(Written by kencraw)

Kat brought it to my attention that the comments had been effectively turned off. One had to have an account to comment and since we give readers no way to create an account, nobody but Jason or I could comment.

This happened to my other blog which also uses the wordpress software. When it happened there, I assumed I had made some mistake and accidentally enabled that “feature”. Now that it has happened on this blog I’m convinced that what happened is that some wordpress upgrade reset some portion of the settings and that was the result.

The worst part is that Jason and I were blind to it since we’re always logged in as users so that we can write posts. The result is that I’ve been fat, dumb and happy yet wondering why nobody has commented in the last couple months.

In any case, comments are now re-enabled. Enjoy!

(Written by kencraw)

Over at CGB they’ve been doing some game lists, the most recent being ranking the Big Games of the decade. I’ve always been one to think that emulating a good idea is nothing to be ashamed of so I decided to make a couple lists myself. I wanted to put a personal touch on it, so I’m picking games that mean a lot to me. The first one, this one, will be the games that when I think about them I want to cry the most. The next post will be the games that carry a special place in my heart.

So, to get the bad out of the way, I give you my Bottom-10 personally most soul-crushing games:

#10 – 2004 Holiday Bowl

There are only two moments that are candidates for the high point in modern Cal football. One was when Cal was ranked #2 mid-season in 2007. The other was just before the 2004 Holiday Bowl started. I was slated to go to the game with my brother and uncle, but my wife was due with our 2nd baby in early January (if I’m remembering correctly the due date was January 7th). At my wife’s weekly prenatal checkup the week before the game, I waited with anticipation to hear the answer the question “how soon?” and found my hopes of going to the game crushed with the answer “any day now”. I’ve since learned that the medical profession’s ability to predict a due date ranks second only to the weather forecast in accuracy. In the end, even though Andrew wasn’t born until January 17th, it was probably a good thing I wasn’t there as this game would be much higher on my list if I had been forced to watch it in person. Nevertheless, deep in my subconscious, the question “where is the secondary?” continues to rattle in my brain to this day.

#9 – 2005 UCLA game

If there was an upside to the 2005 UCLA game it was that I was ahead of the curve in picking up Jones-Drew in my NFL fantasy league when he turned pro, but watching that game on TV and seeing the defense and special teams abused over and over by him makes that upside of little comfort. It took another 4 years for it to happen, but this was the day Alamar, the long loathed special teams coach, officially went on the hot seat. To add injury to insult, if my memory serves, this is still the largest 4th quarter lead blown (12 points) by Tedford’s Bears.

#8 – 2001 Arizona game

I know for those of you who’ve ramped up your fandom after Tedford’s arrival, this game probably seems like a random pick. But for those who were there, this was a disastrous loss. Arizona shared the bottom of the Pac-10 with the Bears on that fateful day, both being win-less in conference play. The fan base in those days had much lower expectations and the Bears being able to keep out of the cellar, while not exactly comforting, was at least something to build on. Win that one, pull off a miracle against Stanford and win at the 9-11 delayed game at Rutgers and the Bears could turn 0-7 into a then-respectable 3-8. Instead the Bears got owned that day with Holmoe showing off his patented “Let’s run it into the middle of the line on 3rd and 8. They couldn’t expect us to do that AGAIN!?! could they?” strategy. Somewhere mid-third quarter when it was clear that any halftime adjustments would not be saving the day, I completely lost it. I stood up and yelled out, “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE!” Then I walked out of the stadium. It remains the only time I’ve left a game early.

#7 – 2009 USC game

What can one really say about this one? We all remember all too well what happened. This was co-blogger Jason’s turn to walk out of the action and I think that speaks as much about the game as my walking out of the 2001 Arizona game. What a dreadful game that was. I think what makes it worse is that our pre-game hopes, that USC was weak that year, turned out to be every bit as true as we had hoped. What we didn’t expect is that the Bears would play their worst game against USC since Gilbertson was head coach and lost 61-0 to USC. (Caveat: the Bears lost 55-14 to USC in 2001, but that game, while the score was worse, was less of a blowout in principle IMHO.)

