Looking Forward...

It is early, but I am cautiously excited and optimistic about this season; although I am starting to burst at the seams. I think we have an excellent chance at finally winning the Pac-10 outright this year and going to the game of all games, the Rose Bowl.

What I don’t think some non-fans understand is the hunger that we have as a fan base. None of us have ever been to a Rose Bowl. NONE. We’ve never had a Heisman. NEVER. This year we have a chance at both. It doesn’t come around every year (or even every decade).

Recently, we’ve endured the terrible seasons under Holmoe, and the tough tough downslide in Desean’s last year. All those downers will just make the year where we finally breakthrough so much much more sweet. It is no wonder why our fan base is extra excited this year; we have a chance. If we can witness a season where we end up at the Rose Bowl, then we know that we’ve seen something that hasn’t happened in 50 years. GO BEARS!

Almost Game Day

Well, it's almost game day. Some quick thoughts.

-- ESPN, HD, thank God. I'll be looking forward to waking up at 9am to instant entertainment. I'm not feeling completely comfortable with this game yet. Flying cross-country, getting adjusted to the time difference, and playing on grass are all small things that can throw off a football team. However, once the game starts, it won't be long before we start flexing our strengths. I anticipating a big day from Jhavid Best and for some of our receivers to have a breakout game (Boateng, Calvin, MJ).

-- Comcast spells Jhavid's name as "Dhavid". Seriously. I predict over 200 all purpose yards from Best tomorrow and that will for sure throw his name into the Heisman race.

-- Chris "Beanie" Wells won't play on Saturday against USC. Big shocker.

Pac-10 Football

- UCLA shocks Tennessee. Wow, no matter how much a don't like the baby blue bears, I have to tip my hat off to them. It's a nice win for the Pac-10, as just about everyone and their mommas thought that Tennessee was going to come in and just flat-out embarrass UCLA. This just brings me up to another point. I hate the SEC bias. There is a serious biased strain of thought that says that the SEC is heads and shoulders above every other conference and that it just simply not true. Some say that it doesn't matter. Oh, but it does matter. It affects the voting and the voting is what determines the BCS bowls at the end of the season. It's the same strain of thought that robbed CAL from a Rose Bowl bid in 2005. Believe what you want, but facts are facts. Since the inception of the BCS in 1998, the Pac-10 is 10-6 against the SEC and 6-2 when the games are played on the West Coast. To put it simply, we win more than we lose. So, they lose more than they win. It can't get anymore simple than that. But whatever, SEC this SEC that, excuse me while I go and throw up.

- CAL doesn't crack the top 25. Whatever, it's better this way; it keeps the Bear's nice and hungry. You don't want success to come too fast.

- Mark my words, Chris "Beanie" Wells is more hurt than Tressel leads us to believe. Did you see him writhe in pain on the floor? Looked like a serious injury to me. They're all in denial right now. Why else do you think that there is no official word yet? Because the word is that's bad. No, it's worse than you thought. He's out for a while. USC? Not even a chance. Think about it, if the diagnosis was good, wouldn't they immediately release the news that Wells is A-OK and ready for USC in 2 weeks? No, of course not, instead they keep his foot in a huge protective boot...and say that he's day to day. More like day to day to day to day...you get what I mean.

Final MSU Game Thoughts

Watched the game film, and here are my final thoughts:

- Our secondary is suspect. We have a new defensive back coach and I think there's a lot of promise there, however, he gave up way too many yards through the air. SQT looks great, but the other corner spot is what makes our secondary pretty average at best (at the moment). Darian Hagan beat out Chris Conte for the starting corner spot. He was notable recruit out of high school and I remember watching his press conference on TV when he picked up the Cal hat and committed to the Golden Bears. He has speed and athleticism, but is young and inexperienced. It was clear that Hoyer was just throwing to anyone that wasn't covered by SQT and Dell had about 200 yards on us alone. Hagan had about 5 missed INTs, which is crazy. Does that mean that he put himself in the position to make the play but just didn't execute? Or were it just a freak of nature type game. Seriously, how often do you get 5 chances for a pick in a game? SQT had like 1 chance, and he made the INT and tiptoed the sideline to make sure he was in. But anyways, I was never ever ever ever a fan of Conte, and I'm glad Hagan is there; we just have to wait and see if he's going to live up to his potential.

- Riley threw about 17 billion screen passes. This is reminiscent of how Aaron Rodgers played in the game against USC where he was like 23 for 23, but most of them were screens and dump-offs. It's fine because this allows Best and Vereen to get the balls in space, where they are extremely dangerous. Riley's emotion really shows on the field, he looks like Favre as a rookie, just hoopin and hollerin all the time. On the fake handoff-rollout-TD pass to Morrah, Riley threw his hands up signaling touchdown right after the ball left his hand. What a baller.

- Boateng had 2 drop passes that lead to a punting situation. From the field, I couldn't tell if it was a bad pass or a drop. After reviewing the play, it was clearly Boateng's bad. While they weren't perfect passes, they were easily catchable. One play, Boateng should have caught the ball with his hand, but instead let it come into his body and it bounced away. Does Boateng have small hands? I remember THA10 had gigantic hands. Literally had the hands of a 6'5 guy on a 5'9 body. It's no wonder THA10 caught everything...maybe it's the same reason why Boateng is missing everything.

