And now for something completely different - we had tossed around the idea of doing a conventional mailbag that you might see on other websites, but came to the conclusion that answering misinformed, badly worded, grammatically incorrect, and misspelled queries from the average denizen of ESPN.com would be far more amusing.  To that end, I decided to answer questions from this recent ESPN.com chat with Beano Cook as if they were posed to me, rather than him.  And rather than do what the guys over at Fire Joe Morgan do in criticizing the responses of the ESPN.com representative, well, I’m going to lay off Beano.  He’s old.  He clearly doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore.

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Delta (Richmond, VA): Hey Fever! Any word on who Michigan replaces ND with in 2011?

Yellow Fever: I feel like someone at this point needs to point out that the Big Ten actually has eleven teams, and they play eight conference games.  What the hell?  But kudos to Michigan for having played Notre Dame all this time.  There’s nothing quite like playing a paper tiger that has no defense and always chokes in big games to boost your own reputation when you beat them soundly every year.  Now back to your question - I have no idea.  But the Wolverines have a trend of playing a directional Michigan school every year for their nonconference schedule.  Eastern Michigan in 2010, Western Michigan in 2009 and 2011; don’t quote me on this, but I have a feeling we could be in for a real barnburner with Central Michigan after that.  Go Wolverines.

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Zak (Lawrence,KS): I heard Lee Corso mention something about adding another team to the Big Ten and he said they should take Mizzou but i think they should take Notre Dame yeah I know they been Independent for years but im sure alot of other peolple would like to see them in conference play espicially in the Big Ten and if they did take Mizzou who would replace them in the Big 12 North.

Yellow Fever: Let me ask you something, Zak.  Are you in a rush?  Typing with one hand?  How’s Kansas?  But here’s a larger point.  What would such a conference be called?  I mean, there’s already a Big 12.  Hell, there’s already a Big 12 North, so you can’t even call it that.  The Bigger 12?  The Big North?  The Big 11, just to continue to throw everyone off?  This blows my mind just thinking about it.  And honestly, I’d like to see Notre Dame remain independent.  Sure it means they go to a BCS bowl every year that they don’t deserve to be in, but it’s like seeing the Yankees get completely outclassed in the playoffs every year.  Who doesn’t enjoy that?

---

Danny (Kansas City): I am sick of hearing about the same four stories when i turn on the T.V. the media has exhausted the Vick, NBA ref story, Packman, and Barry bonds it is rather annoying

Yellow Fever: Turn off the TV and go tip some cows.  That is what you guys do for fun in Kansas City, right?

---

Scott (MI): Yellow way to rip on the Big 10 in your first question. You want to talk about a cake walk "non-conference" schedule…have you looked at your beloved Notre Dame’s? Come on Army, Navy, and Air Force…u gotta be kidding me!!

Yellow Fever: Scott, I’m not sure you realize this; in fact, I’m almost certain you don’t.  If Notre Dame is an independent, by definition all of their games are non-conference.  Because if you’re not in a conference, none of your games can be conference games.  Amazing how that works!

---

Chris ( Eglin AFB, FL ): Since Nick Saban came back to the SEC and everyone is talking bout that. What do you think Kentucky’s record will be this yr. They returned alot of players from last yrs team.

Yellow Fever: Chris, if you’re going to try and ask a question prefaced with something, try and do a better job of making sure the preface is somehow related.  As for Kentucky, who cares?  They’re the Washington State of the SEC.  Or the Arizona?  Arizona State?  I have no idea.

---

JT (Pittsburgh): Who is today’s best college football writer?

Yellow Fever: I read everybody, but it’s much more fun to single out who the worst is.  And of those who write regularly in a prominent position on a mainstream website, I’m going to go with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline.  That qualifier was so that I don’t have to actually go look up the names of the scrubs who pass for writers on the Sporting News.  As for the best, it’s a tough call between Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel.  The two of them should be mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in college football, along with Ivan Maisel.  Pat Forde I can live without.

---

ben (dc): Fever, Lets Rutgers was in the SEC, any chance they would even finish the year bowl eligable?

Yellow Fever:  Is English a core requirement at SEC schools?

---

Chris (Kalamazoo, Michigan): Wait one sec…Michigan and ND love their rivalry. And how can you say Big Ten teams only want to play easy nonconference games? Texas vs OSU; ND vs Michigan, MSU, Penn State, Purdue. I think your are thinking of the SEC.