#6 – 2000 Big Game

All of the last 3 of Holmoe’s Big Games were a disappointment and I toyed with which of them would be the representative in the list. ’99 had the distinction of the being the game where all of the scoring came from one of our cornerbacks (one INT for a touchdown and one kickoff for a touchdown), but in the end 2000 takes the cake because it went to overtime. After so many years of weak performances the Bears managed to get to overtime in the only overtime Big Game in history (there are number of ties in the series from the days before overtime). Sadly overtime was more reminiscent of the previous Big Games than it was of the previous 60 minutes and the game was over before we knew it.

#5 – 2008 Maryland game

In the big picture, this game wasn’t a horrible loss, but when you’ve traveled across the country and you aren’t used to humid heat, a loss like that sticks with you. Of course the storyline was that the Bears didn’t wake up in time for the game with the 9 AM PDT kickoff, but for those who were there, the heat was the key. Whenever the cloud cover grew thicker or the wind blew a bit it made a noticeable difference in the game. In the end, why the Bears lost is irrelevant because it was a REALLY long way to go to watch them show up so flat and yet again re-affirm both the East Coast idea that the Bears are a joke and so is the Pac-10.

#4 – 2007 Big Game

It’s interesting that two of my top 10 are games immediately before the birth of one of my boys. In this case it was my youngest, who was due a mere 5 days after the game (he was also late – 12/14). But in this case, two things had me going to the game anyway: One, it was driving distance from the hospital so I’d be unlikely to miss the birth, but just the first couple hours of the ordeal. Two, none of my kids have ever missed a Big Game in their lives and I intend to keep it that way. (I even had plans for my brother to take the boys to the game if labor arrived shortly before the game.) In any case, everyone knows what happened. The team that had been in a free-fall, but one that in everyone’s mind had to come to an abrupt stop with suck a weak Stanford in their way. Instead we were treated to another poor effort albeit against a stronger than expected Cardinal. Just like the 2004 Holiday Bowl, the depression of this loss was only ended when I was able to welcome a new son in to the world shortly thereafter.

#3 – 2006 Arizona game

At the time the game was a bit disappointing, but in retrospect this game eats at me like almost no other game. At the time, win or lose that game all the Bears had to do to get to the Rose Bowl was beat USC. But if the Bears had beat Arizona, it turns out they wouldn’t have needed to beat USC to go to the Rose Bowl. What a terrible fate. What horrible officiating. What a bad break on the size of DeSean’s shoe. What a terrible trip by Hawkins at the 1 yard line. What bad play calling on those failed goal line conversions. What ill advised passes by Longshore in those interceptions. What an amazingly depressing game.

#2 – 1990 Big Game

I’ll admit it, before I went to college I was a bandwagon Cal fan. My Dad’s alum, but he wasn’t (and isn’t) that into football. So when the Bears were good, I’d pay attention, but when they weren’t, I didn’t much care. I didn’t listen to the miraculous 1986 Big Game and I missed a lot of heart breaking losses during those poor years of the 80’s. But the late 80’s and early 90’s were good years and I was watching the 1990 Big Game on TV (one of the few in those days that was on TV). I still can’t believe they lost that game. I mean, it was just unbelievable, Stanford touchdown with 12 seconds left -> 2 point conversion that failed (hurray!)-> fans rush field and resulting 15 yard penalty -> onside kick recovery -> roughing the passer call -> 40 yard field goal and a win for the Cardinal. WRETCH! I’ve never felt so sick in my life as that night.

#1 – 2007 Oregon State game

The top two share the same essential elements: Highly regarded team and last minute melt down. Poor Riley to have to be the one who made the mistake, to get tackled with no timeouts and 13 seconds left when in field goal range to tie the game. To make matters worse I had brought my friend who’s an OSU alum to the game (what could it hurt to let him watch his team get beat, right?) and the memory of him jumping up and down going nuts while the rest of us hung our heads will pain me forever. It makes it even worse to have seen the team fall so far after that.

Honorable mentions: the 2003 Utah game that got 2003 off to a bad start, the 2004 USC game that prevented a national title run, the 2002 Air Force game that ended the great start to the Tedford era, the 2001 Big Game that made it 7 losses in a row, the 2009 Poinsettia Bowl that made 2009 so mediocre, the 1999 Big Game that mostly consisted of Stanford keeping the ball out of Delta O’Neil’s hands, the 2006 Tennessee game that only missed the list because of how good the 7-game win streak that followed was, the 2006 USC game that officially ended Cal’s runs at the Rose Bowl, the 2009 Oregon game that made me regret making the trip, and the 2007 ASU game that made me hate Dennis Dickson and his robot-celebration for life.