- Layrelle Cunningham had 1 drop that lead to a punt and one ball that flew over his head. See, I'm not a fan of LC. He's the only guy that played last year out of the WR corp and I think he just got the starting job because Tedford wanted some experience in the offense. But seriously, the guy looks like Urkle. Skinny, not that fast, hands are suspect. Can we get a starting corp of Sean Young, Michael Calvin and Marvin Jones please?

- Alualu was causing havoc everywhere. When they realized they couldn't contain him one on one, they would double team him or put the fullback on his side. No sacks, but countless hurries and knockdowns. What a soldier.

- Special teams, seriously, that kickoff kicker walk-on sucks. I don't even know his name, it's #40. Gerogio or something like that. He's on the team for 2 days and is kicking freakin potatoes down the field. I think Seawright should give it a go. Seriously, if we continue to kick it to the 20 yard line and have them return it to the 35-40 every possession, we're going to be in trouble. However, field goal and punt teams look good.

- Tau'o'fu. Oh my god. I didn't even know how well he played. Well, first of all, he got his first career touchdown as a Senior, which was awesome. Two plays really stood out. #1, he totally creamed the outside linebacker that lead to a big game by Best down to the 5 yard line that set up his own touchdown on the screen pass. #2, he took out the linebacker AND defensive end on Vereen's 81 yard touchdown run. Best and Vereen should take him out for some top dogs, considering how many times he's going to spring them for big gains this year. Hoo rah!

Michigan St. Recap

Holy cow! Now that's what I'm talking about! CAL starts the season by spanking MSU 38-31. Don't let the score fool you, this game wasn't that close. 3 of the 4 touchdowns that we gave up were due to some glaring mistakes (i.e. Longshore's pick 6, blocked punt due to mis-catch, roughing the kicker penalty on a 4th down). But whatever, that just means that there are more things for the young bears to build upon.

So, now, some might wonder why I have a picture of Riley getting sacked. Well, it's because he's not getting sacked. Reminiscent of OSU, with Cal only up 24-21 and on a 3rd and 13 on a pivotal drive in the 4th quarter, Riley makes a 24 yard pass to Morrah while being dragged down by 2 MSU defenders. What a winner.

Before I dive into the game, I thought it was interesting how there were just throngs of MSU fans on the BART. I think they seriously thought they were going to win. Walking through them, we heard cheers of "GREEN AND WHITE". While being jeered at, I calmy (okay, not so calmy) told them that they came a long way for a butt whipping. And boy was I right!

Some game thoughts:

- Dude, we look awesome in our new Unis. I don't think we really resemble bears, but more of a slashing, fangly, striking, fast animal thing. It's freakin awesome.

-Kevin Riley. Baller. 'Nuff said. Scroll down to my 2007 posts if you want to hear some commentary on my mancrush on the guy from Beaverton, OR. One thing I do want to mention is that he missed Sean Young when he was about 50 yards wide open. So, the play was obviously a screen pass to Best. But 2 MSU defenders sniffed out the play and was about to cream Best. So, at the last second, Riley stopped his throwing motion and checked to his second option, made a quick throw for some yardage. Little did he know, if he had checked his 3rd option, he would have had Young for a TD. Oh well, at least he didn't make the mistake of following through with a busted play.

- Best and Vereen. So, Clemson has been unduly hyped up all pre-season and ranked #9 for having an awesome backfield duo. They call them "Thunder" and "Lightning", well, they were spanked by Alabama. I like to think that we have the best duo in college football in B&V. Let's call them "Lightning" and "Lightning". Oh yea! But seriously, Best had almost 300 all purpose yards. It's like having Reggie Bush as a sophomore. I think after a couple more games like this, the whole country is going to take notice, no joke man. Now, let's talk about Vereen. We knew he was a baller coming out of high school, there was just no room for him last year (Forsett, Montgomery (who?), Best), but Tedford had mentioned that we're going to like him. Well, I never took Tedford that seriously on that comment because I'm just so high on Best. But whoa! Dude had a 81 yard run from scrimmage to put the game on ice. Sure he had about 5 solid blocks, but you can't make it to the endzone on a straight run like that unless you have some serious speed. Man, Lightning squared (ha!) or whatever you want to call them are going to light it up this year!

- Morrah. Our #1 receiver yesterday, but he's a tight end. I remember seeing him at FAD sitting with the defense. I was like, "HOLY! SQT looks like 2x bigger in person!" Found out later that it was Morrah. I expect to see a lot more catches from him in the future. Especially in the red zone. Just fake it to best and roll out and hit Morrah in the flat. That play should be 90% effective.

