First, SFGate breaks the news about the chain link fence. 

Now, the 2nd big break of the day.  Reed is a Spartan!  Or at least he will be.  He is going to go to San Jose State.  I guess it was to be expected.  I’d like to think I live in a world where people will want to be backup QBs for Cal just because they get to play for Cal.  But I think he saw the writing on the wall.  We wish him nothing but the best with his future. 

That article also notes that Will Ta’ufo’ou might play at Tennessee.  Stunning turn around.  So, that’s good news! 

Edit On Thursday 8.30.07:  The Chron has expanded the chain link fence article to note:

"Meanwhile, supporters of the tree-sitters are going back to court today, charging that the fence violates a court order issued in February that bans development of the site until the case is resolved. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller will decide whether the fence must be removed."

I do not have the text of the earlier court order in front of me.  However, IIRC, that court order banned the building of permanent structures.  As this fence does not appear to be permanent, it would not violate the earlier court.  So, if I am remembering this correctly, this new court action should not be a problem.  Hopefully! 

Many people have been asking when Tennessee-related material is coming.  Yellow Fever started focusing on that game with a recent post today.  But the simple answer is that it is all coming starting tomorrow.  The fact of the matter is that here at The California Golden Blogs we are lazy.  So very lazy.  And we woke up one day a week or so ago and realized the season was upon us way too soon.  We hadn’t really done that much of a season preview for Cal and/or the Pac10. 

So, with the singular focus that only people with boring jobs can truly obtain, we snapped into action.  As you might have noticed, to fit in all the content, we’ve been double, triple, or even quadruple posting this past week or so.  Very little that you might have missed a Roundtable or Road-trip post. 

As such, before the focus turns fully to the Tennessee game, we felt it prudent to do a quick review of all the various posts.  Self-promotion?  Perhaps, but I can’t think of a place less arrogant to promote oneself than on one own’s blog.  Without further ado, let’s take a look back at the week that was.

Ragnarok decided to leave us all in suspense by doing half his roadtrips and then leaving for Italy.  Thankfully, he put up drafts for us to post.  Here they are:

#8 - Washington State

#7 - Oregon State

#6 - USC

#5 - Arizona

#4 - Arizona State

#3 - UCLA

#2 - Oregon

#1 - Washington

We went to the FanFest and I recounted it in a Homerian epic poem.  Except with avant-garde pentameter. 

Words Cannot Describe I

Words Cannot Describe II

Words Cannot Describe III

Words Cannot Describe IV

Words Cannot Describe V 

We also had roundtable discussions about each individual Pac10 team.  

California

USC 

Washington State 

Washington 

UCLA 

Stanford 

Oregon State 

Oregon 

Arizona State 

Arizona 

Also, do not forget about our Pick ‘Em league.  It is at Yahoo! and free for all to join.  More information can be found here.  The more, the merrier.  Don’t forget to put your picks in once you join.  The week is almost upon us!  

So, now that we are on the same page and ready to roll, we can make our focus as to what it should be.  General destruction of all things Tennessee.   GO BEARS!

Continuing on with the final few roundtable discussions, here is our discussion of Cal.

YellowFever: You know, I never thought about this much until now, but what is Cal’s offense going to look like after this year?  Craig Stevens is a senior, Forsett is a senior, THA1 has one foot out the door, Hawkins is a senior, and Jordan is a senior.  Jahvid Best will be back and sharing the rock with some combination of James Montgomery and Tracy Slocum, Alex Mack will probably still be playing center, and Longshore may or may not return.  But I can’t name a single receiver who will be around next year.  Will Nyan Boateng even be available?

TwistNHook: I am not too concerned with 2008, really for two reasons.

1.  Let’s focus on 07, first.
2.  Team turn-over is a very common problem in college football.  Years ago, I didn’t know how we’d recover from losing Boller.  And McArthur. And Riddle.  And Rodgers.  Hopefully, someday, I’ll wonder how Cal will recover from losing Best or Syd Quan.

In that vein, I am a bit concerned about losing Marshawn.  This is not a very popular sentiment, but I feel that Forsett is not as good a RB as Marshawn.  Perhaps it is because of my unreasonable man-love for Marshawn, but I have a bad feeling there.  I mean, I’m sure it’ll be fine.  We have the WR talent to take pressure off of the RBs.  Forsett has a LOT of experience and Best and Co. to take further pressure off of him.

Plus, I think we are stacked at O-Line.  I don’t know if Forsett is the type of back who can create where there is no hole, a la Marshawn.  But he has the speed where if there is a hole, he’s gone.  With an improved O-Line this year, I think it’ll create those holes.  Also, protect for Longshore The Hobo better.

