Mr. & Mrs. Link

I can’t say I fault Pete Carroll for his controversial decision to pass over former USC players including safety Taylor Mays.  Let’s be honest, last year’s Trojan team was as flawed as they were talented.  They had the talent to beat teams like Ohio State but lacked the heart to beat teams like (gag) Washington.

Carroll, however, does earn my praise for bringing LenDale White on board.  LenDale was the Thunder to Reggie Bush’s lightning and while Bush got all the love in the media, LenDale was racking up a school record for touchdowns.  And he did it without becoming too cocky like Bush, Jarrett, Williams and Joe McKnight.

That’s why LenDale White ranks among my favorite USC players – and why I own a #21 jersey.

Good news in the Trojan Family.  Reggie Bush has settled his court case and will not testify at a public deposition that was supposed to happen today.

Bush settled with would-be sports marketer Lloyd Lake, who was suing Bush for nearly $300,000, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed. The source requested anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. Yahoo! Sports, citing a source, reported the settlement Tuesday night.

Now before the haters break out their pitchforks and accuse me of being glad we dodged a bullet that rightfully had our name on it, let me clarify.  This deposition had very little bearing on the NCAA ruling about possible sanctions.  Reggie Bush could have murdered, say his ex-wife and boyfriend and then led LAPD on a slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco.  If USC reasonably didn’t know about it, it’s not a question of ethics.  See that get’s lost in the media frenzy to tear down USC – this isn’t about what Bush’s family did, it’s about whether the institution of USC was complicit in it.

Do I think something fishy happened with Reggie Bush with regard to NCAA rules?  Yes.  It’s pretty obvious that his family took benefits they shouldn’t have.  But can the NCAA punish USC for the actions of an athlete’s family?

See, that’s the real issue here – not whether mom and dad Bush took money, but whether USC’s Athletics Program had some responsibility to know about it.  What level of internal enforcement is an academic institution required to take?  Should they hire private investigators to stake out anyone who interacts with an athlete?  The NCAA has traditionally not required that level of enforcement, the the real issue isn’t what Reggie Bush did but what USC knew.

Had this deposition occured, it likely would have been about what Reggie Bush did, not what USC knew.  Yet, in the media, that would have been enough for a conviction.

The shine has worn off the USC football program (Reggie Bush, Pete Carroll, Michael Garrett and now Lane Kiffin have all been targets to some extend of media criticism).  From a media perspective, USC’s greatness became boring – it no longer generated valuable clicks.  So queue controversy and suddenly readers are clicking again.  The more controversy you can generate, the more clicks you get.

It’s the American cycle of fame: make news building them up, and when that get’s boring, make more news tearing them down.

So this deposition would have been a kangaroo trial for the institution of USC, despite the fact that it actually had very little bearing on USC in the first place.  So, yes.  I’m glad it’s not going to happen.

Now the NCAA can make it’s ruling and we can put this whole mess behind us.  My guess is, USC will get a slap o the wrist because, honestly, the institution didn’t do that much wrong.

Back on the second-to-last day of January, we hit the slopes at Whitetail with Ben Cox and some of the old kickball crew.  It was a windy 17°F and it snowed the whole time.  And it became clear that Whitetail is the class of the three hills that we have passes to.

First, for Tiffany, they have a wide range of green circles.  And for me, there’s a high speed quad and blue squares that cover more vertical than any other hill round here.  And they’re the legit blue squares too (they’d be black diamonds at Liberty, Wisp or Camelback)!  The black diamonds still aren’t up to par with the Rockies (they’re basically narrow blue squares), but the high speed lift lets you do a circuit (up and down) in as little as 15 minutes.

So, on the second-to-last day of February, we met up again with Cox and some of the old kickball crew again to conquer the slopes once more, this time in warm 41°F weather with the sun out.  The snow was very slushy and heavy.  The slopes were packed with thousands of people.

At the beginning of the year, Tiffany acquiesced to a season pass at three local hills (Liberty, Roundtop & Whitetail) despite having skied only once and despite that one experience being less than ideal.  She was decent with the “wedge” or “snowplow” turn, but a long way from good at it.  She stuck pretty much exclusively on the bunny slope.

But she took a lesson her first time out this year, and slowly began to leave the wedge behind.  She conquered the bunny slope that day, and moved on to a green circle at Liberty called Dipsy Doodle.

After a few more times out, she owned the Green Circle.  She progressed to more challenging green circle terrain at Wisp, and really started to master the parallel turn.  She’s well beyond the bunny slope, able to conquer any green circle in front of her.

And then, at Whitetail, she aced her first blue square run called “Stalker.”  It was a big-time threshold.

It’s always fun to watch Tiffany ski.  Inevitably, she’s surrounded by less experienced skiers going a lot faster than she is.  And inevitably, those skiers wipe out all around her, leaving her as the last one standing.

Here are some pics.

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There are some shots in there of people being lowered from the chairlifts with a harness-cable system.  More on that soon.

Rivals.com, the news outlet that tracks this sort of thing, has ranked USC’s 2010 recruiting haul as the best in the country.

There was no bigger national story during the final few weeks of recruiting than USC. Lane Kiffin and Co. did a tremendous job keeping together the pieces of the puzzle that already were assembled by former coach Pete Carroll. Keeping Prater, Baxter and Robert Woods on board was huge; they are five-star players at positions of need. The Trojans also closed stronger than anybody, with the addition of five-star prospects Seantrel Henderson and Markeith Ambles and four-star recruits Nickell Robey and Hayes Pullard.

