(Written by kencraw)

OK, a couple more thoughts on Tedford’s job security…

I’m willing to concede the following points:

1. Tedford may be paid a bit much. He’s worth $1.5 million or so, maybe even bordering on $2M. The $2.5+M is a bit more than his performance is worth, when basing it on what other coaches make.
2. Tedford is not a “great coach”. He’s a good coach, but there are clearly times when he’s still learning and times when his mistakes (or the mistakes of his staff) are pretty frustrating, particularly when no halftime adjustments seem to help.

That’s about it. In every other way, I think he’s the perfect head coach for Berkeley. He’s recruited well, considering his facilities. He’s a stand-up guy who always does the right thing by his coaches, players and the University as a whole. He’s won a LOT of games that we’d never have won in the past. He’s brought the fans back to Berkeley. He’s gotten the money and facilities moving in a way I just about never thought would happen.

So what do we do with the fact that he makes a bit too much? One option is to dump him and pay him all the money his buyout is worth. Then we’ve either got to get a budget coach or pay just as much if not more for someone better. The other option is to just keep paying him. I’d argue that we’ll get a better value for our dollar by just paying him. The only thing to do is when he contract is up is to make the next one a little less and perhaps give him bigger incentive clauses. Maybe $1.5M for every BCS game appearance but only $1.5M base? I don’t know exactly what, but I think it’s obvious conceptually what I’m suggesting.

The overall point is that this isn’t something worth focusing. OK, OK, we can be upset we lost, but let’s focus our energy somewhere else besides whether Tedford deserve to be fired. It’s just not going to happen, at least for another 3 years (isn’t the contract through 2014?). It’s just not worth banging our heads against that wall.

(Written by kencraw)

I can tell you whether Cal lost a game just based on the blog statistics. Every time they lose, I get a handful of Google searches headed this way with the search term “Fire Tedford” or “Fire Jeff Tedford” or something like that. It usually refers them to a post titled Fire Tedford. Are you NVTS!?! that I wrote in 2007 during the collapse.

As much as the details are different, the overall point still rings true. A day may come when it’s time for Tedford to go, but it’s not remotely close to that time yet. People have completely forgotten what the alternative has been in the past and are way to arrogant to think that whoever we get to replace him will not be any worse. Go ask UCLA about all the coaches they’ve fired and how it worked out.

At least see what he does for the rest of the season for crying out loud.

(Written by kencraw)

I think all of us wonder what the rest of us are like after a loss like this, stewing in our living rooms over the disaster that unfolded. Sometimes you get an insight into that in these podcasts… but not today. For some reason I fairly quickly calmed down when recording this one. Although a bit of that seething fury started rearing its ugly head during the discussion of the read option.

Enjoy:

Standard Podcast [ 21:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Written by kencraw)

It’s a new morning and for some reason things feel surprisingly sane. The Bears have struggled on the road in non-conference. The Bears have struggled against a quirky offense. Everything feels surprisingly normal. But you know what? I’m pretty happy with the current Cal Bear Football Normal. It’s a lot better than the pre-Tedford normal.

In any case, with the non-conference slate behind us it’s time to focus on conference play, and what better way to do that than watching the rest of the conference play football all day? Come back throughout the day for my thoughts on the games today:

• Boy, at first it looked like Nebraska was just going to destroy Washington, I mean, they OWNED the line of scrimmage on those first two TD drives. But with Washington having a good drive of their own and now playing Nebraska straight up since then, this 14-7 Nebraska lead is not so big. I still get the feeling Nebraska wins. They’ll wear Washington down.
• USC and Minnesota are playing a pretty straight up game. USC seems to have a slight physical edge. But USC’s defense still looks like it’s got too many holes and it could be that as even as things are now, a few defensive mistakes could cost USC the game. (Current score: 7-7)
• Oh wow. Apparently I’m watching the wrong game. ASU is up 7-3 over Wisconsin mid-2nd quarter. I thought for sure that one was going to be a blowout. Switching to ESPN2…
• Looks like the power teams are starting to (re)assert themselves with USC on top 13-7 and Nebraska adding a 3rd TD to go up 21-7.
• Halftime scores: USC is holding their 13-7 lead. Nebraska added a long TD drive and Washington got a fumble recovery for a short TD drive, 28-14 Neb. Wisconsin is starting to impose their will on ASU, and are now up 13-10 over ASU. And no on TV (at least with my sat package) SMU and WSU are tied at the half at 14. That’s a better performance than I expected.
• Boy, what a shootout in Seattle. After trading touchdowns in the 1st minute of the 2nd half (one read-option run by Neb, one long pass by UW) Neb added 2 TD’s, one long run, one INT for a touchdown. This one’s out of hand: 49-21 Nebraska. I’m switching back to the other two where USC’s added two field goals to be up 19-13 and ASU and Wisconsin are all tied at 13.
• USC is asserting itself more against Minnesota, up now 33-14 with dominating line play. ASU continues to play it close. They gave up one score and are down 13-20, but it’s been a stalemate the last few possessions. They’re really the positive surprise in the Pac-10 so far, particularly now that WSU is down 14-28 to SMU.
• The Oregon State game is underway against Louiville. I sure hope they represent the Pac-10 well. We need all the help we can get right now. Between Cal, WSU, and UW, the Pac-10 has not represented very well so far. They’re up 7-0 and will soon be my 2nd active game now that USC is putting things away.
• ASU continues to hang tough with a nice TD drive that would have tied it if the extra point hadn’t been blocked. What a tough blow. ASU’s new QB Threet is pretty darned good. Looks like ASU might be the upside surprise of the conference. Still down by 1 point, 19-20 with 4 minutes left.
• In other games, Oregon is off to a fast start, up 21-0 just 5 minutes in. OSU still has a TD lead 14-7, unfortunately I don’t have that one on TV either. And the UW game is just as out of hand as before.
• Well, that extra point sunk ASU, losing 19-20 (they never got the ball back), but look out for them. I’m thankful we get them in Berkeley. USC finished off thier 32-21 win, Minnesota getting a too-little-too-late TD. Nebraska finished off their 56-21 blowout. Huskies offense looked like it had potential, but the defense looks pretty bad. WSU couldn’t rebound either, losing 21-35. In progress we have Oregon State up 21-14 at the half. They’re getting significantly outgained on the ground, so that could be trouble later, but the Beavers do get the ball to start the 2nd half. Oregon continues to roll. Not sure why they’re stalled at 21-0, but does it really matter? Unfortunately neither of these two games are on TV. We do have a slate of 3 games on TV tonight. Houston at UCLA, Wake Forrest at Stanford and Iowa at Arizona. So while we started off the day rough at 1-3 (1-4 if you include the Friday night disaster), the record will likely improve with some better matchups and ones at home. I’d bet $20 that ASU would have won their game at home. They came up just short on the road and were mistake prone. They really shoulda won that game.
• The afternoon games both went the Pac-10’s way. Oregon demolished Portland State, of course, 69-0. I think I predicted 63-0, so nothing unexpected there. Of course this game doesn’t mean much, but they’re definitely firing on all cylinders and are without a doubt the top of the conference until proven otherwise. Oregon State opened up a 3 TD lead and then let Louisville back into it, but managed to hold on 35-28. Not as convincing a win as I’d like and it doesn’t bode well for their trip to the Potato Patch next Saturday, but a win is a win.
• We’ve learned two things tonight in the Iowa at Arizona game: 1. Iowa is over-rated. I’m sorry #9 teams don’t make the sort of mistakes they’re making tonight. 2. Arizona has a lot of intensity and their fans are matching that intensity. I’m not yet sold on the quality of either team and I’ve seen a lot of sloppy play in the 1st half. Foles has been pretty good as has the Arizona run defense, but other than that, this doesn’t feel like the matchup of 2 ranked teams.
• The big surprise to me of the night is UCLA absolutely owning Houston. 21-3 at the half. The big question mark is how good is Houston, but it may be that UCLA’s demise was too anxiously announced.
• The Stanford vs. Wake Forrest game has been pretty ho-hum, with Stanford playing physical and winning and Wake Forrest not playing horribly but not exactly keeping pace. Luck continues to be the most over-rated QB in the conference and is getting bailed out over and over by his receivers with his off-target passes. Then he’s missing plenty of others. Don’t get me wrong, he’s obviously a Pac-10 quality QB, but he’s not “the nation’s best” or whatever the latest platitude some ignorant announcer has been throwing his way.
• Boy, that Arizona/Iowa game was a crazy one. After a sloppy and slow 3rd quarter that about put me to sleep, Iowa closed the gap to 21-27 and then picked off a pass by getting Foles to channel his inner Longshore. But they missed the extra point to leave it tied and the let Arizona get down the field WAY too easy to score a touchdown. Once the crowd and defense was re-energized, they shut Iowa down for the 34-27 win. So that’s a good one for the Pac-10 but also in a way that leaves me optimistic that Arizona is a team that can be beat. They had 20 points off of turnovers and minus their run defense, looked a bit sloppy.
• UCLA finished out their dominating performance over Houston, although they played the 2nd half near even, final score: 31-13
• Stanford put the accelerator down and is in beat-down mode, the current score being 68-24.
• Overall the Pac-10 recovered well today with Washington being the lone sore point. It would have been nice to see them be more competitive. Across the rest of the conference, minus WSU, everyone represented well. The only problem is that half the country was already in bed for the strong half of the performance.

And with that, I’m calling it a night.

(Written by kencraw)

6:52 Jason Snell: Hi everyone. Jason reporting to you live from my house.

6:52 Jason Snell: Are you ready for some inappropriately timed football??

Read the rest of this entry »

(Written by kencraw)

The role of a Cal fan is one generally with the same symptoms as a person with bipolar disorder. What’s different is the frequency with which we can switch back and forth. I’m finding myself stuck in that quickly vacillating rut.

Part of me looks at this Nevada team and is scared… really, really, really scared. Are we going to spend all evening having flashbacks to Oregon 2009? Or perhaps Armed Forces bowl 2007, the first half anyway. Could this Nevada team spread us out, until we hold water as well as a colander? Could the Bear offense not do as well if it’s not getting the ball back repeated after 3 and outs? Do the Bears have what it takes to win a shootout? It all leaves me very nervous.

But then there’s the part of me that wants to give a dogbert “BAH!” to Nevada. Look at their small and mediocre defense. We’re going to crush them with ball control. We’re going to disrupt their offensive line (although the size of their offensive line gives a moment’s pause). Look what Notre Dame, yeah, ND, that Catholic team (Ken makes the sign of the cross) that lost to the Stanford team we manhandled last year… look what they did to Nevada!

So which of my inner personalities wins this one?