(Written by kencraw)

There was an interesting set of posts over at CGB about how many games the Bears will win in 2010 and they got feedback from everyone asking what they thought the percentage chance that the Bears win each game from a bunch of people. End result was that the consensus was 8-4 with a likely loss to USC, 50-50 shot at Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona and UW (slightly better than that for UW, but close enough), accounting for 2 losses, and us likely losing to one of ASU, UCLA, Stanford or Nevada (i.e. a 75% chance of beating each). That more or less get’s one 8-4.

That felt about right to me. Then just because I was trying to escape the pile of work in front of me I watched both the Stanford and Arizona highlights that Danzig and crew put together and I think I’m a lot more optimistic on this season. Let me break it down:

I’ll concede the loss to USC and the 50/50 on both Oregon and Arizona. That gets us two losses. But here’s what I can say with confidence is NOT going to happen, in order of my confidence:

1. We’re not going to lose to ASU in Berkeley. No way, no how. That team has nothing of note to build on and things just look ugly for the “getting too tired” Erickson. Looks like 2007 was his last hurrah and even that was a heavily schedule aided hurrah.
2. We’re not going to lose to UCLA in Berkeley. 95% sure of that. We beat them in Pasadena last year to break the curse and they haven’t beat us in Berkeley going back a LONG ways, even including some Holmoe time. Add to that history that they’ve only got slightly more going for them than ASU and it’s just not going to happen.
3. UW is the most over appreciated team in the conference and the reason is that they beat Cal at the end of the season. If they had lost that game, nobody would think them any better than UCLA or ASU. But they beat Cal in a game the Bears never showed up for. That’s there entire resume minus beating a WAY over confident USC who was without their QB early in the season and Arizona having players who’s shoes shoot the ball 15 feet in the air. By the time they get to Berkeley after Thanksgiving having been beaten down with their tough road schedule and still having no hope of bowl eligibility, the Bears will handle them easily, particularly after the cautionary tale of 2009. Call me 90% confident of that win.

So that leaves Stanford, Nevada and Oregon State. To be fair, I could see the Bears losing two of those, but in the end I don’t think it’s going to happen. A loss to OSU is the most likely but something says to me that the OSU run of over-achieving has ended and the Bears will be hungry. Nevada is likely over-feared by Bear fans, which is a good thing, but the Bears notoriously do well during the non-conference games. That leaves only Stanford, which I think 7-1 vs. 1-2 speaks volumes for. Stanford is my #2 for most over-ranked team in the conference. Everyone will be onto their shtick in 2010 and Toby was more important than people realize. Luck won’t be so lucky in 2010.

So from my vantage point, they lose one of those three games, not two, and this is a 9-3 team, with upsides to 10-2 and 8-4 being the floor of acceptability.

Going back to the Stanford and Arizona videos. I really believe that Vereen is a better running back for the Cal system than Best. Best was spectacular, but he didn’t “grind it out”, which is what Tedford wants from his run game. I think the O-Line responded better to Vereen than they did to Best, not because they didn’t like Best (Best was dearly loved by the whole team), but because Vereen was the sort of back that got their testosterone pumping. His style had them hitting harder and playing harder. And that helped Riley too on the passing downs. That’s what I saw in those videos and I think it’s the key to 2010.

Add that to a new defensive scheme that won’t hang our secondary out to dry and a number of the weaker areas of the last couple years having a bit more experience on them, and I’m more optimistic than most.

So if we’re going to do an over/under for the 2010 season and 8-4 is the benchmark, put my money firmly on the over side. I don’t have delusions of a Rose Bowl run (OK, maybe in that part of me that’s truly delusional), but I do think this Cal Bear team is better than people think.

(Written by kencraw)

Amenities… that’s what every stinking article about moving to AT&T park is all about. Amenities this, amenities that. Blaw, blaw, blaw, shortcomings this and that, but who cares, great Amenities!

At first I thought, OK, people like their nice amenities, I mean, it’s a big part of the reason for the renovation of Memorial, so I told myself to chill out and not worry about it.