Consistent with Pete Carroll’s classes, the focus is on quality over quantity.  Only 20 commitments, but 5 of them are 5-star rated (more than any other school).

And while I’m loath to speak ill of Uncle Pete, it has been clear that the talent he had consistently been bringing to USC wasn’t living up to it’s potential.  When you beat Ohio State and lose to Washington the next week, the nagging cloud of complacency lingers in the air.

Now we have a new coach who came to the program with a black eye.  His redemption is tied to his record – win and he’ll be forgiven.  He has the talent, and the motive.

I think USC may get hungry again.  Om-nom-nom-nom.

The 2009 Yearbook is done.  50-60 hours of work went into the layouts over the course of the year (this year, I did them as we went instead of all at once over the holidays).  This is a monumental undertaking, but the final product has always been worth it.

At 80-pages, we reached the maximum allowed by PhotoWorks – and I dare say the maximum possible in a year.  I’d have to check, but out of 52 weeks, we might have taken two or three off.

So please enjoy.  You can play with the final book in a cool little java-applet from PhotoWorks by clicking here.

Or you can just browse the pages below.

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The Yearbook Account of the year in words is below:

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I’m a Trojan Fan. And a Griz Fan. Those worlds rarely collide.  But today, USC’s 2009 starting quarterback until he broke his leg and then he lost the job to Matt Barkley until he got to start at Washington where he lost, Aaron Corp, is transferring to Richmond where he’ll play for the Spiders (I hate spiders).

You know, the same Spiders that beat the Grizzlies in the 2008 National Championship.  The same Spiders that will probably be playing for more National Championships with Corp at the helm – and probably against the Griz.

When I was young, I collected baseball cards.  For me, it was less a matter of memorizing stats and rosters, and more an early venture in capitalism.  I spent countless hours counting inventory by sorting wax-packs by numbers to build sets.  I made huge check-lists to identify missing cards and then traded with friends to finish sets.  It was fun.

By virtue of Montana having no pro teams and my dad being from Chicago, I’m a Chicago Fan (Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks – not the Sox), and I always aimed for Cubs baseball cards.

My favorite player – and really the only celebrity role model I ever had played outfield with a bum knee.  He wore #8 and was nicknamed The Hawk.  The holy grail of my collection was to obtain every unique Andre Dawson card I could find, and I found a lot.  I had a tiny cracker-jack card and a huge jumbo card.   The most valuable card I had was his rookie card.  All told, had nearly 100 different Andre Dawson cards stashed in a special Rad Dog trapper keeper full of PVC pages.

If you asked me why I liked him so much, I couldn’t tell you.  But as it turns out, I couldn’t have picked a better role model.  Here’s what his Hall of Fame teammate Ryne Sandberg said about him at his own ceremony in 2005:

“No player in baseball history worked harder, suffered more or did it better than Andre Dawson.  He’s the best I’ve ever seen. I watched him win an MVP for a last-place team in 1987, and it was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen in baseball.  He did it the right way, the natural way, and he did it in the field and on the bases and in every way, and I hope he will stand up here someday.”

And today, Andre Dawson was finally admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He’ll be inducted on July 25 in Cooperstown, NY.  I may have to try and get up there for it…

(HT: TMTN)

I’m the luckiest College Football fan in the world.

Lately, my teams have been really, really good.  Take, for example, 2004, when they were playing in 3 separate National Championships.  The Trojans beat Okalahoma 55-19 to win a National Championship (undisputed).  The Montana Grizzlies played the James Madison Dukes in the I-AA Championship Game (they lost 31-21 on a famously torn up turf).  The Carroll College Saints won their third National Championship of what eventually become a streak of five in the NAIA Division.

This year was a down year for my Trojans.  After peaking early in Columbus, they never gelled as a team, and lost some ugly games.  But I still get to cheer for my Montana Grizzlies who will play in the I-AA (FCS) National Championship Game against the Villanova Wildcats tonight.

The Griz come into the game 14-0, and a perfect example of what college football playoffs can look like.  Being the top seed after the undefeated regular season, the Griz earned the right to play at home, and Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium (“the toughest venue in I-AA”).

Round 1 vs. South Dakota State featured an offensive performance of epic proportions.  Down 48-21 with about five minutes left in the 3rd Quarter, the Griz Office came alive and scored 40 unanswered points to win 61-48.  It was one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever seen (thanks to streaming video at KPAX-TV).

Round 2 vs. Stephen F. Austin was all about the defense who recovered no fewer than 10 turnovers in the 51-0 shutout.  Texas boys, in their big coats and sleeves, do not fair well in sub-freezing Montana weather.  The Griz had now scored 91 unanswered points in the Playoffs.

Round 3 vs. Appalachian State was a clinic in coaching and clock management, as the game rolled down to the final seconds following a number of lead changes and some monster hits from the fired-up Griz.  The Montana fans were a big part of the game.  Which reminds me – Montana fans are the best fans in the world.

So now, the Griz play the Wildcats from Villanova.  If all the pieces from the Playoffs can show up at game time tonight (offense, defense, coaching) I can’t see how we lose.  Plus, the Grizzlies have a pretty strong track-record against cats.