Irish Trojan in Tennessee

More Halloween fun

By Brendan Loy

Behold the Hogwart-osphere. (Hat tip: Glenn.)

Happy Halloween!

By Brendan Loy

"Trick or treat!"

"Give me some f***ing candy or I'll shoot you in the face!"

UPDATE: Here's a far less scary jack-o-lantern... well, unless you're a Rockies or Yankees fan:

More Red Sox pumpkins here.

By the way, credit for the Cheney pumpkin (Dick-o-Lantern?) goes to Bill Z Bubb. (Hat tip: Phillip Torrone.)

Free tacos: the day after

By Brendan Loy

Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox rookie whose stolen base in Game 2 of the World Series triggered Taco Bell's "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion -- or, as I like to call it, "Free Tacos for Brendan's Birthday" -- got a free taco himself yesterday, with a side order of fan adoration.

The promotion was such a success in Boston that it snarled traffic in some areas; one Taco Bell drive-thru in Quincy had to be shut down by police because the long line was disrupting traffic on nearby streets. (Heh.) There was also a pretty long line at the Taco Bell that I went to in Denver, and according to the Rocky Mountain News, local Taco Bell locations gave away an average of 200 to 500 tacos.

I'm just glad I was able to take part in this transcendent cultural phenomenon. Someday, when my daughter asks me, "Daddy, where were you when Taco Bell gave out free tacos?," I'll be able to tell her that I was in Denver, at the Taco Bell on the 16th Street Mall, and yes, I got a free taco, and yes, it was yummy. Ah yes, many years from now, we'll be recalling the events of 10/30/07, and I'll be able to prove that I was there.   

;)

Actually, though, this article suggests that Free Taco Day wasn't such a big deal outside of Boston and Denver... which makes sense, as Taco Bell really didn't promote it very much -- there weren't even signs in front of the restaurants announcing "free tacos today!" -- outside of Fox's on-air shilling during the World Series. And the Series got dismal ratings nationwide... but the ratings were, of course, much higher in Boston and Denver. So I daresay more people in those cities were aware of their opportunity get free tacos.

P.S. On the other hand, Taco Bell spokesman Will Bortz said "we have seen a huge response in New York and New Jersey," as well as South Carolina, Oregon and California. "A lot of people are jumping to get their tacos," he asserted. "Who doesn't like a free taco?" Or free publicity, for that matter, eh Will? Heh.

How my birthday became unexpectedly awesome

By Brendan Loy

At 10:45 PM last night, I was sitting on an MTA bus in Nashville, brooding silently. My "worst birthday ever" was winding down with a whimper. Oh, I'd had fun counting down to midnight with Kristy the night before (after which she serenaded me with an interpretive dance to the strains of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," played on my iTunes), and of course, I'd gotten my free taco from Taco Bell. But mostly, my 26th birthday had been drudgery: a six-hour mandatory CLE class, a pair of Southwest flights that had gotten me from Denver to Nashville, and now a couple of lonely bus rides. At 10:45, I was en route to the Greyhound station, from which I would depart for Knoxville. It looked like I'd be spending the final 75 minutes of my birthday travelling to, and then waiting around in, a grungy Greyhound station. (My bus wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:45 AM.) I was cranky, I missed Becky, and I was just generally annoyed about the overall suckiness of my birthday.

When the bus dropped me off at around 11:00, things got even worse, because now I was in the heart of Nashville at 5th and Broadway -- which, for those who don't know, is the home of a whole bunch of great honky-tonk bars. The sound of live music was wafting out into the street, tempting and torturing me.

I would love, I thought, to spend the last hour of my birthday sitting in a bar, listening to some live country music. And with almost two hours until my bus was scheduled to leave, and the bus station only three blocks away, I had time to do just that. But it was (I thought) logistically impossible: I was dragging around a suitcase and a garment bag and hauling a heavy backpack with, among other things, my laptop inside it. With all that luggage, I'd barely have fit through the door of one of the bars. And it's not like I could leave my luggage somewhere. I was traveling alone, so I had nobody to watch my stuff. So I turned away from the awesomeness of Nashville nightlife and resigned myself to the fact that the last hour of my birthday would be just as crappy as the first 23 hours. Up the hill toward the Greyhound station I walked, still brooding.

But then! When I got to the station at around 11:10, I beheld a miracle: it has lockers!!! Okay, maybe not a "miracle," but a possibility I hadn't considered, for sure. Anyway, yeah, the station has lockers -- big ones -- so I didn't hesitate: I picked up my bus ticket at will call, then stuffed all of my bags into a locker, secured it, and headed right back out into the night, back to 5th & Broadway, to finish off my birthday in style.

It was about 11:25 when I got back there, so I figured I had about 35 minutes at the bars before I needed to head back to the station. Naturally, I resolved to make the most of it. So I started out at Second Fiddle, where I listened to a couple of songs; then I headed to Layla's Bluegrass Inn for a couple more songs; then to Tootsies for a couple more (including "Happy Birthday," although they were singing it to an attractive young lady on the dance floor, not to me); and finally (or so I thought) to Legends Corner for yet a couple more. Totally awesome.

When the band at Legends finished playing "Sweet Home Alabama," which I love, and I saw that it was 11:58, I figured that was my cue to leave. So I tipped the band and headed out, crossing the street with every intention of turning away and trudging back up to the Greyhound station. But then I glanced into the window of the Full Moon Saloon, and found myself drawn inexorably inside by the gravitational pull of the comely female fiddle player in the snug blue jeans. (It was the fiddle that drew me in, of course; I love fiddles. What did you think I meant?) Unfortunately, that band wrapped up their set literally 20 or 30 seconds after I walked in the door, so I headed back out onto the street again... but now my appetite was whetted for one more bar, one more band, one or two more songs. Hey, it's only your 26th birthday once!

It was midnight now, but I reckoned I could afford another 5 or 10 minutes. So I slipped into The Wheel next door. The band there played a couple of nice songs, and then at around 12:07, busted out Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." Now that is a thoroughly proper way to end a session of honky-tonk bar-hopping, not to mention a birthday (albeit a few minutes late). I hooted as they started playing it, sang along for the chorus, then walked back out the door (applauding as I went) after they finished. I turned left and headed back toward the Greyhound station. It was 12:11 AM. I got back to the station at 12:19, retrieved my stuff from the locker, and made my 12:45 bus with plenty of time to spare. I even got a good seat.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a crappy birthday turns awesome at (literally) the eleventh hour. In 45 minutes, I went to six bars, listened to six bands, and totally redeemed my birthday. Then I slept like a baby on the bus ride home. And I'm half-consciously humming "Ring of Fire" as I write this.

I love Nashville. :)

The end of an era

By Brendan Loy

I took this picture in Denver. Now I'm in Kansas City, where the plane has a stopover before continuing to Nashville. Sitting near a mother and two little kids, I realized: this is very likely the last time I'll travel when I'm not a dad. Holy cow.

Free taco!

By Brendan Loy

Thanks, Jacoby!

Mmm, tacos

By Brendan Loy

Waiting in line for my free birthday taco, courtesy of Taco Bell and Jacoby Ellsbury.

Tancredo won't seek re-election

By Brendan Loy

What a shame. Who now will call for nuking Mecca? ... Don't get too excited, though. He's still running for president, and "if" he fails to win the nomination, he may run for Senate. Ugh.

Worst birthday ever?

By Brendan Loy

There's nothing like spending your birthday sitting through a boring, six-hour-long mandatory Colorado Bar Association ethics class... ugh.

Baseball's not over. What are you talking about?

By JLR

Here's what's going on as of today in baseball.  If you thought that baseball was going away until spring, you were wrong.  :-) 

Have no fear, I'll be keeping you all updated throughout the "off" season.

Happy Birthday to meeee

By Brendan Loy

According to a survey in Glamour earlier this year, the average person begins to consider him/herself an adult at age 26.

Well, I guess that means I'm officially an adult.

Though I have a feeling the real, undeniable confirmation of my adulthood will arrive in about two months...

P.S. I set this post to publish at 9:22 AM Eastern -- my birth time. :)

Favorite 1960s documentary?

By Brendan Loy

Becky asked me to ask y'all if you have any favorite 1960s documentaries. The reason for her query is super-secret, but she could definitely use some suggestions, so please leave 'em in comments if you've got 'em!

Bambi makes top 25 horror movie list

By David K.

Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Carrie, those are horror movies, but Bambi?!?

Nice horsies

By Brendan Loy

The Budweiser Clydesdales are here for Monday Night Football.

UPDATE: More MNF pregame photos here, including me with the Clydesdales and the Budweiser dalmatian. Oh, and these guys:

I've heard of cheese-heads, but a cheese-ass? Heh.

Soxtober pics

By Brendan Loy

I've posted my photos of last night's Red Sox celebration on Flickr. Some are regular digital photos, some are cell-phone pics, and some are screen grabs from my video of the end of the game. (By the way, I just posted a brighter version of the video. The original version was kinda too dark to see what was going on.)

You can also view the photos in slideshow form if you like. Here's one of 'em:

Getting to watch the Red Sox win the World Series in a bar packed wall-to-wall with Boston fans -- in the heart of enemy territory, downtown Denver, no less -- more than made up for something I've always regretted: when the Sox won the 2004 World Series, I was watching in the rather uninteresting environment of my couch at Fischer Grad Residences, with just one other person (a classmate who wasn't even really a Sox fan), while a bunch of my 1L classmates, who had a paper due the next day and thus had been at the library all evening, were (unbeknownst to me until the next day) gathered in the Law Lounge watching together, and then got to witness Rob from Boston, a lifelong die-hard Sox fan who never thought he'd see them actually win the Series, go completely nuts, jumping up on tables and running out into the night screaming his head off. I always regretted that I missed that. But last night was even better.

GO SAWX!!!

Fresh off the rumor mill

By JLR

With A-Rod probably leaving the Bronx and Torre already gone, the B*stards have reportedly offered Joe Girardi the job as manager.

So they fired the always-playoff-ready Torre to replace him with a guy whose only job as manager left the Marlins just shy of the Wild Card?  I may not like Torre as a Yankee, but as a manager, he's solid; I doubt that the Yankees can do much better than him.  I might end up eating my words, but replacing Torre with Girardi doesn't seem right.

(You know what else doesn't seem right?  The fact that the guys I grew up watching play the game are now old and are employed as either commentators or coaches!)

The day after

By Brendan Loy

Rocktober? More like Soxtober. :) But the World Series is so yesterday; Monday Night Football is the new hotness here in Denver. The 16th Street Mall is veritably crawling with Packers fans!

Red Sox Nation's Denver branch celebrates another world championship

By Brendan Loy

Here is the reaction at the Pour House Pub -- a well-known Red Sox bar on Denver's "LoDo" strip, as noted here and here and here -- to the final out of the World Series, as the Boston Red Sox won Game 4 over the local Colorado Rockies to win their second world championship in four years, again in a 4-0 sweep:

The first half of the six-minute clip shows the immediate reaction to the end of the game; the second half of the clip shows the crowd, a few minutes later, singing "Sweet Caroline" -- and then, at the 5:45 mark, breaking out into the obligatory chant of "Yankees suck!" Heh.

GO SAWX!!!

UPDATE: The video clip above is a brighter version, as the earlier one I uploaded was pretty dark and it was kinda hard to see what was going on. The darker version is after the jump, if anyone prefers it.

Audio Moblog

By Brendan Loy

powered by Hipcast.com

SOX WIN! SOX WIN!

By Brendan Loy

The Boston Red Sox are world champions for the second time in four years! The bar is going crazy! Champagne and beer flying everywhere! WOOOO!!!

Audio Moblog

By Brendan Loy

powered by Hipcast.com

Three outs away!

By Brendan Loy

Rockies within 4-3, heading to the ninth. A Sox fan here at the bar just ordered a bottle of champagne to celebrate when Boston wins... knock on wood. GO SAWX!!

4-1, six outs away

By Brendan Loy

We're at Pour House Pub, the local Red Sox bar. It's 4-1 Boston in the top of the eighth.

3-1, eight outs away

By Brendan Loy

We just drove past Coors Field -- and as we did, fireworks went off and the crowd went nuts as the Rockies hit a solo home run to cut Boston's lead to 3-1 in the seventh.

15 outs away

By Brendan Loy

I just landed in Denver. The Red Sox lead the Rockies, 2-0 in the top of the fifth.

Better than Cal-Stanford?

By Brendan Loy

I haven't been able to watch this yet (I'm currently at the airport using a very slow cell-phone connection), but people keep sending it to me, so I figure I'd better post it. From what I'm told, it's the ridiculously crazy ending to a Division III conference championship game yesterday, and the only thing missing is the Stanford band. Enjoy:

Buffalo-Miami a crucial MAC East showdown

By Brendan Loy

The Buffalo Bulls, college football's dormat for so many years, continue to have their most successful season since moving to Division I-A in 1999. They beat Akron yesterday to move to 4-5 overall, and they can now almost assure themselves of a division title if they win at Miami of Ohio on Saturday -- or at least reduce the division race to a two-team battle: themselves against Bowling Green.

The Bulls are 4-1 in the MAC, and more importantly, 3-0 in the MAC East. The division title is actually determined by the teams' intradivisional records, and here's how those standings look right now, with each team's remaining divisional schedules listed after their records:

Buffalo 3-0 (@Miami, BG, at Kent)
Miami (OH) 2-1 (Buffalo, Akron, at Ohio)
Temple 2-2 (at Ohio, Kent)
Bowling Green 2-2 (Akron, at Buffalo)
Akron 1-2 (at Bowling Green, Ohio, at Miami)
Ohio 1-2 (Temple, at Akron, Miami)
Kent State 1-3 (Temple, Buffalo)

So, as you can see, if Buffalo beats Miami, they'd be ahead of everyone else in the conference by two games in the loss column -- with two games to go.

Moreover, the Bulls would own the head-to-head tiebreaker against every two-loss team except Bowling Green (who they haven't played yet). I haven't studied the MAC's multi-team tiebreaker rules, but I assume Buffalo's head-to-head success would mean that, if they win Saturday, they'd be assured of a division title by a single UB win or BG loss in those teams' remaining divisional games. (Buffalo hosts Bowling Green on Nov. 17, and then finishes the regular season at Kent State on Nov. 24; Bowling Green hosts Akron on Friday, and finishes with their visit to Buffalo on Nov. 17. So, if Akron beats Bowling Green and then Buffalo beats Miami, I think the Bulls actually would clinch the division title on Saturday, with two games to go.)

Winning the MAC East title would, of course, put Buffalo in the MAC championship game on December 1. However, although the Bulls could potentially get there with a 5-1 or even 4-2 divisional mark, that would mean they'd have a 6-6 or 5-7 record overall, which would mean they'd have to win the MAC title game in order to qualify for a bowl. Normally, the MAC runner-up gets a bowl bid, but a 6-7 or 5-8 runner-up is not bowl-eligible. (A 6-7 champion, on the other hand, is likely to receive an excemption from the NCAA and be allowed to play in a bowl. As I recall, that happened in the Sun Belt sometime recently.)

Of course, the downside of all this is, the more success UB has, the more likely head coach Turner Gill is to attract Nebraska's attention.

But regardless... GO BULLS!!

P.S. Discussion by UB fans here and here.

USC drops to #13, UConn ranked #16

By Brendan Loy

While Ohio State and Michigan continue to tediously steamroll toward their 836th consecutive Big Ten-deciding showdown (if the Wolverines win, can we please declare Appalachian State the Big Ten champ instead, and let them play in the Rose Bowl?), the rest of the nation's conferences are in total disarray. For instance, raise your hand if you thought any of the following games would potentially have massive BCS implications for both teams:

• Arizona State at Oregon, next Saturday
• Kansas at Missouri, November 24
• UConn at West Virginia, November 24

Seriously, WTF? Meanwhile, USC-Cal has been reduced to a battle to stay out of the Las Vegas Bowl. Oh, and defending champ Florida? At 5-3, they're not even bowl-eligible yet.

Good lord. It's a brave new world out there.

That said, the new AP poll is out, and for the first time in forever, there are no major changes at the top. Ohio State is #1, Boston College #2, LSU #3, Oregon #4 and Oklahoma #5. The latter two switched places from last week (OU was idle, Oregon beat USC), but otherwise the Top 5 is unchanged.

Arizona State moves up from #7 to #6 (leapfrogging West Virginia), and is now getting two first-place votes. Too bad for the Sun Devils that Cal lost two straight before last night, otherwise ASU would probably have jumped to #3 or #4 by beating the Bears. Now the question is, if the Sun Devils can beat Oregon in Eugune next Saturday, how high do they rise? If there's any justice in the world, they should certainly jump the one-loss teams and move up to no lower than #3. (That said, I think Oregon will win. Oregon is good.)

Meanwhile, whereas losing games unexpectedly in the Pac-10 means you're overrated, losing games unexpectedly in the SEC means the conference is "deep" and "competitive" and "a war." At least, that's how I interpret the fact that all four of the ranked three-loss teams are from the SEC (#18 Florida, #19 Auburn, #23 South Carolina, #24 Tennessee), while three-loss Cal -- which, um, beat Tennessee -- is unranked. (The Bears lost to UCLA, Oregon State and ASU, which I'd say is certainly no worse than losing to Cal and getting absolutely destroyed by Florida and Alabama.)

Oh, and USC fell from #9 to #13. They're just behind #12 Hawaii (!).

Elsewhere in the rankings, Kansas and Missouri are now both in the Top 10 (at #8 and #9, respectively). Michigan -- which, as you may or may not recall, lost to Appalachian State earlier this year -- is #15. They're one spot ahead of UConn... yes, UConn... which is now #16. In football. (More on the Huskies in a separate post later.) Also, Boise State has rejoined the Top 25, at #21.

I don't understand Craigslist

By Jay Johnson

Apparently, Craigslist flagged my post for removal, and it got gone in a hurry.

I don't understand why.

Link not only probably NSFW, it's just generally in poor taste.  There. You've been warned.

View this photo

Warning: profanity

By Brendan Loy

Every Day Should Be Saturday, whose head blogger is a Florida fan, summarizes yesterday's Georgia game. Prodigious profanity is involved. Heh.

3-0

By Brendan Loy

The Red Sox have taken a 3-0 series lead over the Rockies. Kristy was there to see it. I'm so jealous! She got her money's worth -- it was a 4 hour, 19 minute game, the longest in World Series history.

The first pitch of Game 4 is scheduled for 6:29 PM MDT. My flight to Denver is scheduled to land at 7:50 PM MDT. After getting my luggage and such, I anticipate hurrying to a local bar to watch the final innings of -- if things continue the way they're going -- a Red Sox sweep.

GO SAWX!!

P.S. I'll admit, though, sorta kinda hoping the Rockies win Game 4, just so there'll be a Game 5 while I'm in town (which I would then whole-heartedly root for the Red Sox to win, of course). If that happens, Denver will be the first city ever to host a World Series game and Monday Night Football on the same night. And I'd be there for it. That'd be cool. But again, in the big picture, GO SOX. :)

SHA teacher accused of statutory rape

By Brendan Loy

Becky's junior-year history teacher at her all-girls Catholic high school has been arrested on statutory rape charges. James D. Van Valkinburgh, 42, a teacher for nine years at Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart (better known as Sacred Heart Academy, or "SHA"), allegedly had sex with a 16-year-old SHA student on seven occasions, including in a car at Glen Park and in the Best Buy and Wal-Mart parking lots. WIVB-TV has details:

Becky has been gossiping with her friends about this, of course, and she and Barb were just speculating that countless other SHA girls are having similar conversations. In Becky's words, "There's lots of trauma in the SHA tree tonight."

The overwhelming sentiments seem to be: 1) shock that "Mr. Van V" is the one accused, 2) sympathy for his wife and kids, 3) sympathy for SHA over the damage to its reputation, and 4) sympathy for the girl, whose identity, although unknown to the media, is undoubtedly known to countless SHA girls and SHA alums, thus making her the object of massive amounts of gossip all across Buffalo (and the wider SHA universe) right now.

Vols-Cocks game regains SEC significance

By Brendan Loy

Two weeks ago, it looked like this week's Tennessee-South Carolina game (underway now) would potentially decide the SEC East. The Volunteers and Gamecocks were the only teams in the division that controlled their own destinies. Then last week, Tennessee got crushed by Alabama and South Carolina was upset by Vanderbilt, taking all the air out of tonight's matchup.

Or so it seemed. Incredibly, by kickoff time tonight, UT-USC had regained its former significance. Thanks to the latest round of SEC madness -- specifically, Georgia's upset of Florida and Kentucky's loss to Mississippi State -- Tennessee and South Carolina are again the only SEC East teams that control their own destinies. Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt have three losses apiece; Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina have just two. And since Georgia's two conferences losses are to the Vols and Cocks, the Bulldogs will have to hope that tonight's winner loses another game at some point.

Whoever comes out on top at Neyland Stadium this evening won't need any (more) help. They'll just need to win their remaining games, and if they do that, they'll be playing in Atlanta for the conference championship on December 1.

Remarkable.

I've had limited blogging time today, which is why I haven't said much about the day's other football developments. But I wanted to get this online while the game is still ongoing. As for the rest, including UConn's win over South Florida (!), I'll blog later. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Speaking of "remarkable"... Tennessee blew a 21-0 halftime lead, fell behind 24-21 with 1:24 left, then sent the game to overtime on a 48-yard field goal (after missing a 43-yarder but getting a second chance because the whistle had already blown on a false start penalty) and won in OT. Tennessee 27, South Carolina 24, final.

I'm exhausted, and about to go to bed. I'll try to do some more football blogging tomorrow, but it may not happen until I'm at the Nashville Airport in the late afternoon, if then. Lots of stuff to do. G'nite all.

Oregon 24, USC 17

By Brendan Loy

Dammit.

But hey, on the bright side, Buffalo won! It's the second time this season Buffalo has won and USC has lost on the same day, and both instances occurred on a weekend when I was going to Denver (although in this case I'm not there yet). Is this a sign of some kind? :) Anyway, the Bulls are now 4-0 in the MAC East, and 4-5 overall -- their most wins in a season since joining Division I-A.

We're baaack (quack quack)

By Brendan Loy

Got back from the Smokies around 4:00, and just finished fast-forwarding through the first half of USC-Oregon, stopping to watch almost every play in real time while skipping all the fluff in between. Based on what I saw, I'm not feeling terribly inspired. USC's offense looked terrible, and the defense is trying hard but just isn't as good as Oregon's offense, seemingly. It strikes me that the Trojans are lucky to be within 10-3. Barring some serious Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic^TM, I foresee an Duck blowout -- which would be the first time since Becky and I were juniors at 'SC (in 2001) that the Trojans have lost a game that wasn't decided on the final play.

UPDATE: Touchdown Trojans! Sanchez to Turner! 10-10.

UPDATE 2: The Ducks do what the Trojans twice failed to do -- taking advantage of a turnover deep in their own territory -- and it's 17-10 Oregon.

