Reunited and it feels so good...

You’ll have to excuse my tardiness this week as yesterday was the first day of my new job. Obviously, this isn’t news to anybody who reads this space on a regular basis. I don’t have a ton of time to write this afternoon as my boss has already given me a good deal of work to do. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to write had tonight not been the National Championship game. I sure didn’t want to miss out on a chance to embarrass myself with an unbelievably bad prediction. If you remember (and if you don’t, then just read on) I picked Oklahoma to win last year’s Orange Bowl in part b/c I thought that USC would badly miss the tough inside running of LenDale White. Well, I was wrong on two counts. White played and did so in dominating fashion, though it became pretty obvious by the second quarter that USC could’ve put Jaleel White at tailback and still managed to beat the Sooners in last year’s title game. So the question now is: Have I learned my lesson when it comes to picking against the Men of Troy? I’m not so sure just yet, though I will reveal my pick at the end of this column.

As for my new job, I’m still feeling things out but I’m pretty sure that it’s going to work out far better than any of the four jobs that I held during 2005. Which, admittedly, isn’t saying a whole hell of a lot. Furthermore, this new job will allow me to spend a lot more time on the internet, which is definitely a good thing. While I did have access to the internet at my last job, it was the kind of access that often ended up being interrupted far too frequently for my taste. To put it more dramatically, the internet was like some girl I was dating whose overbearing father (my job) wouldn’t let us see each other. Sure, I liked her a whole, whole bunch but the hassle of having to sneak around to see her was becoming too much for me to rationally handle. Luckily for me, this girl decided to move in with her mother (my new job), who happened to be far more cool about us spending time together. Now we’re reunited like we deserve to be and I don’t have to sneak around just to see my precious internet. What does this severely stretched analogy mean to you? Hopefully more consistent and quality posts in the coming year. You’d be surprised how much your writing (or appetite for writing) can be affected by having to constantly stop and start throughout the writing process. I’m sure that they’ll be some days early on where I’m too busy writing for my job to find the necessary time to post, but I can promise you that I’ll be back into a regular blogging routine before too much longer.

I had originally planned to finish up this post with a number of random thoughts that I’d been stewing on over the past few days, but as the clock inches closer and closer towards 4:30, it’s not looking like a very prudent idea to go forward with said plans. That is, if I want to get out of here by 5 (which I do).

As for tonight’s game, I am leaning heavily towards picking Texas. Though I can’t quite figure out if it is entirely because I think they’ll win or because I’d love to see everybody on ESPN and ABC (among others) have to eat an enormous shit sandwich when the “greatest team ever” takes one on the chin in their own backyard. I truly believe that Texas’ defense is far better (and much, much faster) than any that USC has seen in the last two years, though that is countered by USC being light years ahead of any offense that Texas has come across. Additionally, I think the school of thought that says Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame bodes well for Texas is downright idiotic. Not only did Texas need some serious breaks to win that game, but they also faced a Buckeye team that had yet to settle on a quarterback. Honestly, if Troy Smith’s level of play against Texas had even approached what he did to ND in the Fiesta Bowl, then I’m willing to bet that the Longhorns wouldn’t have walked out of the Horseshoe with a win in September. Finally, while the media will have you believe that Vince Young is a one-man offensive show, Texas boasts a number very good offensive players, including freshman tailback Jamaal Charles and the amazingly versatile Ramonce Taylor. On the other hand, USC’s defense is pretty banged up. Keep in mind, this wasn’t exactly a dominant force at any point during this season. What does all this mean? That I still have no real idea which team I think will this evening, but since it’s 5 and I’m ready to go home I’ll pick it:

Texas 35
USC 31