But I’ve reached my breaking point. I read the word ‘amenities’ one to many times and now I’m going postal (or the blog equivalent thereof):

What the @($#@$#@!(R@!#$(@!#$P&(@!asld$!(@#$*@!#)$@!$#&(@!#$@!#$(* BS are you guys talking about!?!

We’ve played in amenity-less Memorial for 75+ years, with one more year to go. Why does it matter what kind of amenities our ONE YEAR replacement has? Why is this on the top of the priority list? Said another way, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE OPTIONS HAS S*I*G*N*I*F*I*C*A*N*T*L*Y BETTER AMENITIES THAN MEMORIAL!?!

So it’s not like we’d be taking a big step back to go play at Candlestick park. It’s not like they’ve been feverishly working to improve the amenities in Memorial in the EIGHT YEARS they’ve been working on this project. It’s not like this is a permanent move that if we didn’t have amenities, we’d be missing the point of a move. No, it’s ONE YEAR, and it’s one year that no matter where we go it’s going to be an amenity upgrade to Memorial.

To be clear, it’s not that there aren’t other upsides to AT&T, public transportation being the biggie. But that’s not what I’m reading over and over. What I’m reading over and over, just to belabor the point 3 times too many is:

Amenities

Amenities

Amenities

And a word for the wise: If you think you’re going to be getting beer at the games, think again. It’s still an NCAA and Pac-10 football game. This isn’t a bowl game where everyone looks the other way. It’s the regular season. I’ll make a bet with anyone who desires that I’ll buy them a domestic beer if they have it for the first game at AT&T if they’ll buy me a large soda if they don’t. Anyone game for that bet?

To be clear, I’m not against AT&T park, every option had their upsides and downsides (even, GASP!, without considering their amenities, GASP!).

But amenities should have been at the very bottom of the list of criteria. Talk to me about public transportation, gaining new fanbases, surrounding neighborhoods for pre/post-game stuff and a feeling of safety, financial considerations, quality of the field (oops! wrong choice!), seating capacity (oop! wrong choice!), scheduling issues (oop! wrong choice!), heck, even weather (oops! wrong choice!) but don’t talk to me about amenities.

So please, someone tell me why amenities are such a big deal?

(Written by kencraw)

Word is coming down from two sources (Rich Lieberman and Okanes) that the deal has been finalized on where the Bears will play in 2011:

AT&T Park

As we all know, this is where the Giants play in San Francisco and where the Emerald Bowl is held, and it has the upside of being the nicest facility of the candidates (Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick and AT&T), but has the downside of small capacity, playing with a dirt infield in September (and maybe October if the Giants make a playoff run) (which the Coliseum has the same downside via the A’s), plus the weird sideline/odd corners problems that squeezing a football field onto that baseball field has. (UPDATE: It appears Cal will re-work the field so that both teams will not be on the same sideline like in the Emerald Bowl.)

Personally, this was my last choice of the 3, and it wasn’t even close. I wanted the Coliseum and actually waffled with wanting Candlestick as my #1 because there would NEVER be any baseball conflict issues. Part of that is I travel from a long way away no matter what so where it is in the Bay Area doesn’t matter much to me. Part of it is that I don’t care about nice amenities (even the Stick is a HUGE improvement over Memorial, so what do we care?). Add in the low capacity crowd and AT&T just doesn’t speak to me.

But I’m just one guy and lots of guys feel differently. It’s not a horrible situation, in fact it’s anything but. The way I see it, the headline should read something like this:

“Bears confident enough that renovation of stadium will actually happen in 2011 to enter into contract with replacement stadium for that season!”

For me, the prospect of sitting in a renovated Memorial stadium in just 28 months from now is something that will keep me smiling all day, even if AT&T park wasn’t on the top of my list.

(Written by kencraw)

The Chronicle had an article on the settlement with the Panoramic Hill Association today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/09/BA391CRRS7.DTL

Key quote:

The settlement with Panoramic Hill states that the university will pay $75,000 to cover the group’s attorney fees. It also allows the university to host only nine or fewer events that draw crowds of more than 10,000 people over a three-year period. Cal football games and graduations do not count.

So, basically, we had to pay them off, albeit it with a pretty small sum considering the hundreds of millions of dollars at stake here. The extra events limitation is not a big deal from where I sit. I always saw the University’s advancement of having more events there as a way for the University to keep its options open. The University never had any explicit plans to hold events there.