Yellow Fever: This is actually a fair point, given that most Big Ten schools do have one tough, marquee nonconference game.  So I’d like to revise my previous answer and say while I still think Michigan will end up playing a Michigan directional school that year, I could see the Wolverines playing Miami, Florida State, or Virginia Tech to take ND’s "slot", so to speak.  And as much as I’d like them to schedule our Bears, there are a number of reasons that seems unlikely to happen.  For one, the Big Ten always matches up with the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl every year, so it seems unlikely that they would be eager to schedule a Pac-10 power in the event that the two could possibly meet again in the Rose Bowl.  An ACC game could be interesting, and besides - Miami versus Michigan just sounds cool.  And by then, the Hurricanes will probably be in one of the up phases of the cycles that always seem to define the U.

---

Willie (Portland, OR): I know it’s been a while, but what are your thoughts on Les Miles comments about the Pac-10 being an easy conference?

Yellow Fever: He might have a point, but really, he can go to hell.

---

Eric, Bel Air, MD: WVU vs USC Natonal Championship-yes or no?

Yellow Fever: No.  Cal/LSU.  Book it.  Call it the Day of Les Miles’ Reckoning.

---

Phil (New York): Fever, How do you feel about Joe Paterno’s punishment of the entire team for the actions of a few players. Personally I feel it’s sending a good message while building team unity? Others may see it as a cop out and a way to deflect criticism away from the players who committed the crimes?

Yellow Fever: Phil, why do you have question marks where periods should be?  And a period where a question mark should be?

---

Mikey (Philly): Fever, who do you see as a sleeper national title contender?

Yellow Fever: Rutgers.  Really.  If they beat Louisville and West Virginia - which they almost did last season by beating Lousiville and taking the Mountaineers to triple OT - and go undefeated, what would stop them from getting a berth in the national championship game?  Yes, Brian Leonard is gone, but Ray Rice is back (and I have a signed jersey of his), Mike Teel almost certainly has to improve, and their outstanding offensive line remains mostly intact.  Their defense could use some work, but they should improve with experience as well.

---

Brad (Gadsden,Alabama): Fever, How do you see Nick Saban’s first year at Alabama going this year?

Yellow Fever: The same way I see anything that happens in Alabama.  From far away. 

---

Matt (Philadelphia): Fever, assuming McFadden and McCoy return, are you going to try to get ABC to move the 2008 Arkansas-Texas game to the last week of the season again?

Yellow Fever: That’s just superstition.

---

Jack ( Ann Arbor ) : You didn’t finish answereing Delta’s question…Who replaces Notre Dame on Michigans schedule

Yellow Fever: Jack, why don’t you get your panties straightened out and realize that when your AD decides, he’ll be the first to announce it?

---

ben (Omaha, NE): how do you think nebraska will do this year fever

Yellow Fever: I think they’ll lose to USC, possibly contend in the Big 12 North, maybe even win their division, get crushed in the Big 12 title game, and then lose a close bowl game.  Sound familiar?

---

Nick (Charlotte): Fever: Wake Forest predicted 4th in their division by ACC writers? Huh?

Yellow Fever: The sooner you realize that Wake Forest had a once in a lifetime season last year, the sooner I can stop answering questions about them.

---

Craig (Norwich, CT): Who is the next college coach to make the leap to the NFL?

Yellow Fever: Dennis Erickson of Arizona State.  This is a guy who only had to coach the Idaho Vandals for one year before taking over a powerful offense in a major conference.  If he can steer the Sun Devils in the right direction this year, the only logical next step in his upward career path is to make the jump to the NFL and - wait, you’re saying he’s done this before?  Really?

---

dylan (chicago): Whats the future for Jimmy C. at Notre Dame.

Yellow Fever:  Here’s a list of true freshmen quarterbacks who were successful as starters:

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Tom (Baltimore, MD): Any chance MSU has a surprise season and makes a bowl game this year under Dantonio?

Yellow Fever:  There’s always a chance.  For instance, Temple could shock the world and become national champions this year.  As for a realistic chance, that’s going to require more research into a second tier program that I don’t care about.

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Scott (MI): Why don’t you travel with the Gameday crew each week? We’d love to see ya there…

Yellow Fever: Because I’m not employed by ESPN.

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Chris (Indianapolis, IN): Will the IU football program be able to rebound from the loss of Coach Hep??

Yellow Fever:  No offense intended here, but it’s not like the program was any great shakes to begin with.  They’ll probably do all right, but I don’t think anyone expected them to do a whole lot anyway.

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Dylan (Texas): Why does everybody praise USC for going udefeated with a push over schedule?The NCAA doesn’t want them to be challenged…put tem up against LSU in Death Valley, then you got yourself a ball game

Yellow Fever: I had to go to Dallas for a week of training.  It was then that I realized the best part of being in Texas was getting to leave.

