(Written by kencraw)

Well, I don’t know for the rest of you but the break between the Washington game and the bowl game went by like a flash. Let me tell you, I went to every game this season in person, driving to every one of them but WSU and Maryland, and the Emerald Bowl will make it 13 games in 4 months. I have an entirely new appreciation for how the wear and tear of the season affects the players. It’s a long season and when you’ve got to be a full time student at the same time, or in my case have to work full time and support the family, it definitely takes its toll over the course of the season.

In any case, here are some ‘as they come to me’ thoughts on the upcoming game:

• About 10% of the fans will be Miami fans. They sold 4000 tickets through UM. While some of those were to Bear fans I’m sure, I think it’ll be offset by Miami fans who bought tickets through other sources. As a comparison, Stanford accounted for about 15% of the Big Game crowd.
• Speed, speed and more speed. Both teams love to emphasize speed on both sides of the ball. Of course Javhid Best is all about speed. So are the Miami RBs. Perhaps Cal doesn’t have the speediest wide-receivers, but there is speed there. Miami’s are even faster. The same goes on defense.
• Generally speaking, teams that rely on speed, rely on the big play and I think that has proven out this season for the Bears. It’s also true that the key to the Bear defense is preventing the big play while also getting pressure on the QB and good run stopping. That’s what the 3-4 is all about. It’s why the Bears were able to beat Oregon. So while I don’t expect the Cal offense to run wild on the Miami defense because they’ve got a lot of defensive speed, I do expect the Cal defense to do even better at coraling Miami. Particularly considering how mistake prone they can be, I think that’s something to be optimistic about.
• Playing in SF seems to be working out just fine for the Bears. Nobody seems to be complaining. If anything the low expectations for the bowl environment has helped them appreciate it more. Add in the comfort of practicing at home and the heavy fan bias at the game and I think the Bears should come ready to play.
• If you ever want to feel better about the Cal QB situation, read up some on the Miami QB situation. It’s a big difference between what Cal is dealing with where you’ve got two capable guys who just haven’t been able to make the leap to being good/great consistently and Miami where they’ve got really young guys who are very mistake prone and have fundamental problems. It feels more like Ayoob vs. Levy than Riley vs. Longshore.
• Miami is up to 5 suspended players. While most of them don’t seem like big hits to their on the field success, it does feel to me like there are some control issues for Miami. Remember that this is a program that is trying to clean its act up after a number of years where it was ‘anything goes’. While everyone was OK with that when they were winning national championships, now there is a renewed desire to see them play more cleanly. In any case, I’m not sure it will affect the outcome, but it’s one of those indicators that suggest not all is well inside the Miami camp.
• There seemed to be a certain lack of comfort/confidence of the Miami players at the Tuesday press conference. I could even be so bold as to say they looked tired and dazed. I suspect that San Francisco rain, a biting cold rain that is as dreary as it gets, just isn’t what they expected when they came to “California” for a bowl game. The more I think about it, if one team is going to come out of the tunnel under-prepared and lacking intensity, it’ll be Miami.

Those are my thoughts. But before you go thinking I think this game will be a walk in the park, if Miami comes to play and does a good job of coraling the Bears, I think it’ll be a tough one for them to win. It’s really about the Cal defense playing to their potential and tackling well. They’ve got to give the Cal offense plenty of chances to score and not require too many scores to win.