Well, it’s a little of both. I think Nevada will put up some points early while their offense slightly confuses the Bears, but the Bears offense wins the day and keeps the ball away from Nevada. Bears win what looks like a shootout in the 1st half and turns into a ball-control win in the 2nd:

Bears 45, Nevada 27

(Written by kencraw)

Just an FYI that the stats section is working. It wasn’t working right away because the place I get my stats from changed their formatting and I had to rework my scripts to parse everything differently. Now I have to do some additional future proofing work, as well.

For those who haven’t used it, the reason I do my own stat page is because I get opponent stats for comparison’s sake. So, let’s say you’re looking at, oh I don’t know, Nevada, and you want to know whether their nation leading 592 yards a game is impressive. Or perhaps the Bears nation leading defensive yards. How do we know if it’s meaningful?

Well one way is to see how many yards Nevada and Cal’s opponents have been giving up or putting up respectively. When you see that Nevada’s opponents are giving up nearly 500 yards a game, it takes a little bit of the heft out of their stats, as for that matter does the fact that Cal’s opponents are only gaining 209 a game.

Really these stats mean more 4+ weeks in when there are more opponent numbers to balance things out, but even now, it gives a comparison point, albeit a bit weak, to work from.

Check it out by clicking on the “Stats” link on the header or going to http://excusemeformyvoice.com/statistics

(Written by kencraw)

(We continue the looking back series for the 2009 season. We’re going to continue the trend of doing these in “matching order” instead of chronological order. Today we match last year’s “B” non-conference team, Maryland with this year’s “B” non-conference team, Nevada. Go here for past looking back posts.)

Pre-Game notes and thoughts:
Cal started off the season ranked 12th and anxious to get off to a good start versus a Maryland team that had embarrassed Cal in 2008 on the other side of the country. Maryland had ended up being better than expected in 2008, ending the season 8-5 with a convincing win over Nevada in their bowl game. They were also implementing a new, much more aggressive defense, which was expected to make them even better. It was expected to be a good test to start the season. The Bears wanted payback, and it made them smile that after having to start the game at 9:00 AM home-time in 2008, Maryland had to start at 10:00 PM home-time for the rematch, and Maryland wanted to show that the 2008 victory wasn’t a fluke or home-aided.

Scoring and momentum changing plays:

• Maryland just barely doesn’t get off a 3rd and short play that would have been a 1st down due to a delay of game. After a holding penalty to boot, Maryland’s 2nd drive stalled when they couldn’t convert on 3rd and 16.
• Jahvid Best busts through a sizeable hole in the line, partially opened by the faked fly-sweep, and runs for a 73 yard touchdown run, using Verran Tucker as a lead blocker on the safety. Bears up early: 7-0
• On the ensuing kickoff, Little hits the returner hard and pops the ball loose and DJ Campbell recovers giving Cal the ball back right after the 1st TD.
• Best leaps over the line on the 2nd play of the drive for an all too easy TD. Bears opening the can in less than a minute: 14-0.
• Maryland’s returner redeems himself a little, taking the always short kickoff to the Cal 37 yard-line stealing back some momentum from Cal.
• After a formation foul negates a Maryland TD, Alualu bats down a 3rd and goal pass, forcing the short field-goal. Bears still up by two scores: 14-3
• After Owusu gets a sack taking Maryland out of field-goal range on 3rd down, Maryland converts 4th and 9 to keep the drive alive.
• After Maryland’s drive stalled on yet another sack, they kick the field-goal. Lead is now down to one score: 14-6
• Verran Tucker makes a nice recovery and catch while being fouled on a deep ball that Riley well under threw.
• Riley is sacked on 1st and goal from the 9, setting up a difficult 2nd and goal from the 14.
• Bears settle for the field-goal. Lead back to 11: 17-6
• Bishop knocks out the ball on a short run and Cameron Jordan recovers giving Cal the ball at midfield and ending what was otherwise starting to look like a promising drive for Maryland.
• Marvin Jones hauls in a poor pass from Riley (too hard and too high), giving Cal a 1st and goal from the 3.
• Riley does a great job to evade a would-be sacker and then finds Skyler Curran in the endzone for a TD. Bears establish a big lead: 24-6
• Cal gets back-to-back sacks from Owusu and Price late in the 1st half, killing Maryland’s chances to get a momentum gaining end-of-half touchdown.
• Nyan Boateng is WIDE open as Cal is executing the 2-minute offense and scores an easy 40 yard touchdown before halftime. Bears up huge before halftime: 31-6
• Best starts off the 2nd half with a 40 yard run, which on the back of Vereen’s kickoff return to midfield, has the Bears in the redzone less than 30 seconds into the half.
• Vereen finishes off the drive with a 2 tackle shreading TD run. Bears making it a blowout: 38-6
• On the Bears next possession, Jones gets behind his DB and Riley lays a beautiful rainbow in his hands and Jones gets another TD. Game officially out of hand: 45-6
• Maryland finally gets something to cheer about on a long run play for a touchdown. Still a blowout: 45-13
• Riley throws a swingout pass to Vereen who dodges a couple would-be tacklers en route to the endzone. Bears finish the scoring early in the 4th quarter: 52-13

Observations:

• It was amazing to see the difference in Tavecchio’s kickoffs last year. They were pathetically short in this game.
• The offensive line was not doing a great job in pass blocking early in the game. Riley had to get rid of the ball early a number of times. That was in part due to the aggressive schemes of Maryland, but also you got the feeling there were some issues.
• Maryland’s QB Turner was not very accurate in the 1st quarter and the opportunities they had were often spoiled by poor throws.
• Cal was bringing a lot of defensive heat in the 1st half, and did a lot to rattle Maryland’s QB in addition to the sacks they racked up.
• SydQuan was in top form for this game, with a number of key breakups in the 1st half.
• There were two points in the game that really put a stake through the heart of Maryland in the 1st half: The first was the quick back-to-back TD’s to start off the scoring. The second was the end of half touchdown to put the game effectively out of reach (remarkable comebacks aside) before halftime.
• Riley’s accuracy in the second half was significantly better than in the 1st. He really played much better than the first, particularly on the long throws.
• It’s funny to hear the hype that we know doesn’t work out. Tedford thinks this offensive line will be better than the 2008 version (uh, that would be NO!) This should be one of the best defenses in the nation (well, reasonable thought at the time, but SO far from the truth). Cal will challenge USC this year (oh how painfully not true). Etc.
• It was interesting to see how much pressure Cal got on the QB in this game. 6 sacks! It sure seemed like the defense was as good as the 2008 edition at that point with all the same characteristics.
• By the 4th quarter Cal was subbing in a lot of backups outside of Riley. Best was nowhere to be seen. WR’s like Lageman were getting playing time. Etc.
• Here’s something from this game that was a precursor to later in the season: 5 of Cal’s TD drives were 2 minutes or less. Cal was most definitely a quick strike offense last year. Unfortunately, that’s all they were.
• The 4th quarter was a pretty lazy affair on both sides of the ball with both teams sticking to a conservative run game to run out the clock, Maryland wanting it over just as much as the Bears.

Implications for 2010:
I don’t know that there is much about this game that necessarily applies to Nevada or to any other game in 2010 other than to serve as a warning to this 2-0 team. We thought beating Maryland meant something. It turns out they’d go 2-10 last year, one of those wins being over lowly James Madison and losses to Middle Tennessee, Duke, Rutgers and North Carolina State not doing much to help their resume. Who has a hard time believing that Colorado could suffer a similar fate? The Bears will need to prove their mettle this year in the Pac-10 and any non-conference success needs to be taken with a grain, nay a pound, of salt.

Conclusion:
It was nice to see the Bears get revenge for their loss to Maryland in 2008, but at the same time, it’s sad that the Bears keep needing this sort of redemption. The 2007 Tennessee game was the same way. Let’s hope the Bears won’t be looking for redemption from Nevada when they come to play in Berkeley in the future.

(Written by jsnell)

Rehashing Colorado and pre-hashing Nevada, it’s the latest EMFMV podcast with Jason and Ken! We do what we always do: break down the last Cal game unscientifically, discuss other games around the Pac-10 — wow, is UCLA bad or what? — and then preview Cal’s potential “trap game” against Nevada. Plus there’s a secret word and yet more about buses. Join us or die! Okay, that was a little dramatic. Please listen, won’t you?

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Standard Podcast [ 38:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Written by kencraw)

A little late, but my thoughts based on re-watching the game on TV:

• Sofele fumbling the kickoff… that’s not something that’s going to keep him on the return team. If there’s one thing Tedford hates more than anything else, it’s not holding onto the football.
• On the Bears first drive I count 5 plays, 3 rushing and 2 passing, where the offensive line didn’t do their jobs. They were often bailed out by great running and a clutch scramble by Riley, but in the end, they were the cause of the drive stalling.
• Ross’s first punt return was a beauty. He doesn’t have the “magic” that DeSean had, but he does seems to be even better than DeSean at getting some yards instead of going for the home run (which sometimes ends up gaining nothing).
• Riley’s first TD pass (to Vereen) was really a clutch throw. It was 3rd and 5 at the 13, not an easy spot to convert.
• I guess we know why Marc Anthony is a DB and not a WR. How could he drop that interception? I thought for sure he had it, but it went right through his hands.
• Riley’s two incompletions back to back from the CU 39 on 3rd/4th and 2, really hurt. Tedford wants the flexibility to use either the pass or run on short down situations to keep the defense honest, but when Riley can’t make the “automatic” throws like that, it forces Tedford to stick to the over-predictable run game in those situations.
• Of course there’s no better way to get the momentum from a failed 4th down conversion than two sacks and a resulting fumble recovery. Price used great technique to get leverage on the tackle and around the corner en route to the sack.
• I’ve got the distinct feeling that Cal uses the QB keeper more early in the season than late in the season. I felt like a fair amount in Sept. of both 2008 and 2009 Riley got a number of QB run plays but as the season progressed we saw less and less. Here again we’ve got a designed QB run in September. Will we see it more this season?
• The pass to Jones for the TD was a beautifully designed play. It gave a lot for Colorado to cover all on one side of the field and also gave Riley an easy throw.
• Man were the Cal rushing schemes working well early in the game. Kendricks and Price should have been required to take out a long-term lease in the backfield. When they didn’t sack the QB, they were forcing interceptions. Unbelievably promising play.
• The Bears 3rd touchdown drive was definitely their best drive of the game. They marched the majority of the field and everything was working. Riley was back on his throwing game. The offensive line was opening good holes for Vereen. That’s the offense that Tedford wants.
• You know what’s interesting is that both in the UCD game and now the 1st half of this game is that we’re seeing surprisingly few 3 WR sets. This is much more the traditional Tedford offense. Lot’s of offset-I. Lot’s of 2 TE. Ever since 2006 when Tedford brought in Dunbar, the Bears have emphasized a lot of 3 WR sets and it seems like it’s on its way out.
• As much as it didn’t result in points after the penalties and the missed field goal, Colorado’s drive in the 2nd quarter was good enough that had they played like that for the rest of the game, they could have make a game of it. But I think the fact that they failed to score really hurt them, momentum wise.
• Kendricks is the defender that I didn’t appreciate how much he was a part of the defensive effort. He did great. Good to see him making the jump to the next level.
• If the inability to get points killed the CU heart, the end of half INT for a touchdown put their hearts on a pike.
• Looking at the couple good drives that Colorado had, the Cal defense was playing a lot more passive than in the 1st half. Even still, they were barely getting their first downs.
• The second half of CU’s long drive was almost entirely on the back of QB runs. How could the defense be so caught off guard that it would be a designed QB run on 4th and goal from the 3? I saw that coming from a mile away.
• Anger’s back-to-back punts on the procedure penalty were things of beauty. It’s nice to see him get this sort of consistency, even when he has a reason to be frustrated by a penalty negating his great punt. He just did it again.
• It didn’t occur to me until now that the Bears didn’t score in the 3rd quarter. Those two time-eating drives by CU kept the Bears offense off the field and the offense was in a bit of a funk.
• While the defender fell down on Jones’ long reception, the reason he fell down was because of Jones’ speed. He just accelerated away from the DB and the DB tripped in his desperation to keep up once the ball was in the air.
• Another somewhat overlooked stat so far… Riley’s interception count: ZERO
• Steve Williams had a pretty good game at corner. He’s getting a fair amount of playing time for a young guy. I see a lot of promise at corner.
• On the reverse to Jones, if Fisher had just a little bit faster 40 time, that would have been a touchdown, but you just can’t expect the linemen to be able to sprint out in front of a speed WR like Jones.
• Really nice play action pass to Sofele for a touchdown. Very well executed.
• No matter how many times I see the catch and fumble that went straight into Hagan’s hands… it sure doesn’t look like a fumble. I looks like the WR threw it to Hagan like it was a lateral or something. Of course it wasn’t, it was punched out, but it sure looks like it.