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Mike (New Jersey): What trade will the yankees make at the deadline

Yellow Fever: Why are you here?

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Sam (Dallas, tx): Michigan is the winningest team in college football, why don’t they get more respect?

Yellow Fever: Why don’t you have anything better to do than wonder why people don’t respect your alma mater?

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Patrick (N’awlins): Love ya fever…can you comment on the surprise today that Alley Broussard suddenly left the team?

Yellow Fever: Sure.  He was a player.  At LSU.  And now he’s not.

Yellow Fever: Be sure to come back next week when I lampoon someone else’s chat, or not, depending on how the response to this one goes.  I look forward to answering more questions from south of the Mason-Dixon line that would horrify your English teacher.

We here at the California Golden Blogs are huge fantasy sports fans, though we’ve never really tried our hand at Yahoo Sports! College Football Pick ‘Em game.  However, we figured that since we’ve got our own blog now, we thought it might be fun to see how our picks stack up against those of our (perhaps more?) knowledgeable readers.  Since it’s always fun to have bragging rights and all.  This is our first time doing this, and as such we have no hard and fast rules about how the picks are going to go, but we will be using a spread, and probably confidence points as well.  We’ll be picking every game involving a team in the AP top 25 poll every week, so for those of you that would like to join, here’s how you sign up:

1. Get a Yahoo! ID at Yahoo.com if you don’t already have one
2. Go to Yahoo Sports! College Football Pick ‘Em page
3. Choose sign up for a private league
4. Use league number #4448, password "gobears"

And you’ll be set.  The maximum number of participants is 50, and we’d like to have that many of our fans join us in the league as well.

And he said unto the land "I am ideologically bankrupt and this is just another in a looooooooooooong line of misrepresentations" and lo, it was bad.

In the Thursday edition of the Daily Cal, there is an article about Runnie Dub.  Here’s the link. If you were unaware, there were accusations that the Ewoks up there had caused damage to Berkeley property.  The accusations were that the tree people cut off some of the branches to make it more comfortable for them.  The article says that, if proved, this accusation could result in further misdemeanor charges on top of the normal lodging and tresspass charges.  Then again, if you look at the police blotter, you’ll see that charging these people with a crime hasn’t really stopped many from returning again and again and again and again.

But Runnie Dub doesn’t say that they damaged the trees, per se.   He claims they cut off branches to preserve the trees.  Now, in the interest of fairness, this isn’t as totally insane as it originally sounds.   I worked for several horticulture companies during high school and pruning the branches of trees helps them grow better.  You cut off branches growing in conflict with each other and/or the dead parts of branches. 

However, you must excuse me if I am not willing to give The Dubster the benefit of the doubt here.  He has lied many times in the past.  He has been physically and verbally abusive towards peace officers.  He will clearly stop at nothing to accomplish his truly vacuous goals.  So, while it might be true that they were "pruning" the trees, I am loath to believe such a thing. More likely, it was the vandalism the police claim.  

Another odd thing is this quote from Dubbie:

"RunningWolf said the treesitters who participated in the pruning have since left the trees, which he said have a high turnover of people."

I wonder if this high turnover stems from problems getting people to believe in the cause.  This could be a good sign.  Or it could just mean that the hippiecrits (credit:  some dude at Bear Insider) have finally realized the truth we already knew.

Living in trees really really sucks.  And it is in no way accomplishing their goals.   

Lots to get to, so we’ll get right to it…

• We begin with a story of love and love lost, a story of fidelity and birth, and…well, ok.  It’s about Matt Leinart and how he’s pretty much a deadbeat dad.  But seriously, who among us didn’t see this coming?  (Edit: previous link changed to the original post on Bruins Nation - original link to Deadspin here)
• Staying in LA, they’ve got some problems in general.  Maybe UCLA needs to raise the budget they allocate to their coaching staff.
• Ivan Maisel responds in a mailbag about his top 100 plays to a writer who said that not having The Play at number one was a sign he’s a dumbass.  I think it should have been number one too, but Maisel takes the high road in his response.
• Peter King calls Marshawn Lynch the rookie under the most pressure in the NFL this season because he has to be a 1,400 yard back in order for the Bills to have a shot at contending this year.  That seems about right.
• And speaking of Marshawn, he officially signed with the Bills late last night.  $10.285 million guaranteed with a total value of $18.935 million over five years will get him enough grills to last a lifetime.  Maybe.
• The official site of our Cal Bears has been spruced up and looks much better in general, so give it a look if you haven’t been there before.  Or haven’t been there in a while.
• And yet another Mark Schlabach chat where he talks about how great Justin Forsett is.  This has crossed the line from being cool to creepy recurring coincidence.  Maybe he’s actually stalking him.
• Notes from Pac-10 Media Day…USC #1, Cal #2…Stanford #10.  No big surprise there.  As Ragnarok notes, however, perhaps the biggest surprise there is that Stanford wasn’t the unanimous pick for last.  I didn’t think there would be any question about that.  And here are a bunch of quotes from assorted luminaries in the Pac-10 from Media Day, Coach Tedford and THA1 among them.  Of course, they didn’t actually say anything interesting, but it might be worth your while to take a look anyway.
• ESPN.com has also been running a ranking of every program in Division I-A football over the past decade.  Our Bears clock in at #35.  Given that the first five of those ten years were under Coach Holmoe (pronounced "Homo"…never forget this), that seems more than fair.  Since if you were to rank every program by just those five years, we would be somewhere in the 105-115 range.  Accompanying article here by Mark Schlabach citing our Bears as one of the programs in the 26-50 grouping that have just begun to reach their potential, as Tedford has positioned our Bears as the second most consistent program in the Pac-10 behind USC.