(Written by kencraw)

I put “scrimmage” in quotes because it’s not really a scrimmage like it was before Tedford came along. It’s really just the one practice of the year that is open to the general public. In any case, this year it’s being held April 17th from 9 AM to 11 AM. You can find what few details there are here:

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/040710aaa.html

I personally find it very enjoyable to go to this and I always make it a habit of going. I bring the kids and it’s a very relaxed environment. Usually they give out free food but there’s no mention of it in this year’s press release and seeing how its in the morning, not at noon like in past years, I suspect there won’t be any food.

The other thing it is nice for is for those who have never been to a regular practice is to see what they’re like. You get to see the warm-ups, the drills, the partial scrimmages (like the 5-on-5’s and the 7-on-7’s), the full scrimmages, how they order things, etc..

We tend to sit on the 50 yard line about 2/3rds of the way up (about row 30-40) so if you see two big guys (my brother is coming too) with 3 boys ages 2, 5 and 6, it’s probably us and feel free to come up and say hi.

(Written by kencraw)

Normally I’m one of the first to renew my season tickets so I don’t even make note of the deadline of when one has to renew to guarantee their same seats. But this year, we’ve been trying to figure out what to do parking wise after last year change to the shuttle buses that make it just as expensive for the family to take the bus in as to get a parking pass.

I literally was just bored when I decided to go to Calbears.com today and say that the deadline is TODAY!

Of course, I quickly renewed my tickets and therefore consider myself lucky. For whoever else out there has forgotten, renew TODAY! It’s the last day, April 8th.

(Written by kencraw)

Everyone remembers the tree huggers, most remember the court case, but few remember the nuance of it all all, that the trees didn’t come down until the appellate court refused to put an injunction on construction while the appeal continued.

The most that most fans remember is that the appeal “failed”. But that’s not the truth at all. The appeal is still on-going because appeals apparently take FOREVER. All that the appellate court determined was that they wouldn’t stop construction while the appeal proceeded. The appeal would continue and the University risked having to pay larger damages and have to tear down the SAHPC if they lost. The University was willing to take that risk (thankfully) and down the trees came. Nevertheless the appeal still continues to this day.

As proof of what you likely don’t believe, I give you the case website:

http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/mainCaseScreen.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=1375717&doc_no=A122511

And for those incredulous enough to click on a link that ugly, they’ll see that the case hasn’t even made it to oral arguments despite being filed on 8/28/08.

In any case, I suspect you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up now. The reason is because there has been activity in the case in the last two weeks. The University and the Panoramic Hill Association have reached a “settlement” and thus the PHA has requested to be removed from the case. That leaves the California Oak Foundation as the lone plaintiff/appellant.

This is important for a number of reasons, the primary of which being that the “deep pockets” in the original case was the City of Berkeley followed by the PHA and coming in last with just their smelly clothes and patented ability to sit in trees (without any money) is the California Oak Foundation. Since the city decided to stay out of the appeal in the first place, PHA’s backing out makes it so there are ZERO deep pockets left. Since money is a key criteria to getting lawyers to work, it makes the likelihood this appeal will ever make it oral arguments all the less likely. I’d say it borders on a non-possibility if this weren’t Berkeley.

The other question is: What was the “settlement”?

I have absolutely no idea! All I do is read the website every once and a while to see if there’s been any activity. My guess is that it’s nothing of note, probably a “please don’t counter-sue use please” settlement. The reality is that the PHA got dragged into this and as time went on there was less and less support from the home owners to spend money on lawyers. Perhaps they got some minor concession from the University about lighting or something like that, but if they did, I’m sure it wasn’t much as the University was in the strong position at this point.

Finally, here’s the summary of the recent activity from the case website:

(Written by kencraw)

Clancy Pendergast!

It’s not up on calbears.com but multiple sources are reporting it.

The best initial source of info on him is his Wikipedia entry.

Basically he had early coaching experience with a number of college teams including USC before going to the NFL in 1995. From 1996 to 2002 he was the linebacker coach at Dallas and from 2004-2008 he was the DC at the Arizona Cardinals. Last year he was at Kansas City in the same roll and he was hired away from there by Oakland this off season before pulling a Ludwig (guess I was wrong on that happening twice, huh?) and making the move to Cal.