- Sean Young. Our solid, safe, experienced, 6th year Senior. He was very consistent and pretty much caught anything thrown his way. This included a 40 yard bomb to him at the 3 yard line. I remember seeing that ball rocket out of Riley's hand. I thought he was throwing the ball way too far and way out of bounds, but about 2 seconds later, the ball lands squarely in Young's chest as he was falling out of bounds at the 3 yard line. It was beautiful. I think I'm tearing up.

- Boateng. 2 dropped passes on 3rd down that ended drives. So, this is what Tedford meant when he mentioned "consistency". Consistency means catching the ball. Chin up Nyan, focus more and make a play the next time.

- Anger. It's not "Ayngher", it's "Ahngher". Whatever his name is, he's got a rocket for a foot. I think everyone was blown away by his kicks. Sometimes we should just go 3 and out just to see this guy punt it. No really, okay, not really, but you know what I mean. My only concern is that he has a sprained knee from being creamed on the block punt. I hope he's okay, he says he's going to play next, so we'll see.

- SQT. Man, met him at FAD and he seemed like a real chill, unassuming, shy guy. But boy does he play big on the field. He's starting to emerge as a shut down corner. He had countless tipped balls, broken up many pass plays and made several solid tackles, along with a pick. Hagan looked promising as the other corner (conte who?) and had some flashes of brilliance (2 overturned INTs) but looked a little green at other times (he had his hands on about 5 balls with no official INT).

- Longshore. Suicide watch? Seriously, when you came in and threw that 50 yard bomb to Morrah, just about everyone was blown away. Then you threw 2 INTs in your next 4 throws. We're sorry man, the controversy is over. Enter Riley...

The Season is Back!

Finally. The Season is here. Redemption is near. I didn't think it was possible, but my anticipation for tomorrow's opening game against Michigan St. is much higher than last year's Tennessee game. It's a new season and we have a new breed of youngsters ready to take the field. We're good this year. We even have better talent than last year. It's like having a secret and tomorrow, we're going to let it out. Riley has shown flashes of brilliance and I don't doubt that we're going to see it all hang out tomorrow.

Some quick thoughts:

- Jahvid Best. Prediction: Pac-10 Offensive player of the year. He barely had any carries last year and missed the latter part of the season, so he's still a little bit of a secret. He's our #1 guy this and is fully healed from last year's hip injury. I can not wait until the first time he takes it 50+ yards to the house. At FAD last week, he looked noticeably more muscular than last year and I asked him if he was faster. He didn't hesitate when he said, "Yes."

- Kevin "Wiley" Riley. The man. No doubt. I think I've written enough about him. I truly believe he will be Tedford's best QB. I know that is very high expectations, but we're just going to have to wait and see.

- Alex Mack. He's the anchor for this year's team. His senior leadership will go a long way in maintaining the team chemistry. But more importantly, he's going to blow open huge gaping holes in the middle for Best.

It's a new year and it's Rose Bowl or bust. Stay tuned for more updates...

Roll on you Riley...

Bell Helicoptor Armed Forces Bowl was played on New Years Eve at 9:30am! Of course, I had to work that day, so I couldn't watch it live. I was reduced to "watching" it on FoxSports.com through their play-by-play, and added in some color commentary from a live blog.

I was really fired up about this game because Tedford already stated that he would play Riley for a couple of series, to give him more experience, and to just see how he does. Well, I fire up the play-by-play, and Cal is already down 0-7. Cal gets two possessions in the first quarter, no scores. Early in second quarter, Cal goes down 0-14. This is getting worse. Then I'm confused by the play-by-play because Air Force gets the ball again? Jeeze, it was a trick kick-off play that worked. Next thing you know, Cal is down 0-21. At this point, I'm thinking that this can either be the worse bowl game in recent memory, or the best comeback of the year for Cal. There was plenty of time left, so deep down inside, I was hoping and wishing for the latter.

Well, on Cal's next drive, Kevin Riley gets the nod. I'm relieved that Longshore finally gets pulled. 1st play, 0 yard pass to Desean Jackson. Uh-oh, more quick outs to our receivers and hoping they break it for a gain? I didn't like that call. 2nd play, 10 yards to Desean for a 1st down. Yea! That's more like it. 3rd play, 18 yard run up the gut from Justin Forsett. Nice, let's keep this rolling. 4th play, Kevin Riley escapes a sack and throws a 40 yard bomb to Desean Jackson in the back of the endzone for a touchdown! Wow. 4 plays, 1 minute 30 seconds off the clock and we got a TD.

And the rest of the game is history. Kevin Riley was near perfection. 16-19 for nearly 260+ yards. One of those incompletes was a hail mary at the end of the half that bounced off of Hawkin's shoulder. Riley had 4 TD (3 passing, 1 rushing) as Cal scored on 6 of Riley's 7 drives. Forsett scored 2 TDs in front of his hometown in Texas.

"Watching" the game was pretty darn fun, almost everytime I refreshed the play-by-play, Riley had another touchdown. It wasn't until I got home and fired up the DVR did I get to see Riley in action, and boy does he look good! Yes, I'm not afraid to admit the Angry Cal has a huge man-crush on the young kid from Beaverton Oregon. I've been saying this ever since I saw him in the Oregon State game. This kid is gonna be a star.