UPDATE 3: F**k!

UPDATE 4: 24-10 Ducks with 11:39 left in the game.

In other news, what the hell is wrong with Fox Sports Net?? The camerawork is AWFUL (I keep not being able to see the quarterback, and the ball is invisible half the time on passing plays because they haven't adequately adjusted their cameras to the shadows now covering the field), and they have entirely missed several plays, including Oregon's 2nd-and-goal run just now. WTF???

UPDATE 5: Touchdown! 24-17 with 4:44 to go!

But again, the camerawork! I couldn't even see that there was a receiver in the end zone until he had already caught the ball! It looked like Sanchez was throwing the ball to nobody, and then all of a sudden, the camera panned down and -- what? there's a guy there! TOUCHDOWN! What a wretched, wretched football broadcast this is.

But enough bitching about FSN. FIGHT ON TROJANS!!! Get the ball back!!

UPDATE 6: Aaaaaand Oregon intercepts it. Ducks win.

Well, it wasn't a blowout, at least. Once again, a USC loss comes down to a final drive. But Oregon was clearly the better team.

Congrats, Ducks.

Harumph.

P.S. Why do the FSN announcers keep saying it looks like the Pac-10 won't get two teams into the BCS? I can see no basis for that statement. If either Oregon or Arizona State makes it to the title game, which is entirely possible, the Rose Bowl will certainly try to replace them with another Pac-10 team, and it seems extremely unlikely that there won't be any other Pac-10 teams in the BCS Top 14 and thus eligible for selection. Either Cal or USC could be there if they win out, as could the loser of next week's Oregon-ASU game if they win out after said game. It's possible the Pac-10 will cannibalize itself enough that only the conference champion will reach a BCS bowl, but it's by no means preordained at this point.

Beat the Ducks!!!

By Brendan Loy

Becky and I plan to drive up into the Smokies in the morning to check out some of the fall foliage. It's really our last chance to see the high-elevation colors near their peak, since I fly out to Denver on Sunday and next weekend the mountains will presumably be past peak. So I'm sacrificing ESPN GameDay and the Rutgers-West Virginia game for the sake of a pretty drive. I know, I'm such a martyr. :)

I hope to be back by 3:00 PM for the USC-Oregon game, but I don't have too much confidence that that will happen; I imagine traffic in the Smokies will be heavy, as I doubt we're the only people with this idea for a Saturday morning/afternoon activity. Anyway, we're TiVoing the game, and if we get back late, I'll be taking a pre-Deathly Hallows-esque vow of Internet avoidance from 3:00 on, in order to maintain the suspense when I fire up the TiVo and pretend I'm watching the game live. So, if I don't blog anything for a while, that's why.

FIGHT ON TROJANS! BEAT THE DUCKS!

A new species of dumb, ugly humans?

By Brendan Loy

No, I'm not talking about FEMA again. I'm talking about evolution, baby:

The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed. ...

"[T]hings could get ugly, with the possible emergence of genetic 'haves' and 'have-nots'."

So basically, it'll be Eloi and Morlocks, as the linked article photographically suggests.

Of course, the odds are we'll have blown ourselves to radioactive smithereens -- or destroyed ourselves in some other creative way, or fallen victim to some cosmic calamity -- long before then, so I'm not sure what the big deal is.

FEMA, providing comedy in troubled times

By Brendan Loy

FEMA: the federal agency so ridicluous, you can't really satirize it. Their latest stunt? A fake news conference:

The U.S. government's main disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a hastily called news conference on California's wildfires that no news organizations attended.

Heh!

FEMA "issued the apology after The Washington Post published details of the Tuesday briefing." Shocking! Somebody noticed! Who'd have thunk it? Jeez, these people can't even be incompetent competently.

"We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson, who conducted the briefing, said in a statement. "Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received."

"Error in judgment"? LOL! In what conceivable universe could anyone have thought that this was the correct judgment, so as to make such an "error" possible?

No actual reporter attended the news conference in person, agency spokesman Aaron Walker said.

A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident "inexcusable and offensive to the secretary."

"We have made it clear that stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated," spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. She said the department was looking at the possibility of reprimanding those responsible.

Oh, that's good. Better yet, why don't you set up a committee to study the issue of whether a reprimand would be appropriate. And then create a panel to read that committee's report. And then ignore it and give the offending parties the Congressional Medal of Freedom instead.

God bless America.

Say hello to Leopard

By Brendan Loy

I totally forgot this was today. I came to CompUSA for something else entirely (and, despite the temptation, did NOT walk away with a copy of Leopard).

Red headed Neanderthals

By JLR

Scientists are now saying that there were some Neanderthals that were probably redheads.  Some have even claimed that those redheads have begot today's redheads.

We post, you decide.

Justice in Georgia, finally

By Brendan Loy

Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, he is free at last:

The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, the Douglas County teenager who has been serving a controversial 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex.

The court's 4-3 decision upholds a Monroe County judge's ruling that the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under both the Georgia and U.S. constitutions.

The majority opinion said the sentence appeared to be "grossly disproportionate" to the teenager's crime and noted that it was out of step with current law.

Wilson was convicted in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year's Eve party in a hotel room. He was 17 at the time.

At the time the law the crime carried a mandatory 10-year sentence with no parole. However, the law was changed in 2006 to make Wilson's crime a misdemeanor with a maximum 1-year sentence.

"Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children ..." wrote Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears in the majority opinion.

She said that "for the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime."

Justice George Carley, in the dissent, said the 2006 change in the law was specifically written so it would not be retroactive. The sentence is not cruel and unusual because "the General Assembly made the express decision that he cannot benefit from the subsequent legislative determination to reduce the sentence for commission of that crime from felony to misdemeanor status."

Carley said the majority opinion showed "unprecedented disregard" for the legislative intent of the law change and creates the potential for similar releases of "any and all defendants who were ever convicted of aggravated child molestation and sentenced" under circumstances similar to Wilson's.

I think the dissent has a point. I also don't care. Sometimes an injustice is so grave that it must be reversed even at the risk of setting problematic precedents. Yes, I know: "hard cases make for bad law." But this wasn't a hard case. It was an easy case, on its own merits, in terms of fundamental principles of justice. Only when considering its potential implications for other cases does it become remotely "hard." I say, let the courts and the legislature work out those implications in future cases. In this case, there was only one possible just result, and it was achieved, at long last, today. Finally, someone in the Georgia justice system should be able to sleep at night, and it's the four Supreme Court justices who reversed this abhorrent abuse of prosecutoral discretion. Good for them.

(Hat tip: JT. Previous posts here, here, here and, somewhat related, here.)

CAVEAT: I haven't actually read the opinion yet. Here it is.

Brady Quinn, USC Trojan

By Brendan Loy

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:

There you have it: the photo evidence of Brady Quinn's lost bet with Rodney Peete on last Saturday's USC-Notre Dame game.

But it gets even better. There's video evidence, too:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

(NOTE: The video clip has changed since I originally uploaded it Thursday night. Among other things, I've added a little musical coda at the end that my Trojan readers will enjoy...)

Thanks to the anonymous commenter who pointed me to the photo. And thanks to Brady-Quinn.org, a fan site, for linking to the video clips on the Browns site and YouTube that allowed me to mash up the above clip.

Of course, even as I glory in it, I can sympathize with Brady's plight. As can Mike Tran. Sometimes friendly bets are a b**ch. :) But kudos to Brady for upholding his end of the deal.

Now then... BEAT THE DUCKS!!!

Woohoo! It's Sanchez against Oregon

By Brendan Loy

Sorry, John David, but I'm happy about this: "Mark Sanchez will start at quarterback Saturday against Oregon, Coach Pete Carroll announced Thursday afternoon."

Meanwhile, Oregon has yet to announce which uniforms it will wear. There are so many choices: the hideous ones, the butt-ugly ones, the gouge-your-eyes-out-with-their-sheer-repulsiveness ones...

Incredible pictures of SoCal wildfires

By David K.

Network World has an article with pictures from NASA highlighting the California wildfires (in red) and the immense smoke plumes.

Thanks, Jacoby

By Brendan Loy

Thanks to Jacoby Ellsbury's stolen base tonight, Taco Bell will be giving away free tacos on my birthday. Heh.

Anyway, it's 2-1 Sox in the sixth.

Meanwhile, Boston College is staging a late rally after trailing Virginia Tech 10-0 for most of the game. It's 10-7 Hokies with 36 seconds left, and the Eagles are deep in Tech territory.

UPDATE: Touchdown Boston College!! Holy crap!! I think Matt Ryan just won the Heisman... and BC has broken the #2 curse! (Dammit.)

UPDATE 2: ...aaaaand Matt Ryan barfs on live TV.

UPDATE 3: "Ryan for Heismann!" Heh.

Okay, back to the World Series...

UPDATE 4: JACK BAUER IS ON HIS OWN!!!!!

UPDATE 5: Sox win!! 2-1, final. It's a 2-0 series lead for Boston, heading out to Denver.

Ann Coulter comes to USC

By Brendan Loy

Shockingly, she criticized liberals.

Cultural imperialism, or just plain dumb?

By JLR

So I can't figure it out: is NFL commish Roger Goodell a cultural imperialist, or is he just missing the point?  Says Goodell:

Our goal is to translate America's obsession to the world's passion," he told reporters on Friday, two days before the Miami Dolphins face the New York Giants at a sold-out Wembley Stadium. "This Sunday is clearly just the beginning."

This is after the NFL's expansion league, NFL Europa (formerly known as NFL Europe) folded in June. With an average attendance of just over 20,000 per game in 2007 and only 6 teams, this translates into about 60,000 people per week who were actually interested in going to these events ... for the entire continent of Europe.  And the lowest attendance was held by the Amsterdam Admirals--the only team outside of Germany.  Maybe if Goodell had arranged for this game on Sunday between Miami and New York to take place in Germany, I wouldn't feel this way... But why continue to try to get the rest of Europe to go along with this sport?

Maybe they could have sold out the stadium 10 times over, but extended American Football experiments in Europe have failed.  And I don't know why Goodell seems to think that this is the best way to keep cramming American football down the throats of the rest of the world.

Free fallin'

By Brendan Loy

The Blue-Gray Sky has an awesome aerial photo of the Army parachuters beginning their jump down to Notre Dame Stadium before Saturday's game against USC. Definitely check it out.

Comet goes boom

By Sean Sullivan

Something happened yesterday on Comet Holmes, an obscure comet fainter than Pluto.  Until yesterday.  From Space Weather:

Whatever is happening to Comet 17P/Holmes, it's weird. "I've never seen anything like it! It almost looks like a planet," says Eric Allen ...The comet has no tail, a remarkable golden color, and yesterday it shocked astronomers with a spectacular eruption, brightening almost a million-fold from 17th to 2.5th magnitude in a matter of hours.

To put that in perspective, this is similar to the brightness of stars in the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt, easily visible to the unaided eye from within major light-polluted cities.

Unlike the traditional notion of a comet's appearance, this comet has no visible tail.  It's just a small bright sphere, even in a telescope.  To the eye, it's more starlike in appearance than cometlike.

For a recent event, this makes sense, because a comet's tail is formed by  loose material with low mass and high surface area being blown away from the sun by the pressure of sunlight.  Whatever broke free from Comet Holmes hasn't had time to get affected by sunlight to form a tail.

The comet is favorably placed for observers in the northern hemisphere.  It's in the constellation Perseus, which is up all night at this time of year.  Here's a star map from Space Weather.  I don't know if the comet will stay bright or fade quickly, but it's worth watching to see what happens next.

In other celestial news, the space shuttle was launched Tuesday.  The orbital alignment isn't favorable for visual observers in the United States, but there are a few passes that can be seen at southern latitudes (e.g. Florida, southern California).  Predictions can be made at Heavens Above.   I think there may be some better visual passes near the very end of the mission.

It's been a crazy season...

By Brendan Loy

...but road-tripping USC alum Jonathan Tu has the scoop on the biggest upset of all.

Heh.

Brady Quinn loses bet, wears USC jersey

By Brendan Loy

Heh:

Browns rookie quarterback Brady Quinn reached into the back of his locker, pulled out the cardinal-and-gold No. 10 jersey and gritted his teeth.

"This," he said, "is going to hurt."

Quinn, the former Notre Dame star, then slipped the Southern California jersey over his head and felt his skin crawl.

"That's why I've got extra layers on," he said. "So it doesn't actually touch any part of my body."

Quinn had to wear USC's colors on Wednesday after losing a bet with former Trojans quarterback Rodney Peete over last week's game between Notre Dame and Southern Cal. ...

Surely, Quinn got some points in the wager. After all, Notre Dame is 1-7 and USC is 6-1.

"It's a pride bet," Quinn said. "C'mon now. You don't bet points. I got faith in my guys." ...

When he finished with his interview, Quinn quickly ripped off the jersey and slam dunked it into a nearby garbage can.

Mike Tran should sent Brady a sympathy card. :)

(Hat tip: Scott Wolf.)

The rout is on

By Brendan Loy

The Red Sox lead the Rockies 10-1 in the bottom of the fifth. Jeez, couldn't we have saved Josh Beckett for a night when we weren't going to score a zillion runs?

Anyway, it looks like Colorado's incredible 21-of-22 streak is about to end. (Knock on wood.) Now the question will be whether the Rockies can catch their breath and make this a series, or if they'll become demoralized and fold. Obviously I want the Red Sox to win the series, but I hope the Rockies win at least one game, because I want there to be a Game 5 -- Monday is my one full day and night in Denver. (My flight out is scheduled to land during Game 4, probably in the fourth inning or thereabouts.)

UPDATE: Sox 13, Rox 1, final.

"Fresh" milk

By Brendan Loy

I just submitted this to The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks:

Heh.

Happy (early) Birthday to me!

By Brendan Loy

I'm going to be in Denver on Tuesday, so Becky made me a cake early, and we're about to start eating it. Mmm, cake. :)

Fantastic 5, Edgy 11 and Threadbare 3

By Brendan Loy

This weekend promises to be a pivotal one in the race for college football's mythical national championship. In all but two of the eleven games featuring at least one undefeated or one-loss team, the point spread is less than a touchdown. Homestanding Hawaii and Missouri are favored by 27 and 29 points over New Mexico State and Iowa State, respectively, but aside from them -- and idle LSU and Oklahoma -- every other team with a zero or a one in the loss column is potentially vulnerable, at least on paper. Could this be the week when the ranks of the unbeaten and once-beaten become so thin that we begin seriously discussing the possibility of a two-loss team reaching the BCS title game?

Certainly, there will be at least three losses this weekend among the sixteen teams on our radar: the Fantastic Five unbeatens and the Edgy Eleven once-beatens ("edgy," in the sense of "on edge," because one more loss would well and truly eliminate them from the title race... probably). That's because, of course, #8 Virginia Tech (6-1) hosts #2 Boston College (7-0) in this week's edition of the ESPN Family Of Networks Thursday Night Game Of The Century Week; #5 Oregon (6-1) hosts #12 USC (6-1) in a battle for Pac-10 supremacy on Fox Sports Net (pay no attention to the Bruins and Sun Devils behind the curtain!); and #23 UConn (6-1) hosts #10 South Florida (6-1) in a major Big East showdown that, of course, everyone has had circled on their calendars all season long... right?

So, yeah, three of those six teams have to lose. But lots of other teams from the Fantastic Five and the Edgy Eleven face tough battles this weekend, too. For instance: Arizona State finally puts its undefeated record to the test, albeit at home against a suddenly reeling Cal team. Kansas travels to Texas A&M. West Virginia visits revenge-minded Rutgers. And of course, #1 Ohio State visits #25 Penn State in the OMG Buckeyes If You Win This Game Then All You Have To Do Is Beat A Bunch Of Midgets And Those Guys Who Lost To Appalachian State And You'll Make It To The Title Game Again And Then Lose By Eight Thousand Points To Another One-Loss Team Bowl.

Oh, and lest I neglect the flip side of the college-football coin, let's not forget the BrendanLoy.com winless watch. Colorado State finally won a game last week, breaking an 13-game losing streak. So now the Frail Four is a Threadbare Three. (Hat tip: Patrick, last year.) And one of them is actually favored this week: #118 Marshall (0-7), which hosts #112 Rice (1-6). In fact, the Thundering Herd is (are?) an 8.5-point favorite! That's more than #15 Virginia (7-1) can say about its away game against #82 N.C. State (2-5): the Cavs are only favored by three! Talk about disrespect from Vegas! But anyway, I digress. So yeah, Marshall is favored, and Utah State (0-7) is just a 2.5-point underdog against Louisiana Tech (2-5). Among the Threadbare Three, only Florida International, they of the worst-in-the-nation 19-game losing streak, is seen as a sure loser (at 39-point-favorite Arkansas).

So, whether you're interested in the top of the heap or the bottom of the barrel, this promises to be a very competitive week of college football. And depending on how it goes, maybe I'll have to start tracking two-loss teams next week. (Sigh.)

Anyway, without further ado, here is this week's list of the unbeaten, once-beaten, and constantly-beaten:

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

-- President Bush signs a federal disaster declaration, freeing up federal funds for families affected by the wildfires.

The answer to the questions about West Virginians

By JLR

Now I understand what's going on with those folks in West Virginia.  Residents of Maryland, take note: we now know what our neighbors to the west are doing to make themselves the constant butt of our jokes:

WV mommas smoke while they're pregnant.

And I was approached by a sheep the other day.  It told me that it was seeking asylum, because it had been the victim of sexual harrassment in Morgantown.

America's Panderer; Truthiness; and Hillary's non-promise

By Brendan Loy

Rudy Giuliani, alleged Yankees fan, is rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series.

P.S. In other Election 2008 news, Stephen Colbert is in a statistical tie for fourth place in the Democratic presidential race:

In the Democratic primary, Colbert takes 2.3 percent of the vote -- good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent), Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent) and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent). Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).

The poll has a 5 percent margin of error, so it's meaningless to talk about Colbert's 2.3 percent being "behind" Biden's 2.7 or "ahead" of Richardson's 2.1. As I said: he's tied for fourth -- with everyone else not named Clinton, Obama or Edwards. (He's tied with me, at 0.0 percent, for instance.) The headline, really, ought to be simply: Colbert gets measurable support. (Hat tip: E&P, via InstaPundit.)

And in more serious election news, Hillary Clinton says she "would consider giving up some of the executive powers President Bush and Vice President Cheney have assumed since taking office." At least, that's what the Associated Press says she said -- and the AP headline turns that into "Clinton Says She'd Give Up Some Powers," which is clearly quite different than saying she "would consider" doing so. And even "would consider" might not be quite right. From the original Guardian article about their interview with Mrs. Clinton:

Ms Clinton said the accumulation of executive power [under Bush and Cheney] had put America into "new territory" because Mr Bush and the vice president had taken the view that what were previously extraordinary powers were now inherent powers that belonged to the White House.

"I think I'm going to have to review everything they've done, because I've been on the receiving end of that," she said. Ms Clinton stated it was "absolutely" conceivable that, as president, she would give up executive powers in the name of constitutional principle.

"That has to be part of the review I undertake when I get to the White House, and I intend to do that," she said.

So, what she actually said was that she'll "review everything they've done," as "part of the review I undertake" (which is functionally equivalent to saying she'll set up a committee to study the issue), and that it's "conceivable" that she would give up some executive powers. And somehow the AP headline-writer translated that into "Clinton Says She'd Give Up Some Powers." Hmm. Wishful thinking much? (Hat tip, again: InstaPundit, who declares himself "somewhat skeptical" that Hillary will follow through on her, uh, non-promise.)

By the way, the Guardian article, if you're wondering, is headlined, "Clinton vows review of executive power." That is actually accurate.

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

-- Wildfires have now forced 321,000 people from their homes, California officials say.

602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

By Brendan Loy

Via e-mail, Bonnie Stone reminds me of something very important that I almost forgot: today is National Mole Day!

Huh? you ask. Well, to quote myself from 10/23/2002:

This annual holiday — which technically starts at 6:02 AM and ends at 6:02 PM — does not actually celebrate small furry animals that dig holes in the ground, but rather, a chemistry concept: Avogadro’s number, the “mole,” 6.02 x 10²³. (10/23… 10²³… get it?) That’s 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, for the scientific-notionally challenged among us, and it’s an inconceivably huge number. How huge? A mole of marshmellows would cover the planet Earth 12 miles high, and a mole of seconds would last so long, the universe would die out before it was done!

(Hat tip: myself, in last year's post on Mole Day.) Wikipedia explains the history:

Mole Day originated in an article in The Science Teacher in the early 1980s. Inspired by this article, Maurice Oehler, now a retired high school chemistry teacher from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, founded the National Mole Day Foundation (NMDF) on May 15, 1991.

So, yeah, It's Mole Day. Have some Mole Day cake!

Blogger "RA" of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania has a lengthy Mole Day post on her blog, in which she nerdily explains:

Nestled within National Chemistry Week, October 23 celebrations glorify the mole and Avogadro’s number, approximated at 6.022 x 10²³. A mole is an absolute number without a unit, similar to a dozen. A dozen is always 12, whether it’s made up of donuts or people or cars. It’s the same with a mole, except that it’s always 6.022 x 10²³, which is a number of fantastic magnitude, such that a mole of oranges would be as large as the earth. Practically speaking, when dealing with elements and compounds, the mole allows us to switch between atomic mass units (which are ridiculously small) to grams, which we can see, feel, and measure. So, 6.022 x 10²³ atoms of carbon (atomic weight of 12 amu), or a mole of it, would have a mass of 12 grams, which is so much more helpful because we have known atom quantity and mass. On Mole Day, we’re really celebrating the awesomeness of this one magical number.

"Nerdily" is a compliment in this instance, by the way. :) Meanwhile, in Downer's Grove, Illinois, some high-school students are using the day as an opportunity to show off their extreme dorkiness:

Classes do not begin at Downers Grove North until 8 a.m., but more than 350 students are expected to be at school at 6:02 a.m. Tuesday.

About 14 percent of the student body will be running laps and decorating windows with homemade periodic tables for Mole Day, a national celebration of Avogadro’s number, 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power, which is used as a basic measurement in chemistry. What was initially planned as a one-time event with 100 people four years ago, has grown steadily, much to the surprise of chemistry teacher Tom Redig who organized the first event. ...

Senior Jess Mulcone of Downers Grove said she first went to Mole Day as a sophomore for extra credit but got hooked on the event. Even though Jess is not in chemistry now, she said she is looking forward to going with many of her friends.

“It’s fun just being at school at 6:02 in the morning,” she said. “No one else is there, and you feel so ridiculous for being there.”

Heh. Nerds! I love it!

But this is stuffed-animal cruelty: "The run or walk starts with a bang from a mole cannon, a tube filled with flammable materials used to detonate a stuffed mole." Oh, the mole-manity!