MY PRECIOUS!  MY PRECIOUS! 

 

 

 

The tickets actually have seat numbers on them, but due to my extreme amount of stalkers, I’ve decided to delete them.  So, stay at least 300 feet away, you know who you are! 

I can’t wait for 9.1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111OneOneOne   

TICKETSTICKETSTICKETSTICKETSTICKETSTICKETS

In an unrelated story, when I got home from work today, I was greeted with a FedEx package full of CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS.

THEY’RE HERE, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEY ARE ALL SUPER SHINY!!!!!!!!!

NOT TO MENTION A BUY ONE GET ONE FREE VOUCHER FOR LA TECH AND SOME FREE TICKETS TO A WOMAN’S B-BALL GAME AND VOLLEY BALL GAME.  SWEET!  I also got a 2007 Game Day guide with a fridge magnet, Car sticker, and random ads for alumni org. Very cool, but most importantly 6 LITTLE RECTANGULAR PIECES OF PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll try to scan it all in later.  But I was so excited, I just had to post NOW NOW NOW!  YAY!   

I can take no credit for the following post; it is pretty much copy-pasted directly from an email sent to me, with very minimal editing.  I present it here because it is a fabulous summary of the current Memorial Stadium situation, with some new information as well, and the more Cal fans who read it, the better.  I cannot conceive that there are many bigger Cal fans than Erin Proudfoot, who is the person actually responsible for this post, and to her, all credit is due.  The below information is her personal take on Monday night’s meeting:

John and Linda Gage, close friends of Sandy’s, called their second meeting of Berkeley residents to support UC Berkeley’s cause of retrofitting Memorial Stadium.  I saw the event listed in the "Cal Football" group in the @calcafe, so I attended even though I live in Oakland.  They will be holding another meeting, so please let me know if you are interested, especially if you live in Berkeley.

What was the meeting?  A group of 30-40 most Berkeley residents and mostly Cal alums came to hear the latest about the Memorial Stadium project and to get the real facts of the case from Sandy.  It was VERY interesting and VERY informative.  We really need public support surrounding this issue.  Make your voice heard, forward this to your friends, write to your local papers, and demand that we build a safe facility for our student athletes.

Highlights of the talk:

 * From the beginning, there were 3 goals from Cal Athletics in this project: 1. To keep the west side of the stadium in tact and prominent; 2. To play all Cal football games inside the stadium without temporarily going anywhere else; and 3. To provide a safe facility for training, locker rooms, and staff offices.
 * There are 3 plaintiffs in this case: 1. City of Berkeley (deep pocket); 2. Panoramic Hill Association (PHA); and 3. Save the Oaks foundation.  More info on PHA below.  The lawyer for Save the Oaks is working pro-bono.
 * Sept. 19th is the trial date and if it goes to trial, the trial will last 2 days and then a decision should be handed down in 7-10 days.  The judge set the early date to move this along, as well as denying several tactics by the plaintiffs to stall the case.
 * There is a comprehensive website with all the facts and current plans for the 3 Phases, notably a fantastic picture which shows how most of the Student Athlete is actually underground – it blocks very few sight lines and leaves the lower grove of trees in tact.

What are the compromises the Athletic Department has made in order to address the concerns of the above plaintiffs?

 * There will be no lighting towers on the west bowl, instead the lights will be in the "brow" of the new Press Box.  This was a major concern of the PHA – the physical light poles.
 * The University’s policy on planting new trees is 3 saplings for every adult tree taken down.  They have compromised of planting 1 adult tree of the same kind plus 2 saplings.
 * Instead of 900 parking spots, they will only build 500 spots, which simply replaces the spots lost due to the new center and other construction.

