[George] Showing Both Greatness And Fallibility - PatsFan.com
...What will bear watching is the development of third string quarterback Matt Cassel, who caught everyone’s attention in the season finale at home against Miami...

...Cassel riddled the “A” Dolphin defense for 168 yards on 11 of 20 passing, two touchdowns and a passer rating of 116.3...

...the former USC backup to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart showed on that one day that he may be worthy of the number two job in 2006 and not Flutie, or any other established veteran.

The starting job is Brady’s as long as he wants it, of course. But Cassel should draw a ton of attention in training camp this summer...

The Genius of Art Buchwald - Washington Post
As Art Buchwald keeps his fellow patients in stitches at a Washington hospice, it's time to remember how this national treasure of humor has kept us all laughing for more than 50 years...

...Art Buchwald grabbed onto life. During World War II, it took courage for the 17-year-old Buchwald to join the Marines. It took courage to go far away to the University of Southern California -- while neglecting to mention that he was a high school dropout. He used the G.I. Bill to go all the way to Paris, where his chutzpah got him a job on the New York Herald Tribune and fame with a column, "Paris After Dark."...

Everest joins Carroll's staff - LA Daily News
USC coach Pete Carroll hired former NFL assistant Al Everest to be the Trojans' special-teams coordinator.

Everest, 55, spent the past six seasons with the New Orleans Saints and also worked four years with the Arizona Cardinals. He already spent two days last week in meetings with USC's coaching staff going over special teams, an area of weakness for the Trojans last season...

...Technically, Everest will be classified as a graduate assistant because there are no full-time openings on USC's coaching staff...

...USC holds its annual coaching clinic next Friday and Saturday...

Injury sidelines St. Mary's Gemelos
...With 3:16 left in the second quarter and her team ahead, the greatest high school basketball player Stockton ever could hang its hat on took an in-bounds pass in midair and was bumped from the back. She crashed to the floor, and for a second, "I thought I could get up," Jacki Gemelos said...

...She's expected to miss her freshman season at the University of Southern California with a medical redshirt...

Nyeholt’s swim event benefits challenged athletes - Honolulu Star-Bulletin
..."Swim For Mike" became "Swim With Mike." In its 25 years, the event has raised $5.5 million and helped 55 athletes.

Two of the current 16 scholarship awardees are in Hawaii: Tusi Mailo, a former Kahuku High football player now attending Brigham Young-Hawaii and Keith Kitamura, a former Kapaa High multi-sport athlete who is a graduate student at the University of Hawaii.

The event has its second lap in Hawaii on April 22 at UH's Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Center. The goal this year is to raise $20,000 to support at least three scholarships for physically challenged athletes in Hawaii.

Nyeholt is in Hawaii this week to promote the event...

'Big money' backs might find they're a dime a dozen - CBS Sportsline
...The good news for teams wanting backs this year is that it's a good draft for that position. Leading into the combine, it was believed there would be four first-round backs: Southern California's Reggie Bush and LenDale White, DeAngelo Williams of Memphis and Laurence Maroney of Minnesota. But after the combine, there may be even more...

Spring Storylines ... Pac 10 - College Football News
...5. The best top-to-bottom league in America
The Pac 10 isn't the best conference in the country, but no league could be better from top to bottom...

...in the ten-team Pac 10, this should be the most competitive league in America...

Claridge's lasting legacy is impact he had on others - The Columbian
...In the weight room, Claridge set a tone. It rubbed off on Gruenberg, who went on to play college football at Western Washington.

"He reeked of motivation," Gruenberg said. "He loved lifting weights, loved getting big. His motivation got me going, got me lifting, and at one point, I was lifting 500 pounds."

Gruenberg said there was nothing mysterious about Claridge.

"He was an open book. All you had to do is turn his pages," Gruenberg said. "If you liked him, he liked you. If you didn't, he didn't care."...

Peabody's Candela awaits word on WBC - Salem News
..After leaving USC two years ago, Candela moved north to Vallejo, Calif., and ran into Matt Ceriani, one of his old Brewer minor league teammates who was playing pro ball in Italy. Ceriani called his agent on Candela's behalf, and he said he could get Candela hooked up with an Italian club...

...Had he been healthy, he would have been part of two national championship teams and played in three bowl games.

"It wasn't high school anymore. I'd return a punt in practice, and some 300-pound lineman would be running as fast as I was," he laughed...

The Methanol Economy - MIT Technology Review
The hydrogen economy -- with its vision of gas-guzzling engines replaced by hydrogen fuel cells that produce water instead of smog and greenhouse gases -- is a big mistake, according to George Olah, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Olah, whose research in the chemistry of hydrocarbons has led to high-octane fuels and more easily degradable hydrocarbons, is now director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at the University of Southern California. He argues that storing energy in the form of methanol, not hydrogen, could end our dependence on fossil fuels and transform carbon dioxide from a global-warming liability into an essential raw material for a methanol-based economy. Olah lays out his plan in a new book, Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, published last week...