When hot alien women attack

By Brendan Loy

Dennis Kucinich claims he's seen a UFO.

Did the craft's arrival coincide with his hot wife's appearance on the scene, by chance? It's always seemed odd that Kucinich would land a gorgeous redhead, but this could explain it: perhaps a species of alien metamorphs is trying to infiltrate our government, and they figured that taking the form of an attractive woman, wooing and marrying a presidential candidate, would be a good way to start. Luckily, this alien society clearly doesn't understand ours very well, or else they would have picked someone other than Kucinich.

But... wait a minute... what about Jeri Thompson???

Somebody needs to ask Rudy about this!

Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!

By Brendan Loy

In case you hadn't heard, Southern California is on fire.

Much more here.

UPDATE: Gahrie's blog has photos from his back yard.

Rockies blame hackers, declare do-over

By Brendan Loy

Mulligan!

The Colorado Rockies say tickets for the World Series will again be sold online starting Tuesday at noon after an attack brought down the Web site on Monday.

Rockies Spokesperson Jay Alves said on Monday night that ColoradoRockies.com was the victim of an "external malicious attack" that caused a system-wide outage with Paciolan. ...

"We absolutely have backup plans in place that, should something go wrong tomorrow, we will immediately go to those plans," said Alves.

Alves would not elaborate on what those plans were.

I'm guessing they involve heading for the hills to get away from the angry mob.

Again, check out RoxandSox for the latest.

Scalia at NDLS: now with photos!

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame has finally posted something on the Web about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's visit to the Law School on Friday:

United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia joined several of the nation’s most prominent legal scholars for a conference Oct. 19 at Notre Dame Law School. Titled “Separation of Powers as a Safeguard of Federalism,” the conference was sponsored by A.J. Bellia, professor of law, and the Notre Dame Law Review.

Scalia delivered the opening lecture, “The Importance of Structure in Constitutional Interpretation,” during which he discussed the unique function of the judiciary in American government and analyzed several cases that have gone before the court. After his talk, Scalia allowed time for student questions. During a lunchtime reception, Scalia spent more than an hour mingling and talking with students in the student lounge.

The Law School has also posted some photos, including these:

See also here and here. And here's the updated schedule; Scalia's name has been retroactively added. (I was wrong in surmising that he gave the introductory lecture which Professor A.J. Bellia was scheduled to give. Bellia still gave that lecture. Scalia spoke second, after an introduction from Dean O'Hara.)

(Hat tip: Derek and ajb.)

I still want to know if he went to the USC game...

The Rockies are good at baseball and very, very bad at public relations

By Brendan Loy

I've just finished watching a live Internet feed of the Colorado Rockies' "press conference" about today's World Series ticket fiasco, and I have an announcement to make: ladies and gentlemen, the Rockies organization is -- officially -- completely and utterly inept.

Technical glitches can happen to anyone. But their response has been absolutely abysmal. This is a group of people with no ability to handle a crisis. None. My analogy to FEMA earlier wasn't that far off. It's a total nightmare from a P.R. standpoint. From head-smackingly stupid excuses (they had "no idea that so many people" would want tickets) to an utter failure to keep the public informed in any meaningful way (thus exacerbating a situation that has already caused a huge amount of fan anger), they've mismanaged this problem so badly that you'd really think they work for the Bush Administration or something.

But it just got even worse, as the Rockies committed the cardinal sin: pissing off the media. They summoned the entire local press corps to a 5:00 PM MDT press conference (at the top of the local news broadcasts) ... then kept the reporters waiting for an hour and 15 minutes with no explanation or information whatsoever (on the live Internet feed, you could hear all the reporters talking via cell phone to their bosses, saying they had no idea what was going on) ... and then, when Rockies vice president for communications Jay Alves finally emerged at 6:15 PM, he spoke for less than 90 seconds, provided absolutely no meaningful information, took about a question-and-a-half, snapped at a reporter for no apparent reason, and walked away. Unbelievable.

Here's an audio clip. Listen to the explosion of barely controlled outrage around the 1:05 mark, when the reporters realize he's leaving them in the lurch after making them wait for a time period about 50 times longer than the length of the press conference.

Alves's performance guarantees, if it wasn't inevitable already, that the Rockies will get absolutely horrible press in every newspaper and on every TV station in Denver tonight and tomorrow. And he's the P.R. guy.

It was a terrible day for the Rockies already, but that sorry excuse for a press conference just made it far worse, because now it's personal for the press corps just like it's personal for the fans. By keeping the reporters waiting that long, without explanation, for a totally pointless non-event, and then refusing to even make a half-assed attempt at answering their questions, he's made every single one of them feel disrespected and annoyed, and I guarantee you their pique will come across in the stories they write and the reports they file. (I used to be a journalist. Trust me on this.)

Stupid cell phone companies

By dcl

or, I agree with Walt Mossberg. Thank you that is all...

Rockies ticket sale goes kaboom

By Brendan Loy

Did the Colorado Rockies put the Notre Dame athletic department in charge of their World Series ticket sales? What a fiasco:

An overwhelming demand for World Series tickets at Coors Field led to an overload of Web site servers Monday, forcing the team to suspend sales just after noon [MDT] and regroup before reopening the sales system.

The Colorado Rockies put as many as 60,000 tickets up for sale, but only online. The company that runs the servers hosting the online ticket sales program reported a problem late Monday morning with the system and said "only a few tickets had been sold."

The company, Paciolan, Inc. which runs evenue.net, said it didn't know exactly what the problem was and that it was working to fix the issue.

"Several hundred" tickets were sold before the system was shut down, said Rockies spokesman Jay Alves. He added that nearly the entire allotment of tickets for the three possible home games in Denver were still available.

Alves reported that about 8.5 million people tried to access the sales Web servers in the opening 90 minutes.

The team said it would announce when online sales would resume, possibly later Monday afternoon.

At some point, you'd think people would stop being surprised by -- and start being prepared for -- extremely heavy traffic for web events like this.

UPDATE: According to the Denver Post, Rockies spokesman Jay Alves "said the servers were overwhelemed this morning and officials had no idea that so many people would try the website."

Seriously?!?

Forget the Notre Dame athletic department. With that sort of lack of imagination and inability to anticipate head-smackingly obvious inevitabilities, this Rockies braintrust has a bright future at FEMA!

Alvie, you're doing a heckuva job!

McCain on Woodstock: "I was tied up at the time"

By Brendan Loy

Heh:

(Hat tip: Joe Mama.)

Scientists to steer a hurricane?

By Jay Johnson

Saw this article, haven't read it, but thought I'd point it out for you weather geek types to read and consider.  Cliffs Notes version, please.

Bring on the Rockies!

By Brendan Loy

The Red Sox win the pennant! The Red Sox win the pennant!

It's Boston against Colorado in the World Series... and I'll be in Denver -- where hopefully it won't be snowing -- the night of Game 4 and (if necessary) Game 5. YES!! GO SAWX!!!

P.S. Make it a Bud Light! Heh.

ASU #4, Oregon #5, USC #12 in BCS

By Brendan Loy

The new BCS standings are out. No surprise that Ohio State is #1, Boston College #2 (just in time to fall victim to the #2 Curse against Virginia Tech on Thursday), and LSU #3. But check out who's next: Arizona State, idle last week, managed to climb all the way from eighth to fourth!

ASU's rise is partially due to attrition, with losses by #2 South Florida, #6 South Carolina and #7 Kentucky over the weekend, but the Sun Devils' impressive victory over the University of Bye was enough to leapfrog former #5 Oklahoma, which barely escaped with a win over lowly Iowa State. And you know who else leapfrogged Oklahoma? The Sooners' BFFs in the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon Ducks! How the formerly #10-ranked quack attack got all the way up to #5 by beating 2-5 Washington, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing a Pac-10 replay crew was involved somehow.

In all seriousness, it's a big-time statistical logjam from #4 through #6; the decimal digits separating ASU, Oregon and Oklahoma really aren't all that significant. Next on the list are #7 West Virginia, #8 Virginia Tech, #9 Kansas, and #10 South Florida.

USC, which visits #5 Oregon next Saturday, is #12. Hey, it's a 5-12 game! It's like March Madness! And we know a scrappy 12-seed wins every year! Woo! Go Trojans! Will O.J. Mayo be suiting up?

Interestingly, the Trojans feature the biggest difference between the polls (which have them #7 and #8) and the computers (which have them #21). I think #21 might be a little harsh, but I certainly think the computers are closer to reality here, recognizing, as they do, that the Trojans have accomplished absolutely nothing of significance on the field so far this season. Let's see 'em beat Oregon and Cal and ASU, and then we can talk about a high ranking, m'kay?

Meanwhile, the football squad from the University of Michigan -- you may recall them as the opening-weekend patsy scheduled by Div. I-AA powerhouse Appalachian State as a tune-up game for the Mountaineers -- has climbed all the way to #20, which just goes to show that even the little guys can succeed if they believe in themselves. Nice going, Michigan. Kitten power!

Oh, and UConn is #23. UConn!!! They're sandwiched between Auburn and Alabama. UCONN!!! In FOOTBALL!!!

Do or die

By Brendan Loy

GO SOX!!!

Liveblog here.

P.S. Some people are watching, and liveblogging, the GOP debate instead. I'll stick to baseball.

UPDATE: ARRRGH!!! Stupid double plays!!!

UPDATE 2: It's the bottom of the sixth, and the Red Sox are clinging to a tenuous 3-2 lead. They led 3-0, and it could have been much more than that, but they couldn't take advantage of all their early hits. I don't have a terribly good feeling about how this will end, but I'm trying to keep the faith here. So, again I say, GO SOX!!!

... NOTE: I had a bunch of updates here, as the Sox dodged a bullet in the seventh, then took a big lead in the eighth and ninth... but then I accidentally deleted all those updates. D'oh! ...

FINAL UPDATE: The Red Sox win the pennant!!!! On a fantastic catch by defensive replacement Coco Crisp!! YEEEEEAAAHHH!!!!!!!!

Dammit, I somehow deleted a bunch of my updates... trying to retrieve them now...

Giuliani mentioned 9/11 again! Drink!

By Brendan Loy

A Republican debate drinking game.

Isn't it a little early in the election season to be drinking? :)

Quote of the day

By Brendan Loy

"I oppose prosecution of pretty much all victimless crimes. As with socialism, I respect much of what social conservatism tries to accomplish, but disagree with the means. A government can't plan a society's moral development any better than its economic development; the cost to our freedom, the pain of enforcement, and the unintended consequences outweigh the dubious benefit derived from forbidding consensual transactions between adults. Society functions most efficiently when individuals are essentially sovereign in their liberty, allowed to do whatever they like so long as they do no others harm. Sometimes those efficiencies are cruel, and expose the least attractive aspects of the human psyche, but the monopoly on force the state enjoys is a cudgel, not a scalpel, and is poorly suited to performing brain surgery." --Dave Price. (Hat tip: Glenn, again.)

Cruel and unusual punishment

By Brendan Loy

Again with Georgia and its ridiculous sex-offender laws:

The state of Georgia regards 28-year-old Wendy Whitaker as such a threat to public safety that it posts her photo and address on the Internet, bans her from living near schools, churches and playgrounds and forbids her from working with children.

What makes Whitaker such a terrible danger?

Eleven years ago, when she had just turned 17, Whitaker engaged in a single act of oral sex with a boy in her sophomore class on school property. That's it.

Though less than two years separated the couple — the boy was about to turn 16 — Whitaker was arrested for sodomy, a charge to which she pleaded guilty and completed five years probation. However, that plea also means that Whitaker will serve a lifetime on the state's sex-offender registry, placing her in the same category as truly dangerous people such as rapists and child molesters. It also imposes severe — some might argue unconscionable — limits on where she can live and work.

To review: she gave a classmate a blowjob in high school. And for that, she is treated as a pariah -- sort of a modern-day, Western version of an Untouchable -- for the rest of her life. What kind of a screwed-up country is this?

By the way, in case you were wondering, Genarlow Wilson is still in prison.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Playing catch-up

By Brendan Loy

Between my own blogging and the dispatches from Notre Dame Stadium and the Carrier Dome by our four resident livebloggers, there have been a lot of posts in the last 24 hours, and a lot of 'em have already scrolled off the homepage. Somebody was asking me earlier how to go to "Page 2" to catch up, and I thought a few other readers might be wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, TypePad still doesn't have pagination (grumble grumble), but there's a reasonably decent alternative solution: the daily archives.

You can always get the current and recent daily archive pages using the calendar in the left sidebar. But I'll make it easier: here's the Saturday, October 20 page. It contains all of yesterday's posts, and at the top, there are links to go backward or forward to the previous or following day. So there you go. :)

Saban Bowl likely to decide SEC West

By Brendan Loy

Wow. What a win for LSU over Auburn tonight. I love to make fun of the SEC -- both because of its homers' over-the-top puffery about the conference's superiority, and because of the league's tendency to produce "thrilling" games with final scores like 9-6 -- but I can't deny that there have been a remarkable number of incredibly exciting big-time SEC games this season, and this was just the latest example.

Thanks to a picture-perfect, highlight-reel, Pontiac-game-changing-performance touchdown with one second left* (pictured above), LSU remains in the national-title hunt -- and the SEC West standings reveal a much clearer picture than in the jumbled East, with just two teams tied at one loss apiece: LSU and Alabama (which humiliated Tennessee earlier in the day).

And, as it happens, the co-leaders play each other in their next game! The Tigers and Tide both get byes next week, and then on November 3, LSU visits Tuscaloosa for a showdown that will likely decide who represents the West division in the SEC championship game. (Auburn is third in the division with 2 losses; everyone else has at least 3 losses.)

LSU-Alabama was always going to be a very big game this year, because it's Nick Saban against his old team. Now it's absolutely HUGE. Methinks Fowler, Kirk and Corso should just book their plane tickets now, because there ain't no other game that day that's going to even be in the running for a visit from GameDay. (Sorry, ASU-Oregon.)

*Well, three seconds, really. Everyone is making a big deal out of the :01 thing, but it was clear that 2-3 extra seconds came off the clock that shouldn't have; I think the clock operator stopped paying attention because he was so stunned by Les Miles's play call. Nevertheless, the Tigers admittedly cut things awfully close, considering they only needed a field goal.

Game 7

By Brendan Loy

Tomorrow night. Fenway Park. 8:00 PM. Matsuzaka vs. Westbrook. Winner goes to the World Series. Loser goes home.

LET'S GO SOX!!!

(Tonight's final was 12-2.)

You stay classy, Irish fans

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame fans tend to pride themselves on being "classier" than other fans. And in some cases, it's true. But not in this case:

As USC coach Pete Carroll departed the field, the Notre Dame fans chanted, "F--- Pete Carroll."

Well, that's one way to handle the pain of a 38-point loss. It is not, however, the classy way. And if USC fans did something like that, we'd be hearing all about how it proves that Trojans are classless.

(More after the jump.)

Just in case anyone was wondering...

By Brendan Loy

...the grass looks normal length:

:)

Disasters waiting to happen

By Brendan Loy

Popular Mechanics looks at five American disaster scenarios, caused or worsened by our aging infrastructure, that could threaten many, many lives and/or dollars. I knew about the levee problems in Sacramento, and of course the NYC hurricane scenario, but I didn't realize there's a potential infrastructural disaster-waiting-to-happen right here in Tennessee:

Seepage through the numerous holes that have been discovered in the foundation of Kentucky’s 55-year-old Wolf Creek Dam put it in danger of failing. In a worst-case scenario, the mile-long structure, which holds back the largest manmade reservoir east of the Mississippi, would release a wall of water, inundating towns and cities downstream along the Cumberland River, including Nashville. The warning was sounded last January, after engineers were forced to drop the dam’s water level to avoid a potential disaster.

Yikes. (Hat tip: InstaPundit, who points out that our crumbling infrastructure remains a low political priority, despite obvious wake-up calls like Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, because "the political rewards for fixing old stuff are far inferior to the political rewards for building new stuff -- even if the old stuff is stuff we need, and the new stuff is showy pork.")

P.S. More here:

Flying flaming squirrel ignites car

By Brendan Loy

I'd love to see the insurance claim on this one:

[A squirrel] had been gnawing on overhead power lines connected to a transformer directly above the 2006 Toyota Camry.

"The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was," Tony Millar said. "The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car."

Heh.

Chris H. writes: "If one squirrel chews on power lines, I'm guessing more do. And if millions of squirrels nationwide are chewing on power lines, I'm guessing this isn't the only one to chew through and light itself on fire. Is there a national crisis in which flaming squirrels are plummeting from our skies? If so, it's being dramatically underreported by the media. I, for one, am worried."

Patterico points to another example of this unrecognized crisis: "About 6 months ago, the last time our power went out for any substantial period of time, it was due to a squirrel who died a fiery death in the transformer."

Quick, someone ask Rudy Giuliani what his plan is for dealing with this threat! AMERICA MUST BE PREPARED TO COMFORT THE AERIAL FLAMING-SQUIRREL MENACE!

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Football & baseball update

By Brendan Loy

Washington and Oregon are tied 24-24 in the third quarter. The Huskies trailed 24-17 at halftime but scored first in the second frame, so maybe their second-half woes are finally behind them? We shall see. A win here would be huge for the bowl eligibility hopes of Washington (2-4), which has Arizona and Stanford next on its schedule. The Huskies play 13 games, so they need a 7-6 record to make a bowl game. [UPDATE: While I was writing this post, Oregon scored a TD to take a 31-24 lead with 3:38 left in the third.]

An Oregon loss would mean that Cal and Oregon, who have been the presumptive Pac-10 favorites since USC lost to Stanford, would both have 2 losses in conference, while the Trojans have just one, and Arizona State and UCLA -- yes, UCLA, which got pummelled by Utah and handed Notre Dame its only win of the season -- are both unbeaten in conference play. And with all but one game between and among the Trojans, Ducks, Bears and Devils still to come, it looks more and more like the Pac-10 standings will end up looking a bit like the SEC East. But of course, if that happens, it'll mean the Pac-10 is "overrated," whereas in the SEC, it means the conference is "really competitive."

[UPDATE 2: Um, yeah, so, nevermind. Oregon 55, Washington 34, final. Another second-half Husky collapse -- specifically, a fourth-quarter collapse. It was tied at 31-31 with 1:12 left in the third.]

Speaking of the SEC, Auburn just took a 14-7 lead over LSU. And in the Big Ten, Michigan leads Illinois 17-14 at halftime. GO ILLINI!! BREAK THE SKUNKBEAR/BUCKEYE HEGEMONY!!

Meanwhile, in baseball, the Red Sox appear well on their way (knock on wood!) to erasing their 3-1 deficit against the Indians, tying the series at 3-3 and forcing a decisive Game 7 at Fenway Park tomorrow night. Admittedly, it's only the third inning of Game 6 right now... but it's already 10-1 Boston, thanks in part to a first-inning grand slam by J.D. Drew:

Nice.

Victory

By Brendan Loy

So... who starts at QB for the Trojans next week at Oregon?

And, um, will Navy beat Notre Dame?

P.S. Brian Grummell echoes my thoughts:

I have to be frank here: USC just isn't a very good football team right now. In fact, many of their problems all year manifested themselves in the first half against Notre Dame today. Fortunately for the Trojans, Notre Dame is that much worse of a football team that at one point in the third quarter USC had as many touchdowns as the Irish had first downs. ...

The fact that a shaky USC was able to so easily dismantle a Notre Dame team that was competitive against a highly ranked Boston College team just last week has me concerned about the Eagles. Maybe they are the next to suffer the fate of #2 that slayed USF Thursday night.

Coincidentally enough, BC next week, like USF this week, is on the road... on Thursday night... on ESPN... against a quality opponent (Virginia Tech). I foresee a Hokies "upset."

Syracuse 20, Buffalo 12

By Brendan Loy

Darn it.

Updated SEC East standings

By Brendan Loy

South Carolina 3-2
Florida 3-2
Georgia 3-2
Kentucky 2-2
Tennessee 2-2
Vanderbilt 2-3

Okay, so maybe it is kind of a tough conference. :)

P.S. Stewart Mandel: "Whatever you do, don’t go trying to connect the dots when it comes to the SEC this season. Alabama routed Tennessee, which routed Georgia -- but the Dawgs beat the Crimson Tide. Georgia also beat Vanderbilt, which itself just beat South Carolina -- which itself beat the Dawgs. Dizzy yet?"

Love thee Notre Dame

By Kristin West

38-0

By Brendan Loy

USC 38, Notre Dame 0, final.

It's the first Trojan shutout in Notre Dame Stadium since 1933. Notre Dame's worst home shutout since losing 40-0 to Oklahoma in 1956. The first time since 1960 that the Irish have been shut out twice in the same season. The largest Trojan margin of victory in the history of the series. The first time USC has ever won three straight at Notre Dame Stadium. Oh, and Irish punter Jeff Price is Notre Dame's player of the game.

Fight on.

But damn, it sucks that Notre Dame sucks this much.

Meanwhile...

By Brendan Loy

Cal 21, UCLA 20 with 4:45 left in the fourth quarter.

Florida 38, Kentucky 24 with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter -- and Kentucky is driving in Florida territory.

UPDATE: UCLA hit a field goal to go up 23-21, then returned an interception for a touchdown to make it 30-21 with 1:33 to go. Looks like the Bears will lose for the second consecutive week.

Meanwhile, Kentucky is within 38-31 with 3:35 left.

UPDATE 2: UCLA wins. Florida wins.

It's a Blowout

By Michael Walsh

Down 38-0, Notre Dame has given their fans nothing to cheer about. The Irish just made a pair of first downs and the place went wild with mock cheers. Notre Dame Stadium is starting to empty, and they still have eight minutes to play.

Really?

By Weston Cross

Did syracuse really just punt on 3rd down?

You have new Picture Mail!

By Kristin West

Go Trojans!!!

By Brendan Loy

Just rebutting Kristin's post. :)

Anyway, so far, so good. 17-0 at the half.

UPDATE: Now 24-0. The Irish offense is just looking totally inept and overmatched. As Texasyank says, "Notre Dame makes Stanford look like the freaking Patriots."

UPDATE 2: 31-0! w00t Vidal Hazelton!

The biggest USC margin ever against Notre Dame is 31 points -- which they achieved during all three years of Ty's tenure. ... There are 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Just saying.

P.S. Right now, a bunch of Domers in the student section are thinking, "I delayed my fall break for this?"

UPDATE 3: Meanwhile, in Syracuse, Buffalo trails 17-3 in the third quarter. D'oh!

UPDATE 4: "You can't lose your job to injury"? Tell that to T.C. Ostrander!

UPDATE 5: Before anyone starts saying "Pete Carroll is running up the score" by going for it on 4th and 2 up 31-0 ... Pete Carroll always goes for it on 4th-and-short in that no-man's-land portion of the field. Always. Doesn't matter the game situation.

