The Arizona State Game seemed huge at the time. ASU has been a pretty decent team the past few years. Great offense, albeit a terrible defense.  Though, to be fair, IIRC, at that point in the season, they were about 3rd in the nation.  But it was so early, it was really tough to tell how accurate that stat really was.  We had not played ASU since 2004 when we shut them out.  Honestly, we had not given up a point to the state of Arizona since 2003, I believe. 

 

So, it was mildly disappointing that not only did we give up 1 point, but actually 21 full ones.  Though, it was far LESS disappointing than all those people we gave University of Arizona.  But thats a whole nother story.  

 

This game was the 3rd in Cal’s exciting 3 week home stand after the Tennessee game.  The theme from all three was that Cal needed a more than solid victory.  They needed a huge blow out.  The first two games had delivered, but we were unsure about this one. 

When ASU actually scored first, it caused many people to look like this:

 

and this:

 

 

Luckily, there was no need to be concerned.  Although the opponent did *again* score first, Cal responded to ASU’s first quarter Rudy Carpenter TD pass with 35 unanswered points.  By the end of the first half, the score was 42-14.  There were a lot of big plays such as this one:

 

That led to a lot of this.

 

 

As per usual, the 2nd half crackled with the excitement of 14 total points and endless backups.  Fans struggled to stay focused:

 

There was even a Wave sighting (more on that later).

But the first half had a lot of action.  First, here is the official report and game stats.

 

The play that really broke this game open was DeSean’s runback for a TD.  Or DeSean Johnson as the announcer incorrectly called him.  As some have noted, Reggie Bush’s college career was very DeSean-esque.  Some have even noted that NFL rookie Devin Hester is very DeSean-esque.  I fully support all these assessments.  Everybody here at the California Golden Blogs supports these assessments.

 

Here is video of that runback. 

 

That runback made it 21-7 and gave Cal some breathing room.  Jackson also caught a TD, video of which is available here. Of course, Cal would score 2 more times before ASU scored.  

 

One of the scores was perhaps the second most exciting play in the game.  Noted God-Artisan Hughes, whose first name is nigh unspellable, intercepted Carpenter and ran it back for a TD.  Of course, to add injury to insult, he ran over Carpenter as the QB attempted to tackle him.  Yeah!

 

Here is video of that. 

 

After the Hughes interception, which took place right before the first half ended, the most exciting thing to happen was probably the end of the card stunts.  I always love the end of the card stunts:

 

 

Those things are like from Basic Instinct.  Stunningly beautiful yet deadly violent!  Well, perhaps the more exciting thing was the Wave. See, it was High School Band Day:

 

 

 

What this meant was that they took out the YellowZone dealies blocking those 2 sections and put all the high school bands in there.  So, when the wave inevitably started up in the vaguely boring 2nd half, the high schoolers kept it going.  Strong.  People are split on the wave, but apparently uncaring high schoolers are not. 

This was a great game and our first big test.  Would we be able to beat an actual Pac-10 team?  Would we be able to beat a team of some reknown (or so we thought at the time)?  Yes!

By the end of the game, the secret was out:

 

 

"Psssst.  Check out the scoreboard.  Cal is pretty good!" 

This is the scoreboard she is talking about.  Always a good day when we see one of these:

 

 

 

Interestingly enough, if you looked solely at the offensive stats, this game would not look like a blowout.  Both had about 400 yards of total offense.  ASU had a lot more running yards, which is not indicative of being down by a lot.  They had more first downs and 13 more rushing first rounds.  The difference was really our D and special teams.  DeSean’s runback and 2 D TDs (although both occurred after the game was out of hand).  One of their rushers nearly rushed for 200 yards.  This must have been the revealing of the Bend, Don’t Break D that made its presence strongly known during the UCLA game. 

 

Luckily, it was a blowout and would propell us towards what would later be viewed as the much more important OSU game.  GO BEARS! 

 

PS  Marshawn only averaged 7 yards/rush.  Off day for him.   

Please, kill me now.

Insight Bowl
Who (is playing)?  Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-5) vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-6).
Where (are they playing)?  Tempe, Arizona.
When (is it all going down)?  December 29, 7:30 PM on NFL Network.
First thoughts: God I hope Mike Leach doesn’t go to Stanford.
Why (should you watch)?  Because it’ll be nice to watch the Red Raiders tear up a team other than our heroes.

Champs Sports Bowl
Who (is playing)?  Purdue Boilermakers (8-5) vs. Maryland Terrapins (8-4).
Where (are they playing)?  Orlando.
When (is it all going down)?  December 29, 8 PM on ESPN.
First thoughts: Does anything else instinctively think of the chicken and that bald spokesperson guy when you hear something about Purdue?
Why (should you watch)?  Because you don’t get NFL Network.  No one does.

Meineke Car Care Bowl
Who (is playing)?  Navy Midshipmen (9-3) vs. Boston College Golden Eagles (9-3).
Where (are they playing)?  Charlotte.
When (is it all going down)?  December 30, 1 PM on ESPN.
First thoughts: Don’t ask, don’t tell.
Why (should you watch)?  Because the option, when run well, is extremely fun to watch.  Except when it’s against your team.

Alamo Bowl
Who (is playing)?  Texas Longhorns (9-3) vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (6-6).
Where (are they playing)?  San Antonio.
When (is it all going down)?  December 30, 4:30 PM on ESPN.
First thoughts: Good lord, soldier, only queers and steers come from Texas!
Why (should you watch)?  Because you already pray with your heart and soul for Mack Brown to fail at everything in life.  Though I do have to admit I’m a Vince Young fan now.

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Who (is playing)?  Georgia Bulldogs (8-4) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies (10-2).
Where (are they playing)?  Atlanta.
When (is it all going down)?  December 30, 8 PM on ESPN.
First thoughts: Seriously.  Some of these bowl names are ridiculous.
Why (should you watch)?  To watch the SEC get embarassed.  Christ, I hate them.  We have the best teams in college football and all our teams are great and everyone else sucks and blah blah blah STFU.  How the hell can you say that when they don’t beat anyone outside the conference, besides, uh, well…(crickets)…anyway, I mean, seriously.  Arkansas got crushed by USC and I don’t think any of the other teams even played anyone else.  It’s like a group of brothers fighting amongst themselves (and no one else), then declaring they’re the toughest family in the world because they beat up on each other.  That sounds like something a bunch of hicks would do.  Just like calling their college football conference the best in the country.

I don’t know how many are left.  This is never going to end.