norseman for encouraging Vikings fans to help.

So Tonight CC will move to the new SBN 2.0 platform.

I have been playing with the new site off line setting up the sidebars and playing with some of the features hence the lack of posting. (we had an important 2nd birthday party this weekend as well over the weekend)

The site will be down for about 2 hours and it should be up and running in the morning. Please read the welcome statement like one on Burnt Orange Nation and if you haven't done so already claim your account. Rocky Top Talk has a great overview of the new features here and here so make sure you give them a read.

This is a great platform and it is incredibly user friendly. So enjoy and let us know what you think. Change is always difficult but this change is definitely for the best.

See you tomorrow...

So, the judge in the Reggie Bush mess played a little smackdown on the attorney's for both Lake and Bush. Frankly they deserved it.

This thing has gone on for so long I can see why there was an attempt at some humor.

But this is where the rubber meets the road, will Lake actually sit for his deposition?

There is a whole can of worms waiting for Lake if he answers questions, as he would probably criminally incriminate himself in his deposition to sustain his case against Bush. Sure, if it gets to the point of Bush having to go through his deposition any information that comes out could be devastating to Bush and possibly USC (at this point that's not likely because there has been no discussion of ANYONE at SC knowing about this but one can never be sure). Lake will have to answer questions about where he got the 300K, it has been discussed that he has no legitimate means of employment. He will have to answer about taping phone calls, which IIRC is against California state law. He would then face the possibility of a lawsuit against SC for tampering with an amateur athlete, which I also believe is against the law in CA.

So yeah he can go scorched earth but he runs the risk of getting nailed himself. Maybe he doesn't care; he has already been to jail and if its worst-case scenario of doing more time, not really likely to me he may just roll the dice and how they play.

We've said it time and again here we just want this over and done with. I really believe that at this point there may not be anything that incriminates USC, but who knows. I am simply just bored with this; you focus on other things and forget about it then it rears its ugly head over and over.

Just get it done already...

Update: I just caught this in the LA Times:

To me this is just posturing to pressure Bush to settle. Lake and his "team" are essentially trying to pressure Bush by threatening to have Carroll to testify, essentially trying to embarrass USC or shame him into settling, this tactic doesn’t surprise me.

A little bit more:

Let the games begin!!

As I am sure many of you know SBN has been going through an upgrade to whole new platform. I haven't really commented on this much because I wanted to make sure of the timetable for our upgrade and I wanted to see the other sites get up and running while working out the eventual bugs that always pop up.

Anyway, Burnt Orange Nation has made the move and the guys from The California Golden Blogs will be coming over to SBN to take over from The Band is out on the Field in the coming days so they will be next in line for the upgrade. CC will probably switch platforms somewhere between the 6th and the 10th of May along with the rest of the college sites.

I would urge you to, if you haven't done so already, go check out any other of the SBN sites that have already upgraded. When you do visit, log in and claim your SBN accounts across all of the different SBN blogs that you may have joined in the past. This is one of the many new features on the new platform.

As usual Joel over at Rocky Top Talk has a great breakdown of all the new features that you will find in this new platform. I won't even try to do a better job that what he has done. As with any sort of change it will take some getting used to but believe me this will be a great upgrade to what we already have here on CC.

This will be a great thing!

I will keep you posted as to when will be locked on for our upgrade as posting and commenting will suspended during the upgrade process.

Thanks!

Depending on who you listen to, the competition for quarterback is either looking more even or not even at all. According to the LA Times, both Sanchez and Mustain were looking good yesterday. According to the Daily News, the matter is demonstrably settled because Mustain was working out with the second unit.

Both articles indicated that the offensive line was showing some protection issues. The LA Times suggested that Mustain was better than Sanchez at improvising to make up for blown protection schemes.

_

On his blog, Scott Wolfe quotes one of the NFL coaches who came to watch pro day and commented about the team:

Doesn't sound too different from what people have said over the last couple of years, but to pick up on something from SMQ's comparison of Sanchez and Mustain, there are plenty of teams who would be thrilled to have the "drop off" performance of Booty after Leinart. Average by comparison to whom, oh anonymous NFL coach?

_

Speaking of SMQ, he's been enjoying Pete Carroll's little April Fools gag on Everson Griffen, as has Orson over at EDSBS, and as has the Wizard of Odds:



Just as long as this is the only time we see the po-po hanging around the team this spring, right gentlemen?

I was reading the guide to "Stuff Orange and White People Like" on EDSBS, as one does, and was overjoyed to see this first comment about Charles Woodson winning the Heisman over Peyton Manning:

In this sense, "USC'd" focuses more on a team / group pummeling, as opposed to the individual focus of "Maualuga'd" - which has evolved from referring to damaged frat member noses to supine opposing quarterbacks. ⁺

Ladies and gentlemen, I am giddy at the prospect of using the neologism "USC'd" to indicate a beating of epic proportions. I plan to start using it at every opportunity... e.g., "Sure the Germans and Japanese started strong in WWII, but they were USC'd in the end," or, "Back in the day, VHS USC'd Beta⁺⁺"

Obviously this should be used either for beatings which had a net positive (e.g., the end of Nazism and the Asian Greater Co-prosperity Sphere) or for ironic purposes. Use of the word in reference to bad beatings, such as police brutality, is less desirable.

⁺ Prompt recovery from being Maualuga'd is referred to as "Cowan-ing."

⁺⁺ For any youngsters reading, this is a reference to competing formats of magnetic tape used to record analog video images for subsequent viewing during the 1980s and early 1990s. Linear access and the inability to record multiple data streams in parallel were common to both formats.