What can we do?  If you reside in the City of Berkeley:

 * Attend the Sept. 11th council meeting in support of dropping/settling the lawsuit so that your taxes can best be spent elsewhere.
 * Write letters to the Berkeley council members and the Mayor (Tom Bates: mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us)
 * Offer to host a Berkeley neighborhood meeting where Sandy will talk to more constituents.

What if you don’t reside in Berkeley?

 * Keep talking about the project to friends and family to spread knowledge.
 * Write "Letters to the Editor" based on the facts.

News release regarding Sept. 19th Trial date:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/21_sahpc.shtml

The issues PHA are concerned about:

 * Traffic to and from the new parking lot, especially on game day.  To this end, Cal agreed to reduce the number of parking spaces in the new parking lot under Maxwell Field from ~900 to ~500.  These 500 spots replace the spots lost in the nearby parking lots that will no longer be available.
 * Viable exit routes from their homes in case of an emergency (not directly related to the stadium project, but something they may hope to get as part of any deal).  It is hard to get out (and in) to the hills and the roads are in bad condition.
 * Bright lights and lightpoles around the stadium.  Cal instead is building lights under the brow of the west press box and has agreed to limit the number of non-football events in the stadium to 7 per year, with no rock concert events that would require additional sound amplification.

I had a private conversation with a board member of the Panoramic Hill Association, who confirmed my thoughts that most of PHA (himself not included) wants to stop the project at all costs.  Most of the board is not open to negotiating the points of the lawsuit.

If Cal can reach a settlement with only the City of Berkeley, then PHA and Save the Oaks would have to put up a bond in order for the lawsuit to continue.  This would be pretty tough for them.  If the case goes to trial and Cal wins, it can (almost) immediately start on construction, even if/when an appeal is filed.

Here are the official facts about the Stadium Project.  Please copy and paste and send to your friends:

Building Champions: The Plan for Cal’s Student-Athletes

UC Berkeley’s master plan for California Memorial Stadium begins with construction of the new Student-Athlete High Performance Center.

There has been a great deal of inaccurate, if not misleading information in the press about this project. The following Q&A is an effort to set the record straight, and insure that our community’s conversation is
 based on fact, not fiction.

Q: What is the connection between the new student-athlete center and plans to modernize Memorial Stadium?
A: Before beginning work to upgrade and seismically strengthen the stadium, Cal must first build a facility to house the 450 student-athletes, coaches and support staff who currently train and work under the stadium’s stands. This need creates an opportunity for Cal to provide its student-athletes with safe facilities that are on par with those of its peers. In the Pac-10, Cal now ranks dead last in space available to its athletics program for training and sports medicine. The student-athlete center will bring Cal up near the conference average in these areas.

Q: Will taxpayer money be used to construct the student-athlete center?
A: No public money will be used. The project is being funded by donors and ticket surcharges.

Q: Is the proposed location of the student-athlete center safe? Isn’t it right on top of the Hayward Fault?
A: Adjacent to Memorial Stadium, the site is near but not on the Hayward Fault. Extensive geologic testing has shown that there are no active faults under the building’s footprint. The campus hired an independent geological firm to conduct two rounds of testing, followed by a peer review of the findings by another firm and UC Berkeley’s own seismic experts. They all reached the same conclusion: student-athletes using the facility will be safe in the event of an earthquake Engineers say there is a vast difference between "on" and "near" when building in the area of a fault. In the event of an earthquake along the Hayward Fault, they say, the new student-athlete center will be as safe as if it were built miles from the fault - in fact, safer than most buildings in downtown Berkeley.

Q: Besides the football team, which Cal athletes will benefit from the center?
A: More than 400 student-athletes from 13 different teams - 7 women’s and 6 men’s - will use the new facility. While media coverage focuses on football, little has been said about the difference the new center will make for other teams, like women’s field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer that train and play on fields adjacent to the stadium. Without locker rooms of their own, many of the women on these teams must change clothes in their cars to prepare for games and practice. The student-athlete center will support gender equity and ensure that all Cal teams have safe, adequate facilities.

Q: Couldn’t the university find another site for the student-athlete center, one without trees that need to be removed?
A: Many locations were studied as possible sites; only one fully met the need to provide student-athletes with convenient access to academic and athletic facilities. It would be wrong, for example, to ask members of the women’s softball or men’s gymnastic teams  to practice in Strawberry Canyon, travel to a distant location for medical and locker room facilities, and get back to campus on time for class.