Overall, it was a dominating performance, and if anything, it was even more so from a re-review as the areas that concerned me didn’t look as bad on film.

(Written by kencraw)

OK, I admit it, I haven’t given 30 seconds thought to Nevada until today.

So I go look up their results to date and I find out two interesting things:

1. Nevada is leading the nation in total offense (yards gained) at 592/game. But that’s not what this post is about despite it being interesting since the Bears are leading the nation with the least yards allowed at 160/game.
2. We already have a psuedo-common opponent in Colorado State (the point of this post).

As we all know, the transitive property (Team A beat Team C, yet Team B lost to Team C, means Team A is better than Team B) doesn’t work consistently. It’s triple-trouble when you’re using margin of victory, when both teams either beat or lost to a common opponent. Therefore it’s got to be an order of magnitude more trouble to compare a team that only one of you played but the other one played as a common opponent.

But I’m going to do it anyway… 🙂

So, using the dubious transitive property, if Nevada beat Colorado State 51-6 and Colorado beat CSU 24-3, that means Nevada is better than CU. But we beat CU 52-7, so what’s the math for how much we would have beat CSU by? Is it more than 51-6? Could one just take margin of victory, so we’d beat CSU by 66 points?

In any case, I think the most aggressive thing to say about this odd connection point is that Nevada is likely a better team than Colorado, something many people were already saying, and we’ve got to face them on the road, a more difficult task.

So it does look like our “A” game this year is Nevada, not Colorado.

(Written by kencraw)

Yet another edition published on Sunday. Don’t go having a heart attack. This is the NEEEWWW Ken Crawford, no longer a Rivals reporter and not spending all Sunday writing articles and has time to both relax after Mass and publish a podcast and a post or two.

Sorry again for the poor audio quality. Last week I thought it was the train, but when it was bad this week I realized I had my audio recorder on the high sensitivity setting, which has me over-driving the DAC. So we shouldn’t have this problem starting next week.

Colorado On The Road Home Podcast [ 14:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Written by kencraw)

I’m surprised how quick this happened, but the dominating performance of the Bears got the Bears into the Coaches poll at #24. We’re also a virtual #29 in the AP. That means that if the Bears can go to Nevada and win, there’s a good chance the trip to Arizona will be between two ranked teams.

The old Bear in me has only one thing to say about that: expectations are back and we’re doomed! DOOOOOOMed!

OTRH podcast coming soon…

(Written by kencraw)

In my preseason prediction I indicated that the Buffaloes were in a free-fall and I expected the Bears to win easily 35-13. But now they’ve played a game and handily beat Colorado State 24-3. You’d think that would make me a bit more hesitant, but it doesn’t.

When you look inside the numbers of their win over Colorado State, they didn’t dominate. 3 turnovers by CSU aided the CU win. CU only had just over 300 yards and they gave up 200 yards passing to an anemic CSU offense. It bears repeating, Colorado State was only 3-9 in 2009, losing to teams like Idaho, Wyoming and New Mexico (yes, the same New Mexico that just got blown out 72-0 by the Oregon Ducks).

I just don’t see Colorado as having performed all that well last week.