I suppose nobody will complain, though, since the Irish stopped 'em. See, Pete was actually being charitable! ;)

UPDATE 6: Exchange between NBC announcers, talking about Kentucky's schedule:

Announcer #1: "That's a real tough assignment in back-to-back weeks, LSU and Florida."
Announcer #2: "It's like that every week in the SEC."

Um, NO IT'S NOT! The SEC is a tough conference, but it is NOT like playing LSU and Florida every week! You also get to play Ole Miss and Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, etc. And yes, those teams can pull off upsets (as Vanderbilt did today against the "other" USC) when you don't show up to play. So what? So can Stanford and Oregon State and Arizona, etc. So would you say that "every week in the Pac-10" is like playing USC and Oregon in back-to-back weeks? Ugh. I hate SEC homerism.

P.S. Oh yeah, and in the Pac-10, every team plays every other team. So whereas, for example, Tennessee doesn't play LSU or Auburn this season, USC has to play Cal and Oregon and ASU and every other team in the league. That counts for something, too. If you're in the SEC, you don't actually get to claim credit, schedule-wise, for the fact that "our league has X number of ranked teams" because odds are, you don't play them all. Not so in the Pac-10.

UPDATE 7: TOUCHDOWN MCKNIGHT! 38-0 Trojans with 10:57 to go.

UPDATE 8: Some Domer despair here.

Way too much red

By Kristin West

Now THIS is what a good band looks like

By Kristin West

USC 17 Notre Dame 0 at Half

By Michael Walsh

This is practically a pitcher's duel. USC put together just two decent drives, good for 10 points, while a muffed punt return yielded the Trojans another seven. Notre Dame's offense has been totally inept, and the atmosphere in the stadium is dead. The best Irish possession came on a blocked punt that led to a blocked field goal attempt. That was Notre Dame's best scoring chance of the half. What they don't show you on TV: at every timeout, the Irish march some honoree onto the field. They are reaching pretty deep. One of the last honorees was a sociology professor. Notre Dame receives the ball to start the second half, and we wouldn't be shocked to see the banged up freshman march out to start the drive. For USC, the line isn't blowing open any holes, but the protection of Sanchez has been solid, and Mark hasn't made any mistakes. If only the same could be said of his receivers.

You have new Picture Mail!

By Kristin West

Go Irish!!!

By Kristin West

Dear NBC,

By Brendan Loy

It's not SAHN-chez.

It's not San-CHEZ.

It's SAN-chez.

Get it right.

Sincerely,

A USC fan

P.S. Actually, yes, turning the ball over at your own 10 yard line is a "bad play."

WTF, Tennessee?

By Brendan Loy

41-17? Really?

Multimedia message

By Weston Cross

Fight, fight for Buffalo
Be proud to fight for your dear Blue and White.
So hit 'em high! Hit 'em low!
Throw 'em high! Throw 'em low!
Fight for your dear old Bulls!
Go Bulls go!
Cheer, cheer for Buffalo
Our spirit will be with you 'til the end!
So play the game as best you can for the glory of our dear Buffalo!
Go Bulls
Go Bulls
Go Bulls
Go UB!

Throwback jerseys

By Lisa Velte

I love that they wore the yellow pants too!

Multimedia message

By Lisa Velte

Army paratroopers are landing on the field

GOOOO TROJANS, BEEEEAT IRISH

By Brendan Loy

Wake up the echoes, fellas. No, not those echoes. These echoes:

Fight on!

UPDATE: Who is this "Mark SAHN-chez" the NBC sideline reporter speaks of?

UPDATE 2: USC wasted two timeouts on its opening drive. WTF, Sanchez?

P.S. Man, those jerseys are ugly. :)

Crimson Vols?

By Brendan Loy

Tennessee and Alabama are underway in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide are short-handed because five players have been suspended for "impermissible receipt of textbooks." In Alabama, you see, they don't believe in textbooks.

Anyway, 'Bama leads 3-0 after opening the game with an onside kick, and recovering it -- then failing to capitalize fully, managing only a long field goal.

This game is, of course, a huge rivalry and grudge match down in these parts, as Jay made clear. But not everyone feels quite the same way. In the last few days, I've noticed a couple of interesting cars on Knoxville-area roads, to wit:

Ugh. How could anyone possibly root for both Tennessee and Alabama? Clearly, if you support both teams in a huge rivalry like that, you aren't a real fan. ... What? Oh. Right. ;)

Anyway, Go Vols, Beat Bama!

UPDATE: Tennessee trails 24-17 at halftime. Meanwhile, also at halftime, Vanderbilt is winning 17-6 at #6 South Carolina. Again with the chaos!! #2 South Florida losing at Rutgers on Thursday wasn't really an upset; this, however, would be an upset. And of course, a win by either 'Bama or Vandy (nevermind both) would rob next week's South Carolina-Tennessee game here in Knoxville of an awful lot of its cachet. (As things stand now, the Vols and Cocks are the only teams that control their destiny in the SEC East. But maybe not for long.)

Breaking news from Hogwarts

By Brendan Loy

We interrupt this college-football game day to bring you the following bit of news from the Harry Potter universe:

Albus Dumbledore is gay!

J.K. Rowling outed him yesterday:

[Rowling] was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

After the jump, a quote from Rowling about Dumbledore's great unrequited love -- which is a bit of a Deathly Hallows spoiler, if there's anyone out there who hasn't read it yet.

A little pregame inspiration

By Brendan Loy

[Bumped to top -ed.]

Fight on! Beat the Irish!

(More after the jump.)

Baylor will stun Texas today

By Brendan Loy

You know how I know? Because the game is on Versus!

Test

By Kristin West

Why I Hate Alabama (or otherwise known as the BUCK FAMA post)

By Jay Johnson

I know most of you non-Southern types that read Brendan's blog have teams with rivals that are big deals.  All of the Trojans hate the Bruins, etc. 

There's nothing quite like a Southern football rivalry, though.  Lots of teams down in these parts don't like each other.  I find it hard to express adequately how much I dislike the University of Alabama.  If you compile all of the collective disdain I feel for Florida, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Georgia, and all of the other teams in the college football world and bundle it all together, it only approaches the amount I despise the Crimson Tide.

I have tried all week to express my feelings about The Third Saturday in October, but my blinding rage prevents me from doing so.  Instead, I'm going to direct your attention to a post from a Vol fan from a decade or so ago.  He seem to convey most of what I feel, and does it better than I probably could've.

God, I hate Alabama.

GOOOOO VOLS, BEAT BAMA

BUCK FAMA

If Alabama wins, the Terrorists win.

Alabama:  Showing the commitment and dedication in the tradition of the game.  Except now, they seem to be paying the Coach MORE than the players.

Toilet paper and laundry detergent.  Keep it handy for crapping your pants and then cleaning up after the Vols destroy you.  This is, IMHO, the most moronic tradition in college football.

The wrath of Weis

By Brendan Loy

TrojanWire provides a helpful illustration of Thursday's terrifying Trojan flight in the skies over South Bend:

Heh.

Testing

By Lisa Velte

Test post

EDITOR'S NOTE: This was a cell-phone test post by Lisa, a Double Domer alum, who will attempt (AT&T signal willing) to do some live moblogging from Notre Dame Stadium tomorrow for the ND-USC game. Kristin West, a current Notre Dame 3L, is also set up to liveblog from the stadium. And I'm trying to get Michael Walsh (a.k.a. Lex icon), a USC alum who'll also be at the game, set up as well. Meanwhile, UB alum Weston Cross will hopefully be liveblogging from Syracuse for the Buffalo-'Cuse game. So, if all goes as planned and everyone's phones work, it'll be a very moblog-heavy day here on the Irish Trojan's Blog. :)

In heaven there is no beer

By Brendan Loy

Arguably the best blogs in the Domersphere and the Trojansphere, respectively -- The Blue-Gray Sky and Conquest Chronicles -- are both previewing tomorrow's game with an extensive series of questions & answers for one another.

Here are BGS's answers to CC's questions. And here are CC's answers to BGS's questions.

Meanwhile, the Blue-Gray Sky also has a lengthy discussion of the 1977-vintage green jerseys that the Irish will be wearing tomorrow. (In case you forgot, this was announced back in June.) Among other things, Charlie Weis is quoted as saying: "These uniforms are ugly (laughter), but what the players like about them is that they're throwbacks." Specifically, throwbacks to the era of a certain Number 3 (pictured at right).

The good news for the Trojans is that, whatever the jerseys might looks like, certain immutable truths remain. Dan Quayle is no Jack Kennedy, Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan, and Evan Sharpley is no Joe Montana.

Or is he? Come to think of it, I actually compared Sharpley to Montana in comments a few days ago, albeit in the context of saying that, heck, we don't really know whether Sharpley might rise to the occasion now that he's finally going to be handed the reigns for real. I doubt he'll do anything spectacular, but the fact that it's his first start is, in an odd way, making me more nervous than usual... because who knows? Anyway, here's the relevant portion of that comment:

Notwithstanding my joke about beating the spread, which I felt obligated to do for the sake of Notre Dame Week trash-talking, I am actually a bit worried about this game, too. I think USC will win, but I'm not nearly as confident as I was last year -- which is odd, because Notre Dame is far worse this year than last. But USC is worse, too. Last year, I felt absolutely certain the Trojan offense would expose the Irish defense, which had been playing at an extremely mediocre level against weak competition ever since the Michigan game, but had been repeatedly bailed out by Brady Quinn & co. Hence my prediction that USC would win by three touchdowns, even though the spread was just 7. Last year, I knew ND was overrated, and I was right. This year, I don't have the same confidence because I just don't know how well USC will play; they've been so inconsistent, and more often bad than good. I also don't know what ND will look like with Sharpley at the helm all game long. Who knows, maybe he'll turn into the second coming of Brady Quinn (or Joe Montana) out there. More likely, though, I think ND's best chance is a low-scoring game with a lot of 3-and-outs, and just hanging in there till the fourth quarter, when the crowd (and the "echoes" and so forth) will again become a huge factor in a close game. Given the injuries on USC's O-line, this is entirely possible -- Carroll may not feel confident airing it out with Sanchez making his first road start, and if ND's defense plays at a halfway decent level, USC might not be able to establish the run because the entire O-line is injured. Now, of course, Notre Dame's offense won't be able to do much against USC's defense (barring the "Sharpley is suddenly God" scenario), but if it's a low-scoring, grind-'em-out game, you never know. Weird things could happen... turnovers, special teams flukes... and all of a sudden, '07 Notre Dame is the second-worst team to beat USC in the Pete Carroll era (behind '07 Stanford). It could happen. Will it? I doubt it. But am I worried? Yes, a little. More than last year, and I didn't expect to be saying that three weeks ago.

What do y'all think?

Oh... and I'd be remiss if I didn't conclude, courtesy of Scott Schmidt a.k.a. Boi From Troy, with this clip of the Trojan Marching Band playing their version of the Notre Dame Victory March during the USC pep rally at Chicago's Navy Pier:

Heh.

GOOO TROJANS! BEEEAT IRISH!

Greetings from Eaux-klahoma

By Brendan Loy

I don't support gay-bashing, but I do support LSU-bashing, and, um, well, this is just funny. Offensive and juvenile and politically incorrect, yes, but funny. Ha ha ha.

Justice Scalia visits NDLS

By Brendan Loy

On Monday, a little birdie informed me that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would be appearing at Notre Dame Law School on Friday (i.e., today). I was asked, however, not to blog about it, as it was "hush-hush." I don't know why, but I assume because of security. Anyway, the cat's out of the bag now, thanks to a comment on the post below -- and besides, I can't imagine what harm it could do to blog about it now that it's already happened, and presumably Scalia, like Elvis, has left the building.

I don't know much about Scalia's appearance at NDLS, but I gather that it was part of this conference (although Scalia is not listed as one of the participants, presumably because of that whole "hush-hush" issue again). In fact, I believe that Scalia is the person who actually gave the introductory lecture, titled "Separation of Powers as a Safeguard of Federalism: The Thesis and Its Implications," that the official Schedule of Panels said Professor Anthony Bellia would be giving. Professor Bellia served as a ringer for the justice he used to clerk for! Heh. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

I honestly don't know how many NDLS readers I have these days, but: did anyone else attend? Any thoughts? How was it? Has there been controversy surrounding it? Can anyone shed light on why it was so "hush-hush," and whether the university is ever planning on publicizing the fact that it happened? Inquiring minds want to know!

P.S. Oh, and this inquiring mind wants to know another thing, too: is he going to the game tomorrow??

Shake down the thunder from the sky: Trojan terror over South Bend!

By Brendan Loy

The entire USC football team had a near-death experience on their chartered plane in the skies over South Bend last night:

USC players, coaches and supporters aboard the team's charter flight from Los Angeles endured a harrowing arrival in South Bend, Ind., on Thursday night.

Several players, administrative staff and coaches' spouses said passengers were hurled out of their seats and hit their heads on the ceiling when the plane dropped while making an approach through a lightning storm. The pilot aborted the approach and circled before landing without incident, said Dennis Slutak, USC's director of football operations. ...

"There was a moment there when I was thinking, 'This is it,' " Slutak said.

Said sophomore safety Taylor Mays: "I was screaming." ...

"That was terrifying," freshman fullback Stanley Havili said. "I thought I was going to die."

Good lord! According to the AP, "about 125 people, including 82 players, coach Pete Carroll and most of the coaching staff" were on board the plane. (Hat tip: BK.)

In all seriousness, let's all, Trojan and Domer alike, say a little prayer of thanks that USC didn't suffer a Marshall moment here. That would have been just awful, whoever you root for. Thank goodness everyone's all right.

(Er, well, everyone except senior defensive end Lawrence Jackson, who "said he was going to see the team trainer because a popsicle stick had pierced the inside of his mouth during the drop." Sounds like he'll live, though. Heh.)

Hopefully this isn't a sign that the gods are conspiring for another echoes-awakening afternoon and evening at Notre Dame Stadium. I thought we were safe because, unlike last time, it isn't a full moon. But with Mother Nature "shaking down the thunder from the sky," literally, the Irish may have reason to hope that supernatural forces are once again conspiring in their favor. Touchdown Jesus is an angrier (son of) god than we thought!

Anyway, the forecast for tomorrow night is clear skies, temperatures in the low 70s dropping into the 60s during the game, with winds out of the south at 10-15 mph. (The south end zone, if you're wondering, is where the "Bush Push" occurred.)

FIGHT ON TROJANS!!! BEAT THE IRISH & ASSORTED FORCES OF NATURE!!!

UPDATE: An AOL FanHouse commenter who claims to be USC radio announcer Peter Arbogast says he was on the plane, and "this story is blown waaaaaaay out of proportion":

it was a routine flight into a stormy area, we encountered some light turbulence. for ONE second, we took about a 100 foot drop. some players who had been warned to wear their seatbelts but did not listen, were made to be weightless. Everyone on board whooped, more like the initial drop of a very mini roller coaster, then there was the usual chatter. this is totally ridiculous. Experienced flyers went right back to watching the movie or reading. some talk turned to people who have had scary things happen on a plane trip. this wasn't even in my top ten. It reminded me of how people will talk aobut their earthquake experiences if a little earthquake hits while you are at dinner. sheesh. no one was hurt, no one hit the ceiling of the plane, a few guys got freaked out cuz they've seldom ever flown in a plane with turbulence before.

Columnist says Yanks disrespected Torre

By Brendan Loy

SI's Tom Verducci on Joe Torre and the Yankees:

[H]ere is how Levine & Co. treated the Hall of Fame bound manager: they offered to cut his pay by 23 percent -- so insulting that the players' association has rules against such a huge cut for its members -- to bring him back only for one year (which keeps their sniping of a lame-duck manager in play) and to throw in "performance bonuses" (which are unprecedented even for the least accomplished managers) based on a postseason model any baseball observer with the least bit of sense understands is more random than controllable.

One year? Goodness, Charlie Manuel, Joe Maddon and Ozzie Guillen were given multiyear contract extensions! No manager of Torre's resume or dignity would have accepted those conditions and Levine, who wanted Torre out for years, knew it. It was not the money; Torre doesn't need it. It was knowing that your employers don't want you, knowing that if another season began 21-29, as this season did, the snipers and leakers would be firing away with impunity. How could he ask respect from his players when his bosses did not respect him? ...

If the Yankees wanted to fire Torre, they should have just fired him after the ALDS, laying responsibility on him for a "failure" to get to the World Series seven straight years. It was the way of George. It was certainly their right. You could argue Torre didn't deserve it, but you had to respect the dictatorial right of Steinbrenner, even as the Yankees cling to this "World-Series-or-bust" mentality that has long been rendered obsolete in this revenue-sharing age. Instead, under Levine, they took the cowardly way out and think they are slick enough that you won't notice.

Meanwhile, Red Sox manager Terry Francona called Torre to leave him a supportive message yesterday. Francona was also asked a bunch of questions about Torre at his pregame press conference before Game 5 of the ALCS last night. He finally had to gently change the subject:

"I hope that however it came down - and nobody knows but Joe and whoever he was dealing with - I hope Joe is happy," Francona said. "I think he deserves the respect, and I think you're going to hear people in baseball, every area of baseball, say probably very, very kind, respectful things about Joe the next couple days and they're all deserved."

Overall, of the seven questions asked of Francona during his pregame news conference, three were about Torre, and he finally deflected the last one as best he could.

"This is sort of a big day for us," Francona said. "We need to try to win this game tonight or I might be getting phone calls. Joe might be calling me."

Heh.

5-7 is good enough!

By Brendan Loy

Okay, I'm treading on dangerous territory here -- but, whatever, I'm allowed to be kinda mean to Notre Dame this week -- so: everybody remember these?

Well, uh, check out Rakes of Mallow's prediction for the remainder of Notre Dame's season:

I think we're going to be competitive at least for a while against Southern Cal, losing in the two to three touchdown range when everything is settled, which is when the real fun begins.  Everyone will be on watch for Navy to end the streak, then for Air Force, Duke and Stanford to get their chances to embarrass us.  I can imagine losing in Palo Alto Thanksgiving weekend, but we'll take care of business against the Midshipmen, Falcons and Blue Devils for sure.  5-7 finish, which after the woeful, embarrassing start, is not so bad.

Heh. Ah, the soft bigotry of low expectations.

(By the way, a 5-7 finish would actually require the Irish to not lose in Palo Alto on Thanksgiving weekend. Just saying.)

P.S. Pity the International Bowl. They're desperately hoping Notre Dame wins six games, so that the 6-6, bowl-eligible Irish would be available to be chosen -- in place of some stupid Big East team that would beat ND by three touchdowns -- to play a MAC team in Toronto on January 5. What MAC team, you ask? Oh, I don't know, maybe... Buffalo?? Notre Dame vs. UB at the SkyDome?!? The Canadians would love it, as would the Buffalonians. (Domers? Not so much, methinks. Playing Buffalo in a bowl game would be a lose-lose proposition: win, and nobody cares, because it was against Buffalo; lose, and you just lost your tenth straight bowl game... to Buffalo.) But alas, Notre Dame would need to win tomorrow for that to happen, and then win out. Not. Gonna. Happen. Particularly the "win tomorrow" part.

FIGHT ON, TROJANS!! BEAT THE IRISH!!

Thoughts on USF-Rutgers

By Brendan Loy

Sunday Morning Quarterback -- who is rapidly becoming my favorite college-football blogger -- offers an articulate and accurate perspective, IMHO, on South Florida's loss to Rutgers last night:

It doesn't diminish the chances of the BCS being seized by chaos, but the season does get that much less interesting for Cinderella sympathists and well-wishers (and satirists, if they recognize setbacks), whose last feel-good hopes rest solely with Kansas. ...

In the bigger picture, it's just another reminder among so many this season: you are not your ranking. I thought it was a little bit ironic that Rutgers students started the "O-ver-RA-ted!" chant as the Knights ran the clock out, because it was clear that USF was rated exactly right for what it had accomplished over the first six games. South Florida was a team with two impressive wins over Auburn and West Virginia and no losses; now it's a team with with two impressive wins over Auburn and West Virginia and a loss at Rutgers. It's the same team, and the fleeting assessment/sentiment that named the Bulls the "second-best" team in the country wasn't wrong as some kind of catchall judgment. It was just a snapshot.

I write this as a person who a) is not comfortable with South Florida's success, b) defended the Bulls right to compete for a mythical championship and ranked them second in the nation this week and c) picked USF to lose tonight. I also think there was widespread, quasi-secret acknowledgment that, no, when it was finished, South Florida wouldn't be the number two team by whatever method it's defined, not really, not with the same set of players that lost four times last year in the most successful season in school history, playing now through a series of land mines that had managed to down more promising contenders before them.

That didn't stop USF from achieving that high, though, which is an acknowledgement the voters were paying attention, at least, and were open to the blasphemy (and potential commercial disaster) of a South Florida championship if it took care of its business. It didn't, and so traditionalists can breathe easier dropping the upstarts back in their place. But at least the Bulls have the snapshot, and when they work their way into this position again, it never hurts to have a few of those to show.

Well, most of the voters were paying attention. Not all.

Meanwhile, my favorite MSM football columnist, Stewart Mandel, offers a more sobering, but also correct, perspective:

For the second straight year, the Scarlet Knights ended one of their conference foe's dreams of an undefeated season. In all probability, they also assured their conference's irrelevance for the rest of this 2007 season.  

It doesn't have to be that way. It probably shouldn't be that way. But such is life for the BCS' new kid on the block -- particularly when its last remaining hope for perfection was itself an infant.

When you're an LSU or Oklahoma, you can lose a tough conference road game, brush it off and return to the top five within a couple weeks as if it never happened. When you're USF, and you lose a tough conference road game just four days after an already skeptical set of voters tabbed you the No. 2 team in the country almost as an obligation, you can expect the court of public opinion to be somewhat less merciful. ...  

Such is the still fragile state of the rebuilt Big East. When Kentucky beats LSU, it's written off as a near-inevitability in the rough-and-tumble SEC. When Rutgers beats USF -- just a couple weeks after losing to then-undefeated Cincinnati, which itself turned around and lost to Louisville -- it's an indictment against both program and conference.

"Our problem is, we're a young league, and when we beat each other up, people will discredit us," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Thursday night. "The SEC has a long, upstanding tradition, and people are starting to understand how tough it is to get through that league undefeated. I think it's become difficult to get through our league undefeated, and it's only going to get more difficult."  

Make no mistake, USF deserves any knocks it will get for its performance Thursday night. Playing in their first-ever game as a top-five team, with the outcome on the line, the Bulls had two gift-wrapped opportunities to tie or win at the end. They produced minus-32 yards.

The commissioner, however, has a valid point about the increasing difficulty in his league. Of the six BCS conferences, there are only two with no undefeated teams remaining -- the Big East and the SEC. There have been eight league games contested in the Big East this season. They have produced seven different winners.