Almost all of the trees on the student-athlete center site were planted by the campus - the result of a 1923 landscaping project - and are not part of an ancient, historic grove. Cal will preserve nearly all of the trees adjacent to Piedmont Avenue, and will be planting three new trees for every one it removes. Each of the oak trees removed will be replaced by two saplings and one large, nursery-grown specimen tree.

Q: How has Cal responded to the concerns of its neighbors and the City of Berkeley?
A: Several changes have been made in plans for the area in response to community concerns. The university has:

 * enhanced landscaping on the new plaza along the stadium’s western edge to include lawn and additional trees.
 * conducted additional geologic testing to confirm there are no active faults beneath the student-athlete center site.  
 * lowered the height of the student-athlete center to maintain the maximum view of the stadium from Piedmont Avenue.
 * offered to significantly reduce the number of spaces in the proposed parking facility just north of the stadium. The original plan called for 911 spaces, which included an addition of 300 net new spaces. The revised plan would replace only those spaces that will be lost as the result of construction; no additional parking is planned.
 * designed new lighting and audio systems to minimize impact outside of the stadium.
 * will limit the number of non-football events held in the stadium to no more than seven per year, and promised that the venue will not be used for events such as rock concerts that would require additional sound amplification.

In addition, the renovated stadium will have thousands fewer seats than the stadium does today. This will improve the space and comfort of fans, and will also reduce game-day traffic and disruption for Berkeley residents.

Cal’s plan to build safe and suitable facilities for its student athletes, coaches and fans is now being held up by a variety of legal challenges. One of the plaintiffs, the City of Berkeley, has allocated a quarter of million dollars from its budget for attendant legal expenses. If you have an opinion about this issue, please let your elected representatives know where you stand.

In a remarkable bit of serendipity, it turns out that Michigan and Notre Dame will break off their long-running series after the 2011 season.  From ESPN.com:

Michigan won’t settle for just any opponent when its football series with Notre Dame takes a break after the 2011 season, the school’s athletic director says.

Michigan will play a national power from a major conference, most likely in a home-and-home series, athletic director Bill Martin told The Ann Arbor News for a story posted on its Web site Tuesday evening.

"There are a lot of teams Michigan would like to play and who would like to play Michigan," Martin said.

Martin declined to name names but said he’s been approached by several schools.

Let’s hope that one of those teams is our Bears.  As Hydrotech wrote before in our most controversial post to date, while it’s rather unfortunate that while THE Ohio State University (seriously, what is up with that?) decided to cancel our series with them in 2012-2013, it does leave us with other opportunities.  Like the opportunity to schedule a habitually underachieving Big Ten foe whose fans somehow got more riled up about our dis of Ohio State than their own fans did.   Maybe it’s an inferiority complex.

Still, just like Ragnarok suggested, our Bears have an open date in 2012.  So do the Wolverines.  The two haven’t played since the 1950 Rose Bowl.  And we are a national power from a major conference.  Sandy Barbour, make this happen.

And all those who are fans of mediocre Pac-10 teams.  According to this announcement by Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen here at ESPN.com:

The Pac-10 Conference said Monday that it has pledged teams to two more college bowl games, the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego and the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu.

Following the 2008 season, the sixth-place team will play against a Western Athletic Conference school in the Hawaii Bowl and the seventh-place team will face a Mountain West Conference opponent in the Poinsettia Bowl, the conference said.

Frankly, when fellow writer Ragnarok wrote this piece here about how terrible the existing Pac-10 bowl tie-ins are, I don’t think this is what any of us had in mind to remedy the situation.  (By the way, check out the comment left there.  WTF.  I don’t remember that being there.  I wonder what the hell it means.) 

What this does is lock the Pac-10’s sixth place team into the Hawaii Bowl, whereas previously the Hawaii Bowl and Armed Forces bowl would alternate having the sixth place Pac-10 team.  But like Ragnarok said, if there’s going to be a bowl game in Hawaii, naturally it makes the most sense for a Pac-10 team to be there.  The Hawaii Bowl, in existence since 2002, has historically matched in the past teams in Conference USA and the WAC, but in 2006 the Pac-10 replaced Conference USA, as long as it had a bowl eligible team.  And of course, the University of Hawaii has an agreement with the WAC that as long as Hawaii is eligible, they would receive a bid to the Hawaii bowl, if they so choose.  So at least we’d have this to look forward to if, say, another crisis of Ayoobian proportions occurs. 