Pac-10 Football APR information - NCAA

Stanford        995
Cal             945
Wazzu           935
Washington      935
USC             929
UC, Los Angeles 915
OSU             910
Oregon          900

Arizona and ASU have not completed the process for determining its APR and/or contemporaneous penalty. If a team falls below 925 in the formula, penalties are assessed by the NCAA. Arizona is already appealing its penalty.

Shotgun QBs, Harrington and more - USA Today
...Team eye doctors apparently did a double-take when they examined Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart, who admitted he didn't always have great field vision. In fact, he was born cross-eyed...

Bush could follow path blazed by Barber, Dunn - USA Today
...Bush's humble, hands-in-pocket cool belies his edge. We're not talking about those razor-sharp cuts that earned him the nickname "The Cutback King" as a runner who first flashed skills in his San Diego Pop Warner league. Bush's fierce competitive edge drives him to disprove the doubters who say he can't handle an every-down load.

It's the same fuel that has lifted Barber and Dunn to greater heights than anyone predicted. Bush spent the last month bulking up, adding 7 pounds of muscle in preparation for the eyeball test at the scouting combine...

Ex-Fort football star Claridge dies at age 27 - The Columbian
..."I can't imagine what happened to a young, athletic physical specimen like Travis Claridge. Just a shock. It leaves a hole in my heart," said Gary Boggs, Claridge's football coach at Fort Vancouver...

...By the time Claridge finished his college career in 1999, he started 48 consecutive games, a USC record for a lineman. Yet, the playing streak never seemed to mean much to Claridge, because during that four-year period, the Trojans were 26-22.

"Tell me what I could feel good about?" Claridge said at the time. "I never thought in a million years I'd be sitting here with this many losses in my senior season (six), or in my SC career."...

...Claridge signed a two-year, $2.5 million contract with Carolina in 2004. Shortly after signing the contract, Claridge told The Columbian that he planned to donate some money toward a school where his mother teaches in Detroit, as well as to Fort Vancouver...

...Claridge couldn't claim most of the contract, though, as Carolina cut him during training camp...

[Chadiha] No sure thing - CNNSI
...At this stage, we know USC's Matt Leinart is the most ready to play of all the quarterback prospects. You can question his arm strength, but all I know is the guy made clutch throws in every game I saw him play...

Keeping an eye on the cut line - Sac Bee
...The NCAA is scheduled to release the latest Academic Progress Rate today in the boldest announcement yet for a plan that already was revolutionary: the results, for the first time, come with penalties.

Gone are the days when the substandard merely had to endure public ridicule, the way some 400 of 5,720 Division I teams did when scores initially were distributed last February. Flunking this time - falling below the cut line of 925 points out of 1,000 - could mean the loss of scholarships, and, therefore, conceivably lead to coaches being fired for so dramatically injuring their program...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats offensive lineman Claridge dead, CFL club says - Brooks Bulletin
..."Being cut was the most embarrassing things to happen to me because I've never not started," Claridge told The Canadian Press last September. "In Atlanta, I always played for the organization.

"I broke my wrist, I played with that. I bruised my spinal cord, I played the next week. I got a concussion, I played through that. I'll play through anything and did so thinking when it came time they'd say, 'This is a guy is a hard worker and is loyal to this organization,' but obviously it didn't work out that way.

"Do I feel I got a raw deal from the NFL? Yeah, but there's nothing I can do, it's out of my control. I don't care about the NFL now. I just want to show coach Marshall and his staff that they haven't made a mistake."...

Spring Preview 2006 - College Football News
...USC...The most important position to watch is ... Quarterback. Don't just assume John David Booty is the next Heisman winner in the progression after Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. Mark Sanchez was one of the nation's top recruits last year and while he's the number two man going into spring ball, don't be shocked if he gives Booty a run for the starting gig...

Good news for USC in troubled times - Financial Times
The Marshall school at the University of Southern California may be in need of a permanent dean, but there is some good news at least for student and alumni services. It has just received $2.25m from Fred Keenan of the Keenan Investment Company, to expand and enhance services to the student and alumni population. The figure could eventually reach $5m...

Tiger-Cat lineman dies - Toronto Star
Offensive lineman Travis Claridge, who was looking to kick-start his pro football career with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, died Tuesday, the CFL team announced.

Claridge, 27, died in hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, after being found unconscious at his home earlier in the day. The cause of death was not specified.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," Ticats general manager Rob Katz said in a statement. "This is a sad day for the Tiger-Cats family."

Added head coach Greg Marshall: "Travis was a wonderful human being. His enthusiasm for life touched so many of us. He loved his teammates and his teammates loved him. We will all miss Travis tremendously."