"There are no days off in this league," said Rutgers' Rice. "Everybody talks about how competitive the SEC is, but we're getting to the point where we're just about as competitive. Every team comes to play, and they come right at you." ...

[I]t appears that the conference, just as it did a year ago, has beaten itself out of a chance at the national title. West Virginia, ninth in last week's BCS standings, may well be the league's highest-ranked team next Sunday -- and the Mountaineers previously lost to USF.  

"I really don't know what's going to happen," said [USF cornerback Trae] Williams. "We've just got to leave it up to the polls and the computers."

That probably wasn't the best idea, Trae. Those polls and computers can be awfully harsh about losses to Rutgers.

If only you'd lost instead to Kentucky.

Yup.

P.S. Before the SEC homers go ballistic, let me just say that I'm not suggesting the Big East is equal to the SEC in terms of conference strength, nor do I think Mandel is saying that. The only conference that can hold a candle to the SEC this year is the Pac-10, and even there I'd say the SEC has the advantage.* The point is simply that the Big East is a genuinely competitive conference with a healthy share of good teams, and cannibalization within said conference doesn't necessarily mean the league is "garbage." You have to compare resumes individually. For example, as between Florida's losses at LSU and vs. Auburn, LSU's loss at Kentucky, and USF's loss at Rutgers, I'd say Florida at LSU is clearly the "least worst" loss, followed by LSU at Kentucky, followed by South Florida at Rutgers, followed by Florida vs. Auburn (which, let's remember, lost at home to South Florida) -- and #2 and #3 are pretty close, with the deciding factor in my mind being that the LSU-UK came went to triple-overtime. Now, obviously, those rankings are subject to change as the season progresses; if Rutgers tanks and Kentucky wins out, it won't be close anymore, and if the opposite happens, #2 and #3 will switch. But regardless, the point is, it shouldn't be automatically accepted as gospel truth that any loss in SEC is more acceptable than any loss in the Big East. You gotta look at the individual circumstances. And if the last two years have taught us anything, it's that winning as a favorite on the road in the Big East in a weeknight game on the ESPN family networks is really quite difficult.

*Although, let's see how things look after ASU, Cal, Oregon and USC all play each other. (Amazingly, Cal-Oregon has been the only game to date between and among those teams, and it was one of the best games of the season, with very high quality of play on both sides.) If all four turn out to be truly elite teams, then the Pac-10 will have a really good case that it's equal or superior to the SEC this season.

Any ND-USC livebloggers?

By Brendan Loy

Is there anybody out there who will be attending tomorrow's USC-Notre Dame game, who would be interested in liveblogging a few posts via cell phone for the Irish Trojan's Blog? If you've got a camera phone, I can set things up so that you can post photos directly to the blog, and if you've got any kind of cell phone, I can give you a phone number to call to leave audio posts.

I've got a liveblogger lined up for the Buffalo-Syracuse game, but considering this blog is called the Irish Trojan, I figured I should probably try to get a USC-ND liveblogger too... :) Anyway, if anybody's interested, shoot me an e-mail at irishtrojan [at] gmail.com.

USF vs. Rutgers, Sox vs. Indians

By Brendan Loy

South Florida and Rutgers are about to kick off another huge Thursday-night ESPN game. GameCast here.

As I said before, I expect Rutgers to pull the upset. And as a Trojan fan, I suppose I should root for the Scarlet Knights, since USC needs unbeaten teams to lose. But I just can't bring myself to root against the Bulls, not yet, not when I suspect USC will end up losing at least one more game, and South Florida -- as the resident underdog/Cinderella story -- would be my second choice among the current BCS Top 20, excluding USC. So, screw it. GO BULLS!!

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians will shortly begin Game 5 of the ALCS. Can Josh Beckett get the series back to Boston, or will C.C. Sabathia outduel him this time? GO SAWX!!!

I daresay I'll be doing a fair amount of channel-flipping over the next few hours. :)

UPDATE: Dude! That punter can throw!

UPDATE 2: Okay, so I'm having trouble really jumping on the USF bandwagon here. I was on the Rutgers bandwagon last year, and darn it, I like them. I dunno. I'm not sure who I'm rooting for. I'm just enjoying watching the game. It's 20-17 Knights in the 3rd.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox lead the Indians 2-1 in the 5th. Go Sox!

UPDATE 3: Down goes Frazier South Florida! Rutgers wins an entertaining game, 30-27. The Bulls' BCS title dreams are dead.

Sorry, Jenn:

Aaaand I'm back to rooting for Rutgers to win the Big East. R-U! RAH RAH!

I feel ashamed for ever rooting against them. It was just my general love for Cinderella stories, and my desire to see BCS chaos, that caused me to flirt with USF -- but I never stopped loving you, State University of New Jersey! :)

Meanwhile, the Red Sox lead 7-1 in the 8th.

P.S. Er, when I say "rooting for Rutgers to win the Big East," that assumes UConn won't be a contender. Of course I would root for the Huskies above everyone else in that conference. But, notwithstanding their current 5-1 record, I'm assuming they will not be a serious threat to win the Big East.

P.P.S. If Ohio State loses to Michigan State on Saturday, would it be the first time in college-football history that both the #1 and #2 teams in the AP poll have lost for two consecutive weeks? Make it happen, Spartans!!

FINAL UPDATE: SOX WIN! Eight innings and a win for Beckett, one inning and a save for Papelbon. Nice. Back to Fenway, baby! See you Saturday night!!

Pat Paulsen for the YouTube set

By Brendan Loy

You may have heard that Comedy Central comdeian and faux conservative blowhard Stephen Colbert, a native of South Carolina, announced yesterday that he's running for president:

He says he'll compete in his home state's primary... or rather, primaries: Colbert plans to seek the nomination, or at least some delegates, of both parties. (According to CNN, South Carolina's "Republicans are holding their primary January 19, while the Democrats will vote January 26.")

My first thought when I heard about this was: there was a movie about this, and it wasn't very good. My second thought was: "Can he, as a practical matter, actually do this?" Yeah, yeah, it's a nice funny story, a comedian running for president, blah blah blah. But what about the procedures? What about the deadlines? (What can I say, I'm my father's son.) The New York Times fills in the blanks:

Islamist monsters strike again

By Brendan Loy

A bomb attack in Pakistan aimed at former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, hated by Islamists because she supports the war on terror, failed to injure Bhutto but killed at least 108 others tonight.

Joe says no

By Brendan Loy

In the always punchy words of the New York Post, "Joe Torre fired The Boss."

The New York Yankees offered their manager of 12 years a one-year contract today, and Torre rejected it -- a shocking twist in the "Will Torre be fired?" speculation that has dominated baseball (well, aside from that whole playoffs thing) since the Indians eliminated the Yankees last week. So now Joe is officially gone, and the Yankees are looking for a new manager... who will know that he was George Steinbrenner's second choice.

The contract that Torre was offered would have been a pay cut -- sort of. He made $7 million this year; under the offered deal, he would have made $5 million, but with the potential for as much as $3 million in bonuses ($1 million per playoff round). So if the Yankees had been successful, he actually could have come away with as much as $8 million.

I wonder what Torre's motivation for rejecting the contract was? Did he consider the its one-year term an insult? Did he not like the bonus-based scheme? Or, the most delicious possibility of all for us Yankee-haters: was he planning this all along, rope-a-doping The Boss into making Torre an offer he don't refuse -- and then refusing it, just to embarrass the old man? Hahahaha... Joe Torre, now that you aren't a Yankee anymore, I can say this without shame: you are awesome.

Catholics vs. Buddhists?

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame may have Touchdown Jesus on its side, but USC has the Dalai Lama!

But wait: does that mean we're tarred via guilt-by-association with President Bush? D'oh!

More Irish-Trojan humor

By Brendan Loy

From comments yesterday (modified slightly for family-friendliness):

Did you hear the one about the guy who has this dog, and he says, "My dog Max is the biggest USC Trojan football fan of any damn dog in the country. Every year when USC plays Notre Dame, he gets so excited! Every time 'SC scores a touchdown, he jumps up and down and barks, and when USC wins the game, he does back-flips and cartwheels."

So the guy's buddy says, "Well, what's he do when Notre Dame beats USC?"

The guy says, "I don't know. He's only 6 years old."

Heh. Also, here are a couple of Irish-mocking video clips that I've been sent recently. And before you non-Trojan Domers get all "you're not a real fan" on me, both of these were actually sent to me by 100% loyal Irish fans who will be rooting for ND on Saturday. So they're legit! :)

Of polls and computers

By Brendan Loy

In this week's Mailbag, SI.com's Stewart Mandel has an great discussion of the differences -- good and bad -- between the computer rankings and the human polls. So many people dismiss the computers out-of-hand, while some others treat them as gospel truth and diss the polls whenever they disagree with the computers. The reality is that both systems are flawed, and Mandel does an excellent job of explaining why:

1) Silly intangibles like prestige and recent history play no factor. It's no surprise that USF is held in higher regard by the computers (where the Bulls are No. 1 in five of the six, No. 2 in the other) than they are by humans (where they're No. 3 in both the coaches and Harris polls). To the computers, "USF" is just another set of data, not some unfamiliar, 11-year-old Big East program. And that's a good thing, because apparently such biases are still alive and well. Harris Poll voter Eddie Crowder, Colorado's coach from 1963-73, told CBSSports.com this week that, "I haven't even seen a brief highlight of [USF]," and that he couldn't name a single Bulls player. If his final No. 2 vote came down to deciding between USF or LSU, Crowder said he'd likely side with the Tigers because, "They're better stabilized ... They've been there, done that for 100 years."

Are you kidding me? Did I just walk into some sort of time warp where it's 1963 again and there's only one game on television all week? All but one of the Bulls' games so far have been available to anyone with basic cable. And what on earth do the last 100 years have to do with the 2007 season? The sad thing is, Crowder is probably par for the course among the Harris panel, which consists of heavily of retired coaches and ADs. So in this regard ... advantage: computers.

2) There is no arbitrary starting point for the teams. Some of the computer pollsters do put out preseason editions, but they become meaningless once the games begin. In the computers, Ohio State and Arizona State are currently tied for fifth, which makes sense because they have nearly identical credentials. Both are 7-0. The Buckeyes' wins have come against opponents with a combined 15-18 record (Division I-A games only), while the Sun Devils' foes are a combined 16-20. In the human polls, however, OSU sits 12 spots ahead of ASU, the single biggest reason being that the Buckeyes started the season 10th in the coaches poll while the Devils were unranked. Again, advantage: computers.

3) Margin of victory is not a factor. As you may recall, prior to the 2002 season, the BCS honchos asked its participating computer gurus to remove any margin-of-victory component from their formulas. While their intention was to dissuade coaches from running up the score (and for the most part, they've succeeded), in doing so, they kind of made a mockery of the whole rankings concept. In the computers' eyes, USF's 64-12 victory over UCF last week is no more or less impressive than Texas' 35-32 escape against the Golden Knights earlier in the season.

That doesn't make much sense to me, nor did it to several of the mathematicians, a couple of whom refused to comply and walked out. Another, Jeff Sagarin, did make the adjustment but posts both those results and his true rankings every week. How different are they? In the BCS version, Oklahoma checks in at 12th (and has an average of 11). In the original Sagarin version, the Sooners are No. 1. Advantage: humans.

4) Early season ratings aren't necessarily accurate. Like with any statistics, the more data that's made available, the more accurate they become. Which is why the computers have always included a disclaimer that their ratings in say, Week 6, may skew drastically from those at the end of the season. Basically, you're not getting a complete picture, hence such "wacky" anomalies as Michigan checking in seven spots higher than Oregon -- the same team the Wolverines lost to 39-7 -- in Billingsley's computer while barely registering in some of the others. In other words, there's no "common sense" override. Advantage: humans.

I've talked about issue #3 at length in prior seasons here on the blog. I think the computers' exclusion of margin of victory is especially ludicrous because they so heavily weigh strength of schedule, which means that teams with weak schedules are put at an insurmountable disadvantage -- they are penalized for playing a weak schedule (which is generally not their fault, especially when we're talking about in-conference games) and are unable to make up the ground they thus lose. Because margin of victory doesn't count, they can't make up ground, as they logically should be able to, by blowing out the weak teams they play (i.e., by doing what good teams are supposed to do against weak teams: "taking care of business," if you will). So they're stuck; they're screwed. To use a bit of legalese, the wrong-headed BCS ban on MOV over-emphasizes SOS to the point that a weak schedule creates an irrebuttable presumption of overall weakness.

Notre Dame, as I've pointed out before, has recently been an interesting case study in the inherent absurdity of ranking teams without any margin-of-victory component. In 2005, the Irish were consistently ranked lower in the computers than in the polls. Why? Say what you will about bias and hype and kool-aid, but the main reason was a flaw in the computers, not the polls: the computers were unable to comprehend that both of ND's regular-season losses were extremely close affairs, including the 3-point loss to #1 USC, while all of their wins (until the Stanford game at season's end) were blowouts. ND was thus penalized for playing a relatively weak schedule (because a whole bunch of their regular opponents were having uncharacteristic down years), even though they'd "taken care of business" against that schedule, and had proven their worth in a close loss to the best team in the land.

Then in 2006, the exact opposite happened: the Irish were consistently ranked higher in the computers than in the polls, because the computers were unable to comprehend what the pollsters could see with their eyes: that the Irish's losses to Michigan and USC were not actually "good losses," even though the opponents were strong teams, because the Irish got absolutely blown away by both of 'em. Similarly, the computers did not know that Notre Dame had barely escaped with victories against weakish UCLA and Michigan State teams, nor that they had failed to truly dominate some of the even weaker opponents on their schedule (e.g., Purdue, Air Force) to the degree that one would like to see an elite team do. The pollsters saw all that and, once the kool-aid had finally worn off, ranked the Irish accordingly; the computers didn't. All the computers knew is that the Irish had gone 10-2 against a pretty strong schedule. The details of the individual games, which entirely discredited the Irish's claim to be a truly elite team, were totally lost on the computers, because of the lack of a margin-of-victory component.

All that said, if only the BCS would allow the computers to include a rational margin-of-victory component -- and I'm convinced that some formula could be devised that would lessen the impact of "running up the score" while acknowledging the inherent difference between, say, Notre Dame's 3-point loss to USC in 2005 and Arkansas's 53-point loss to the same Trojans -- I think the computers would be better than the polls, precisely because of those "prestige and recent history" and "arbitrary starting point" problems that Mandel talks about. It's a shame the BCS has crippled its own ranking system by arbitrarily imposing a statistically unsound requirement for the sake of political correctness.

TN cop charged in porn star scandal

By Brendan Loy

The Tennessee state trooper who got a roadside blowjob from a porn star he'd pulled over, allegedly in exchange for turning a blind eye to her drug possession, has been indicted by a grand jury. A previous incident of similar behavior (albeit not involving someone in the, ahem, adult entertainment industry) came to light in the wake of the Justis Richert/Barbie Cummings incident, and he is charged in connection with both.

UPDATE: Apparently Richert/Cummings is now a former porn star. The News-Sentinel reports, "She says she’s quit the porn industry, settled down with a boyfriend and has become pregnant." (Hat tip: Cup of Joe Powell.)

"Turner means a lot to us"

By Brendan Loy

The Buffalo News ran an article today about the Turner-Gill-to-Nebraska rumors.

Fun times on the horizon

By Brendan Loy

Plans are still somewhat up in the air, but it's looking increasingly likely that I'll be visiting Denver again from October 28-30. It will be essentially a business trip, and it'll suck to be away from Becky on my birthday, but on the bright side, I'll be in Denver on the evenings when Game 4 and, if necessary, Game 5 of the World Series are being played there. Of course, I hope I'll be rooting against the Rockies, but if the Indians do manage to close out the ALCS against the Red Sox, then I'll be root, root, rooting for the home team. Either way, although I don't expect to go to any games, it'll be fun to be in town while they're going on. Kristy and V live right downtown, less than a mile from Coors Field and in the midst of a central strip with tons of bars and such.

Then, next month, Becky and I will be going to a pair of Tennessee basketball games: the men's home opener against Temple on November 9, and the Lady Vols' showdown with Texas on November 18. There will be bigger games during the SEC season, of course, but we wanted to make it out to Thompson-Boling Arena before the baby comes. Anyway, the tickets came in the mail yesterday and today, and I've added the games to my countdown sidebar at left (along with my birthday -- dunno why I wasn't counting down to that before!).

Speaking of games, Jay and I may be going to a UT football game before the season is out -- probably either South Carolina on October 27 or Arkansas on November 10. But that's still up in the air as well.

More immediately, next Thursday, Becky and I are going to the WDVX Birthday Party at the Bijou Theater. So that should be fun. And on Tuesday, we start taking a birthing/baby class, where we get to learn all about, uh, birthing and babies and stuff.

So yeah. Lots of stuff to look forward to!

P.S. Breaking news: Shannon got a puppy! AWW!

UPDATE: Speaking of the Rockies, and of the SHA girls, Kristy was at Coors Field when Colorado won the pennant Monday night. She sent me a cell-phone photo earlier today:

Cool.

To censor or to censure, that is the question

By Brendan Loy

Becky comments on controversial remarks by the co-discoverer of DNA about the alleged inferior intelligence of Africans, and the response thereto: "I don't mean to portray Watson as a victim of the cult of political correctness because frankly, if you make racist assumptions and statements, you should take heat for it. But the trend toward silencing opposing views rather than confronting them, toward living in an Ivory Tower echo chamber of so-called progressive thought, concerns me." Read the whole thing.

Bush warns of "World War III" if Iran gets nukes

By Brendan Loy

I have no problem with hawkish bloggers and columnists saying things like this, but, um, shouldn't the President of the United States be a little bit more circumspect with his rhetoric?

"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel," Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia cautioned against military action against Tehran's supect atomic program. "So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

I agree that Iran's nuclear ambitions are a grave threat to world peace, and not just because there are some trigger-happy people in the White House right now (though, that too). But I'm not convinced that having the president say things like this, in public -- even if arguably somewhat true -- makes things better. Perhaps I'm wrong, though. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Via Hot Air by way of InstaPundit, here's the video:

In a related story, Bush still can't say "nuclear."

Heh.

By Brendan Loy

Proof that New Jersey is the Armpit of America

By JLR

In a recent poll, 49% of adults in New Jersey said that they would rather be living somewhere other than New Jersey.

As anyone living on the East Coast will tell you, New Jersey only exists to get people from New York to Philadelphia (or in my case, Washington D.C. to Hartford) anyway.  This just proves it.

Irish-Trojan humor

By Brendan Loy

The "NDCHOOCHOO" blog offers some funny "story lines" for the USC-Notre Dame game:

The Streak: USC last lost to Notre Dame in 2001. That loss will not be forgotten by USC, however, as 9th Year Senior Chauncey Washington was just a 3rd year sophomore back then, and will recount his expereinces with the team, after his Geritol.

Snooping Around: Yes, USC supporter and mascot, Snoop Dogg will make the trip out the Notre Dame for the game. Apparently, Desmond Reed told him that there was some really "funky grass" at Notre Dame, and Snooop wanted to check it out for himself. ...

The Fall of Troy: USC is no longer in contention for the National Championship. In fact, they are only in third place in their own conference. To make matters worse, as it stands now, with UCLA's win last season, USC is only the second best team in their own city. In stark contrast, Notre Dame enters the game atop the South Bend polls.

Heh.

He also refers to USC's injured quarterback as "John David Steven Morris Upton Booty." Again, heh.

Ty and the second half don't get along

By Brendan Loy

Playing really, really well in the second half has been such a hallmark of the USC Trojans in recent years (though not so much this year) that I often refer to the phenomenon by the all-capitalized, faux-trademarked phrase "Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic^TM."

Sadly for Washington Huskies fans, as recent events have suggested and as this handy chart confirms, there is no such thing as Ty Willingham Second-Half Magic, except perhaps for Willingham's teams' opponents -- which, come to think of it, always include USC, so these phenomena may not be entirely unrelated. (Hat tip: EDSBS.)

Some Domers will doubtless want to seize on this trend as proof that firing Willingham was justified (which for some reason we're still debating, three years later - only at ND!), but oddly enough, the school at which Ty enjoyed the greatest second-half success was... Notre Dame. Hmm. Also, as the linked post points out, the statistical trend is not actually all that drastic in percentage terms. (I wonder, though, what the numbers would look like if you eliminated "garbage time" scores, where Ty's teams were either so far ahead or so far behind that it didn't matter. My guess, based on subjective impressions and imperfect memories, is that doing that would make the numbers look worse for Ty, but I could certainly be wrong about that.)

Anyway, I just thought that this was kinda interesting, and that posting it would be about 95% certain to set off a nice juicy blog comment-war, which would certainly liven up a "hump day" afternoon. So there you go. Talk amongst yourselves. Ty sucks! Ty is awesome! Notre Dame is racist! No they're not! AAAAHH!!!!

Super 6, Fretting 15, and Frail 4

By Brendan Loy

I've been lax in updating my list of college-football unbeatens in recent weeks, and with all the upsets that have taken place, the Terrific Twenty-Three has shrunk to a Fantastic Fifteen, then an Elite Eleven, and now a Super Six since I last posted a full-fledged update.

With so few unbeatens and so many weeks left, and with this crop of unbeaten teams seeming so relatively fragile (compared, for instance, to last year's much sturdier-feeling Spectacular Seven), I think Texasyank is right that "one-loss is the new undefeated." Not since 2003 has it appeared so likely, so early, that one or both teams in the BCS championship game will have a loss. Thus, I'm expanding my focus a bit this week. We'll start with the Super Six unbeaten teams, but then we'll look at the Fretting Fifteen, the nation's remaining one-loss teams (who are, of course, "fretting" because one more loss will truly knock them out of title contention*). Finally, we'll look at the teams who haven't won a game yet: the Frail Four.

Half of the nation's undefeated teams (Boston College, Arizona State and Hawaii) are idle this week. The other three all face potentially difficult  tests: South Florida is at 4-2 Rutgers tomorrow night, and then on Saturday, Ohio State hosts 5-2 Michigan State and Kansas is at 4-3 Colorado, which, of course, stunned Oklahoma a few weeks back. The way this season has gone, it wouldn't be remotely surprising if only the idle teams are still unbeaten come Sunday morning. Indeed, with USF favored by just 2.5 points and Kansas by just 4, the only potential loss by an unbeaten that would actually be a major upset would be MSU over homestanding tOSU. (Speaking of which, go Sparty go! ... Ugh, now I hate myself.)

*Well, the first nine or so of 'em, anyway. Missouri, Virginia, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, UConn and Boise State are almost certainly already out of the national-title picture entirely, if they were ever in it.

Anyway, without further adieu, here are this week's schedules for the unbeatens, the once-beatens, and the constantly-beatens...

Glenn Reynolds cracks BCS SSRN Top 10

By Brendan Loy

Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, of InstaPundit fame, has been named one of the 10 most influential legal scholars in America, according to the Social Science Research Network. (Hat tip: Ken Wagner.)

