I case you missed it, we reported earlier that there were unconfirmed rumors that Ohio State had backed out of the 2012 & 2013 matchup with Cal.  That story can be seen here, along with a number of comments from Ohio St. fans who are really mad that I playfully poked fun at their team wanting to cancel the series.  Apparently, they seemed mistake my overt homeristic tone and ridiculousness of my arguments as real legit arguments and statements for justifying why the Ohio St. is inferior to Cal.  Sorry, Buckeye fans.  The next time I write something concerning The Ohio St. university I’ll keep things really simple.

That next time is now.  

Ohio St. did in fact chicken out! 

I’ll give you a few seconds for that to sink in.  Yup, I’ll repeat that again.  The Ohio St. chickened out.  They want to cancel the matchup against Cal.  Cal didn’t contact Ohio St. to cancel the series because Cal was too scared to play Ohio St.  Nope.  Ohio St. contacted Cal, and said they wanted to cancel.   OHIO STATE WANTS TO CANCEL THE 2012 & 2013 MATCHUP WITH CAL. 

What a bunch of pansies.  

But lucky for Cal fans… the game is still on.  Yup.  Ohio St. chickened out and called up our Athletic Director wanting to cancel the series.  Our AD, Sandy Barbour, said "you guys are a bunch of pansies, hell no!"   Okay, she probably didn’t say that but I’m sure she was thinking it.  All joking aside, what really happened here is that Ohio St. tried to cancel the 2012/2013 matchup but Sandy Barbour wouldn’t let them.  Not unless Ohio St. paid out a nice hefty buyout in a wad of cash.  Which apparently they don’t want to do because the game is still on.

If any Ohio St. fans are reading this, I’m not kidding.  This story comes from the very mouth of Cal’s very own athletic director, who remarked upon the situation at an online chat at the Bear Insider yesterday.   

Cal will still play Ohio State in 2012 and 2013.  

See you in the Horseshoe, Buckeye fans!

Excerpt from another post:

Buckeye fans will be quick to point out the fact that Ohio State has other national powerhouses such as USC, and Oklahoma on the future OOC schedule and while just playing Texas most recently.  The Buckeye fans will say, surely the Buckeyes aren’t afraid of Cal if they are going to play USC and Oklahoma!  But then, if Ohio State is not afraid to play Cal then why did they try and cancel the series with Cal?  Because they’re NOT afraid?  If they’re NOT afraid to play Cal then why not keep Cal on the schedule?  But as we all know, Ohio State did in fact try to take Cal off the schedule and cancel the series.  Hmm… it’s looking more and more like Ohio State really is afraid of Cal. 

A very observant Cal fan over on the BearInsider noted that Ohio State usually only plays one really good OOC opponent each year.  In 2002 they played Texas Tech, Kent State, Washington State, and Cincinnati.  In 2003 they played Washington, San Diego State, North Carolina State, and Bowling Green.  In 2004 they played Cincinnati, Marshall, and North Carolina State.  In 2005 they played Miami (Ohio), Texas, and San Diego State.  In 2006 they played Northern Illinois, Texas, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green.  This year it’s Youngstown St., Akron and Washington. 

As you can see, they do only schedule one really great team each year at the most.  If there isn’t a premiere OOC opponent then they usually have a bunch of mediocre teams or a sweet tooth with a weakness for cupcakes.  In 2002 the biggie was WSU.  In 2003 it was NCST.  In 2004 it was NCST.  In 2005 it was Texas.  In 2006 it was Texas.  This year it’s Washington (the schedules are set many years in advance and they probably scheduled UW back when UW was pretty good). 

So if Ohio State wants to take Cal off the schedule then either (a) Ohio State thinks Cal is too strong of an opponent and wants a weaker premiere OOC opponent, or (b) Ohio State wants to schedule a different premiere OOC opponent in 2012 or 2013 (such as Florida or some other powerhouse SEC school for example) and thinks playing Cal in that same year would be too tough since Cal is on the rise and pretty good too.  Or (c) that OhioState is not afraid of Cal yet wants to cancel anyways. 

While I don’t know what the real reason is, I think we have to eliminate answer (c) above.  Afterall, if Ohio St. wasn’t afraid to play Cal and thinks that Cal sucks then why not just keep us on the schedule with all the other cupcakes like Youngstown State or Akron?  Buckeye fans, try explaining that one please. 

Any way you look at it, it sure seems like Ohio State’s desire to cancel the series with Cal is an admission of fear of Cal.  If any Buckeye fans are reading this, I’m not arguing Ohio State isn’t afraid to play top teams - because they aren’t since they played Texas and will play USC as well as Oklahoma - but that Ohio State is specifically afraid of Cal.

Continuing on with the roundtable discussions, today’s focus is on the Oregon Ducks. 

"My eyes!  My eyes!"

TwistNHook: I thought I’d start this bad boy up.

Here’s my initial thought about Oregon.  Their QB is so unbelievably amazing at football, he’s trying to play baseball.  And failing.  And this is how he’s doing:

"Dixon plays right field and center field and was hitting .103 (3-for-29) through nine games. He has struggled hitting curveballs and has struck out 11 times."

