I will be on a brief hiatus and will be posting very lightly. Should be able to resume normal posting by mid-January.

Note: I wrote this as a comment on a blog, but I thought it justified itself as a post so here it is …

Why has no one shouted out the fact that Florida, while beating several top ranked teams, has also wins against cupcakes like UCF, West Carolina and Vanderbilt!!

UCF: 4-8, West Carolina: 2-10, Vandebilt: 4-8

I think if Florida had played some real opposition in those three games, they may not have managed to win against those “tough” SEC opponents.

And the other “strong” SEC team, LSU played, among others, Tulane, Fresno State, Mississippi State and Mississippi. Tulane had 4 wins, Mississippi State had 3 wins, Fresno State had 4 wins, Ole Miss had 4 wins!

It is quite sad that everyone is getting washed under this Florida and SEC hype and voting Florida #2 just because they do not want to see Michigan at #2. The SEC was NOT strong this year.

USC on the other hand had opponents with at least 6 wins (except Stanford), most of the opponents being ranked in the top 25 at some point in the season.

Is a two-loss USC which played quality opponents better than a one-loss Florida which played cupcakes?

Reggie Bush finally had his break out game. Finally because it was only a matter of time.

Sadly though, it happened against my 49ers team. But in a way it was good, because we had the game live on TV here!

I think he should have had his 5th TD … who can keep up with him when he has already hit his speed? He should not have bothered to look behind and just went full speed down to the end zone. Oh well.

I deliberately did not post right after the loss because I was quite angry. It was a heart-breaking loss. It was a semi final type of situation - win and go to the National Championship. But it was not to be.

Several things disturbed me during the game:

1. USC for some reason, after a VERY long time, seemed to have no spine. It was like they were there for some ordinary game that had no bearing on their lives at all.
2. Pete Carroll kept pushing the fact that the ucla defense was extremely fast and that USC was going to have a tough time beating them. But hey, he did not seem to understand 5 other teams had beaten ucla already!
3. Bringing up weird dreams of the last time USC played there, the offense failed to convert quite a few short yardage situations.
4. Could Pete Carroll have always wanted to play at the Rose Bowl in a BCS game? Just to end his USC career with a win at the Rose Bowl? Could he be going to the Arizona Cardinals?

Of all these things, I don’t know which one concerns me the most. I would say, PC leaving would be the most concerning to me. He would take away the energy, the motivational success, and most importantly, the recruiting power, with him.

And the second most concerning factor is that lack of a fight from USC in the second half especially.

Ok you bruins, you get the bragging rights for a year. See you same time next year!

I continue to have trouble upgrading to the new blogger. Sucks. I click on the link provided to me, and it tells me after I sign in with my blogger ID that I cannot switch yet.

Sucks!

So much USC’s rebuilding year. After losing a bunch (huge one!) of studs last year to the NFL, this year USC was supposed to hang in there and maybe go to some nice bowl.

What has ended up happening is an unbelievable thing (well, believable nowadays of course). USC is a lock for one BCS Bowl, the Rose Bowl which takes the Pac-10 champion.

USC is the Pac-10 champion already.

USC can beat ucla and stake a claim to go to the BCS National Championship.

USC “survived” the year with one loss so far, with one game to go.

USC took the majority of All Pac-10 team honors, including the Pac-10 coach of the year for Pete Carroll.

With two games remaining in the schedule, USC knew the worst it could do is go to the Rose Bowl and if they won the last two, they could possibly go to the National Championship game. To lock up the Pac-10 title with two games to go is a fantastic feat.

USC went unbeaten at home this season.

Yea, this is the rebuilding year. They have only 4 senior starters. Provided they don’t lose too many juniors to the NFL draft, it is going to be much more experienced next year and I can’t imagine what they would be able to achieve next year.

Mr. November is now unbeaten in the most crucial month of the college football season. Pete Carroll (now 20-0) won the ‘something must give’ in the game yesterday because Charlie Weis was also unbeaten (7-0) in November.

I know this streak will also end someday, but till then, we can only drop our jaw and think ‘wow’.

Seeing the game yesterday made me very happy, but at the same time I started thinking, is Notre Dame really as good as it was made out to be? If yes, then it makes USC even better than what it has been made out to be.

But what if Notre Dame was really overrated and its boosters had just unjustifiably made them ranked so high at the beginning? What if Notre Dame was not that good?