So what are the strengths of Colorado? Well, they’ve finally put aside the coach’s son as the starting QB for starters. That definitely had some positive affect for them last week. Their corners are supposedly quite good. They also picked up a USC defector as a wide receiver who seems to have a lot of promise. But otherwise, there’s a lot of mediocre on that team.

Mediocre line play on both sides of the ball. Mediocre running game. Mediocre linebackers.

Add to this that there are few areas where I’m more optimistic about the Bears than before the season. Keenan Allen and good TE play is going to result in a better passing game. Better secondary play is going to keep Colorado’s offense in check. And there was no area I saw where the Bears had clearly taken a step back, although the defensive line might be the one area that could challenge that assertion.

But overall the point is that the Bears look better than I hoped, albeit by a little bit and Colorado looks just as weak as I suspected and in some ways even weaker just based on how impressed they are with themselves for beating Colorado State.

So I’m upping my prediction and inking it in the Pick’Em league. Bears win even bigger: 42-13

(Written by kencraw)

(We continue the looking back series for the 2009 season. We’re going to continue the trend of doing these in “matching order” instead of chronological order. Today we match last year’s “A” non-conference team, Minnesota with this year’s “A” non-conference team, Colorado. Go here for past looking back posts.)

Pre-Game notes and thoughts:
The Minnesota game had been circled on a lot of people’s calendars long before the season started. It was either this game or the Maryland game that would be the toughest game of the season, but this game had the edge because it was on the road. To make the road situation worse, Minnesota was opening a brand new stadium on campus that many expected to give the Gophers a much better home field advantage than in the past. With the Bears going 1-4 on the road in 2008, only beating lowly WSU, there was a question whether the Bears had what it took to win on the road. Minnesota was a routine bowl team out of the Big-10 that the Bears had beat in 2006 at home, but the Gophers looked better in 2009 than 2006, plus the road game factor made this a “show me” game for the Bears.

Scoring and momentum changing plays:

• Cal started the game with the halfback pass from Vereen. Isn’t that “trick play” so cliche for the Bears at this point as to be overly obvious?
• Jahvid Best got through a big hole as the fly-sweep fake freezes the linebackers and then breaks it to the outside before leaping into the endzone, in what was probably his signature TD of 2009, putting the Bears up front: 7-0.
• Minnesota ran a reverse off the kick-off return taking the ball just past midfield, setting them up with great field position.
• Minnesota runs a hook and lateral to try to make a 3rd and 15, but Cal is not fooled and the Gophers don’t convert.
• Riley threw a beautiful rainbow to Verran Tucker for 58 yards, only just being tripped up at the 2-yard line.
• Jahvid Best runs for a surprisingly easy 2-yard TD run between the tackles and the Bears are up by two TD’s, mid 1st quarter: 14-0
• Riley got sacked and fumbled the ball on their 3rd possession. Luckily for the Bears, it was recovered, not giving Minnesota a free trip to the redzone. It does however result in a 2nd and long that the Bears can’t recover from and they have to punt for the first time.
• Anger has a surprisingly short punt giving the Gophers the ball around midfield.
• Alualu beats two defenders en route to the QB for a sack at the Cal 32.
• Minnesota’s Decker catches the ball for a Minnesota TD. Cattouse hit him hard and from my view, Decker didn’t hold onto the ball as he went out of bounds, but nevertheless it was a great effort to even keep the ball on his chest and it was scored as a TD. The lead is cut to a TD: 14-7.
• Boateng makes a nice catch and run on a crossing route on a key 3rd and 7 when Minnesota had momentum, keeping the drive alive.
• D’Amato shanks a 47 yard-field goal attempt after a determined drive with a number of key 3rd down conversions.
• Best explodes through the sizable hole through the line and then quickly past the secondary for another Cal touchdown. Back to a 2 TD lead: 21-7
• Sofele gets a bogus interference to catch the ball, offsetting the fumble recovery by the Bears and giving Minnesota the ball at the Cal 30 with less than two minutes left in the half.
• Hagan completely whiffs on the coverage on Decker giving Minnesota an easy fade for a touchdown. Score down to one TD going into the locker room: 21-14
• After forcing a 3-and-out on Minnesota’s possession to start the 2nd half, the shanked punt hits a Cal defender and Minnesota recovers the fumble around midfield. Yet another special teams issue (I’ll refrain from the word “blunder” as it was a touch bounce) gives Minnesota more chances and better field position than they otherwise deserve.
• A fumble by Minnesota at the Cal 20 saves Cal from letting the special teams turnover result in points.
• Anger has a monster punt from the Cal 25, that is fair caught at the Minnesota 18.
• After a drive where Decker was at the receiving end of almost all the passes, they pull a trick-play out of their hat and Decker throws the ball to a wide open receiver for a 7-yard touchdown. The game is tied: 21-21
• Riley escapes throwing an interception when his overthrown ball over the middle is dropped by the Minnesota safety with it in his bread-basket.
• Cal gets another rough penalty call, a pass interference call on Cattouse when he made a brilliant defensive move on 3rd down, extending the Minnesota drive.
• Preventing Cal’s 4th consecutive 3-and-out, Riley squeezes it into Ross who sidesteps a tackler to get their first 1st down of the half with less than 9 minutes left in the game.
• Riley throws a nice fade to Ross who gets the ball down to the 1 yard line.
• After getting stuffed on 1st down between the tackles, Best goes to the outside and scores his 4th touchdown of the game. Bears back in front: 28-21
• When Cal brings a blitz, the throw is offline giving Mohamed an easy interception on the Gopher side of the field just after the Cal touchdown.
• Cal runs the QB sneak on 4th and 1 from the Minnesota 33 yard-line and converts.
• Anthony Miller makes a great stretching one-handed catch, bailing out Riley’s over-throw, getting the ball down to the 8 yard-line.
• Best gets his 5th touchdown, again going to the corner. Bears back in front by 2 TD’s, now with less than 3 minutes left in the game: 35-21
• Josh Hill gets an interception on 4th and 10 on a desperation throw for the Gophers with the clock running down.
• Minnesota forces the 3-and-out, using all of their timeouts, to give them one last desperation shot, needing a touchdown, an onside kick recovery and a second TD, all in 45 seconds.
• Mohamed gets his second interception of the game to put an end to the comeback attempt.