AP - Los Angeles, CA, April 1, 2008

USC Head Coach Pete Carroll reacted sadly to the news that retired coach and EPSN prestidigitator Lou Holtz is in critical condition in a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida.

Holtz was rushed to Tallahassee Memorial in the wake of a fight with a chimpanzee named Steve, a fight which also resulted in the loss of an eye for stagehand Bill Jeffers and what was described by a shaken paramedic as "severe moob laceration" for FSU Linebacker coach Chuck Amato.

Amato apparently suffered the lacerations when the "man's corset" he was wearing was torn off by Holtz, who attempted to use it to garrote the attacking chimp.

Carroll was visibly shaken at the mayhem involving his former Head Coach at the University of Arkansas. "We all remember Lou and Steve, they were like the BJ and the Bear of Fayetteville. We never really understood what Lou was up to with Steve, but we knew that Steve took a beating most weekends.

"Me and the other assistants, we tried to teach Steve how to sign some plays just to cheer him up during the week. We were all completely jacked when he pulled together a couple of different calls and signed "Trips Right Z-Short 12 Track F-Seal" - man, I still use that call today, because you have to respect that kind of simian wisdom.

"But Steve disappeared soon after that - Lou told us that he had been kidnapped because some boosters heard that Steve was trying to introduce the forward pass... hell, if you'd worked down there you'd have believed it too... those people feel fear man, and it makes them crazy."

Carroll revealed that he had actually seen Steve several days ago during a Trojan spring practice session. "I couldn't believe it when Steve rolled in - it was like nothing had changed at first, but after about an hour he started getting all whacked out and tried to bite my man Ricky when Ricky was handing him some Gatorade. Rey Maualuga was right there and he just leveled Steve, Steve got back up for more, Rey gave him a clothesline, Steve just wouldn't quit. Eventually Rey and Cush [linebacker Brian Cushing] pinned Steve, and Dave Buehler punted him out of the field.... that was a hell of a kick, with a moving target and everything. Anyway, that was the last I saw of him."

Carroll plainly holds himself partly responsible for today's attack. "I tried calling Lou to let him know that he needed to watch his back but all I got was static on his home voicemail, and when I tried calling Mark May at ESPN all I heard was kind of a strange drooling and licking sound."

Doctors at Tallahassee Memorial are cautiously optimistic that they can save Coach Holtz. Steve remains at large this evening, the subject of a 3 state chimp-hunt.

Last September I wrote a piece in part about all the whining Oklahoma fans were making about the Reggie Bush mess and how even Coach Swtizer thought there really wasn't much that could be done to address it.

They were of course upset that they had to vacate wins, wins that have since been restored, while SC still hadn't learned their fate in regards to the Bush mess. Seems that a lot of folks are disappointed that SC still has yet see what the outcome will be. One group that supposedly expressed their disappointment is the very organization that will met out SC's fate, the NCAA.

Please stop your whining. You mean that in the two years that they have supposedly investigated this they can't make a decision on how to address this? The NCAA has met with Lake and I am pretty sure that they have met with officials and coaches from USC so how much more do they need?

The Lake/Bush lawsuit is a gamble for both parties. Lake could face charges of illegally taping phone conversations and tampering with the eligibility of an amateur athlete. Bush faces the possibility of vacated trophies and awards not to mention the public humility of taking cash while he was at USC and of course SC could face sanctions if the NCAA feels that SC should have known about Bush's activities.

It's petty for the NCAA to feel disappointed that Bush wouldn't cooperate. They should have seen this coming as Bush is not beholden to them anymore and owes the NCAA nothing. Rational USC fans know something isn't right here, as most of here feel pretty certain that Bush and his family took some form of illegal benefits but we are more concerned about USC's fate and not Reggie Bush. USC gets left holding the bag while Bush makes his millions in the NFL. Sure Bush's image may get tarnished but that's not going to hurt his earning power, as plenty of pro athletes with tarnished images continue to make big dollars in the pro's. Reggie is beloved in N.O. so whatever happens it won't effect his standing there.

The NCAA cast their lot with Lake who only met with the NCAA to try and force Bush to settle. In their quest to try and find the truth it would seem to me that maybe the NCAA is not 100% comfortable taking the word of a convicted felon who may have tampered with a player and who may have attempted to extort that player. The NCAA wants Bush's side of the story but it is hard to tell if they will get it with Bush's legal team wanting to keep Bush's deposition, if it ever takes place, private. Not likely if you ask me.

I'm not sure if the Bush legal team has handled this whole situation right, why they didn't dint settle puzzles me but I would also understand why they are fighting if Lake really did try to extort Bush. It would seem reasonable to me that IF Lake did dish out any of his and/or his families money that he should be able to recoup that money.  In the end I could care less if there is a judgment for or against Bush as I am still only concerned about how this affects USC.

How SC will handle things with lake is yet to be known but as I have mentioned before they have gone after agents in the past. From Wolf's Blog:

(In response to a question)

Lake may not still be in the sports marketing business but If SC takes the hit I can see them going after Lake for damages especially if he wins a judgment against Bush.

So we are at the same place we have been for a while now only now the NCAA is whining a little bit because they can't dig up anything in regards to this which makes it more difficult for some of us to see just what they can prove as to what SC may have known.

This whole situation is starting to bore the hell out of me.

This is absolutely horrible news.

From The LAT:

Obviously, if I'm Udeze's agent I would keep it quiet too at least until the type and severity is known. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kenechi and his family.