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Yes. Today is my birthday. Am now 30. Horrors. I am now, by my own personal reckoning, officially old. Note. I don't think of 30 as being old for other people. My sister is 33, and she's not old. But me. I am 30, and therefore old. Those of you, who are under 30... You are in that phase of life, where things are trending up. Enjoy it while it lasts... while you still can. Be irresponsible. Not me. I'm 30, and that would be weird. Go out and drink, and have sex with totally random people. Do it now, while you are still in your twenties. But not me, for lo, I am old. And I await my slow and inevitable decline, until I drift peacably into death's icy embrace.
Thank you for all your birthday wishes. Much love to the FList. Once again, I have been gifted with paid time. Now I'm gonna have to generate some legitimate content to justify such generosity.
As expected, I was given a number of gifts. Among these... a cardigan sweater, because some days it is cold in the office, and I must have something warm to wear over my various shirt and tie combos. I was give a pair of comfortable, but somewhat ugly slip on shoes. There was a remarkably ugly sweater, which I will pretend to like. And from my parents... a toaster oven.
It is a sign of my aging, that this toaster excited me so greatly.
And apparently, my sister has decided that trusty surplus jersey #38 is too nasty. Sure, it's three iterations out of date, but old becomes vintage and historical. No matter - I was given one of them swanky Under Armor jerseys. For those at home, #18. Vernon Davis. Who, unsurprisingly, declared for the NFL draft today. Still - this is better than that Michael Westbrook jersey she got me some years ago.
Now. For tomorrow. Yes - the Rose Bowl will be this year's NCAA Football Title Game. There has been talk on ESPN comparing the USC Trojans to great champions of all time. This is silly. USC has a superior offense, but an average defense. They aren't better than 2004 USC. They aren't better than 1991 Washington, 1992 Alabama, 1995 Nebraska, 1997 Michigan, or 2001 Miami.
They aren't better than 2005 Texas.
It has been commonplace to note that Mack Brown has never won "The Big Game" - not at UNC when he could not beat FSU even when his teams were loaded with NFL talent. Not Oklahoma, when he had loaded Texas squads. But this is an old story. Coaches never win the big one, until they do. So questions aside, I take the team that can play the best all around game. USC is still going to score, but they won't stop anybody either.
Final Score: 38 - 33.
Thank you for all your birthday wishes. Much love to the FList. Once again, I have been gifted with paid time. Now I'm gonna have to generate some legitimate content to justify such generosity.
As expected, I was given a number of gifts. Among these... a cardigan sweater, because some days it is cold in the office, and I must have something warm to wear over my various shirt and tie combos. I was give a pair of comfortable, but somewhat ugly slip on shoes. There was a remarkably ugly sweater, which I will pretend to like. And from my parents... a toaster oven.
It is a sign of my aging, that this toaster excited me so greatly.
And apparently, my sister has decided that trusty surplus jersey #38 is too nasty. Sure, it's three iterations out of date, but old becomes vintage and historical. No matter - I was given one of them swanky Under Armor jerseys. For those at home, #18. Vernon Davis. Who, unsurprisingly, declared for the NFL draft today. Still - this is better than that Michael Westbrook jersey she got me some years ago.
Now. For tomorrow. Yes - the Rose Bowl will be this year's NCAA Football Title Game. There has been talk on ESPN comparing the USC Trojans to great champions of all time. This is silly. USC has a superior offense, but an average defense. They aren't better than 2004 USC. They aren't better than 1991 Washington, 1992 Alabama, 1995 Nebraska, 1997 Michigan, or 2001 Miami.
They aren't better than 2005 Texas.
It has been commonplace to note that Mack Brown has never won "The Big Game" - not at UNC when he could not beat FSU even when his teams were loaded with NFL talent. Not Oklahoma, when he had loaded Texas squads. But this is an old story. Coaches never win the big one, until they do. So questions aside, I take the team that can play the best all around game. USC is still going to score, but they won't stop anybody either.
Final Score: 38 - 33.
Happy birthday!
You called it!
The big question no longer is "who will draft Reggie Bush?"
Who will draft Vince Young?
Re: You called it!
Because I love watching VY play, but he's a lot closer to Tommie Frazier than Donovan McNabb.
The Draft
So do the Niners draft VY and customizes their offense around him?
The Draft II
Checked some mock drafts, and there's buzz about the Titans picking VY to replace McNair.
Re: The Draft II
That's assuming he's not drafted by New Orleans or that the Jets don't trade up for Vince...
Re: The Draft II
The Jets? It's not a good fit. Besides, the Jetsies have other problems:
Who is their head coach?
Does Curtis Martin have another year left in him?
Do they want to keep Chad Pennington?
Do they want to keep Jay Fiedler?
Do they want to pay John Abraham?
Do they want to pay Ty Law?
Who's their second (and third) wide receiver?
Will they ever get a half-decent tight end?
At least the kicking game is solid.
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I keep hearing that none of Brown's juniors enter the draft, but regardless, it will be interesting to watch the Michael Vick Experiment, Vol. II.
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Vince? Does he have the arm? For all of the holes in Vick's game, he has the fastball. Young was pretty accurate and he didn't make any bad decisions, but I also didn't see him make any of the throws an NFL QB will have to make. At this point, he reminds me of Steve Young, but without the arm. And the arm is pretty relevant.
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I thought the same thing about Vick and Culpepper, but while Culpepper has learned how to stand in the pocket, Vick is maturing into — well, not actually a legitimate NFL quarterback yet, but he's getting a little better at decision-making. It took Steve Young 10 years to become a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback, but I don't think any team is going to be able to give Vince Young that luxury.
I was actually pretty impressed by Troy Smith's throwing in Monday's game, mostly because it didn't look like he was trying to win the game all by himself. Brady Quinn, on the other hand, is prototypical, but I'm still not sure whether he's any good.
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Smith was very impressive. And I'll be pretty honest. I grew up watching the Redskins, and I have fond memories of Doug Williams, Jay Schroeder and Mark Rypien, so a guy who can throw the deep ball is going to make me happy.
The real thing with Young is this - if he doesn't show progress quickly, there's got to be pressure to switch positions at least short-term because he's too good of an athlete to sit while he figures it out.
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If Young weren't easily one of the best athletes around, I'd love to see what Young could do as a tight end
Not Tight End. H-Back. I'd break out the old playbooks and see how guys like Hornung and prior were used. I wouldn't put Vince on the line. Motion him and use hime as a slot receiver. Pitch to him as a running back. Give him zone-options and pass-options. And probably use him at QB inside the 20. THe only problem is that today's NFL is all about standardization and specialization and Teams and Players aren't trained to use a fluid or playground style...
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Pete Carroll and Bob Stoops both think is some of these really talented teams today ran the wishbone or something like it, they'd dominate college football, at least for a couple of years.
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The year Maryland went to the Orange Bowl, Friedgen generally ran I-Formation or pro-set but occaisionally would switch to three backs. They were very successful with it, but he's had to drop it from the offense because he hasn't had a QB that could handle it recently.
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Also, happy birthday. A friend of mine (in honor of my own upcoming 30th) told me that turning 30 was far more traumatic than turning 40 or 50. Something to look forward to, I suppose.
{I've been fantasizing about getting a toaster over; I guess I'm prematurely old.}
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