He's also a nice guy.

Anyway, congrats to Glenn on the honor! He should beware, though: rankings are fickle. One minute you're firmly ensconced in the Top 10, and the next minute you lose to Stanford. Don't rest on your laurels, professor! Keep on influencin'! You don't want some lesbian ceramics professor to steal your glory.

Red Sox on brink of elimination

By Brendan Loy

The Cleveland Indians are up 3 games to 1 on the Boston Red Sox. Damn. Looks like the Sox are going to have to try and pull out some of that Pete Carroll Second-Half Magic 2004 Comeback Magic.

Or, they could just start Josh Beckett in Game 5 and then head back to Fenway for Games 6 and 7. Yeah, that might work too.

Uh, but yeah. Backs against the wall, Thursday night. (No game tomorrow.) GO SAWX!!

P.S. Cleveland's magic number to win the World Series is 5. HA!

Weather + hot babes = blog gold

By Brendan Loy

This post I'm about to link to was published more than three years ago, but I just stumbled on it. I can't believe I haven't seen it, or mentioned it on the blog, before. It's a in-depth analysis of The Weather Channel's hot female meteorologists. (SFW.) LOL!

The weatherbabe pictured at right, BTW, is Stephanie Abrams. She has a whole fan club, and lots of admirers on the Internets. She's even been dubbed the "Hurricane Hottie" due to her frequent live reports from landfall zones, seemingly always wearing outfits like the one photographed. Heh.

New Year's in Iowa

By Brendan Loy

It looks like the Iowa caucuses will be held on January 3. At least the Republican ones. The Democrats may still end up having their Iowa caucuses on January 5 or 14.

Meanwhile, it appears increasingly possible that the New Hampshire primary will be held in December.

Vlad & Mahmoud

By Brendan Loy

This picture makes me nervous, somehow:

Story here.

An early look at hoops rankings

By Brendan Loy

Sick of football yet? Well, SI's Luke Winn has posted his first preseason rankings of the college-basketball season! North Carolina is #1, UCLA #2, Tennessee #3 and Memphis #4 -- so it promises to be a heck of a hoops season here in the Volunteer State, especially for our resident Voluntiger, Jay.

USC is ranked #12... and maybe if the Trojans' players can refrain from attacking each other, they can actually live up to that ranking.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, is among Winn's teams "on the cusp." Kyle McAlarney is back, and the Irish seem to have adopted the attitude "Remember the Maine Pearl Harbor 9/11 Winthrop" as they seek to build on last year's relative success.

Speaking of star players returning from drug arrests, the Gonzaga Bulldogs aren't on Winn's radar, but with Josh Heytvelt returning to the team after his brush with psychedelia last year, and Jeremy Pargo continuing to be a beast, the Zags could make some noise.

Jenn Sterger, USF fan

By Brendan Loy

The South Florida bandwagon just got a little bit hotter. (Reasonably SFW. Cleavage.) More here.

UPDATE: According to several comments on the Wizard of Odds, Sterger is no bandwagoner; apparently she has longstanding ties to USF, and has attended many games there. Seems she's got dual loyalties to Florida State and South Florida. Well, I, of all people, can hardly fault someone for having dual loyalties -- especially this week!

Corroboration here and here.

UPDATE 2: This whole story is made-up nonsense! The photo of Sterger in a Bulls hat, supposedly proving she's jumped on the USF bandwagon now that they're #2 in the country, is from 2006!

Osborne hired as interim Nebraska A.D.

By Brendan Loy

Part 1 of the Stewart Mandel Thesis has come true: Nebraska legend Tom Osborne has been named interim Athletic Director to replace the Steve Pederson, who was fired yesterday. (Hat tip: EDSBS.)

Part 2 of the Mandel Thesis has Osborne firing Cornhuskers coach Bill Callahan and replacing him with Buffalo head coach Turner Gill, himself something of a Nebraska mini-legend. Will it happen? I dunno, but this article from last month did note that "Gill still talks regularly with former Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne, who he calls a mentor and a friend," and this one, also from last month, says Osborne "believes Gill has what it takes to be a successful Division I head coach":

Osborne witnessed Gill's leadership skills as the starting quarterback for the Cornhuskers' dominating teams in the early 1980s, and saw how well he related to players as a Nebraska assistant coach from 1992-2004.

"He's in it for the right reasons," Osborne said. "He's there to serve the kids and isn't in coaching for his own ego. Turner is a good recruiter and a great role model for players."

Hmm. It's hard to believe Osborne won't at least give Gill a look. Should UB fans start rooting for the Bulls to tank the rest of the season, thus causing their coach's stock to plummet and making him an unpalatable hire in Big Red country?

P.S. On the other hand, Osborne could always take the Dick Cheney route and appoint himself Nebraska's new coach!

UPDATE: I'm told the above photo is actually a picture of Norman Osborn, not Tom Osborne. Ah, close enough. I think this photo is a rough representation of what awaits Bill Callahan...

USC-ND quarterback update

By Brendan Loy

It's official: Evan Sharpley will start at quarterback for Notre Dame against USC on Saturday. "I think Evan this week gives us the best chance of winning," Charlie Weis said. "Or at least beating the spread." No, no, I made that last part up. (Though it would be a bit more realistic...)

Meanwhile, USC may have a burgeoning quarterback controversy of its own. Injured ex-starter John David Booty hopes to be back in the lineup in time for Saturday's game. He will test his broken finger at practice today. "If I can throw effectively, I want to play," he said, but added, "It's the coach's decision, not mine." Indeed it is, and Pete Carroll doesn't sound so sure yet: "We're going to go with Mark [Sanchez] as the starter going into practice ... It's Mark's day [Tuesday]. Then we'll see what happens with John. We'll just wait, watch, see what he feels like afterward."

Leopard's arrival date now official

By Jay Johnson

Finally, Apple has provided us with the delivery date of the newest incarnation of OS X, 10.5 Leopard.  It will be available on October 26, 2007.  Countdown clock underway at Apple.com.

So, who's upgrading as soon as it gets here?

It's retailing for $129.  I believe I saw a deal posted on dealmac for pre-orders with a $20 discount, though.

Sox down, Rockies on verge

By Brendan Loy

The Red Sox have just fallen behind 2 games to 1 in the American League Championship Series against the Indians. D'oh.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Rockies are trying to sweep the Arizona Diamonbacks tonight in Denver and advance to their first-ever World Series. The Rockies have won nine straight games and 20 of 21 -- the latter a feat "which has been done a handful of times in the 100-plus years of baseball history, but never like this, never with each of the wins so crucial, never with [six] (and counting) in the playoffs." Ironically, Colorado's only loss in the last 21 games was Arizona's playoff-clinching win. Now the D-Backs face elimination at the hands of the apparently unstoppable Rockies.

UPDATE: Make that 21 of 22. The Rockies are going to the World Series!

College football pollster philosophy 101

By Brendan Loy

College football blogger Sunday Morning Quarterback expresses better than I could his rationale for ranking teams based purely on their "resumés" instead of using a "power ranking" method.

See also this post from last year comparing and contrasting the different polling methods. I wish more voters would put as much thought as SMQ has into their personal philosophy of polling.

Nebraska A.D. fired, Callahan likely next; UB's Turner Gill to replace him?

By Brendan Loy

Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson was fired Monday, and it seems almost inevitable that football coach Bill Callahan will be next.

If Callahan is shown the door, some Buffalo fans are worried that Nebraska might try to lure Heisman finalist and former Osborn/Solich/Callahan assistant Turner Gill away from resurgent UB*. Gill interviewed for the top job in Lincoln back in 2004 before it was ultimately offered to Callahan. He was hired by Buffalo in '06.

Columnist Steve Sipple of the Lincoln Journal-Star mentioned Gill as a possibility in a column Sunday: "Turner Gill? Well, he’s doing wonders at Buffalo. The Bulls are 3-4 overall and 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference. Their three league victories equal the most since joining the MAC and returning to Division I-A in 1999. The former Husker quarterback is calling the plays for an offense that features elements of a West Coast attack, a power-I formation and even some option." Gill's name is also floated at the Fire Coach Callahan blog. And FanIQ asks: "Will Turner Gill be coming back?"

*Can you be "resurgent" if you've never been good before? Hmm. Maybe the Bulls are just "surgent."

UPDATE: Stewart Mandel writes:

[University Chancellor Harvey] Perlman said Monday that he would soon appoint an interim athletic director with "full authority to assess the state of the athletic department and its athletic programs and to make any decision necessary to advance those programs." Translation: The guy can fire coaches -- and, barring a dramatic turnaround, he will.

As a result, Perlman is facing an unusually important "interim AD selection" -- because the identity of that person could go a long way in determining the identity of Nebraska's next football coach. The popular rumor du jour is that of Huskers legend/Congressman Tom Osborne temporarily taking the reins and bringing back favorite son Turner Gill, who, in his second season at Buffalo, has the long-inept Bulls sitting a half-game out of first in the MAC's East Division with a 3-1 conference record.

UPDATE 2: Fox Sports also mentions Gill in its article about the Nebraska situation: "Turner Gill, the former Husker great and architect behind a minor MAC uprising at Buffalo, has been bandied about as a possible replacement as head coach. Yet others still hope that with Pederson out of the picture, Nebraska will get a second chance to hire LSU's Bo Pelini, a fan favorite in 2003."

Lexington is a football town, and other such insanity

By Brendan Loy

A few short days ago, it looked like ESPN College GameDay would be making its first-ever visit to basketball-centric Champaign, Illinois for next Saturday's Michigan-Illinois game. Then the Illini lost to previously hapless Iowa, taking the air out of what would have been a battle of two unbeaten-in-conference Big Ten teams. (And by the way, thanks a lot, Illinois, for reducing the conference race, again, to Ohio State vs. Michigan -- which, at this point, is about as exciting to people outside the gravitational pull of Ann Arbor and Columbus as Red Sox-Yankees is to people outside the Northeast.)

So where is GameDay going instead? To yet another locale whose residents are just discovering this wonderful game called "football": Lexington, Kentucky, that strangest of SEC towns where football comes in second to basketball in the local consciousness. Or perhaps it's third; does UK have a JV hoops team? Anyway, the Wildcats host Florida on Saturday -- which, come to think of it, would be a hell of a basketball game as well; can we tweak the b-ball schedule a bit and have a doubleheader? -- and the Kirk & Corso circus will be there.

Of course, in this season of nonsensical mayhem, Kentucky being a football powerhouse is nothing to write home about. At this rate, George Mason (of the mighty Sea Board Conference) will be cracking the BCS standings by November, with Gonzaga close behind -- and the Zags haven't played a football game since two weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Apropos of which, Every Day Should Be Saturday nicely summarizes the current state of college football's national championship race:

The science fiction scenario of falling asleep for decades, awakening, and finding the world inhabited only by eyeless nuclear mutants has arrived: you are, whether you like it or not, staggering around the streets yelling “IS ANYONE OUT THERE?” at the fact that South Florida is the second-ranked team in the BCS.

Ohio State claims spot one, followed by South Florida at two, Boston College at three, LSU at four, and Oklahoma at five. Army’s 1947 squad is number six, the nation of Bolivia is at seven; acclaimed chef Eric Ripert and his kitchen staff are at eight, and finally, the nine spot is occupied by a sweet 2005 Dodge Ram dualie and chrome pipes with the Idaho plates 323 AAJE. The truck’s owner, Steve Redding of Boise, Idaho: “What the f**k is my truck doing in the BCS standings?”

Heh.

Oh, and speaking of Kentucky, here's the ending of Saturday's thriller, sans commentary, seen from field level:

(Hat tip: AOL Fanhouse.) I love college football.

Rudy Giuliani will protect us from aliens

By Brendan Loy

Not illegal aliens... space aliens! A kid in New Hampshire asked him the question yesterday:

I think it's a legit question! But I want more specifics on Rudy's plan to prepare us for an alien attack. Also an asteroid impact, and that La Palma volcano. No, really! I will vote for the candidate who hires that kid as a disaster-preparedness consultant. :)

P.S. I also want to know the candidates' positions on protecting our senior citizens from robot attacks.

October 15

By Brendan Loy

It's Irish-Trojan Week here at the Irish Trojan's Blog, and what better way to kick it off than by noting that today is the second anniversary of the greatest day in college football history?

I'll never forget October 15, 2005 -- and, specifically, the USC-Notre Dame epic that was the centerpiece of that madcap day of football mayhem -- as long as I live. If I ever go senile, it'll probably be one of the last things I remember: I might forget my own name, what year it is, and where the hell I am, but you can be sure the employees at the nursing home will know all about Leinart-to-Jarrett and the Bush Push.

More imminently, you can bet that eighteen years from today, our teenage daughter will roll her eyes as her 43-year-old dad starts waxing nostalgic again about the Greatest Game He Ever Saw, 20 years ago that very day: the hype and build-up; the pep rally with Joe Montana and Rudy (but not, alas, Bon Jovi); the green jerseys; the nail-biting first three quarters; the full moon rising over Notre Dame Stadium in the fourth quarter; the surreal, larger-than-life, echoes-awakened atmosphere of those final minutes, like something out of a movie and yet so much better than any movie; the flash bulbs popping from one end of the stadium to the other; the impossibly loud, ear-shattering screams of eighty thousand Irish fans when Brady Quinn scored the go-ahead TD; the insanity of 4th and 9; the delirious, premature field-rushing; our jubilation and the crushing heartbreak all around us moments later; how we stayed put and let the stadium clear out before we left, and then steered clear of Turtle Creek on our walk home, lest our USC sweatshirts provoke drunken Domers like a matador's cape provokes an angry bull; and so on, and so forth. I know, Dad, I know. You've told me all about it a million times. Can I borrow the car?

As I wrote last year on this day:

The game was tense throughout, a real back-and-forth affair, and man, was I nervous. Never in my life had I been so emotionally invested in a sporting event. For weeks leading up to the game, I had repeatedly joked that if USC lost, I would “have to drop out of law school” because I’d never hear the end of it. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but the fact is, I’m the unabashed, unrepentant Trojan at Notre Dame, so my friends would have ripped on me something fierce if the Irish had won, and rightfully so. As a result, I felt like my personal pride was at stake on that field. Besides which, all personal considerations aside, I just really, really, really wanted the Trojans to win.

A funny thing happened in the final minutes of the game, though. As intense as it was, I went from being a nervous wreck to being remarkably sanguine about the game’s outcome. I know that’s counterintuitive, given how incredibly close and exciting the final minutes were, but the closer we got to the end — especially after Brady Quinn scored the go-ahead touchdown and the entire crowd went so unbelievably crazy that I was literally hearing static because it was too loud for my ears to really process the level of sound — the more I realized, you know what, no matter who ends up winning this game, it is just so freakin’ cool that I am here.

As I watched the full moon rise over the eastern side of the stadium, and listened to the crowd scream its collective lungs out, all the while witnessing a truly epic battle unfolding on the field below, I realized that I would literally someday tell my grandkids that I had been at this game.

And then it got better.

Read the whole thing. Also, here are my photos of the game (and of the events that preceded it).

Anyway... with the Irish a historically awful 1-6 and the Trojans an uncharacteristically uninspiring 5-1, this year's showdown in South Bend doesn't have 0.01% of the hype or build-up that the last one did. Still, I'll have plenty to say about it in due course. But for now, let's look back on the events of two years ago today, as seen from my unique vantage point: a Trojan in the midst of the Irish student section.

And, from a somewhat more expansive vantage point, a clip showing some more of the events of that incredible Saturday in October:

What a day. What a damn day.

Boise State is at it again

By Brendan Loy

Can you say Boise State 69, Nevada 67 in 4OT? It was the most points scored in an NCAA Division I-A game since official record-keeping began in 1937.

Boise State is one of 15 remaining one-loss teams, and the only one from a non-BCS conference. Can the Broncos become the first non-BCS team to qualify for a BCS bowl with a loss? Probably not, but this season, who knows? If everybody else in the country has three losses by the time the season's over... :)

The Loy-o-sphere is a small world

By Brendan Loy

Mike Tran, a.k.a. the Irish Bruin -- you know, the guy who I own -- called me this weekend to tell me an amusing story: he just discovered on Friday that he works across the hall from Michael Walsh, better known around these parts as Lex icon. Lex is a Trojan and Mike is a Bruin, so naturally, they were talking about the weekend's football games... and in the course of that conversation, it came to light that they have a mutual acquaintance: me.

Heh. I've never met Lex icon in person, but now one of my law-school buddies has. What a world. God bless the Internet. Here's a more detailed account of how they met (or rather, of how they realized who the other one is).

Sanchez vs. Sharpley?

By Brendan Loy

It sounds like Mark Sanchez will get the start for the Trojans against Notre Dame.

But who will start for the Irish? It might be Evan Sharpley instead of Jimmy Clausen, as Sharpley once again looked like the better QB yesterday.

Who would have thought, back in August, that this year's USC-Notre Dame game could potentially feature Mark Sanchez against Evan Sharpley?

UPDATE: More on Notre Dame's QB decision here.

Meanwhile, USC fan Jonathan Tu -- who is currently in the midst of living the dream, doing a season-long whirlwind college-football odyssey that will see him attend 22 games in 14 weeks, including the one in South Bend next Saturday -- riffs on what it feels like to be human again:

[When the final score of the Arizona game was announced,] I didn’t think about mistakes, injuries, what-ifs, polls, ramifications, anything, really, except one thing: how good it feels to win.

It’s been so long since USC’s had a realistic chance of losing to anyone except one of the traditional powerhouses of college football (Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan). This is what it felt like in 2002, but, more specifically, this is what it felt like pre-2002: anything can happen, anything will happen, and, yes, even a 7 point win over a hapless Arizona team is a miracle, a godsend, a blessing, a wonder, something worth celebrating in of itself. This was not the case with some of the wins over the past several years. I was spoiled; we all were.

I’m a fan, so naturally I have ideas about what needs to happen for USC to be in New Orleans. (Hah!). But for the first time in a long time I’m only thinking about the next game and the stated goal: to make sure Notre Dame’s only win is over UCLA, which is thoroughly acceptable to a USC fan. Whether that win’s by 3 or 30, I’ll take it.

Read the whole thing.

Newington ranked #10 in state

By Brendan Loy

Speaking of teams with histories of futility having successful seasons, the Newington High School football Indians are now 5-0 after beating Bulkeley 55-21 on Friday -- in a game that saw senior Nathan Pagan surpass 5,000 career rushing yards, making him the ninth player in state history to achieve that milestone.

Oh, and the Indians are ranked #10 in the state by the Hartford Courant -- soon to jump to #9, probably, as #8 Fairfield Prep got crushed by unranked Cheshire 42-7 Friday and will presumably tumble out of the rankings.

Newington is also one of five remaining undefeated teams in Class L, though if the season ended today, they wouldn't qualify for the playoffs due to their #5 ranking. They'll put their unbeaten record to the test next Friday at Bristol Eastern, which is also 5-0 and ranked #2 in Class M (and #15 in the Courant's state rankings).

USC drops in polls; USF, BC split #2 honors

By Brendan Loy

After following up its loss to Stanford with a near-loss to Arizona, USC has dropped in the polls -- quite justifiably, in my view -- despite the continuing rash of upsets all around them. USC fell from #10 to #13 in the AP poll (leapfrogged by Kentucky, Virginia Tech and Arizona State), and from #7 to a tie for #9 in the coaches poll (leapfrogged by West Virginia and South Carolina). Given that they've looked certifiably godawful for three consecutive weeks, and given that Nebraska has now been exposed to the point that it no longer qualifies as a quality win (let alone a "signature" one), I think the Trojans should fall even further (I have them #16), but at least the new rankings more closely approximate reality than last week's.

Ohio State is #1 in both polls. It's far closer to a unanimous decision in the coaches poll (56 of 60 first-place votes, with just 1 for Boston College and 3 for South Florida) than in the AP poll (50 of 65, with the remaining votes breaking down thusly: USF 11, BC 1, Oklahoma 1, LSU 1, Arizona State 1). South Florida is #2 in the AP poll, #3 in the coaches; Boston College is the reverse of that, #2 in the coaches and #3 in the AP. Proving Texasyank's point that "one-loss is the new undefeated," Oklahoma and LSU are #4 and #5 in both polls. After that, it's mass chaos from #6 to #13. But undefeated Arizona State is #12 in both polls, and undefeated Kansas is #15 in both. Undefeated Hawaii is #17 in the AP, #16 in the coaches. Oh, and Michigan is ranked again -- #24 in the AP poll. Hot! Hot! Hot!

P.S. Prediction: South Florida will lose at Rutgers on Thursday. These Big East weeknight games on ESPN have not been kind to favorites (or to road teams) the last two years, and the Scarlet Knights (and their fans) will be pumped -- they may have dropped from the polls, but they've still got a conference championship to win, and this game is a must-win for them to achieve that goal. And now, they can beat the nation's #2 team in the process! As Louisville beat West Virginia, as Rutgers beat Louisville, as Cincinnati beat Rutgers, and as South Florida beat West Virginia, so will Rutgers beat South Florida. Round and round the Big East's cycle of cannibalization goes; where it ends, nobody knows.

UPDATE: The first official BCS standings are out, and as expected, South Florida is #2 (behind #1 tOSU) because the computers love the Bulls, due to their strength of schedule and quality wins (and because the dumb BCS computers don't understand the value of preseason polls, nor do they recognize the "vague notions of superiority based on the size, recognition and historical success of a program" that human polls value so highly). The computers love South Florida so much, in fact, that they ranked the Bulls #1 in the country. But because Ohio State is a runaway #1 in both human polls, they get the edge over USF in the BCS standings even though they're just #5 in the computers. On the other hand, Boston College, #2 in both of the polls that matter of BCS purposes, is just #7 in the computers, and thus ends up #3 in the BCS.

The Year of the Bull

By Brendan Loy

The South Florida Bulls have set the college-football world on fire this season, streaking their way to a 6-0 record and a #2 national ranking. But the other Division I college football team with the nickname "Bulls" also deserves some props. Like USF, the University at Buffalo is having its best season since joining Division I-A -- and although these Bulls are enjoying success on a slightly less grand scale than the other Bulls, they got their own bit of national exposure last night, in the form of a "helmet sticker" on ESPN's College Football Final:

The Nebraska alum Rece Davis mentions is Turner Gill, the former Nebraska quarterback and 1983 Heisman finalist, who is now in his second season as Buffalo's head coach. He has really turned things around at UB, taking a program whose fans were conditioned to simply hope that they wouldn't go winless each year and raising expectations to the point that, last week, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg wrote that UB "could be a sleeper team" in the MAC, and Pat Forde called them the conference's "biggest surprise." And that was before yesterday's 43-33 win over Toledo, which improved the Bulls' conference record to 3-1 (3-4 overall, with road losses to Penn State and Rutgers and a close home loss to Baylor).

