(Written by kencraw)

What can one really say about this match up? About the only interesting thing about the Eastern Washington game is what the final score will be. I mean, it could be interesting if the Bears had a penchant for under-estimating lower teams. But let’s be honest, at home in Memorial Stadium, that just about never happens. I call as my first witness Sacramento State, then Portland State and even Colorado State (who won’t hold up under cross-examination as they’re not a I-AA/FCS school). Even on the road, Cal has beaten the lowly schools. It’s the middle BCS conference and higher schools that have proven troublesome on the road.

So, what is there to say about this game?

Well, read my Statistical Preview over at BearTerritory.net (if you’re a subscriber) where you’ll find just about all the interesting statistics I could dig up about FBS versus FCS match ups, particularly those that include teams in the AP top-25.

But beyond that, I think we just need to be looking for Cal to come out early and score some points in rhythm. We want to see Riley be effective early in the game. Other than that, we want to see the starters take a seat early so we avoid key injuries (remember that we lost Best against Colorado State and Nate Longshore (the first time) against Sac State). Plus it gives us time to see the lesser players in action.

Here’s a list of players to watch for (with jersey numbers):

• #10 Brock Mansion: He mostly just got to hand the ball of to DeBoskie in the 1st game, so it’ll be nice to see him throw some balls. What few he threw against Maryland didn’t look very sharp so hopefully we’ll see some improvement here.
• #9 Beau Sweeney: It sure would be nice to see him get some reps just to see if he’s as much of a gamer as he looks in practice and the spring scrimmage.
• #40 Tavecchio and # 16 D’Amado: It’ll be interesting to see who gets how many kickoff opportunities in this game. Can Tavechio kick like he does in practice? How good is D’Amado’s leg for the long kickoffs?
• #22 Will Kapp: Brian Holley proved himself well against Maryland, but fullback is still the position with the most risk, depth wise. It will be nice to see how Kapp can do. It’ll also be interesting to see if Tyndall (#31) gets any playing time.
• #53 Donovan Edwards: He’s our 2nd stringer for both tackle positions. There’s a good chance he’ll need to start a game or two at some point so look for how he does against rushes off the edge.
• #92 Trevor Guyton: Guyton is our 3rd string nose tackle behind Kendrick Payne who showed his strength versus Maryland and our 2nd string defensive end backing up Alualu. With Owusu showing so much strength as a backup DE, it’ll be interesting to note how good Guyton does both at DE and at NT.
• #55 Jerome Meadows: Backup linebackers Price and Bishop showed a lot last week. Meadows got playing time but didn’t really stick out to me. It’ll be interesting to see how much this JC transfer can contribute.
• #15 Bryant Nnabuife: Josh Hill had an excellent game backing up Hagan last week who had cramps and other minor injury problems. Nnabuife is the other backup and need to be more evaluated as a corner (he’s a great special teamer).

Those are the numbers I’m going to be watching for.

Finally, expect a 52-10 victory from these Bears even with all the backups playing.