Despite losing to the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl nearly a month ago, the Trojans have come back to beat out the Longhorns (and the Irish) in this year’s recruiting game, according to ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Recruits began sending in their letters of intent today, and USC is ranked as having the #2 recruiting class in the nation, behind #1 Florida. Texas comes in at #3, followed by Georgia and Notre Dame to round out the top 5. Although these rankings could theoretically shift , since prospects have until April 1 to sign their letters of intent, with many signing today the chances of major shifts are unlikely.

Of course, only time will tell whether that supposedly star-studded class of freshmen each team gets will live up to their reputations.

Guestblogger: David Kreutz

Guestblogger: dcl

A back-burner issue around here at BrendanLoy.com has been a migration to WordPress. In the process of the migration, or in its immediate aftermath, there is the possibility of redesigning the site. In the interest of moving this project forward a little, I would like to ask the BrendanLoy.com reader base some fairly basic questions about the direction of the project.

What do you think works on BrendanLoy.com, and what does not work? What features on the sidebar do you use or read — and which features might be more useful on their own pages? What kind of features would you like to see on a future site?

If you choose to respond, by no means do you need to answer all the questions. Also, answers from the very broad “I don’t like blue” to the extremely narrow “I want to be able to subscribe to RSS feeds for comments on individual posts” are both valuable in figuring out how to make BrendanLoy.com more useful and convenient for regular visitors and occasional visitors alike.

So, let us know what you think, and this project might be completed sometime before Brendan and Becky’s fifth wedding anniversary…

Guestblogger: Josh Rubin

Yesterday, Superbowl-bound and soon-to-retire Jerome Bettis was given the key to the city of Detroit. Since Bettis grew up in Detroit, the city decided to honor its native son.

Normally, this would be cool. But who was the last person Detroit gave the key to the city to? Saddam Hussein in 1980. Said Bettis: “I think they canceled his key. They changed the locks on that one.”