YellowFever: It was more just a thought I was having.  I trust that we’ll be fine in 2008 under the watchful eye of our savior, but if you asked me right now who Cal’s fourth receiver is, I honestly do not have a clue.  Of course, it’s not like the team goes four wide terribly often anyway.

I don’t think anyone is worried about Cal’s offense this year.  What is concerning is the fact that even with Daymeion Hughes, Brandon Mebane, and the Archbishop of the Big Hit on defense, the team’s defense ranked eighth in the Pac-10 at roughly 367 yards allowed per game.  Some of that is to be expected, since a team that scores a lot of points like our Bears will get out to big leads and force other teams to pass, which can lead to inflated yardage totals.  But it still isn’t a good sign, with those three headliners leaving and only five total starters on defense returning from that defense.  I expect our defense couldn’t get much worse, but then again, I expected last year’s defense to be a lot better to begin with.

HydroTech: The question of who is our 4th receiver is a good one.  There’s a lot of possibilities but I don’t think anyone has truly squared away the 4th spot.  Upon saying this, I looked up Cal’s latest depth chart (which can be seen here).  It shows that Sean Young is our 4th WR.  And what a coincidence.  Sean Young is also a senior!  We’re going to lose our top 4 WRs, starting TE, and starting running back next year!  And if Longshore decides to go pro and not come back for his 5th year, then we’ll lose our entire starting offense! 

Speaking of WRs, Nyan Boateng should be our premiere go-to-guy next year as long as he stays out of the dog house. 

Also, word from my connections on the inside is that freshman WR Michael Calvin is really standing out from the rest of the young receivers.   Unfortunately, he recently broke his wrist or something so I’m not sure how much we’ll see of him this year.  If he doesn’t blue-shirt, then he might just make a few cameos in mop-up duty.

Another freshman that continues to impress is Shane Vereen.  Once again, my connections on the inside have said that he’s a little under the radar and in the shadows of Jahvid Best, but he’s been putting on a good show in fall camp.  It would not be surprising if Vereen did not blue-shirt this year and saw a few snaps at runningback even if it is in mop-up duty.

My biggest concern going into 2007 is our defensive line.  My concern is not because it’s bad, but because it’s young and doesn’t have much experience.  In case you didn’t know, the starters for the defensive line have been named.  They are: Matt Malele, Mika Kane, Tyson Alualu, and Rulon Davis. 

While the starters might not have a lot of starting experience - aside from Malele - they have a lot of potential. 

Mika Kane was troubled last year with a big cast on one of his fore arms.  The cast was like having a huge stump of an arm that covered his wrist all the way down to the hand itself.  I think it’s safe to say that the cast didn’t help him make tackles and be as big of an impact as he normally could be.  With Kane fully healed this year, I think we’ll see him make big leaps and become a very respectable player in the trenches. 

Another player that I think will quickly develop into a force is Tyson Alualu.  He’s pretty quick for a guy his size, and has good strength and technique.  Alualu has been moving around between DT and DE throughout the spring and early fall and he could easily play anywhere along the line if needed.  Back in my HydroTech-ing days, a lot of the old linemen (who now have graduated) felt that Alualu had potential to be the next great Cal DT. 

Finally, I think the guy we are all intrigued to see on the field is Rulon Davis.  He was highly touted coming out of JUCO but got bit by the injury bug.  Now that he’s all healed and improved on his technique, he should truly be able to live up to his potential.  Remember, this guy is huge.  On the Cal roster he’s listed as 6′5" 275.  I can verify this since I talked to him most recently at Fan Appreciation Day.  While he may not be our heaviest player, he certainly might be one of the strongest.  He’s a beast in the trenches.  Seriously, an absolute beast.  I’ll give you another back-in-my-hydro-teching-days story.  Back in my HydroTech-ing days, there would never be a day that went by where an offensive lineman who had just faced off against Rulon Davis would come off the field and say something along the lines of "he’s too strong" or "you just can’t stop him".  Rulon Davis became somewhat of a spectacle in practices.  He’d draw a crowd during 1 on 1s.  When the younger OL guys faced off against Rulon Davis the older OL guys would cheer on the youngin’.  The younger guys would be shaking in their cleats.  Okay, they wouldn’t be really shaking in their cleats but you could just feel that the mental battle was over.  Mentally, the OL player knew he was beat and didn’t stand much of a chance.  And after Rulon Davis would literally just get an arm under the offensive lineman and just chuck him out of his way, the older OL guys would give encouraging "good try" remarks but with the tone which seemed to reflect the overwhelming mentality of "what can you do?"