He seems to be “scheme agnostic” having coached 4-3’s a lot, but has experience with 3-4’s as well and has adapted a number of other schemes.

As for my thoughts, I’m going to take a wait and see attitude. I don’t know anything about him and his NFL resume is nothing spectacular, albeit it IS an sizable NFL resume including a DC at the pro level. Add in that he’s got some but not a ton of college experience and I’m optimistic that he has potential.

But potential and ability are two different things and unlike in past years where my gut says they were great hires, my gut is uneasy about this one.

More to come…

(Written by kencraw)

Well, Alamar haters got what they wanted a couple months back and now Gregory haters can join in the reveling. Via calbears.com:

Bob Gregory will depart Cal to join the Boise State coaching staff as a defensive assistant, head coach Jeff Tedford announced Wednesday. Gregory spent eight seasons as Cal’s defensive coordinator and was one of the original hires made by Tedford upon his arrival at Cal in 2002.

A national search for a replacement will begin immediately.

Pretty surprising news for a few reasons. For one, Gregory is taking a serious demotion, from DC at a BCS school to a position coach (word is he’s going to be the linebacker coach) at a WAC/non-BCS school (admittedly BSU is a “special” non-BCS school, but still). Secondly, the timing is somewhat odd, being so late in the post-bowl, pre-spring ball off-season.

My guess is that Tedford told Gregory that he wanted to make a change at DC but that he liked him too much to fire him and asked him to go find a new job. Gregory started shaking the trees and found less interest than he would like. But, instead of insulting his old friend by not leaving, he took a demotion to a position that’ll give him a big upside down the road.

In other words, as always, the Cal coaching staff acted with class.

Update at 2:02 PM: Okanes caught up with Tedford and he indicates that it was entirely Gregory’s decision:

(Tedford) emphasized that this was strictly Gregory’s decision and that he wanted Gregory back as defensive coordinator. Tedford said Gregory is making the move to lighten his workload to spend more time with his two young boys. He said Gregory’s priorities have changed and has decided to focus more on his family. Not being a coordinator will allow him to do that.

Of course the classy thing to do when you’ve asked your defensive coordinator to find another job so that you don’t have to fire him is to NEVER tell anyone. Otherwise, what’s the point? But for what it’s worth, that’s what Tedford is saying.

To add to the “we knew this was coming” indicators, Tedford indicated that they could have an announcement of a replacement as early as today.

(end update)

As for whether this is a good thing, call me a doubter. I thought Gregory had his issues, but I felt like he was growing and getting better all the time. It took real guts to go to the 3-4 and while the 2nd year wasn’t as good as the first, he was still learning it and I had confidence it would be vastly improved in 2010.

At the same time, this is a great opportunity to bring in someone who’s not just learning but very good right now with the 3-4.

Then there are the rumored replacements:

