In the same way that a fly makes its presence felt on the windshield of a car going 70 mph on a freeway.  I mean, two carries for three yards just isn’t very much.  Of course, preseason means very little, and players guaranteed to make the team don’t get much playing time because coaches already know what they can do, and don’t want to risk injury.  We know all this, and we still love Marshawn.  It just would have been nice for him to have done a little more.

Inteview With A Mic-Something Part I

We pick up with our interview of Kate Troescher, Cal’s Mic-Chick.

"Hey Kate : GO!"

Bears!!!

"Do you get the above cheer a lot? Like, walking down the street and someone recognizes you?"

Not very often, now that I live in the city, but people do recognize me. My fiance’s favorite "mic-chick" moment happened on my birthday a couple of years ago. We were having a really nice dinner in the Mission at Range and as we stand up to leave, a guy at the table behind us freaks out and goes, "Kate Troescher!?! Oh my gosh, it’s the mic chick!" Meanwhile, the entire restaurant has fallen silent and
everyone is staring at us…so I laugh, say hi, he wishes me a happy birthday, and I manage to make it out the door. My fiancee - a UCLA grad - was cracking up! I tried to explain to her that a lot of people knew me, but she didn’t believe me. She has from that day on.

"Hottest Cal player, besides Nick Harris, of course"

Another good question. I’m gonna have to pass on this one, because really, Cal does such a good job recruiting hot boys, there’s too many to list.

"Did you get to travel to away games for free?"

When I was a mic-man, yes. The travel was covered by the university.

"What did you think of the open mic-man tryouts? Because those guys were awful. How did you ever find any viable candidates from that sorry lot?"

Hahaha, mic man tryouts are always horrible. It’s so hard, because it really does take a while to get used to being on a mic in front of this huge crowd. Everyone always wants to scream into the mic and you have to grab them and tell them, listen, it’s already AMPLIFIED, you don’t need to yell. As for the candidates, the pickings are always slim because people are too chicken to try out. Every year there’s guys in the section yelling, "Give me the mic! I can do a better job!" And I’d always yell back at ‘em, "Then why the hell didn’t you come to tryouts?" It’s sad, because I think there’s a lot of people that have passed through the university that would have made GREAT mic men, but they were too lazy to get their act together.

"What kind of training goes into being a Mic-Human?"

Really Matt, mic-men is fine. As far as training is concerned, it’s more or less a train-as-you-go sort of position. It’s so hard to mimic the energy of a game-day, so you can prepare as much as you want - go over what cheers to do when, and what you want to say at the rallies - but when it’s go-time…it’s all up to how good you are at putting those thoughts into action.

"Do you guys get to party in the Oski head at RallyComm parties and whatnot?"

Unfortunately, no. Oski, Rally Comm, and the mic-men are all separate entities. I was a member of both Rally Comm and the mic men, but Oski is a completely different story. He belongs to Oski Comm, and no one really knows what that group is all about it, not even me.

"What’s Adam Duritz like?"

He’s an awesome guy. Super laid-back, really nice, and a hard-core fan, which is all I care about.

"Worst Cal memory"

Being in the position to go to the Rose Bowl my senior year, getting passed over for Michigan, then having to spend a week of my winter break in San Diego for the Holiday Bowl festivities, only to get our asses kicked during the game by Texas Tech. Talk about going out with a bang…

"Best Cal memory"

Being on the mic during the 3rd quarter of the Cal/$C game in 2003. I NEVER heard the students and the rest of the stadium so loud and so PASSIONATE about cheering before and I’ve never heard them that loud since. To be at the bottom of the section and be able to see kids in the top row jumping on third down, to see the girls who I knew NEVER cheered yelling at the top of their lungs, to see the alumni on their feet for an entire defensive series…it was a time I’ll never forget.

Tune in early next week for Part III!