Alright guys, feel free to jump in any time now.

TwistNHook: (making cricket sounds)

YellowFever: (snoring)

HydroTech: Okay, I guess I’ll keep going.  I know a lot of our loyal readers have been asking us if the team will be getting and/or wearing new jerseys this season and specifically for the Tennessee game.  Usually all these inquiries just start out as typical annual off-season speculation to fill the void between seasons, but there might be a little validity to these rumors and speculation this year.  A few months back on Ebay, a #7 Cal Football jersey showed up on a listing.  It was not of any design that we have seen before and claimed to be Cal’s new jersey.  It was never determined if it was really an authentic jersey or just some one of a kind prototype.  Since then I’ve done a little asking around to my athlete friends and the word on the inside is nobody knows.  There has been plenty of speculation and rumors about getting new jerseys among the players but no solid information has turned up… yet.  In seems reasonable to assume that if there are new jerseys for the upcoming season, it’s on the down low.  So much on the down low that even the players don’t know about it.  I’m sure a lot of you are probably wondering how players could not even know if they are getting new jerseys for the upcoming season, but it’s very plausible.  The equipment staff handles all that stuff and they are higher up on the hierarchical pyramid than the players.  Only a few minds would probably know about new jerseys, if there are any, and the jerseys are probably hidden away in the depths of the equipment/storage room which is off limits to the players.  I guess we’ll have to wait until Saturday. 

Now, I have to bring up the whole Cal/Ohio St. series thing again.  I really can’t let it go because I sort of hate Ohio State and their arrogant fans.  Anyways, I was thinking about how most Ohio St. fans balk at the idea that Ohio State would actually cancel the series against Cal.  We Cal fans like to poke fun at them and say that Ohio State is afraid of Cal.  Top of the head logic would say "no" considering Ohio State plays a lot of other powerhouse teams, but after doing some serious thinking I am now inclined to say that Ohio State really is afraid of Cal.  Here me out.

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 Ohio State 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.

YellowFever:  I’m sure we do sound more than a bit full of ourselves for saying so, but Ohio State’s attempt to cancel the game against Cal does seem to be an admission of fear.  Exactly why that is, I’m not sure we’ll find out, but that definitely is how it looks.  Like HydroTech, I’m not questioning the fact that they are willing to play top teams, as evidenced by their home/home series with Texas.  It just seems a bit odd that they would attempt to cancel the series with our Bears is all.

But going back to the team, I feel really good about our offense this year.  I don’t think the running game will drop off much at all, provided that Tedford remembers that Forsett isn’t the same kind of back that Marshawn is, where he pounds the interior of the defensive line and expects Forsett to pop out on the other end and speed his way to another twenty yards.  I’ve always thought that maybe our running game could use a few more off-tackle and toss sweeps to get around the edges, but maybe Tedford thought Marshawn didn’t have the speed necessary to make something out of those plays consistently.  I think Forsett does, but if he doesn’t, I’m sure Jahvid Best does.

HydroTech: Ya know, Tedford keeps saying it’s possible that DeSean Jackson will return kickoffs but he hasn’t committed to that statement yet.  If you’ve been closely following the media reports, Tedford never explicitly said that THA1 will return kickoffs.  He just said that it’s possible and we might do it.  There must be a reason for this careful wording.  Maybe Tedford doesn’t want to let Tennessee know if THA1 is returning kicks for sure or not.  Or what about this: put Hawk and Best back to return the kickoffs, but put THA1 in the wings.  After the kickoff is received, bring it up field to one side, then have THA1 streak around in a reverse type play and Best/Hawk tosses/hands-off to THA1 towards the open field? 

The Ballots

In the order of: HydroTech, Ragnarok, TwistNHook, Yellow Fever
1.  USC, USC, CAL, CAL
2.  CAL, CAL, USC, USC
3.  OSU,  UCLA, OSU, UO
4.  UCLA, OSU, WSU, UCLA
5.  OU,  ASU, UCLA, ASU
6.  WSU, OU,  OU, UW
7.  ASU, UA,  UA, OSU
8.  AU,  WSU, ASU, AU
9.  UW,  UW, UW, WSU
10.  SU, SU,  SU, SU

…we’re about to have a bunch of hippies stuck in trees.  BEHIND A CHAIN LINK FENCE.  Normally this kind of thing would be under Ragnarok’s purview, but he’s currently out trying to make a baby (or so I gather).  We wish both the fence-makers and Ragnarok in his baby-making efforts much luck in their endeavors.

