(Written by kencraw)

I’m going to be doing a review of every game in 2005 (see here for why). Before we get to the specific games, a trip down memory lane:

2004 had been the Bears best season in a half century. The Bears only regular season loss was in a nailbiter to USC on the road in the ever difficult to play at LA Coliseum. USC went on to win the BCS championship game, so while the loss was disappointing, it was hardly a loss to be distraught about. More frustrating however was the shaft job the Bears got by the BCS and were denied a BCS slot because of some suspect voting by the coaches and the BCS rules that allowed the Rose Bowl no flexibility in who to select (because every slot went to teams that were guaranteed a slot). Furthering the frustration, the Bears played horribly in their “letdown” bowl game, the Holiday Bowl, and lost, souring the end of what was otherwise an incredible season.

Nevertheless, at the end of 2004, 2005 was looking to be an even better season in the making. While Cal was losing their starting tailback, his replacement, a young Marshawn Lynch, had done awesomely in a backup role and was expected to fill in more than admirably. Cal also was going to be young at wide-receiver losing both Chase Lynman and Geoff McArthur but there were a number of talented new receivers in the wings, including 5-star recruit DeSean Jackson. The rest of the offense looked stellar with probably the best offensive line in the country, stud fullback Chris Manderino, the young but proven tight-end Craig Stevens and a Heisman candidate in quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

On defense, things looked similarly as strong. While the Bears were losing all of their top-5 tacklers in Ryan Gutierrez, Wendel Hunter, Matt Giordano, Ryan Riddle, and Joe Maningo, there was plenty of proven talent coming back, including Mixon, Hughes, McCluskey, Lupoi and Lorenzo Alexander. In addition, there were numerous well regarded young players looking to fill in, including Brandon Mebane and Ryan Foltz.

With that much anticipation, when Aaron Rodgers decided to forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL draft, there was a great deal of disappointment. However, with Tedford at the helm and his proven ability to mold great college QB’s, there was hope that a good replacement would be found. That hope was re-enforced when the best junior college QB in the country, Joe Ayoob committed to Cal in the spring. Adding to the positive news, redshirt freshman Nate Longshore was challenging Ayoob for the job. With Ayoob presumed to be a good to great QB prospect, it was assumed that Longshore must be pretty good to be challenging for the starting job.

And that’s the premise for the looking back posts that are to follow, starting with the opening game at home against Sac State to be posted Friday.