Needless to say, they're excited over at ubfan.com. See, for example, this thread, noting that the Bulls have jumped from #105 to #84 in the CBS Sportsline rankings -- ahead of #90 Notre Dame. "Excuse my language, but this is pretty f***ing sweet," one poster writes. "We're finally out of the 3 digits."

(Buffalo being ahead of Notre Dame is okay, just so long as they stay safely behind USC. Last Saturday, when I was visiting with UB alum Vikki in Denver on the day that USC lost to Stanford and Buffalo crushed Ohio, we started musing about when was the last time UB won and USC lost on the same day. Vikki then got a little carried away -- I blame the Jaeger bombs -- and said something along the lines of, "You just wait, one of these days Buffalo will be ranked ahead of USC." To which I replied that, if that day ever comes, I will fly from whatever city I'm living in to whatever city Vikki is living in, and I'll take her out for a celebratory pub crawl and buy her drinks all night long. So, Buffalo getting ahead of USC would be a very expensive proposition for me. Heh.)

With the Toledo win following on the heels of (in Rittenberg's words) the "31-10 dismantling of preseason MAC East favorite Ohio" last Saturday, the Bulls now have their first two-game winning streak since 2001, with a chance to make it three -- and secure their first four-win season since joining Division I-A in 1999 -- when they visit Syracuse next week in a battle for Western New York supremacy.

More importantly, Buffalo is sitting in second place in the MAC East, tied in the loss column with Akron (2-1), who the Bulls host on October 27, and Bowling Green (1-1), who they host on November 17. All those teams are behind division leader Miami of Ohio (3-0), who Buffalo faces on the road on November 3. That'll be a tough game for UB, but the bottom line is that the Bulls have morphed into a legit MAC East contender, at least for now -- and they control their own destiny. Win out in conference (the other remaining game is at 1-2 Kent State on November 24), and Buffalo would play in the MAC championship game on December 1.

That's a long way off, and pondering possible bowl qualification is even further off (though I can't help but think that the International Bowl in nearby Toronto, which gets third pick from the MAC, would be an ideal fit for Buffalo if they were to do well enough to be considered). It would be unwise, methinks, for Bulls fans to get their hopes up too high; there's still plenty of opportunities ahead for the Bulls to suffer some "that's why you're Buffalo" moments, and finish the seaon disappointingly. But regardless of what happens next, what's clear already is that the Bulls are having a great season by UB standards, and Turner Gill is living up to the hype, steadily improving his team and building a worthwhile program. Way to go, Buffalo!

UPDATE/CORRECTION: According to a poster on ubfan.com, "because of the unbalanced division numbers only intradivisional games count, so UB is 2-0 for divisional standing purposes. The loss to Ball State doesn't count." Nor does the win over Toledo. So that means Buffalo is actually tied for first place in the division. Either way, they control their own destiny. And all four of the Bulls' remaining conference games will count.

UPDATE 2: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle columnist Bob Matthews is worried about the Bulls: "I've always thought that Syracuse, Buffalo and the University of Rochester would rank 1-2-3 in football in that order forever. Now I'm not so sure. Turner Gill's Buffalo Bulls program appears to be gaining on sagging Syracuse."

Meanwhile, the Buffalo News says UB "could contend for a MAC crown":

In a parity-filled, unpredictable college football season in which teams like South Florida, Kentucky, Boston College and Arizona State are positioning themselves to play for the national championship, Buffalo winning the MAC is not out of the question. Whatever happens, UB has already qualified as the biggest surprise in the MAC and Turner Gill as a coach-of-the-year candidate.

On the down side, the turmoil at Nebraska has raised fears that Gill's days could be numbered as UB's coach, if the Cornhuskers come calling.

MLB balks at Dodd's Fenway pitch

By Joe Loy

Yes, it's a swing and a miss for Chris  :).

Here's how eastern Connecticut's Journal Inquirer called the play  (emphases added :)

Major League Baseball has put a stop to U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd's raffle of two tickets to see the Boston Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians for the American League Championship.

Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and self-professed lifelong Red Sox fan, last week offered a chance at the coveted playoff tickets to supporters of his long-shot bid for the White House.

There were a couple of critical catches.

The first was that the winner had to sit in the seats next to Dodd's.

The other was that entrants had to either make a campaign contribution of $20.04, a number that represented the last time the Red Sox won the World Series three years ago, or recruit two dozen friends who would sign up on the Dodd campaign Web site.

The tickets were for Game 6 of the playoff series, and, if that didn't happen because the Sox eliminated the Indians, the winner could go to Game 2 of the World Series.

Should the Sox lose the playoffs, Dodd was promising the winner free airfare to Iowa or New Hampshire to join him on the campaign trail.

But Dodd spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said Friday that Major League Baseball had "scuttled" the plan...

Here's a Boston Globe take.  / The "Contribute" page linked from Chris's campaign website states:

"NOTE: The Chris Dodd Fenway Tickets contest is no longer active. Thank you."

:)

¡Viva Colombia!

By Brendan Loy

Bea and Andrew pose with the Colombian delegation at the Knoxville Hispanic Heritage Festival:

More pictures of the festival to come later. (Er, along with all the other sets of photos I keep promising to post, like from our Denver trip, our visit with Adrienne, the baby shower, my second Denver trip, etc.)

I love college football

By Brendan Loy

The thrill of victory...

...and the agony of defeat.

What a crazy, crazy, crazy season.

P.S. After the jump, my extremely unscientific, off-the-top-of-my-head Top 20.

Re. Damn. Diculous.

By Brendan Loy

#1 and #2 lose on the same day. Cal's hypothetical reign as the nation's top team lasted for less than three hours. New #1: Ohio State. New #2: South Freakin Florida. This season is insane.

UPDATE: I forgot that South Florida was jumped last week by Boston College and, in the coaches and Harris polls, Oklahoma. So they may only be #4, with BC #2 and OU #3 -- even though the Eagles haven't played anybody yet, and the Sooners have a loss (and their top wins, over Texas and Missouri, are less impressive than South Florida's top two, at Auburn and vs. West Virginia ... not to mention the hurt USF put today on UCF, a team that almost beat Texas itself).

BEAT! THE IRISH!

By Brendan Loy

Trojans barely survived Arizona. Phew. Meanwhile, Irish lost to BC. Now my attention turns to next week. Fight on USC!! Beat ND!! Elsewhere, UConn lost a heartbreaker, and Kentucky just upset LSU in OT! New #1: Cal? Or tOSU?

Football update

By David K.

While Brendan's away, the guestbloggers will play :D

USC pulled itself together in the 4th quarter to come away with a 20-13 win against Arizona. It wasn't pretty but a wins better than a loss. Sanchez played well in his first start, going 19/31 and a 130 yards including his first pass for a TD, but the two interceptions helped Arizona early on. Arizona's QB Tuitama was amazing through the air going 30/43 and 233 yards, but the Arizona ground game was non-existent and the Trojans were able to contain the Wildcat passing game in the 4th quarter to come back and win.

Notre Dame trails Boston College 27-14 with less than 6 minutes remaining in the fourth.

UPSET ALERT

#1 LSU and #17 Kentucky are tied going into overtime 27-27 after LSU missed a 57 yard field goal. Will we see ANOTHER number 1 team next week? #2 Cal is playing the unranked Beavers of Oregon State at home. #3 Ohio State easily won against Kent State, #4 Boston College leads Notre Dame, and #5 South Florida crushed Central Florida on Friday.

UPDATE

Boston College held on to beat Notre Dame 27-14.

LSU and Kentucky are going into a 3rd overtime. Both scored TD's in the first, and FG's in the second.

UPDATE 2
Kentucky beats LSU 43-37 in the third overtime.

Kentucky has twice before beaten a #1 team, the last time was in 1964.

WTF WTF WTF

By Brendan Loy

We're at the Foothills Fall Festival. Meanwhile, USC is at risk of losing its second straight at home to a Pac-10 bottom feeder. It's 13-10 Arizona, end of the third. Putting out an APB for Pete
Carroll Second-Half Magic. Haven't seen it in about a month.

Ugh... here we go again?

By Brendan Loy

Tied 10-10 at halftime. At home. Against Arizona. Who are these players and what have they done with my USC Trojans?? Also, BC leads ND 13-0, and Virginia leads UConn 14-6. But hey, Buffalo won! 43-33.

Lets go, Buffalo!!

By Brendan Loy

We're at the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Knoxville's Market Square. ... In football, Buffalo is beating Toledo, 36-19 at halftime! Will the Bulls improve to 3-1 in conference? Holy crap!!

Week 7

By Brendan Loy

Let the games begin!

GOOOO IRISH!! BEEEEAT EAGLES!!

FIGHT ON TROJANS!! BEAT THE WILDCATS!!

And, special BrendanLoy.com bonus bandwagon games: GO HUSKIES!! BEAT THE CAVS!! GO BUFFALO!! BEAT TOLEDO!!

Mizzou, UConn can earn respect on road

By Brendan Loy

A couple of college football's disrespected unbeaten teams have the opportunity to earn a "statement win" later today.

Missouri (5-0), ranked as high as #3 by the computers but just #11 in the polls, can change a lot of minds if they win at #6 Oklahoma (5-1) today. People will be watching: ESPN GameDay will be in Norman this morning, and the 6:30 PM game is nationally televised on Fox Sports Net. (Or not. Apparently the game will be preempted by hockey in some regions.) The Sooners are 12-point favorites. And, bad news for the Tigers: their leading rusher won't play.

Meanwhile, UConn, unranked despite being 5-0 because they haven't played anybody, might crack the Top 25 if they win at 5-1 Virginia today. (It's a 3:30 PM ESPNU game.) The oddsmakers, at least, seem to have a bit of respect for the Huskies; the Cavs are just 3-point favorites.

Personally, I figure that if there's ever a year when UConn, generally a basketball powerhouse and football nobody, can be a force in college football, it's gotta be the year when Kentucky, Kansas and Illinois are all in the top 20.

A day in the Smokies

By Brendan Loy

Andrew and Bea are in town, visiting us, and today we headed out to the Smoky Mountains:

We had fun. Here's a shot of me and Bea inside a corn crib at Cades Cove:

And here's a picture of Becky and the baby :) in front of the Smokies:

What has happened to Colt Brennan?

By Brendan Loy

Jeez. He looks like John David Booty out there!

UPDATE: On the other hand... hey, he led them to a comeback victory in overtime... so, that ain't so bad. Yeah, he had 4 interceptions, but he also had 4 touchdowns (plus a rushing TD!) and 545 yards passing on 44 of 75 attempts... LOL!

P.S. An interesting article relevant to the Warriors' BCS hopes: Hawaii's weak schedule is not its fault. See also this quote from WAC commissioner Karl Benson: "Hawaii was willing to open the season at Michigan. They talked to Nebraska, they talked to Southern Cal, West Virginia, Indiana. Hawaii was willing to go on the mainland to open the season against a high-profile opponent but didn't get any takers."

Thinking about LASIK? Read this first.

By Jay Johnson

I know tons of people that have had LASIK surgery, and pretty much everyone I know has had a very positive response to the procedure.  Their vision is greatly improved, and I've not really heard any of them complain of the complications noted in this article.

However, I can't help but think that there is always some reason to be concerned about undergoing an elective surgical procedure for something that can be remedied through a much less intrusive means.  I'm not a doctor, but when talking about something as important as my vision, I'm very hesitant to take any action that could jeopardize that.

The only reason I've ever felt the desire to think about LASIK is a long-term cost issue.  I'm astigmatic, so my contact lenses are quite a bit more expensive than those for just near/far sightedness.  From a pure economics standpoint, I'd save the $500 or so a year I spend on contacts and solution, and avoid the relatively minimal hassle associated with putting in and taking out my contacts each day.

Is that financial cost worth undergoing a procedure that could result in future long term problems with my eyes?  Right now, I don't think so.  I'll continue with the contacts for the time being, and wait for the long term impacts of LASIK to be fully understood (and for the procedures to continue to improve).

I know that this isn't necessarily the usual subject matter here, but I thought it was interesting, anyway.

That, and I don't want to end up like the now blind encrusted eyes of Ned Flanders in the "Bart to the Future" episode of "The Simpsons." (from which I unfortunately can't find a clip to post).

George Gipp, 9/11 mastermind

By Brendan Loy

Some of you may have heard already that the Gipp family recently exhumed George Gipp's body for some undisclosed reason involving "testing." Naturally, there is all sorts of speculation about this. Some people think it's an evil plot by Charlie Weis to help the Irish beat Boston College, perhaps by cloning a new team. But personally, I think the PostGame has discovered The Truth:

Follow this impeccable logic: Gipp inspired Rockne’s famous line from his deathbed, which was later reenacted by Ronald Reagan in a movie which made a star of the young Reagan, whose popularity as an actor was the main reason Americans elected him as governor of California in 1966 and president of the U.S. in 1980, whose administration later supplied financing, weapons, and training to Afghani opposition groups called the mujahedeen after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which enabled another financier named Osama Bin Laden to grow in power and also resulted in many of these trained rebels joining the extremist group Taliban, who are connected with the al-Qaeda organization (both run by Bin Laden), who were responsible for the terrorist attacks of Septemer 11, 2001.

Did you get all that? Unquestionably, George Gipp is responsible for 9/11! Obviously, he planned all of this from his deathbed. His family just made the connections and are exhuming his body for clues to his extremist Muslim sympathies.

Heh.

P.S. GOOOO IRISH!!! BEEEEAT FREDO!!!!

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

By Brendan Loy

This should have posted earlier this morning as a CNN Breaking News alert, but something didn't work right. Anyway... Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming.

Someone slap this woman

By JLR

Usually I try to ignore Ann Coulter, but I can't ignore this:

... Apparently we Jews need to be "perfected," and America would be better if we were all Christians.  (My favorite quote: "And Falwell himself said that."  Like Jerry Falwell is deserving of the moniker "Falwell himself"). 

Of course, Hitler also saw that Jews needed to be perfected too, but his version of perfection was forced-labor camps and gigantic ovens.

Sanchez to start for 'SC

By Brendan Loy

It's official: Mark Sanchez will start at quarterback in place of the injured John David Booty against Arizona on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Stanford's senior quarterback, T.C. Ostrander, is healthy again after missing last week's game due to the aftereffects from a seizure -- but he has nevertheless been replaced by Tavita Pritchard, the redshirt freshman/Czech supermodel/lesbian ceramics professor who led the Farm to victory over the mighty Trojans last week.

Poor guy. Ostrander picked the wrong damn time to have a seizure. Or perhaps the right damn time, from Stanford's perspective, if you believe the stars would have aligned differently and USC would have pulled out the win had Pritchard not been starting. Either way, you gotta feel at least a little bit bad for Ostrander.

Can Sanchez pull a Pritchard, and replace Booty permanently even if the latter gets healthy? Well, obviously it's impossible for him to lead the Trojans to an upset victory on the order of Stanford-over-USC (unless the New England Patriots have any open dates and can squeeze USC in), but even so, I have to believe that if Sanchez proves himself on the field, to the point where he looks signficantly more impressive in his start(s) than Booty has thus far this season (which shouldn't be that hard), Pete Carroll will let him keep the starting job, John David be damned. We shall see.

P.S. I missed it until yesterday, but Casey's post about the USC-Stanford game is pretty funny.

Brit predicts "intimate" relations with robots

By Brendan Loy

Someday, humans will marry robots, says a British researcher:

The University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is awarding a doctorate to a researcher who wrote a paper on marriages between humans and robots.

David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher at the college, wrote in his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," that trends in robotics and shifting attitudes on marriage are likely to result in sophisticated robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners.

The robots won't marry us for love... they'll marry us so they can eat our parents' medicine when we aren't looking!!!

36 hours in Tiger country

By Brendan Loy

Florida fan and college football blogger extraordinaire Orson Swindle, of Every Day Should Be Saturday fame, went to LSU's Tiger Stadium, a.k.a. "Death Valley," for the first time ever Saturday, and he wrote a great blog post about the experience. Money quote:

That voodoo’s real. When the “Four Corners Salute” gets cranking, it’s like listening to a 747 made entirely of fired clay crashing into a field of shattered glass. Getting a snap off effectively is in itself a game ball-worthy achievement. Combined with the orgy going on outside the stadium for five miles in any direction, it’s the gold standard for any other college gameday experience. Any of them. It is peerless in terms of demonstrated intensity, lunacy, commitment, flair, and menace. At several points in the day, we were convinced we were going to be killed, injected with creole butter, and thrown in a deep fryer…but only in the most festive and accommodating of ways, of course.

Heh.

AP, ESPN report breaking news... from January

By Brendan Loy

Everything old is new again in the Reggie Bush case, as the AP is breathlessly reporting that Reggie Bush and his family may have taken "nearly $280,000 in benefits" while at USC. ESPN is carrying this story on its homepage, with the headline, "Report: Bush received $280K in benefits at USC."

$280K!! OMG!! Only one problem: it's not actually news. The only new piece of information in Reggiegate is that wannabe agent Lloyd Lake may finally talk to the NCAA (as the L.A. Times and Yahoo! both reported Tuesday, and I blogged yesterday). But the details of what he'll say, including the $280,000 figure, are old news. Yahoo! first reported all that stuff back in January. (You might even recall that I blogged about it at the time.) Babies have been conceived, carried to term, and born since "Report: Bush received $280K in benefits at USC" was new, headline-worthy information.

Personally, I wouldn't trust Lloyd Lake anyway. He is, after all, "home to a variety of non-native, non-migratory birds." That means he's full of sh*t!

iPhones not bricked by Apple, but by bad code?

By Jay Johnson

Seems like the rush to judgment against Apple for bricking hacked iPhones with the latest iTunes update may have been premature and, well, completely inaccurate.

Some now disenchanted former members of the iPhone Dev Team (the team that created the hacks that unlocked the iPhone in the first place) are saying:

AnySIM and iUnlock were patched to make a routine exit with 0 (successful) to unlock the phone. Only problem was that that routine is NOT only called by NCK but rather by about six routines total. The other five didn't expect 00 to be there and were therefore spammed across your BB during upgrade. In short, the wrong bytes were patched and now you're all bricked. No, it wasn't Apple's fault. Rather than figure out how to fix this themselves, the iPhone Dev Team would rather work on jailbreaking the new 1.1.1 and keep accepting your donations. We want this fixed -- we want them to take responsibility for their bunk code.

Unfortunately if you want something done you've got to do it yourself. That's why we're here. We've got the 1.1.1 jailbreak and are actively trying to reverse the Dev Team's damage.

Hat tip: Finis Price, who summarizes the jargon thusly: "it means the original team's poor programming created the broken iPhones when Apple's 1.1.1 upgrade was installed and not Apple's upgrade itself. It also means there is hope for any[one] out there who unlocked his iPhone and cannot use it. ... So all of those 3rd party applications you previously had on your hacked iPhone are about to come back."

While I certainly understand that folks may want to use an iPhone on some other non-AT&T network, I don't have a lot of sympathy for folks who hacked their iPhones who might have bricks now.  The iPhone End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) seems to pretty clearly prohibit that kind of activity.  And, you signed on for it, so suck it up.

[NOTE: Second-to-last paragraph added by Brendan.]

This is a job for the Army

By JLR

Well, that's what the Marines are saying, anyway.

The spin given by the Corps is that the Army can take care of Iraq, but it's messing up in Afghanistan.  By sending in the Marines, at least they claim, the Marines can help fix up Afghanistan.

The other spin (that is, the antiwar spin) is that Iraq has gotten so bad that the Marines just want out.  I couldn't find a link on that, but I heard this argument on the Bill Press show this morning.

Was there an Armenian genocide?

By Brendan Loy

Of course there was. Will the U.S. Congress finally acknowledge it? That's a more complicated question. President Bush hopes the answer is no.

Fred Thompson doesn't care about the Constitution

By Brendan Loy

I didn't watch the GOP debate last night, but I was rather annoyed by the first line of Fred Thomspon's post-debate e-mail:

Yesterday, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani continued their partisan bickering, this time over things like the constitutionality of the line item veto. While they played politics, Fred Thompson rose above it and took his conservative, small government, tax cutting message straight to the American people.

Huh? Debating (during a debate) an important constitutional issue -- one that directly affects the president's job, no less -- is "partisan bickering" and "playing politics"? WTF? It would be different if Giuliani was questioning Romney's religion or Mitt was gabbing about Rudy's personal life, but disagreeing substantively about issues is not inherently a bad thing!!

This sort of dumbing-down of political discourse is really quite irritating. Just because people feel passionately about an issue doesn't necessarily mean they're "bickering" or "playing politics." Sometimes, "partisanship" is a good thing, and those who claim to "rise above it" are just sanctimoniously spouting vacuous nonsense. It's like what George F. Will said about the claim that Michael Bloomberg represents "post-partisanship": "If so—if he is not a partisan of any large, controversial causes—why is he needed?"

CNN Breaking News

By CNN

Two adults and three teens injured in high school shooting, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson says.

New Era rep to sue Bush, talk to NCAA

By Brendan Loy

As if this hasn't already been a bad enough week for USC, now comes word that the NCAA may finally be making progress in its investigation of Reggie Bush -- the probe that could potentially result in the forfeiture of USC's 2004 national championship, the Orwellian erasure of the Greatest Game Ever Played*, and perhaps even a retroactive nullification of one of the few bets I've ever won with Mike Tran.

Er, not that I'm rooting against the administration of justice, or anything. [whistles quietly]

Anyway, here's the full story. Excerpt:

One of the two would-be sports marketers who allegedly made improper payments to Reggie Bush while he was still at USC has agreed to meet with NCAA investigators and claims to have documentation of financial transactions between Bush and him, according to a source close to the investigation.

Lloyd Lake was also expected to file a civil lawsuit in San Diego this month. He will seek to recoup money allegedly given to Bush and his family and will ask for punitive damages, claiming the former Trojans tailback defrauded him in a deal to launch a sports marketing agency, the source said. ...

Some people close to him have contended that the young athlete and his parents were led astray by unscrupulous agents. Others have questioned the credibility of Lake, a former documented gang member and convicted felon. ...

If investigators find that Bush received improper benefits while playing for the Trojans during the 2004 or 2005 seasons, USC could be forced to forfeit games. The program could face further sanctions if it were proved that coaches or administrators knew or should have known about the alleged benefits.

Bush's status as the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner also could be in jeopardy.

Sounds like the investigation is finally getting what it's been missing for all these months: a little push. (Ahem.)

Anyway, stay tuned, as they say. In the mean time, my previous posts on Reggiegate can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

*until this game.

P.S. If the 2004 championship is indeed forfeited, I eagerly await LSU fans' "Zero-Pete" campaign.

More mild amusement from Craigslist

By Jay Johnson

This is a somewhat interesting iPhone story. 

Heh.

Leinart out for season

By Brendan Loy

Former USC star Matt Leinart, now of the Arizona Cardinals, will miss the rest of the season due to a broken collarbone.