The biggest wrinkle in all this is the placement of the Pac-10’s seventh place team in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.  Having only been in existence since 2005, the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl is best known for having what is easily the most amusing, ridiculous, inane, and probably retarded bowl name in history - although the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl will always have a place in my heart.  Still, a trip to San Diego is always nice.  Also arranged by those who run the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, the SDCCUPB (what an acronym) has an arrangement with Navy that if the Midshipmen are bowl eligible, they would receive an automatic bid to the game, in part because of all the naval bases located in the area.  So it’s likely that whatever team in the Pac-10 manages to finish seventh will have to deal with a large stadium full of half-naked seamen.  Which isn’t all bad, if you’re into that kind of thing.

 

Let’s check in with Buffalo Bills lead journalist, Chris Brown, to see how Marshawn is doing in the Buff.  Or the Alo.  I don’t know what Buffalo’s "cool" nickname is.  Marshawnalo?  The Marshawnalo Bills? 

Well, either way, first, let’s gaze upon his jersey again.

 

So beautiful.  It blinds me.  Oh, how it blinds me!  In a completely and totally unrelated story, my birthday is next Friday.  And I happen to be a medium.  Just sayin’ is all.  Just sayin’

Also, I could use an external hard-drive and some self-respect. 

The first story is about who might have a bigger impact, Lynch or Posluszny.  I vote Marshawn!   With usual humility, Marshawn says the other guy.  But Posluszny gets this answer right:

"If you ask Lynch or Posluszny they’re quickly pointing to the other guy.

"I’m going to go with my man Paul," said Lynch. "I’m going to do my time on the other side of the ball. Paul’s going to hold it down as well."

"Marshawn," said Posluszny. "He gets my vote. He gets to score touchdowns. I think he is going to have a great year. If he does well and gets his shot he will be in good shape. If I’m out there I’m going to do my part. Make the plays I’m supposed to make. And make things happen.""

The Bills have already done the inevitable and given Marshawn most of the reps in the upcoming training camp.  Also, it is good to see they want to work him catching balls out of the backfield.  That’s where I think he can show why he was worth the 12th pick overall (if not higher).  It would be very frustrating if they drafted Lynch, mis-used him, and then future Cal prospects were viewed negatively in the future because of it.

"As a result Lynch has already climbed the depth chart to the top where he and Anthony Thomas will be seeing most of the work come training camp. And offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild has made it plain that Lynch will factor into the passing game as well.

"Any time there’s a playmaker added, the first thing that goes through your mind is how do we get him involved," said Fairchild. "I think there are three backs in the league that were up around 80 and even 90 catches last year. Now that doesn’t mean we’re going to have a guy catch that many balls, but if you have a guy back there that can do it, it can give you another weapon in your passing game.""

The next article is about Lee Evans and how he was pretty much the only good thing going for Marshawnalo last year.  But this year, things might be different, if one former The Town-resident has something to say about it. 
 

"What is also expected to help pull the attention from Evans this season is the abilities of their top pick Marshawn Lynch. With his multi-dimensional talents, those on Buffalo’s offense feel there will be more than just Evans to worry about this season.

"We’ve got guys coming out of the backfield like Marshawn and Freddie (Jackson) catching the ball," said Reed. "That’s going to make it even more difficult. Not to take out the running game because you have to establish that, but we’re going to try to keep them guessing as much as we can. We’ll put different players at different positions. We’ll have running backs out (wide) and receivers in the backfield just to make sure that everybody stays honest on the other side."

Lynch, fully aware of what he’s going to be asked to do in Buffalo’s offense as a rookie took the initiative himself this spring by approaching receivers coach Tyke Tolbert for some extra instruction on running routes.

"Marshawn came to me and asked me if there was a time we could get together and work on some of his route techniques," Tolbert told Buffalobills.com. "He’s a very hungry person who wants to make plays in the run game and pass game.""

Not new news to us Marshawn fans, but it’s always great to see people singing his praises.  They have videos, too.  Here is a video about the RBs at Marshawnalo.  They show some clips of Marshawn running the ball.  I missed it.  He looks the same with his high legged style.  He talks a little bit, too, in the video.  The narrator has this to say about Marshawn:

"Lynch wowed in early camps with his quick cutting and elusiveness."

HECK YUP HE DID!  AND HE’LL WOW IN LATER CAMPS, EARLY GAMES, LATER GAMES, AND DURING END TIMES AS FORETOLD IN THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS WITH HIS QUICK CUTTING AND ELUSIVENESS!

There is another video specifically about the two main rookies.  Lynch talks a lot and they have video of him doing some running.  The video reiterates how Lynch went to the WR coach and asked for extra time to work on running routes.  It shows that he is a hard-worker and ready to take his game to the next level.  Hopefully, the dedication now will show results in both the NFL regular season and also every single fantasy league I’m in this fall.  As, of course, I will draft him with my first round pick.  Natch! 

