Business trip to San Diego. Gorgeous.

This was a business trip.  Let the pleasure begin.

Let me get some dispersions out first: Weather has been awful the last four days.  80 degrees and sunny the whole time.  Sweating.  Wearing shorts, drinking on patios.  Horrific. 

Go GREEN!  Indeed

Now for the fun: Wow.  What a performance.  What a day!  Started with ES in the Holiday Bowl Parade (uber cool).  High-fiving Spartans up and down PCH and downtown San Diego. 

Gotta get on the parade!  SPARTANS HAVE IT GOING ON!!!!

The game?  Complete, absolute perfection.  What can you say about the Holiday Bowl performance out of Michigan State?  You would have thought we were playing Davenport University - not Washington State.  ES is up and down all day in SD: "We got this."  Yup. 

Wore shorts and flip-flops to the game to watch a thorough dissection of a decent team.  Surgery.  We destroyed our opponent.  The Cougs had no answer for the Spartan offense.  None.  Brian Lewerke put on an absolute clinic.  Top shelf performance - throwing darts all over the field and running wild.  MVP performance? Absolutely.  73 yards on the ground.  213 in the air.  3 TDs.  Whaaaa???  You just had to witness it.  That first TD, Lewerke scrambling... and all of us in the crowd could see Cody White work from right to left in the end zone and yell "HE'S OPEN!!!!!"  And Lewerke just threw a strike.  It was beautiful.  Tears.

Game over, man. 

The ES has been hard on Dave Warner.  But, this time he worked.  Made that team from western Washington look like little school girls.  Beautiful. We pounded the ball early (and late).  That 16 play, 9:24 drive was gorgeous, ending with the aformentioned TD to Cody White.  Totally smoking hot. 

And... the game was over. Because we cut Lewerke loose and he started throwing the ball all over the place.  We established run, and then did pass.  It was a complete checkmate.  Genius. Not rocket science. Just smart.

The defense was well prepared for crossing routes.  Very well prepared.  Stuffed the run.  Wazzu couldn't run shit - WSU lost their QB and 2 WRs before the game... but it didn't matter if they were playing.  100 times if we played them, we beat them 100 times.  MSU is just in a different league and prominence that WSU - and it showed.

Lewerke just went nuts.  Throwing beautiful passes all over the field.  Felton Davis dropped one ball on the day, but he was WIDE OPEN on several others.  The second TD, the Spartan Nation yelling "HE'S WIDE OPEN!!!" Lewerke didn't miss.  Hit Davis is a stride 49 yards right into the end zone.  The ES was crying in joy.  Just throwing darts. 

Just part of the domination.... 

FYI - ES just ran into a dude here (Louie) at the Waterfront Bar in San Diego - he went to scUM - congratulated us on our stomping. 

And then, Warner went back to LJ Scott.  Beautiful.  And LJ is running like Barry Sanders all over the place.  Beautiful. 

Victory!  An absolute ass-whipping. 

Went to the after party at the #barleymash here in downtown SD - bar just keep playing all MSU videos from the past year, place was jammed with Spartan crowd.  All night long. Very very cool.  The owner is a Spartan. 

Keep on a Rockin'-me baby... 

All in all.  What a day.  What the hell is next?  SD Alumni watch party for MSU-Cleveland State???  Woop woop.

Enlightened Preview from San Diego: MSU vs Wazzu

We gotta gut the pirate, Mike Leach

#16 Michigan State vs #18 Washington State

SDCCU Stadium (it's a credit union)

Holiday Bowl

6 pm PT.  ES is in San Diego. 

Weather:  right now it's perfect: 72 and sunny.  

Kick tomorrow: 60.
TV: FS1

Sagarin Ratings:  MSU #25, Washington State #27

Line:  Spartans favored by 1-1/2

Are you jealous?  You should be.  The ES is in San Diego for the game - with a shoutout to my buddy Smig who wuz gonna join me (who needs a ticket?) but got laid up in the hospital on Xmas eve. He's in rough shape - root for him!  

As expected, ES is distracted on his Cali vacation. Who wouldn't be? This is why we surf and turf, get a nice tan, watch girls in bikinis, and just in general fall asleep on the beach after a good night out at a tiki bar.   

But, read this about strength coach Ken Mannie and why MSU is such a tight-knit group - it's very cool.  Then, ES needs to hit the MSU San Diego alumni social at 3 pm today... it's at the barleymash.

Analysis?  Meh.  Well Washington State has a shootout offense, and Michigan State has a nice defense, particularly against the run with a poor WSU rush game.  Wazzu dismissed their top two wideouts, but who cares - they will be tossing that pigskin all over in good weather; their QB (Luke Falk) is all-time leading passer in Pac 12 history; and MSU is not good on crossing routes.  Yet, MSU has a pretty good defense in key situations and DBs - forcing 13 INTs - are on point when necessary.  Big surprise from was QB Brian Lewerke coming into form - with a solid wideout corps - a year early. He's a significant running threat (best in MSU history???) with a good parlay of backs in LJ Scott, Madre London, and Gerald Holmes.

The biggest concern, in all honesty, is Dave Warner - the MSU Offensive Coordinator.  He can be extremely sketchy - with John L Smith-like play calling stupidity at the worst times.  If he can keep the foot on the throat of Wazzu when driving... maintain attack mode... then MSU should win going away.

In the meantime, ES is gonna sip on some beer & tequila, get a sun tan, and figure out what the hell to do other than look at ships and such. But, it will be outside!  

Gotta meet Mike.  Or, rather his friends.  I need more of these people!

Predictions:

Debbie Does Texas:  MSU 32-31

Oakland Ronnie:  MSU 34-28

Big Joe and Phantom 309:  MSU 35-31

Aussie Paul:  MSU 45-0
RGM3:  28-17 MSU. 10 win season, bitches!

ES sez:  LJ Scott 38, Luke Falk 30