• Tosh Lupoi, Cal DL coach: My thought is that he’s not ready yet. He needs a couple more years of experience and even then he’d be young. Plus, his only coaching experience is under Gregory, so if you’re looking for a change, this is someone who won’t have a lot of experience with other ideas/schemes. Yes, he’s awesome at his job, but even the most awesome guy needs time to grow.
• Dick Bumpas, TCU DC: It would be a great hire if we could get him. Problem is that TCU is quickly becoming one of those “special” non-BCS schools and he may not want to leave.
• Corwin Brown, former Notre Dame DC: I’ve got split feelings on Brown. Supposedly a great recruiter and a great guy. Also comes from ND, where I’ve always got a soft spot. But did you SEE ND’s defense the last couple years!?! It’s the reason Weis is looking for a job right now. Seems like we’d want someone who’s coaching experience was good.
• Some NFL Linebacker coach like Steeler’s Keith Butler or Charger’s John Pagano: I’m not a big fan of NFL coaches going to the college ranks if they don’t already have college coaching experience. I’ll site Charlie Weis. The level of skill that NFL guys expect their players already have and don’t need to be coached is so high, they often overlook the simple things like tackling. The best defensive scheme in the world won’t work if the guys can’t do the fundamentals. But if you’re going to go with an NFL position coach, I think the LB coach is the way to go as it’s the heart of the 3-4 defense. Luckily Butler has college experience at Memphis and since the Cal 3-4 is modeled after the Steeler’s 3-4, it would be one of the better hires. Pagano has no such experience so not so much, even though they run the 3-4 in San Diego.
• Ray Horton, Steeler’s DB coach: Another Steeler’s coach worth having but I’d rather have Butler since he’s got college experience and is the LB coach. At the same time, Horton is very highly revered for being a great coach.
• Ken Norton Jr., USC assistant DC/Linebacker coach: Probably a good hire talent wise and has a great deal of college experience at an elite program. It would still be a promotion for him even though he’s now in the NFL but part of me thinks he doesn’t want to leave Pete Carroll’s side now that he’s in the NFL. I also worry about his integrity coming from USC’s dirty staff.
• Dick Tomey, former San Jose St. and Arizona head coach: A bit over the hill in my opinion and could pull an Erickson (great for a year or two while fired up but age catches up with him). Also, why does a former head coach make that much of a step down? Plus, was he really that good of a coach? I wasn’t impressed with SJSU.
• Ron English, Eastern Michigan head coach: Hard to get behind a guy who’s team went 0-12 in their first year, but it’s a big rebulding process at EMU. At the same time, he did good things at both Michigan and the Jets as a position coach and may see EMU as too much to take on. Some like him because he’s a Cal grad and it’s hard to argue with that. Tosh is working out great and the loyalty to the program of an alum is higher than most. But sometimes that wish carries with it a bias that clouds one’s vision about the quality of the coach. Do I need to remind everyone about Joe Kapp? Occasionally his team would do great things that only a True Blue could do, like The Play and the 1986 Big Game. However, overall the program suffered under him.
• Jon Tenuta, North Carolina State LB coach and former Georgia Tech DC: Supposedly his defenses at NC State were viscous, but I worry a bit about his character. I like my coaching staff squeaky clean and there are some rumors about him that worry me.
• Justin Wilcox, Tennessee DC: He had a great run at Boise State before leaving for Tennessee this off-season. Unlike others, I don’t think the Ludwig maneuver (two school changes in one off-season) is going to happen twice.
• Mark Banker, Oregon State DC: Another great hire but one that I guarantee you isn’t going to happen.

So, I guess my overall thought is that it will really depend on who the replacement is and how quickly he can come in and be productive. Remember that spring practice starts 3/6 and is just over 2 weeks away (anyone care to wager that it’ll be pushed back?), so time is of the essence. In fact, it may already be too late to make any good use of spring ball other than talent evaluation.

So, we’ll see. As they say, Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.

(Written by kencraw)

Well, for those who care about football recruiting, today is a GREAT day. Cal grabbed the #10 class in the nation, with a flurry of last minute recruits. Today they officially signed 2 5-star players (aka DeSean Jackson quality players) both on defense. One, Keenan Allen, is a WR/Safety who we expect to play at safety and the other, Chris Martin is a combo linebacker/defensive end. He’s hopefully our next Zack Follett (but even more talented).

This is really important because we’ve had some talent weaknesses on defense and this class is FULL of defensive talent. There are 4 4-star linebackers (in addition to Martin) and a 4-star defensive end. Just think about that. Of the 9 4-star and 5-star players, 7 of them are defensive players. In the past, generally, the balance has fallen towards more offensive talent than defensive at Cal.

The other two 4-stars are a wide receiver and an offensive lineman, two positions that we could use some additional strength.

Add in that the balance, as with all Tedford classes, is pretty good (you basically want a complete team) with 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 OL (little weak), 4 WR (little heavy but needed), 2 DL (little weak), 4 LB, and 3 DB. OK, it probably would have been nice to have 3 defensive linemen and 4 offensive lineman (and if we’re being nit-picky, a 4th defensive back), but when you compare that to some other schools, it’s near perfect balance (as an example of how bad it can be, last year Stanford had 4 tight ends).

Truly, this is a great, balanced class, the best of the Tedford era.

(Written by jsnell)

Jahvid Best will enter the NFL draft.

Can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s always sad to see those stars leave early. I wish him great success.

More thoughts from Ken:

I wish him the best as well and am similarly as unsurprised.