I don’t care at the end, of course. USC beat one of its biggest rivals and that too handily. If not for Booty’s 2 INT’s, the blocked punt and that one freakish run by Brady Quinn, this would have been a flawless night.

The offense did seem like it was working like a well-oiled machine, the defense has really come up in the last few games and the special teams showed up too (way to go, Cushing!).

Ok, so now it is down to the last regular season game with another big rival who is doing not that well. ucla in Pasadena. I am not as tense as I was for the Notre Dame game, but I just hope there is no over confidence and complacency in the USC team and the “looking ahead” mentality. They do need to win this one and then start the chatter.

I am so glad I did not buy the entire package to watch the cricket series between India and South Africa. After the first game which was rained out, the second one was simply a pathetic display of batting by the Indians.

When will this team pick itself up from the dumps and be counted? What does it need to do to improve?

The good omen is that the last World Cup’s campaign was preceded by a pathetic display of batting in New Zealand. Could this time’s New Zealand trip be this South African safari?

I love this time of the year. The holidays, the festivities, the sales (though I hardly shop), the general happy faces, the cheer in the air, and of course, crunch time in college football and sort of important time for the NFL.

I love the time, and unfortunately, it gets over too soon. It will get over even sooner this year because we are taking a long vacation.

In any case, at least I can enjoy the fact that it is only Friday and the true weekend is yet to start! :-)

Since last evening, I have been feeling like its Friday. I wore jeans to work today, woke up late, came in late and am taking it easy. No one is here, not the people I work with anyway. So it is take it easy policy.

In fact, I booked a squash court for 4pm! ;-)

I was a little bit unsure of how the game was going in the first half, but after seeing the defense step it up big time today, I feel a lot better in general about the health of the team at this point in the season.

The offense is sputtering, and JDB still seems to telegraph his passes, but we have huge playmakers in the team in DJ, Steve Smith and in this game CJ Gable. How cool was the catch for the first down by DJ jumping high in the air just beyond the marker? How cool was Steve Smith’s 4th and 2 conversion to a TD? How cool was CJ Gable in his monster runs at various points in the game? Awesome.

I was not willing to quote the turnover margin that USC had against Stanford because hey, it is after all only Stanford. But to create so many in one game against a team like Cal is worth noting.

USC kept the 35 points per game Cal to a miserly 9 and that says a lot. The defense deserves a huge pat on the back for doing that to Cal. Good stuff.

There is a reason to feel upbeat for USC Trojans.

Of course, next week is going to be a different game. So we’ll keep the celebration limited to tonight only. :-)

I am sorry to say, but due to the following factors, I am not going to watch the Michigan-Ohio State game:

1. Too much being reported already on it, so much that it has created a state of overdose in my mind
2. I think the teams are both going to have it so much on their heads that it going to be a pathetic, mistake-ridden, absolutely no-fun game
3. I cannot spare time on a Saturday nowadays to watch two football games and of course I think Cal at USC is the “better” game to watch

So yes, I have set my DVR to record a few Sportscenters in the evening, but I am not going to watch the entire bloody game.

Let’s talk about it after the game - who ended up being the better team and who is legit and who is not. For now, shut up already.

My current client office has an in-house Starbucks coffee area. It is sort of an OEM operation where they have their own person making Starbucks coffee within certain hours in the morning and in the afternoon.

That is all nice and dandy, but recently, I overheard the person ordering 4-shot cappuccino! Are you serious?? 4 shots of espresso coffee with a hint of milk and foam? How many times must he be having that drink? Is it good for you?

Is it the coffee maker’s responsibility to slow him down? Just like a bartender is (ideally) supposed to slow down someone trying to get drunk heavily, is it the coffee maker’s role to slow down a person trying to have too much coffee?

I do believe these kind of people may become a huge distraction in the office, especially if they come to post-lunch meetings and start taking away the meeting from the main points of discussion.

Enjoy this while it is still allowed to be on YouTube …

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

Given the upset special tags put on the game, I should say ‘phew’ after USC beat Oregon. Of course, the game was well played by USC and equally badly played by Oregon.

That TD review was a joke … it took 15 minutes or so for the review, which reversed the decision of the TD. Then after a challenge (ludicrous as it is, to challenge an official REVIEW!) by Mike Belloti, and another 10 minutes or so of nothingness, the reversal was reversed! How bizarre is that!