Observations:

• The Bears came out fast and hard in this very important road game, to prove that they could win on the road. What was noticeable is that the offense pulled out all the stops early, giving Minnesota a lot of different looks, a high diversity of plays and punishing Minnesota for cheating to what had been successful on previous plays, i.e. the long Tucker pass after the strong running game, the running up the middle after the fly-sweep, etc..
• Both teams had very good intensity in the 1st quarter. Cal came out of the tunnel and scored 2 quick TD’s but Minnesota didn’t give in and fought hard both to close the gap on the scoreboard and get momentum back.
• Two plays back-to-back showed the problems that the Cal receivers had in 2009. On the first play, Riley threw a ball out in front of Best who corralled the ball and got a first down. On the very next play the WR had a similarly out in front ball, but he didn’t even catch it, bobbling it before it went to the ground.
• Vereen powered through a gang-tackle on 3rd and 3 to get a 1st down when it looked like Minnesota had him stopped. This is the sort of advantage having Vereen as the every down back in 2010. He’s much more likely to get the tough yards and less likely to lose a few when the play breaks down.
• The touchdown at the end of the 1st half was a huge momentum killer for the Bears. After they had held off the strong push by Minnesota in the early 2nd quarter, extending back to a 2-TD lead, they gave Minnesota both momentum and hope in the locker room. The Bears statistically dominated the 1st half, but the poor results by the special teams and efficient play by the Minnesota offense when they had a short field, had the game much closer on the scoreboard than on the stat sheet.
• Cal had some definite tackling problems in the 3rd quarter. Just before the Minnesota fumble there were two missed tackles for loss. After Anger’s monster punt, Cal had 3 shots at a sack inside the 2 yard-line (perhaps even a marginal safety) before sacking him around the 8 yard-line. Lot’s of diving at players and not wrapping them up.
• There’s no doubt that the Gophers’ new stadium was helping their home field advantage. The crowd was in the game even when Minnesota was down and the players were feeding off of it.
• The Cal defense continued to look out of sync for the rest of the 3rd quarter, particularly on the Minnesota touchdown drive. They looked desperate and out of position as Minnesota went to Decker over and over.
• Great quote from the commentator: “Cal is rushing 3 and dropping 8, so get out your GPS and find #7 (Decker). You’re covering dirt and you should be covering him.” Decker was all Minnesota had in the 3rd quarter yet he was still open play after play. For whatever reason Hagan was on Decker far more than Syd, which just baffles me (and just about everyone else).
• Cal had 3 consecutive 3-and-outs to start the 2nd half (extending into the 4th quarter). Unlike the 1st half where the Bears came out sharp, both sides of the ball came out week in the 2nd half. It was nearly a miracle that Minnesota only scored one TD in the 3rd quarter.
• Cal’s last TD drive was key not just because it made it a two score game, but also because Cal kept the game clock running, taking over 6 minutes off the clock on a 9 play, 42 yard drive. That put Minnesota in desperation mode and made life much easier for the Bear defense. For all we criticize Tedford for sometimes going too quickly to trying to shorten the game, it was drives like this where it bears a lot of fruit.

Implications for 2010:
It’s hard to draw direct comparisons between last year’s Minnesota game and this year’s Colorado game. They’re very different teams. If there’s a similarity, it’s that, at least on the non-conference slate, they’re the most power-oriented teams Cal will face. Cal seems to match up well against those teams these days, as the Big Game game showed. But Colorado isn’t exactly a HUGE power team, they’re just closer to that end of the spectrum than, say, Nevada. Speaking of Nevada, what this game does show is that the Bears seem to be over, or at least minimized, their road game struggles as both the Minnesota game and both the ASU and Big Game showed. If there are games that bring it into question it was the Washington game and to a lesser extent Oregon (which the Bears probably lose either way).

Conclusion:
Far more important than the implications for 2010, what this game showed was a preview of the secondary problems that Cal was going to have. Minnesota only had one good WR and he burned Cal over and over and over. It’s one thing when a multi-weapon passing game is too much for a team, it’s entirely something else when you know who they’re going to go to and you still let him burn you again and again. This game would have been a HUGE blowout if it weren’t for Decker. Luckily for the Bears, minus the 3rd quarter struggles, the offensive was firing on all cylinders and the run defense was pretty stout.

(Written by jsnell)

Rehashing UC Davis and pre-hashing Colorado, it’s the latest EMFMV podcast with Jason and Ken! Thrill as we talk about the beatdown of the poor, overmatched Aggies. Get excited as we discuss other Pac-10 week one action. Become mildly bored as we discuss the stadium and public-transit issues. Wake up slightly when we preview what little we know about Colorado, this week’s opponent. But please listen, won’t you?

