In more evidence of the growing popularity of USC’s undergraduate programs, the university recently was ranked in the top 10 “dream colleges” based on a Princeton Review survey of college applicants.
FIGHT ON!
UCLA has hired Rick Neuheisel as its new football coach, replacing Karl Dorrell.
UCLA people love this guy. They’ve been blowing Neuheisel’s meat whistle ever since the announcement.
As a USC man, I say this: Great hire!
Neuheisel will fail for all of the reasons listed here. Excerpt: “Neuheisel’s one great genius turns out to be his ability to make people think he’s a genius.”
FIGHT ON!
The conventional wisdom in recent years has been that USC has trouble defending spread offenses and mobile quarterbacks, like Illinois’ Juice Williams.
I’m not sure that’s true. They’ve had trouble defending some mobile quarterbacks — Vince Young, Dennis Dixon — but so has every other team in the country.
We took it to a real personal nature because we wanted to figure the spread-thing out, defend it really well and take the mystery out of it. We practiced so beautifully that it had to work out well. That’s a big deal. A really big deal.
FIGHT ON!
My son and I stopped by the USC Store at South Coast Plaza today. As you might expect, it was packed with people buying Christmas gifts, Rose Bowl gear and other branded merchandise.
I wonder what a UCLA Store would look like, if there were a UCLA Store. A handful of angry, miserable people milling about, checking out the Las Vegas Bowl runner-up merchandise.
FIGHT ON!
The USC women’s soccer team capped off its history-making season with one last huge feat — the NCAA Championship. The second-seeded Women of Troy tacked up their fifth shutout of the NCAA Tournament — an accomplishment never before achieved — with a 2-0 decision over third-seeded Florida State in the NCAA title match on Sunday afternoon at Aggie Soccer Complex in College Station, Texas.
FIGHT ON!
Regarding the negotiations to keep USC football in the Coliseum, Scott Wolf writes:
USC’s Coliseum negotiations website implores fans to attend today’s commission meeting. It’s part of USC’s public-relations strategy to get the public to express outrage. So far, that ploy’s resulted in death threats against commission member Bill Chadwick and general manager Pat Lynch.
A USC official just shrugged his shoulders at that little byproduct of the negotiations.
Let’s see if I understand the cause and effect here. Encouraging people to attend a committee meeting resulted in death threats?
OK, that’s understandable . . . I hate meetings myself.
USC coach Pete Carroll and UCLA assistant Eric Scott were both at Thursday’s Crenshaw game.
Interesting . . . I would have thought Eric Scott would be out robbing the houses of people attending the Crenshaw game . . .
FIGHT ON!
This is the best email I’ve had all week. Let me preface it by saying that I don’t know the sender, so I changed her name to protect the “innocent.”
From: anne sexton [mailto:annie-s@hotmail.com]
Subject: Teacher?Only in Southern California could someone so woefully ignorant be a teacher.
Your childish clinging to some 1950’s idea of masculinity in order to bolster your own ego is pathetic, and the sad thing is, you’re teaching your son to be equally disrespectful. Wow. Nice parenting. In short, I’m sorry you have a small dick. It doesn’t give you the right to disrespect women.
Oh, And GO BEARS, mother fucker.
Love,
Anne Sexton
PhD candidate in English, UC Berkeley (ranked #1 in the world for their English program. Where’s USC ranked?)
Sweet! Here’s my reply:
Hi Anne -
You sound very angry about something but I’m not sure what.
I don’t know where the USC English program is ranked but I know where the football team is ranked! #1, BABY! FIGHT ON, TROJANS! See you Nov. 10 for another beating!
Also, I’m pretty sure “motherfucker” is one word, not two, Miss “#1 in the world” English program.
Love,
Paul
P.S. Send a picture!
The Orange County Register has an update on last week’s arrest of UCLA assistant football coach Eric Scott on suspicion of felony burglary:
UCLA officials said Monday that the background check on receivers coach Eric Scott was conducted by the university and not an outside agency, as previously stated.
But, again, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and Coach Karl Dorrell were unaware that Scott had been arrested four times between 1996 and 2005.
The Bruins coach, who was arrested for a fifth time last week on a charge of residential burglary, previously had pleaded guilty or was convicted of misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon in 2005 and misdemeanor disturbing the peace in 2002.