From this article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2927602

A quick perusal of his minor league line shows, although he hasnt played a game in almost a month, he was putting up numbers only Jason Kendall could envy.  Batting about .100 with a sub-600 OPS.  I mean yeah, sure, the As would pay him 11 mil a year to catch with those numbers, but Dixon feels that he has a better chance to become a baseball player than a football player.  With those numbers.

Numbers found here:
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Dennis%20Dixon&pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=453302

I feel that that bodes well for the upcoming season.  Certainly, we all know about how Tedford has never won in Oregon yada yada yada.  I feel that in ‘05 if we had even had a mediocre QB, we could have been victorious there.  Marshawn was a God in that game.  That doesn’t really relate to the upcoming season, but anytime I can mention how AWESOME Marshawn is, it’s a Good Time Out ™.

Anyway, I feel good about Cal’s chances this year about winning up in Eugene.  Oregon is always a tough game and we know how much Tedford wants to win there.   Let’s just practice some more wet ball mechanics!

YellowFever:  I’m not sure what to make of these guys, since their quarterbacks are a guy who spent most of his offseason playing baseball instead of practicing with his team, and Ryan Leaf’s little brother.  They have a pretty good guy at running back with Jonathan Stewart, and a pretty decent offense overall if Dixon keeps his head right and manages to play like he did early last season.  But does anyone have any idea if that’s going to be the case?  Not me. 

HydroTech: I was very surprised to hear that Dennis Dixon was double dipping.  Of course after throwing 12 touchdowns to 14 interceptions last year and having a mediocre QB rating of 120 last season, I can see where he’s coming from.  But his baseball stats don’t sound like he’s going to stand a much better chance making the MLB than the NFL.  Maybe he ought to look into entering the World Series of Poker.  He might have better chances winning big in Vegas than he does in the Pac-10 or the minor leagues.  And I say that without jest because hey , if Chris Moneymaker (a no-name tool that forever demystified the game of poker to the masses) can win the big one with only an ounce of skill, then anybody can.  Afterall, isn’t it better to be lucky than good?  All the goodness in the world can’t make up for unlucky breaks. 

I think this is the year that Tedford finally wins in Eugene - although we should have won two years ago… and two years before that too. 

YellowFever: Maybe Tedford kindasortamaybe throws the game for his old buddy Mike Bellotti as a show of good faith for hiring him the job that led to his being hired by Cal.  Then again, maybe not.

And on defense, what is going on with Patrick Chung?

http://oregon.scout.com/a.z?s=128&p=8&c=1&nid=1767521

What the?  He’s BLACK?

HydroTech: With a name like that, I always thought he was asian.  Isn’t that the dude that Money stiff armed into the turf during last year’s game? 

TwistNHook: There’s a Seinfeld reference in here somewhere.  Either way, I guess we can add Patrick Chung to the Reggie Willits Sports Name Hall of Fame, I guess.

Also, Mr. Chung was the Oregon D player who got stiff-armed by Marshawn in the Oregon game last year.  Yknow that stiff-arm that lasted for like 10 yards and left Chung as a quivering exoskeleton-less protoplasm.  Goddamn that was a SWEET stiff-arm.  Photo available here:

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/10/08/sp_calbears_0456_kr.jpg

GLORY BE TO MARSHAWN!

He also is apparently good friends with Ian Johnson.  Not sure how that
relates, but I just read it in an ESPN article.

YellowFever: Good memories.  Now back to the team - defense?  Longshore and company torched them for 45 last year (well, not really, since some of that was Dixon giving up a pick-six or two), but most previews I’ve read seem to indicate that the back seven of their defense was generally pretty solid, despite a weak showing from their defensive line.  And hey, they led the conference in pass defense!  Also in embarassing stiff-arms.

TwistNHook: If Dixon is really the liability he might be, then it puts a lot of pressure on Jon Stewart, their stunningly non-hilarious RB.  Last year there was a lot of hype around him.  He ended up rushing 183 times for 981 yards with 10 TDs.  A 5+ yard per rush average, which isn’t bad, but he didn’t break 1,000.  He only broke 100 yards in 5 out of 13 contests last year.  And one of those was Stanford, so I’m not sure we should count it.

If Stewart can live up to the hype, that’ll help Dixon and Oregon a lot.  Last year I thought they were going to be one of the better teams in the Pac-10 and then they just melted down. Will it happen again?  I sure hope so!

Also, it looks like Ernie Kent’s son, Jordan, isn’t on the team anymore. Who is going to run straight forward as fast as humanly possible without any cuts or attempts to feint the DBs???

HydroTech: Yeah, Stewart enrolled at Oregon with a lot of hype.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s quite lived up to the hype.  His stats last year were good but I think everyone was expecting more total production.  To his his credit though, his lack of success might have been a product of defenses focusing on stopping the run.  Afterall, Oregon’s passing attack last year wasn’t all that and a bag of potato chips.  If he has any intentions on making an early jump to the league, this would be the year to really pick things up. 

As for Oregon’s outlook for 2007, I’m thinking Dixon holds them back and Stewart can’t make up the difference.  Oregon finishes in the middle of the Pac at #6.

The Ballots

In the order of: HydroTech, Ragnarok, TwistNHook, Yellow Fever
1.
2.
3. __,  __,  __,  UO
4.
5. UO, ASU, __, ASU
6. __,  UO, UO,  __
7. ASU, UA, UA, __
8. UA, __, ASU, UA
9.
10.