Whether the injury will interfere with his ability to bed various celebrities has not been disclosed. :)

Speaking of the NFL, did you see that Cowboys-Bills game on Monday night? I only caught the ending (switching over right after the Yankees lost), but good lord, what a crazy ending it was. Indeed, it had to be nuttiest Monday Night Football game since Leinart's Cardinals almost beat the Super Bowl-bound, "they are who we thought they were" Bears. Anyway, you can watch the Dallas-Buffalo highlights on YouTube here.

Old UConn Law prof nabbed in thong wrong, slave rave

By Joe Loy

(Subhead:  Future Jurists Out Elder Egghead for Tart Tort, Servitude Support  :)

In a move rather surprisingly supported by the usually-liberal Hartford Courant, the University of Connecticut School of Law has placed on temporary leave-of-absence a professor of 36 years' (!!) tenure who, in class, (a) screened a case-related film that incidentally included footage of a thong-clad woman dancing, and (b) propounded politically-incorrect questions relating to reparations for slavery.   

Excerpts (emphases added) from the latter article (the one with the Lengthiest Link Language :) , dateline October 5:

The attorney for a University of Connecticut law professor criticized for showing a film clip that included a scene of a thong-clad woman dancing suggestively said Thursday that her client was simply showing an interview relevant to the course and did not intentionally show the dancer scene.

The professor, Robert L. Birmingham, agreed to take a leave of absence for the rest of the semester and apologized to students after he showed a clip from an R-rated version of a film called "Really, Really Pimpin' in Da South."

The clip included an interview of a pimp convicted in a court case called U.S. v. Pipkins. At the end of the interview, the scene switched to the scantily clad woman briefly before Birmingham pressed the button to freeze the film, upsetting some students, law school Dean Jeremy Paul said.

[Reports that the Chagrin of Some of said Upset students was due to their Frustration at being Frozen out of viewing the Remainder of the Thong scene, were Unconfirmed. / ~ the Guestblogger  :]

"We believe it is in the best interest of the university not to escalate the situation and would like only to say that Professor Birmingham showed a relevant interview in class," said Heather Kaufmann, Birmingham's attorney. "He stopped the film at the completion of the interview. Period. The suggestion that the questionable material was shown intentionally is both troubling and dishonest."

...Several students complained about the film clip, and the issue soon became the talk on campus. This prompted the dean to hold a campuswide forum  [well of Course; what Else? / ~ the Guestblogger ;] ,  at which many students spoke in support of Birmingham, a UConn professor since 1971 known as a provocative lecturer and iconoclastic thinker.

The dean, who is investigating the matter further, said he is trying to strike a balance between academic freedom and efforts to foster an inclusive, welcoming campus.

Hey I got a good idea, Dean ol' buddy: how's about further Investigating what's the Matter with Fostering a Campus which veryinclusively Welcomes Everybody's academic Freedom?  / I mean, if Columbia can somehow contrive to survive the jihad of Ahmadinejad , can UConn not stand to String along with a freeze-framed Thong?  :>  And even tolerate a rigorous exploration ~ in "Remedies" class, mind you ~ of the basis for proposed Reparations?

Read the whole Oct. 5 thing; and the preceding day's piece too; and the Oct. 10 spineless editorial.

Bah. / And here we call ourselves The Constitution State. Phooey.

College football game of the day, 10/6/07

By Brendan Loy

Hint: it wasn't USC-Stanford. Would you believe... Akron-Western Michigan?

Come to think of it, that ending was rather remiscent of another game involving Stanford, back in the day.

AOL FanHouse calls it "The Kalamazoo Kalamity." Sunday Morning QB quotes a local newspaper article explaining the whole story of what happened:

Bill Cubit walked in, smacked his hat on the table, sat down and stared. For about five minutes Saturday night, Western Michigan University's football coach didn't raise his eyes from the table in the postgame interview room in the bowels of Waldo Stadium.

Cubit needed time to digest what had just taken place.

Moments earlier, he must have figured he'd be talking about his team's third straight win and an impressive second half against a surprisingly game Akron program.

Instead, the Broncos' coach had to relive a heart-wrenching 39-38 defeat, one that appeared certain to be a victory with a few seconds remaining.

"Obviously, it was just unbelievable," Cubit finally began. "I don't know what else to say."

With a 38-31 lead and time winding down, WMU (2-4) elected to take a safety on fourth down with 15 seconds remaining rather than chance a traditional punt.

Akron's Alphonso Owen took the free kick from Broncos punter Jim Laney at the 11-yard line and began upfield. In the grasp of WMU's Boston McCornell at about the 25-yard line, Owen found teammate Andre Jones streaking up the left sideline.

Jones grabbed the short lateral and reversed field, beating WMU's coverage deep into Broncos territory before slipping past C.J. Wilson at the 5-yard line and ducking into the end zone for the victory after time had expired.

Like I said: weird, wild stuff.

Literally Lieberman

By Brendan Loy

Some people say Joe Lieberman is not liberal enough. I say he's not literal enough!

The Yankees Lose! The Yankees Lose!

By JLR

Forgive me whilst I gloat over this. 

Next Round--Indians and Red Sox // Rockies and Diamondbacks.

Let's go Sawx!

11/22/63. 1/28/86. 9/11/01. 10/6/07.

By Andrew Long

A few thoughts on one of the most disastrous occasions for a Trojan in living memory....

1. Despite the provocative title, while I think this is definitely the worst loss in USC football history, I believe the Michigan loss to Appalachian State was even more ignoble and pathetic.  Michigan is the winningest program in collegiate football, was considered a strong national title contender, and lost to a "Hot, Hot, Hot" I-AA team with the lamest school promo video ever aired and which recruits kids from towns whose church leaders handle snakes. 

As bad as Stanford is, they are a longstanding, hated rival of USC, they play us every year and are very familiar with our schemes and plays, and despite how horrible they have been the past few years, they still recruit classes ranked anywhere from 25-50 and regularly send players to the NFL (the League currently has 20 from the Farm).

2. I heard two things at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday evening that surprised me at first... but then made total sense.  The first surprise came after USC failed to score at the end of the first half despite two tries from the one-yard line.  A few scattered boos rained down from the crowd, and after a couple seconds, built into a modest crescendo.  USC fans, booing their own team???

Predictably, an even greater number of USC fans booed lustily as the USC fans immediately ran off the field into the tunnel.  But the second surprise came as Bea and I moved to the aisle and were held up until some of the crowd could clear.  It took a few minutes to make any progress whatsoever down the Coliseum's upper reaches, and just before we started moving, I heard clapping.  Not just a few people here and there either -- but virtually an entire section of USC fans around the tunnel at the east end of the Coliseum, as the Stanford players and coaches jubilantly walked, skipped, and jogged back to their locker room.

While I refrained from the booing, I couldn't help but join in the clapping.  And I've been pondering ever since just why that was so.  As for the boo-birds, the fact is, I feel the booing was completely justified.  While I couldn't bring myself to boo anything USC-related not named Paul Hackett or O.J. Simpson, like my fellow fans that night, I couldn't handle the sight of a team that played lethargically in Seattle and barely escaped a completely outmatched Washington Huskies team (unfortunately, I saw that disgraceful performance live as well), only to turn around and pathetically play even worse against the Stanford Cardinal and flat-out give the game away.  Few things are as angering as spending upwards of $60 for a ticket to watch the team you love -- one that is full of ridiculous talent and led by an amazing coach -- drop easy pass after easy pass, refuse to block rushers, make mental mistake after dumb penalty after mental mistake, and throw interceptions at the worst possible moments.  If Stanford actually outplayed us in any facet of the game save for playing with some heart and focus, I could forgive the loss, but the fact is Stanford had nothing to be proud of on that stat sheet except what showed on the scoreboard.

Yet the emotion that rose up in the fans and twice turned much of the Coliseum into a disgruntled flock of boo-birds is the same reason many of us who were still around clapped for the hated Cardinal players as they ran off the field.  The Stanford band may be the ultimate disgrace, and goddamn that ridiculous, loser tree of a mascot, but those Cardinal players showed guts, focus, heart, and a refuse-to-lose attitude all because of a crazy, wacky coach believed in his players and made them believe in themselves.  I'd trade half the talent on the USC roster for a few ounces of the character that Stanford team showed that night, and the clapping from my fellow Trojans showed I wasn't the only one who felt that way.  The claps also showed that USC fans, in addition to having high standards and expectations for their team, can still display class to hated rivals even in the midst of utter humiliation -- something some other tradition-rich fans completely lack (fUTLA has neither tradition nor class, and this is true of most of USC's regular opponents save U-Dub and Notre Dame).  The Stanford players just deserved a hand, that's all there is to say.

3. John David Booty must be benched this week.  In no way am I pinning the blame for the loss solely on Booty -- as alluded to above, virtually everyone on the team made critical mistakes -- but it's apparent JDB just doesn't have that special moxie that's needed to pull a team out of a funk and will it on to victory.  Actually, when it comes to lack of focus and heart, Booty not only isn't part of the solution, he is part of the problem.  It's no coincidence that in the past two games which USC has looked horrible, Booty has thrown seven interceptions (one of them in the end zone, against Washington, was overturned on review).  Teams rally to the quarterback, but this team simply doesn't rally to John David Booty.  And really, it shouldn't be any surprise that this Evangel Christian star turned into a bust like the rest of his highly-coveted high-school predecessors.  You don't have to be a great quarterback to win a national title -- see: Chris Leak, Florida, 2006 -- but if you're not a college phenom QB, you do have to command the fierce, outspoken loyalty of your team. And Booty clearly does not carry that type of swagger.

4. That being said, Pete Carroll has still backs Booty as his starter, if he is healthy enough to play this coming Saturday. Still, I say that, with or without Booty as our starting QB, I'll be shocked if we lose another game.  It is simply inconceivable we'll come out this flat against ASU, Cal, Notre Dame, fUTLA, Oregon State, or Oregon. And while the team obviously didn't learn its lesson after sleepwalking through the U-Dub game, I have to bet that the slap to their face this past Saturday finally woke them up.  Indeed, if I'm PC, I'm handing out t-shirts to everyone on the team this week with big, bold letters that proclaim, "I LOST TO FREAKIN' STANFORD!"  The players should be forced to wear those shirts for the rest of the season under their jerseys, in practice, and in the games.

As for the chicken-littles who want to doubt USC and think we're in deep, deep trouble, I call bullsh*t.  Stats don't win games, but they do speak to certain truths, and the truth is there isn't a team on our schedule that can hang with us when we're not beating ourselves.  Really, who here wants to put their money where their mouth is and bet against the Trojans in Berkeley, in Eugene, or in Tempe?  I'll take that bet from each and every one of you, straight up.  Despite three turnovers, Stanford couldn't muster 100 yards on these Trojans through the first three quarters, and penalties (some stupid, some wrongly called) were the only reason Washington could keep a couple of drives alive against the Trojans.  I'm not expecting USC to suddenly put it all together and play stellar for each of the next seven games, but no way do they have that many dropped passes, that many penalties, that many missed blocking assignments, and that many turnovers.  Factor in getting some key starters back on our offensive line and on our defense, and we're definitely due for a breakthrough.

5. Bitch about the polls all you want, but the reason USC is ranked 10 in one poll and 7 in the other is due mostly to the fact that, despite how badly USC killed itself, it barely lost this game, and most of the pollsters just couldn't bring themselves to agree that there were more than six-to-nine teams that could beat USC if they played tomorrow.  Few things are as predictable and as lame as whining about the placement of one-loss teams six weeks into the season.  Words like "travesty" and "injustice" should be saved for the last couple of weeks of polling, when there are enough games played that more valid, unbiased comparisons can be made.  I can't help but point out that at this point in the season, even the recently-revered Stewart Mandel ranked South Carolina behind Georgia ... two weeks in a row, after the Gamecocks handled the Bulldogs in Athens and then lost a brutally tough game in Baton Rouge to the now-unanimous #1 team.

My point is simple: If you can find a rational AP or Coaches' ballot that lacks an obvious head-scratcher, you're obviously not paying attention.

For those who missed it yesterday...

By Brendan Loy

...be sure to enter the Irish Trojan Baby Pool!

(This post will stay on top all day. New posts will appear below it.)

I can't escape the Stanford loss

By Brendan Loy

Trying to get away from this whole miserable college-football thing (I didn't mean that, football gods! I'm sorry!), I decided to read up on some politics before I go to bed. So I clicked over to this Weekly Standard article about whether Rudy Giuliani is really the most electable Republican. And how does the article end?

FOOTNOTE: USC, ranked second in the county, with a 35-game home winning streak, was a 41-point favorite over Stanford Saturday night. Stanford won, 24 to 23. Obama can beat Hillary.

Damn you, Bill Kristol. Damn you.

(Who ever would have figured Kristol for a Tree-hugger?)

By the way, the article's most glaring error -- one so glaring that it's almost useless, really -- is that it doesn't talk at all about the system by which the President of the United States is actually chosen: the Electoral College. Who cares what each potential candidate's popular-vote margin would be? The state-by-state races are the only thing that matters! And when we're talking about the potential electability of a Republican candidate from New York, it's a decidedly non-trivial point.

Three charged in Memphis murder

By Brendan Loy

Three men were charged Monday in the murder last week of a University of Memphis football player.

Butter is a celebrity

By Brendan Loy

Butter (the cat, not the dairy product) made it onto This Week in Schadenfreude, a weekly college-football feature on AOL FanHouse by MGoBlog's Brian Cook (who, after all, invented the idea of using kittens to lament a devastating loss). Heh.

University of Schadenfreude Central

By Brendan Loy

Like Michigan-Appalachian State before it, Stanford's upset win over USC was so monumental -- and the Trojans, like the Wolverines, are so widely hated by other college football fans -- that the news of the final score spurred waves of schadenfreude in stadiums, sports bars and living rooms around the country, by fans of random teams ostensibly unconnected to a game between the Trojans and the Farm. Indeed, as I wrote yesterday, it extended to fans of other sports, as I learned while walking, with my USC sweatshirt on, through the jubilant crowd leaving Coors Field after the Rockies beat the Phillies. In baseball.

The reaction at Tiger Stadium, where LSU was in the home stretch of its most crucial regular-season game at the time, was much more intense than a bit of heckling on Denver's Market Street. It was televised on CBS; I'm still trying to find a video of it online (aside from this YouTube home movie, which doesn't show the actual moment when the crowd exploded in celebration), but Every Day Should Be Saturday summarized it thusly: "In case you don’t know what a bomb sounds like when it goes off, it’s Tiger Stadium when a USC defeat is announced." Bob Tompkins of Louisiana Gazette News said it "was as if a jet buzzed the stadium." He also noted that "the Tigers were jumping up and down and waving from the sidelines."

LSU fans have ample reason to hate USC*, plus the Trojans' loss made them the undisputed #1 team in the country**, so it's no surprise they went nuts at the news that the Trojans had lost. But you'd have to think, if there's any place in the country where the news of Stanford beating USC would really spark some joyful celebration, it'd be the Rose Bowl, where -- of all possible combinations -- freakin' UCLA was playing freakin' Notre Dame at the time. And you'd be right:

Just an hour before a sizable portion of the 78,543 fans in attendance started filing out in defeat, the Rose Bowl was rocking and rolling with the news from 16 miles away that those hated Southern California Trojans had been upset by Stanford. I'm not sure how everybody in the crowd knew -- radios, I guess -- but the moment Stanford scored the winning touchdown a loud roar filled the air, and it was so deep and out of nowhere that the UCLA and Notre Dame players seemed genuinely confused, unaware of the shocker until it was later relayed by the public-address announcer to another loud ovation.

"SC sucks! SC sucks!"

I have to imagine it wasn't just the UCLA fans chanting that. It was presumably the one thing Irish and Bruin fans could agree on. [UPDATE: Her Loyal Sons confirms this: "One of the most fun/funny moments in the game was when the USC-Stanford score was announced. UCLA doesn't love Notre Dame. Nor does ND have a love affair for the Bruins. But both sets of fans are united in their common loathing of USC. And that showed just after the Stanford upset was announced... Both teams cheering like they were going to pull in a W, when only one was."]

And like at LSU, even the players (at least on the Bruin side) got into the act: "Guys on the UCLA sideline waved towels" after the PA announcement. Too bad they then proceeded to lose to a previously winless team for the second time this season. But hey, why take pride in your own football program when you can make fun of your rivals for losing their seventh game out of the last 70? Yup, 'SC sure sucks all right!

On an unrelated note: "radios, I guess"? Has Gary Parrish never heard of cell phones?

Anyway, while I may sound slightly bitter, I actually find these celebrations rather amusing, so if you know of any links to good videos of 'em, please pass 'em along. I've love, in a masochistic sort of way, to see them. Speaking of which, here's a brief video of the Rose Bowl reaction. Again, alas, it starts just after the crowd begins going nuts. Same thing with this video clip.

Oh, and speaking of video clips, one final note. Watching football games on Versus is always a bit painful -- they should really stuck to hockey -- but after announcer Ron Thulin's call of Stanford's winning touchdown, the network really ought to lose its broadcasting license, or at least have its press credentials for all college football games permanently revoked. "Touchdown USC!"?!? Are you freaking serious?!?

Think about this for a second. You're Ron Thulin. You have the chance, by pure dumb luck, to lend your voice to one of the greatest upsets in the history of college football. And you mix up the names of the teams on the deciding play of the game. Holy freaking crap. I understand it's a very exciting moment, but good God, that's a truly colossal screw-up. (Not to mention analyst Kelly Stouffer following up Thulin's gaffe with the bold prediction that Stanford will "go for the tie," not the two-point conversion and the win, even though they had already tied it and the extra point was enough to win it.)

Anybody got the radio call?

*Wait, actually, no, LSU fans don't have ample reason to hate USC! They freakin' WON the 2003-04 BCS championship, whereas the Trojans got gypped out of a spot in the title game ... so really, they're a bunch of whining crybabies, not even sore losers but sore winners ... and hypocrites to boot, since they continue to self-righteously bitch and moan about the injustice of the "one-peat" even though they unquestionable would have called themselves champions just like USC did if they'd won an AP title under identical circumstances ... but that's another post for another day.

**Not that it really mattered, considering both teams were clearly going to the BCS title game if they'd gone undefeated..

Baby pool!

By JLR

As loyal readers of the Irish Trojan, we know that he is soon to become a daddy.  In fact, mommy-to-be Becky officially starts her third trimester today!  So, in the spirit of the Brendansphere, it's only reasonable that we have some sort of contest. (And yes, I have permission of the mommy- and daddy-to-be to do this!)

Here's how it will work.  Submit, in comments on this post, your guess for when Becky will have the baby.  (Remember, she's due on New Year's Eve.)  The winner will be selected based on whomever is closest to the exact day, hour, and minute.  If there is a tie, the tiebreaking categories will be weight and length of the little one (weight is the first tiebreaker, length is the second tiebreaker).

In other words, just submit your guesses like this:

Date:
Time: (hour & minute)*
Weight: (in pounds)
Length: (in inches)

*Please note: "Time" is based on wherever Becky is when she has the baby--the local time of the city that the kid is born in.  You pick the time, the mommy (or the baby) chooses the time zone.

Please include a name or at least a pseudonym, so we know whom to congratulate once the baby is born ... other than the parents, that is.

Naturally, if we're going to have a contest, it's only right that we give the winner something.  Therefore the winner will get the exact same amount that s/he would get from any other pool on this website: bragging rights. :-)

Good luck!

PS: This post is for well-wishers only.  If you have something else to say, or perhaps something negative to say about the baby, your post will be deleted and you will be removed from the site.  This is your first, last, and only warning.

Weird, wild stuff

By Brendan Loy

Returning again to Josh's Saturday-night question -- "What sort of crazy world is this?" -- ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach takes a look at just how nutty the college-football landscape has become:

• Of the 25 teams ranked in the preseason AP poll, 10 teams now are unranked. ...

• Seven of the top 15 teams in this week's AP top 25 poll were unranked in the preseason: No. 4 Boston College, No. 5 South Florida, No. 7 South Carolina, No. 9 Oregon, No. 11 Missouri, No. 14 Arizona State and No. 15 Cincinnati.

• Second-ranked California, Boston College, South Florida and Cincinnati are ranked higher than they've ever been ranked before. Missouri has its highest ranking since 1981, and No. 20 Kansas is ranked for the first time since 1995.

• Seven of the 10 remaining unbeaten teams in major college football were unranked in the preseason. LSU, Ohio State and Hawaii are the only undefeated teams left from the preseason top 25. The other unbeatens: Arizona State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri and South Florida, which didn't even play football a dozen years ago.

I'll add one more: right now, it looks like my mom's alma mater, Illinois, has a better chance of making it to the Rose Bowl than my alma mater, USC.

Craziness, utter craziness.

Speaking of craziness, FanNation.com takes a look at whether USC-Stanford was the biggest upset ever. As I mentioned previously, this is the third time this season we're having this discussion. Michigan-App State, Louisville-Syracuse, and now USC-Stanford. (I will NOT, however, be saying anything along the lines of, "Stanford is hot! hot! hot!"*)

I must ask again: how many more milestone games can college football possibly give us? Not just this season, but the last three seasons, have been redonkulous! The idea that a 10-10 tie between Notre Dame and Michigan State was once considered a "game of the century" gives you an idea of how much more supercharged the excitement of this sport has become in the modern era. Although I'm obviously not happy about this latest milestone, the overall effect of the last few years reminds me of Joe Buck's call of Mark McGwire's 70th home run: "How much more can you give us, Big Mac?!?" I feel like asking the same question of the college-football gods!

In other football-related news, commenter Ken has stepped boldly into the breach and posted unofficial pick 'em contest results for the USC and ND contests. I'm still trying to find that spreadsheet, so I can't vouch for 'em, but I have no reason to believe they're wrong. Anyway, thanks, Ken!

*Oh wait, I just did. Dammit.

P.S. Oh, and while I think of it, I've been meaning to ask:

Vizu.com: Opinion Polls & Market Research

UPDATE: Boi From Troy asks whether the Trojans should bench John David Booty next week against Arizona. He weighs the pros and cons, and comes out "fifty-fifty." I'm in roughly the same boat. But what I find most interesting about Boi's post is this line: "Arizona is a must-win game if USC is to become Bowl-eligible." Really? Is that how low we've sunk, how much expectations have dropped, that we're now fretting about becoming bowl-eligible?

Let's think about this rationally for a second. It's entirely possible USC could lose to Cal, Oregon and Arizona State, but that would still be only four losses; we'd need to lose three more to be bowl-ineligible. Sitting at 4-1, with home games left against Arizona, Oregon State and UCLA and a trip to Notre Dame, I feel pretty confident we can pick up two more wins, for heaven's sake. USC is overrated, but not that overrated.

(That said, obviously if we play as poorly as we did against Stanford, we'll lose every game o