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Now It Gets Tougher? (EMFMV 2010 #2) [ 36:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Written by kencraw)

The Soup Nazi has taken up a new profession apparently, now in the personal foul definition business. While all of us were aghast that Allen was called for a personal foul, it has since come out that one of the official interpretations of the endzone celebration rule in college is that touching anyone in the stands is a personal foul.

Since that’s the case, I officially apologize to the refs for being harsh to them about it. It’s not their job to question or overlook rules or interpretations. It’s their job to enforce them accurately and consistently. It appears they did precisely that in this case.

It’s the Soup Nazi that ticks me off.

Why would this be an official interpretation of the rule? I could see “leaving the playing field” or “entering the stands” being the rule, but giving some fans a high five… what in God’s name should be wrong with that? Is the goal here to make college football as sterile as possible? Who loses in this case? What’s the risk that something negative will happen as a result? No matter which way I look at it, I can’t see the value of this official interpretation of the rule.

Disappointing, very disappointing.

(Written by kencraw)

I’m sure all of you are sick of hearing about this topic, but I can’t help myself. I mean, put yourself in my shoes:

You’re walking out of Memorial stadium after a pleasant afternoon with a leisurely Cal win over an FCS opponent. You’re thinking to yourself, what a great day! I made the change over to getting a ridiculously expensive parking pass for a parking spot half a mile a way, but the leisurely walk down the hill will be nicer than fighting to get on the even more ridiculously expensive for a family of 5 shuttle run by Silverado. Look at all those people over there fighting to get on the Silv…

WHAT! Those are AC Transit buses!?!

See what I mean?

I know logistics can be a pain to get organized, but it really chaps my hide that they keep changing things on me long after the dates that I have to make my decisions on what to do. I guarantee you, even though I can’t confirm this factually, that the new game day information page wasn’t available in April when I had to make the decision to buy a parking pass.

If I had known in April that AC Transit and their cheaper prices (particularly for kids) were coming back, I would have most definitely NOT bought a parking pass, freeing an additional parking space for someone who wants it and saving me money (on the order of $90 for the season – parking pass: $140, AC Transit ~ $10 a game x 5 games I’m attending). But now it’s too late, I’ve already paid for the parking pass and will be stuck with it for the whole season.

Is it the worst thing ever? No, it’s not. $90 is a small figure compared to the 6 season tickets. Gas prices for the trip from Roseville, will affect my total cost almost as much as this change. In the end I think it’ll still be a good experience to try out the parking pass for a season to see what it’s like. So, this is not something to get any more worked up about than a single blog post rant.

But I would make this request to the Athletic Department: You need to get more of these sorts of things figured out and COMMUNICATED in March, particularly when they’re expected to change. People do make decisions based on little things like this and we don’t like the rug being pulled out from underneath us.

OK, that’s last you’ll hear about this from me… until I DON’T get a parking pass some year and they re-institute Silverado.

(Written by kencraw)

I know that very few people care about this because the odds of it being an issue is small, but there has been an appeal going on for the SAHPC for the last two years. I’ve been posting on it occasionally as news has come up.

Over the summer they had oral arguments and on Friday the ruling came down. After scanning the ruling, I can summarize it for everyone:

Tree-sitters: You stink! Stop wasting everyone’s time, reiterating the same tired arguments as in the original case and pay up the legal fees you owe to the University!

OK, that’s not an exact quote, but close enough.

So, with the City of Berkeley not participating in the orginal appeal, the homeowners (Panaramic Hill Association) settling this summer and the tree-sitters losing their appeal, this case is as done as an overcooked pig on a spit. Sure the tree-sitters could appeal to the state supreme court if they wanted, but I’m 98% sure the supreme’s wouldn’t take the case and I think they’ve run out of steam now that the financial backing for their smelly appeals (the city and homeowners) have run for the hills.

The other good news is that as of yet, there’s been no new lawsuits over the stadium renovation, i.e. phase 2. While the SAHPC, i.e. phase 1, suits were in many ways tangled with the renovation, there was definitely the risk that separate suits with a new trial could be started for phase 2. So far, knock on wood, it doesn’t appear that this is going to be an issue. It looks like they used up all their energy and financial backing on the first round. Now that the trees are down and construction is in progress, nobody can summon the will/money to do it again.

Woohoo! Another victory for the Bears!

(Written by kencraw)

Sadly, I’ve got two games that I can’t go to this year. Luckily for those of you who aren’t season ticket holders, they’re the two best games on the schedule (minus the Big Game): UCLA and Oregon.

While I don’t have donor seats, I think I’ve got some great seats. First of all, I’m on the isle, in two rows of 3. This helps with knee issues as the person behind you is a friend, not some random dude. Second of all, there’s no seats in front of me. We’re the first two rows above the concourse tunnel, which also gives you more room to stretch out. Add in being close to the tunnel for easy in/out access, that they’re at the right height to have good visibility across the whole field and I think they’re as of seats as you’ll find in the non-donor section. (FYI, this is section DD).

I’m asking face value for the tickets: $53 each. I’d prefer to sell the block of 6 to one person but I will consider breaking it into two groups of 3 if no one is interested in the full set for either game.

E-Mail me at tickets AT excusemeformyvoice DOT com if you’re interested.