Senior year, What to do?

Well, there's three things I want to address. First, let's get the business out of the way:

It's college football time, and here's my football preview.

#6 USC Trojans @ Arkansas Razorbacks

The Trojans start off yet another football season on the road, now for the fourth straight year, USC will play away from the Coliseum. In 2003, USC also played on an SEC field against #6 Auburn, winning in Matt Leinart's debut, 23-0. In 2004, the Trojans started off their AP National Championship defense against a pesky Virginia Tech team, fueled by three Reggie Bush touchdowns to win 24-13 on a hostile FedEx Field. The 2005 season started off in paradise for USC, with the Trojans saying Aloha to Hawaii, 63-17. And it all comes around again, starting off anew for the USC football team; new quarterback, new running backs, but the holdovers from last year will look to help hold the team together. Top returnees include All-American WR Dwyane Jarrett, All-American DE Lawrence Jackson, and All-Pac 10 C Ryan Kalil.

This season, the Trojans will look to go from being possibly the greatest offensive team in NCAA history to breaking in an entirely new backfield. Redshirt junior John David Booty finally takes the helm in Troy, holding off back problems in Spring practice ans redshirt QB Mark Sanchez. Booty saw a lot of mop up time in blowouts last year, but still seems to lack the confidence Leinart started off with in Auburn three years ago. But like Leinart, Booty will have a dependable set of receivers to throw to, which should help him transition into a solid QB. Joining him will be senior FB Ryan Powdrell, a converted linebacker who impressed in scrimmages with his running and receiving out of the backfield. The Trojans hoped to have senior FB Brandon Hancock play, but he is lost for the season with a knee injury. Another similarity to the 2003 Auburn game is the new set of running backs, mostly freshmen, that Coach Pete Carroll will rely upon. Of the handful of players vying for the job, Carroll selected freshman RB C.J. Cable to start, but promised playing time to Stafon Johnson, Allen Bradford, and Emmanuel Moody. Projected starter redshirt junior RB Chauncey Washington, finally academically eligible to play, has been hampered by an injury, but should receive some touches. Should Booty get comfortable in the pocket, he has a lot of options to throw to. Jarrett and senior WR Steve Smith return as well as former starter senior WR Chris McFoy. Sophomore WR Patrick Turner and freshmen WR Vidal Hazelton and Travon Patterson have also developed into solid receivers. TE Fred Davis has finally found his niche in the offense, and TE Dale Thompson and Jimmy Miller are solid blockers. Despite losing three starters on the line (Deuce Lutui, Winston Justice, Fred Matua), this offensive line may be just as good or even better than last year. C Ryan Kalil returns as the anchor, and T Sam Baker will also help keep Booty upright and create holes for the running backs. G Jeff Byers will return to the starting lineup after missing all last year with an injury, while look for G Chico Rachal and T Kyle Williams to emerge at the other line positions.

While the defense may have been the weak point last year, and extra year of experience has helped mold the unit into one of the best, especially the front seven. The defensive line is led by DE Jackson and DT Sedrick Ellis. Look for DE Jeff Schweiger and DT Fili Moala or a couple of freshmen to join them on the line. With Carroll looking to play a modified 3-4 defense, where the fourth linebacker plays a down lineman called the "elephant", he is taking advantage of the talented corp of linebackers on the team. LB Brian Cushing has adapted well to the new hybrid position as Carroll tries to take advantage of his speed. The projected starting linebackers are WLB Dallas Sartz, MLB Rey Maualuga, and SLB Keith Rivers, but expect to see Oscar Lua, Thomas Williams, Cushing, Kaluka Maiava, Luther Brown, and Clay Matthews to receive playing time. The secondary is led by S Josh Pinkard, who was forced to play CB after injuries took out several players early in the season. S Kevin Ellison should play opposite of Pinkard, while CB Kevin Thomas and Cary Harris will play the receivers.

Special teams were horrible last year, ranking almost dead last in net punt yardage and return yards allowed, though it did not play a major role in the loss to Texas. K Mario Danelo returns to kick field goals and PATs, where he was solid last year, though his leg was never really tested. K Troy Van Blarcom has to fight off fransfer K David Buehler, who bombed kickoffs deep into the endzone in the open scrimmage, which would help nullify our bad kick coverage. P Taylor Odegard looked to have the job after Tom Malone graduated, but he hasn't impressed many, while P Greg Woidneck has entered the fray. RB Desmond Reed, coming off a devistating leg injury in the Notre Dame game, is expected to field punts, while Steve Smith may join Reed on kick returns.

As for Arkansas, they are pretty much the same team that rolled into the Coliseum last year and got rolled out 70-17 after being blitzed for 28 points in the first quarter. The difference will be the motivation the Razorbacks bring to the game, and the confidence of playing at home. QB Robert Johnson will look for 6-6 WR Marcus Monk, while Arkansas will rely on their running game to wear down the Trojans defense and keep the game close. The current spread is USC (-9), and while I think it should be a close game, USC should cover and have the game in hand by the time the fourth quarter starts.

USC 23, Arkansas 10

Ok, now that's out of the way, I've been watching Scrubs on DVD. A lot. I watched season 2 last weekend, and just powered through six episodes of season 3 tonight (hey, what else am I supposed to do on a Friday night. Actually that's kind of item 3...). I don't know what makes the show so good, maybe I'm relating to it in a way I haven't figured out yet, though I totally get how J.D. feels when he goes out with Turk and Carla and Elliot and Sean, always feeling like the odd one out, always that awkard feeling, always being paired off with the "other" single guy. Well, since I'm on that topic, girls are hard to understand. One moment they want to hang out, and the next minute, you haven't spoken to one in a couple of months. Which I'm fine with. I don't need to worry about someone else in my life right now, well, that's probably less of a choice then the way life is, but oh well. I'm being killed as it is by Gandhi Puvvada, but that's my fault, too, taking EE 454L and EE 457 in the same semester. And being the nice guy that I am, working nights at DEN is killing me, too. I'd rather work the morning shifts on Tuesdays and Thursdays and not have to be in Olin Hall until 9:30. But none of the other returning workers want to do it, and with the amount of new workers we have this semester, it would have been difficult for the supervisors to have to monitor the netops, who are supposed to be monitoring all of the camops (Yeah, that's complicated, oh well.). But back to the girl thing, I guess it's ok not to have one, though I'm a senior, and well, yeah... I guess it's just that one who got away.

And being a senior, I still don't know what the hell I want to do after I graduate. Graduate school? I still don't know if I was accepted into the accelerated degree program, probably not. I don't have any connections in the job industry, though I did get a call today, but haven't been able to return the call because the person won't pick up her phone. Maybe just go back to Hawaii and waste the rest of my life away. I'm not sure yet. I guess the only thing I look forward to every week is the weekend to spend alone, watching Scrubs or playing Madden '06 (not '07...) or writing on the blog, predicting the week's scores (for SC only, unless we have a bye week, then the most intriguing game). Damn, I just realized I don't like my blog title, hope I can change it. Probably get an update after the game tomorrow...

Current want list:
1. Arrested Development Season 3
2. Scrubs Season 4
3. USC @ Stanford tickets
4. A hug? (from anyone but Marc Inamasu, and I prefer it be a girl...)