Links From Around the 4-1-2

-Mostly did this posting because I wanted a reason to link to this: I was part of a little roundtable at Sean's Ramblings where Sean asked a bunch of different bloggers what they were wearing for the Super Bowl and if they had any predictions. My predictions?

"A Serious Prediction: Santonio Holmes goes over 100 yards receiving for the Steelers and scores a TD on a deep ball.

A Not So Serious Prediction: The Refs actually call a penalty on one of the Arizona linemen for holding James Harrison. This is obviously a joke prediction though, because judging by the past several Steeler games, the NFL's holding rules only apply to offensive linemen if you aren't matched up against Harrison."

Not bad ehh? Santonio was the game's MVP and went over 100 yards and scored a TD (though not on a long ball) and who would've thought my not-so-serious prediction would come true? Harrison drew several holding calls from that weak Zona O-Line. One of my prouder moments as a blogger.

-Did you know Lawrence Timmons had a blog? How could I not have know this previously? Its very good stuff and the guy's a solid writer. Some interesting tidbits in there. I really wish I had this info all along.

-Two Bob Smizik links from his blog: First, he seconds my Matt Cavanaugh conspiracy theory. Then, he unloads his trademark "Nobody asked me but..." notes column. Classic Smiz.

-Mark Madden's well-documented man crush on Big Ben continues as he writes in the Beaver County Times that Roethlisberger is already better than Terry Bradshaw. I have a bit of hard time agreeing that Big Ben is already better than Terry, though I think by the time he's done in the Burgh he will have blown Terry out of the water. For now, this could make for a pretty good debate.

-If you feel like you need more information about riots in your life, here is a slideshow of some pretty wild photos from the Pitt News. And no, I'm pretty sure that I'm not in any of them, so I don't expect to be suspended or jailed. But if this blog is abruptly abandoned, it's a safe bet that compromising photos of yours truly from the night of February 1st have surfaced.

I love college

-Being that it's almost baseball season a few Pirate links are in order, I'd say: First a cool little thing from Sully Baseball where he compares the all-time homegrown Pirate team to the all-time Acquired Pirate team. Both squads are wildly impressive. The only current Bucco on either team? Freddy Sanchez.

-Frank Coonelly chats with the fans. I've always admired Coonelly for this, and he typically takes just about any question so long as its not a tampering type of issue. Mostly it's stuff we knew, like Jumpin' Jack being the Opening Day starter. He does touch on the crazy amount of Type A free agents being left and whether the Pirates would go after any. Obviously they won't. Of course if they did, their first round pick is protected and could not be stripped of them for signing a Type A, and they would instead lose their second rounder I believe. And don't forget they have two second rounders because of not signing Tanner Scheppers last year. He does mention Adam Dunn specifically, but also adds that Dunn is out of their price range right now. Hmm... what if Dunn is still unsigned in 2-3 weeks? His price obviously is dropping nearly exponentially right now. I wouldn't mind seeing him in a Pirate uni for a few million. He'd be a hell of a lot better option than Nyjer Morgan who I have less than zero faith in.

-Deadspin makes a heck of a good point about GM giving away a Cadillac to a millionaire.

-The details of the members of Pitt's solid but not extraordinary 2009 football recruiting class from Rivals. If you're real interested in the players click on each individual player there. Also, the summary of the class from the PG, and some other coverage in the PG's Varsity Blog.

-Also on the Pitt football front, some possible Pitt OC choices. According to Paul Zeise, the favorite seems to be Alex Van Pelt. Can we please establish criteria for these positions that does not consist of a single question, "Are you a Pitt man?" He is a QB Coach for the Buffalo Bills, so he does have coaching experience, but has never called plays and I'm not fond of the idea of another NFL mind. I'd rather see a darkhorse guy who has had time in college offenses get the job.

-Pitt's Conor Lee was named the Big East football scholar-athlete of the year. Now I know what he's been up to all the times that I've see him on campus over the past few years.

-Surprisingly, there are two Pitt b-ballers in this NBA first round mock. I dunno about that. Sam I Am has been good this year, but at 23 years old (24 before the draft occurs) I'm not sure I really buy that he'll be a first rounder, especially because he's been only the second best player on the Pitt squad this season. I do believe that DeJuan Blair will be a first rounder and a very good NBAer, but barring a National Championship or maybe just a Final Four I don't think Blair leaves this year. I think he needs to develop a bit more range before he's ready to play power forward in the NBA.

-Joe Lunardi has made Pitt a 2 seed in his latest bracketology. About what I figured. He has 8 Big Easters in there, and also sneaks the Nittany Lions in there, too. It seems a little weird to have the Nittany Lions in a b-ball tournament, no? It feels like 30 years since the Crispin bros. left that place.

-The Sports Guy does a running diary of the final hour or so of the Super Bowl. Also check out his B.S. Reports for a pair of Podcasts that discuss SB43.

-The PG's live blog of SB43 by Chuck Finder.

-So much for WWGRD, ehh? The Pittsburgh legend Gary Roberts was none too happy with Matt Cooke after last night's game, but I applaud Cooke for that play in baiting Gary into a stupid penalty that altered the game. Gary just isn't the same Gary anymore.

My second mock draft will be up tomorrow at some point as TRS officially begins to move on with the offseason after 5 days of revelry.