And here are some photos:

 

 

 

So, a lot of great Marshawn-related stuff at the Bills website.  And with each passing day as it gets closer to Opening Day, it is only going to grow more.  MARSHAWN4LIFE! 

I did a double-take when I saw that Ben Braun got a two year contract extension yesterday; what in the world could have warranted that?  I quickly calmed down, however, after realizing that the extension in question was the same one given to him last June, and all that happened yesterday was that the UC Regents finally approved it.

Now, having attended Cal, I know that UC can be a glacially slow bureaucracy, but this is ridiculous.  Yes, these things take time, but 13 months to approve a 2-year extension?  The contract’s hardly longer now than it was when the extension was granted!

The point of this extension is obvious; Cal wants to demonstrate to potential recruits that Ben Braun will still be the head coach when they graduate 4 years later, as if this would actually provide assurances.  We all know that Braun’s job security depends on his team producing this upcoming season, and the number of years left on his contract will have no bearing on whether Cal will choose to retain him.  The best that can be said of such an extension is that it means Cal has no immediate plans to fire Ben Braun, and that he will likely be the head coach when potential recruits actually make it to campus.

However, by taking so long to approve the extension, Cal has tarnished the benefits of the extension.  Last year, potential recruits must have wondered why Cal was dawdling in approving the extension, and thought perhaps that the school’s commitment to Braun was wavering.  This year, recruits now know that Braun is under contract until 2011, but none of them will graduate before 2012; clearly, just as this extension is approved, the question of another extension arises.

Personally, I don’t know much about recruiting, but this Scout.com article (there we go again, linking to Scout) has what seems like a pretty good rundown of Cal’s 2008 recruiting situation.  Nowhere in the article is Braun’s job situation mentioned, but Scout is very vague about the reasons these recruits are citing (perhaps they’re learning not to publish unverified hearsay!).

Now, regardless of whether I think Braun should remain Cal’s head coach, I’m glad UC finally approved the extension.  As much as I like winning (and I do!), integrity still matters, and I’d hate for Cal to be one of those schools that, seeing the basketball program going south, decides not to approve an ill-advised extension offered months earlier.  As Sandy Barbour stated back in March, "We made a commitment that we mutually agreed on, and that’s that. It’s as good as ink as far as I’m concerned."  Well said, and Go Bears!

We’re now mostly in a dead period for news, as it’s still about a month and a half until the college football season starts, and recruiting hasn’t really ramped up yet, and, well, you know what that means.  Previews!  And preseason rankings.  But mostly previews.  Lots and lots of previews.

2007 California Football Preseason Rankings
No. 7 - CSTV.com
No. 9 - ESPN.com (already mentioned)
No. 11 - Athlon Sports (from SI.com)
No. 11 - Street & Smith’s (not online)
No. 12 - The Sporting News (not online yet)
No. 12 - Lindy’s (not online)
No. 13 - Rivals.com
No. 16 - CBS Sportsline (not online)
No. 18 - College Football News (not online yet)
No. 19 - NationalChamps.net (not online)
No. 20 - Sports Illustrated (ranking by Stewart Mandel, links to preseason poll of his)

There’s very little that actually separates any of the previews from any of the others; as you can see, there’s something of a divergence of opinion on how highly our Bears will be ranked to begin this season.  But if I had to guess, I would say something in the 12-14 range sounds about right.  The most in-depth preview of the above is the ESPN.com one, so if you only have time to read one (and don’t feel like reading the same thing worded ten different ways), start and end with that.

• SI.com is also running a best game ever series (much like ESPN.com ran about a month ago) about the best game each of their writers attended in person - to absolutely no one’s surprise, Cal alum Michael Silver chose Cal-Stanford 1982.
• Huge entry from Feldman’s blog on Thursday (from Berkeley!) on both Les Miles’ comments, and Jahvid Best, whom he says can outrun THA1.

"He is ridiculous quick," Longshore said of the 5-foot-11, 182-pounder, who once won a Gold Medal in the 200m at the 2005 USTAF Junior Olympics. "He could beat DeSean in a race, no doubt in my mind. No doubt. He’s the fastest I’ve ever seen. "When I was getting recruited I went to a couple of SC’s practices and Reggie Bush was a freshman. They have so many similarities in how they move when Reggie was an unpolished freshman. It’ll be interesting to watch him. Jahvid’s got some special talents." 

Also, Feldman reveals that Robert Jordan is related to former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, and that they were together when they heard about Les Miles shooting his mouth off about the Pac-10.  Now, given that Robert Jordan is Marshawn’s cousin, then Marshawn is also related to JaMarcus Russell, and given that all of the Samoans on our defensive line are probably related…my head hurts.