In any case, in terms of rankings and stuff, the day was a good one for USC. Auburn, Cal, Texas all lost. Also, Arkansas trounced Tennessee, and Louisville had already lost to Rutgers. And finally, Florida had a close call with South Carolina. So a sort of a perfect day for USC. But it is too early in November to pronounce anything.

Next weekend is a big one (#2 of 4) for USC. I am really not bothered about Michigan/Ohio State. Cal at USC is the biggest game that day. It will decide (practically) the winner of Pac 10 and therefore a guaranteed berth in a BCS bowl. It will also push the winner’s value in the national rankings picture, though Cal with two losses by now has no chance realistically of making it to the National Title game.

So … can’t wait for next Saturday!

update: Thanks, Displaced Trojan, my bad to include Georgia in the “all lost”. Don’t know what I was thinking. I updated those lines of this post.

Another bad trend that USC has fallen into this year: start the second half with a punt (or a turnover) instead of coming out and scoring a TD, which was almost a certainty last season.

Lack of turnovers forced, INT on first possession of game, punt/turnover on first possession of second half … how can they keep winning like last few years?

Once again USC has started their first offensive drive with a freaking INT! What’s going on???

Also, what’s the deal with the 4-5 3rd down conversions given up in Oregon’s first offensive drive? Of course, it was a good defensive stand at 4th and 1 to stop the Ducks.

I do not intend to live blog the game but just some initial thoughts.

I was happy to see the link to switch to the new blogger in my dashboard yesterday and today. But I keep clicking on the link only to see the “regret” message about the inability to switch.

Pathetic. So close, yet so far. :-(

What??? Cal lost??? Oh my gosh! How did that happen????? Did not expect that.

Uh oh. They will be coming hard next week. Irrespective of the result today between Oregon and USC, next week Cal will be hurting big time and will be looking for a big comeback.

Not good news for USC.

So what? Who cares what the teams do in the first half of the season anyway.

The first half is a farce …

An interesting little thing that I never thought of all this time, and here I am in front of my office, seeing salt being harvested.

I have never thought of that process, and did not even know what to call it until someone told me that it was salt being harvested.

It actually makes a beautiful sight. Nice.

Finally got around to see the DVR’ed Office of this week. It was hilarious!

It was first of all, good to see that they are making Diwali “mainstream” as opposed to limiting it to cultural section of the newspapers ;-)

Secondly, all the stuff they showed made it so funny - from the explanation by Dwight of what Diwali stands for, Kelly’s version of Diwali (fun and food and drinks and dancing), Kelly’s parents interrogating the intern, and of course the Adam Sandler-ish Diwali song.

Too good. Worth a watch. Check it out on itunes if you did not record it.

USC chopped the Stanford tree, but the game itself felt more like USC struggled to make a statement. USC was in total control, no doubt, and Stanford had some things going for them, but in general, I think there were a lot of times in the game where USC had to put away the drive or create a turnover and they did not.

But of course, I am happy that they shut out a team, does not matter that it was lowly Stanford with a 10.4 points average so far (last in NCAA). It was good to see some long passes actually being caught and it was also good to see some turnovers.

What seems to be the problem (or at least one of them!) is that JDB is a little too mellow. I know it is good to be calm and collected but I think JDB is just too calm. There seems to be a lack of killer instinct in him which I think Leinart had a lot of. And the calmness sort of turns into complacency and carelessness. Which in turn could explain the high number of turnovers.

In any case, it is now on to the final stretch. First up is Oregon. Oregon has shown some weakness in the last two games which of course they have been able to cover up quickly in the second halves of those games and win well. USC has its work cut out big time and I think the game should start out as evens, without a clear favorite.

Can’t wait for next Saturday! Fight On!

I tried to switch (after a long wait) to the new beta blogger today, and unfortunately, was not able to. :-(

The message said that there are a variety of reasons a blogger may not be able to switch. Most of the conditions did not apply in my case, but the one that may apply is that I have ‘a lot of posts and comments - a couple thousand or so’. I check on my dashboard and I have about 1400 posts and I would imagine about 200 or so comments.

So after resisting for so long, when I finally give up, I hit disappointment of not being able to switch. Dang it! I thought I’d spend some time over the weekend updating my template with some of the bells and whistles that I have on this blog.

Oh well, will wait it out, I guess.