I worry a great deal about his future in the NFL with his injuries and his style which didn’t seem to have as much success when matched up against players with speed (and all the players in the NFL have speed). But here’s hoping he’s Cal’s next example of good play in the NFL following in the recent footsteps of Lynch, DeSean, and Rodgers.

(Written by kencraw)

Now that I’m just a regular blogger, here are some posts you can expect in the next week or two (in no particular order):

• Final podcast of the year from Jason and I
• My thoughts on our obligations as Cal fans
• Thoughts on firing Alamar
• Thoughts on Tedford and what needs to change
• Early thoughts on 2010 potential
• Commentary on Pac-10 bowl performances
• Ranking the conferences bowl performances

There will be more in the off-season as well. I’ll finish off the 2008 looking back series that sputtered during the year (possible subject for comment section, should the 2009 looking back series be during the off-season or should I do it like this year with matching the 2009 looking-back post with the upcoming 2010 games?) for one. Plus, I plan to round out some other sections of the site like the stadiums section now that I’ve been to all 10 of them.

Keep checking back in for new posts…

(Written by kencraw)

It’s both with a heavy heart and anticipation for the future that I announce my retirement as a Cal sports reporter. From this point forward, I’ll just be a regular blogging Cal fan.

It’s a decision that had mostly been made a year ago, that this year would be my last. I wanted to finish going to every stadium in the pressbox and I wanted just one more year under the sun. At the same time, I knew how taxing the job was on the family and on me personally. So my wife and I made the decision that this year would be my last and didn’t really tell anyone, not wanting to ruin the experience of the last year.

Now that the year has come and gone, it’s still been hard to pull the trigger on making the decision, in part because I’ve really enjoyed the experience and know that once I step away it’s unlikely that I’ll ever get a chance to do it again. Nevertheless it is the right decision. That’s why it comes with a heavy heart.

As for the anticipation, there was much about the job that was a lot more laborious than I expected when I started in on it. There are no hiatuses when it’s your job. You’ve got to write your articles when you feel disgusted and want to walk away just as much as you get to write them when the times are good. Particularly living so far from Berkeley, the weekly drives down for the Tuesday press conferences, particularly frequently on the back of a long road trip the weekend before, were quite taxing. This year seemed worse than prior years because part of what I enjoyed the most was watching practice, something I didn’t get to do now that Tedford closed most of practice to the press.

And then there was the constant mental struggle of posting the same thoughts I put in my articles and columns on a subscription site, here on the blog. I’d find myself trying to come up with new thoughts to put on the blog so that I wasn’t revealing subscription content for free on the blog. That was frustrating as well, because I felt like the blog posts were a “shell” of what I really wanted to say. It was one of the things I liked about the OTRH podcasts, because I didn’t feel so inhibited about them.

Point of all this being, I’m excited about blogging again just as a regular guy where I can say what I want to say and not worry. I don’t have to worry about spending too much time writing on the blog and then being too exhausted or disinterested to write a bunch of articles as well. There’s freedom in not getting paid.

So, while I will miss getting to travel so much (as an aside, I’d recommend to everyone that loves the Bears that you make it a goal to visit every Pac-10 stadium at some point. You’ll have a much better appreciation for our conference once you do.) I’m very excited for what the future holds for the blog.

I’m back! 🙂

(Written by jsnell)

(Written by jsnell)

We watched the game so you didn’t have to. What, you watched anyway? You silly person.

The entire transcript of the liveblog after the break…
Read the rest of this entry »

(Written by kencraw)

For those who haven’t heard, Tedford announced at the Press Conference on Tuesday that Best will not play in the UW game. This actually surprised me. He hasn’t had any concussion symptoms for multiple weeks and his sore back is a lot better from what I’ve heard. But I think it’s a sign of just how careful Tedford wants to be with Best after such a horrific fall.

I’m pretty confident he’ll be back for the bowl game.

(Written by kencraw)

Here’s my BearTerritory.net podcast from the Washington Press Conference on Tuesday:

http://cal.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1024106

As always it is free for everyone to listen to.

(Written by jsnell)

In this podcast: We still can’t believe Cal won the Big Game. We talk offense, defense, special teams, strange play-calling, and the general atmosphere in Stanford Stadium. There’s also a preview of the UW game, we talk bowl positioning, and there’s even a secret word. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Standard Podcast [ 1:07:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.