OOPSIE!
UCLA: University of Coaches Looting Apartments.
Coach Scott is on administrative leave at this time. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions regarding his guilt or innocence based strictly on his extensive list of priors.
One thing you can’t help noticing in spending a day at LACMA, what with the proximity to West Hollywood and all, is that gay guys really like art.
I mentioned that to my son and his response was “Case in point: you,” which wasn’t very nice.
He’s not much of an art lover . . . I admit that I occasionally drag him along to an art museum, because I feel like he should know at least a little bit about it whether he likes it or not.
On our way back to Orange County — in keeping with my mission of introducing the boy to the finer things in life — we stopped off at the original Tommy’s stand at Beverly and Rampart, not only an L.A. landmark, but a favorite of USC students for decades, where you can still get — as the boy did — a double chili cheeseburger, fries and a drink for $5.40.
Apologies to Pete Townshend, but I’d call that a bargain!
From Scott Wolf Inside USC:
In 1926, MGM called USC and sent actress Greta Garbo down to pose for some publicity photos with the track team.
Garbo initially refused until MGM deducted $25 from her salary, which convinced her to head to campus and don a USC track singlet.
I thought the corniest thing I’d ever heard when I got here was when they kept talking about this family that we had and I’d been at several other universities and I said, look they’re all the same. But they really believe it, they mean it and they live it and I’ve gotten caught up in that and the traditions and the band and I really don’t want to coach anyplace else. This is where I’d like to finish my career.
Fight On!
This photo somehow escaped my attention over the year or so since The M Zone first published it.
One of the subjects in the photo is a large, flightless bird with shaggy plumage.
The other is an emu.
(Actually, the chap on the right is incoming Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen.)
Brady Quinn and the rest of the Irish seniors wrapped up their college careers by doing what they do best: losing every big game they play, most of them badly. It was the ninth consecutive bowl loss for Notre Dame, setting a new NCAA record for ineptitude.
Thank God they locked up Charlie Weis for 10 years, huh? As recently as last week, Weis was assuring everyone that he plans to be at Notre Dame for the duration. More of a threat than a promise at this point . . .
See Also: How to be a Notre Dame Fan
So much for the Wolverines’ “We should have been in the National Championship game” argument.
Kudos to J.D. Booty (391 yards, 4 TDs), who took a lot of criticism this season, had a mediocre first half, including a fumble, then came back after halftime and took over the game.
I got some delayed gloating from a UCLA grad about denying USC a national championship shot. Let’s keep it simple: either you’re good enough to win a national championship or you’re not. The Trojans lost to Oregon State and UCLA. They weren’t good enough.
Still, it’s better to go to the Rose Bowl and win it than to go to the Emerald Bowl and get your rear ends kicked by the 8th-place ACC team.
And the victory over USC may be a mixed blessing for Bruin fans, who will now likely be stuck with Karl Dorrell for at least one more season.
FIGHT ON!
I was mathematically eliminated from college bowl pick ‘em at the office with 13 games left. The leader — an Indian gentleman — is 15-2. I’m 11-6, but there are only three games left where he and I picked a different winner.
At least I’m ahead of the woman who picked the games based on which of the mascots would win in a fight.
If I’d won the thing, I probably wouldn’t mention that I actually let my son pick the games, my only rule being that he had to pick USC in the Rose Bowl . . .
As I sat in Northwood Pizza last night with my son’s roller hockey team, watching the last few minutes of Florida State’s 44-27 drubbing of UCLA, I was reminded of chess grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch, who once, after losing a match, climbed on a table and shouted
Why must I lose to this idiot?
FIGHT ON!
Before BYU’s 38-8 pasting of Oregon in last night’s Las Vegas Bowl, ESPN ran a feature on how the Oregon players and coaches work with Nike to design those gawd-awful uniforms.
Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ on a moped, how fruity is that?! Why not change the team name from the Ducks to the Battling Halstons? Then they go out and get waxed by a Mountain West team — that’s got be great for recruiting!
Hey boys, if you want to be fashion designers, sashay on up to Eugene, Oregon!
I’m a proud USC alum, but if I ever hear Pete Carroll talking about threads per inch, I swear to god I’m going to renounce my allegiance . . .