In the same vein as the Around the Internet posts that I do each Friday, I thought it might be a good idea to do a roundup of that week’s upcoming opponent, with news and analysis about that team.  Without any further ado…

• Have you ever wanted a Tennessee playbook, circa 2002?  They went 8-5 that year, with an offense that ranked 85th in the country.  So maybe you don’t want that playbook - well, here it is anyway!  But let’s be honest, how much do you think it’s changed since then, David Cutcliffe aside? I’m not entirely sure I’d pay 25 dollars for it, if it turned out that their playbook were actually this.
• Oh no!  Erik Ainge’s pinky!  Between Robert Meachem bolting to the NFL, LaMarcus Coker being suspended, Ainge’s pinky, and Syd’Quan Thompson no longer playing in a cast…ah, you’re right.  The Vols are still going to roll us.  (100% SARCASM)
• Phil Fulmer just bought himself some job security (check the right sidebar).  Literally.  I wouldn’t call this the cheap way out, since it isn’t cheap in the literal sense, but come on.
• Our friends over at Vol Nation discuss in their forums the niceties of frat row and how it’s probably a good idea to avoid them altogether.  Except Theta Chi!  Go visit Theta Chi.
• The Volunteers might look to go no huddle a little more often than you’d expect.
• I hadn’t noticed this when it happened, but LaMarcus Coker has been reinstated.  He won’t practice or play against Cal, however.  Go Bears.
• You’ve probably heard about Eric Berry already, and he’s likely to be matched up with THA1 for most of the game.  I don’t want to say he’s going to get toasted, but…he’s going to get toasted.
• Here’s something to get you nice and fired up.
• This is a good idea for a weekly post that we might decide to poach for ourselves from Rocky Top Talk.  I’m sure eating a Volunteer would get into all kinds of human rights violations though, not to mention a visit from the police.

Continuing on with the final few Pac-10 roundtable discussions, here is USC.

TwistNHook: Yknow, my hatred for USC has really gotten to a pathetic level.  I’m starting to hate my brother-in-law, who is a freshman at University of South Carolina.  When I went to the DeYoung opening a few years ago (after that EPICALLY DISASTROUS Oregon State game in 05), I saw a girl wearing a USC sweatshirt.  I have no idea if she went to USC or if she was just wearing a random sweatshirt.  But in my mind I started screaming a word over and over again that is best known as the word the Vagina Monologues is trying to reclaim.

Yes, I’m not proud of that.  But they bring it on themselves with their incomprehensibly arrogant attitudes.  When I was at Cal, it was not justified.  Now, unfortunately, it is in every way justified.  And there is NOTHING more frustrating than dealing with justified arrogance. Except for perhaps the unreasonably passionate.  I thought last year was our chance, because half their offense turned over.  Now, this year, they do lose two of the best WRs in the nation and have an ever changing situation at RB.  But still, their D looks to be as sick as ever. Thankfully, the game is at home this year.  Gives us the advantage.

And, to that end, I am going to go back to the archives and wear the exact same outfit as I did at USC 2003.  In 04, I wore the exact same outfit and we were SO close!  In 2005, I went with this whole scarf-oriented thing and we all saw how that turned out.  I’m not going to take all the blame for the loss in 2005.  After all, I didn’t put the team in a situation where we had to run for the first 20 straight plays.  And I didn’t throw an interception on my very first pass from scrimmage!  But, I gotta go back to the basics.  That outfit worked in 03, came so close in 04, yknow what, I think it’ll work in 07!  VICTORY BE TO SUPERSTITION!

YellowFever: I think we all know the team is going to be good, so there’s not much point going into the details.  A lineup of RBs deeper than the average LAPD lineup, a superstar collection of LBs, and a JDB at quarterback.  So they’ll probably stomp everyone in the Pac-10 this year (besides our Bears, of course) and hold the no. 1 spot in both polls for most of the year.  What’s new?

But I like this theme of how much we hate USC.  I’ll be walking through Penn Station or Times Square and see some random investment banker who probably attended Dartmouth, never seen a college football game, couldn’t pick Reggie Bush out of the average LAPD lineup, wearing a USC hat crowing about "his Trojans".  Makes you want to punch a sucker in the face, you know what I mean?

TwistNHook: Doesn’t Jeff Foxworthy have a whole bit about that.  You know you hate USC with every iota of your soul if…..

…….you refuse to use the letters U, S, or C in every day speak (i.e. Go Al Bear!)

…….you hate Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt, and every other person employed in the movie "Troy," including the 2nd gaffer.

…….you’ll never vacation to Greece.

…….you pay extra to have Okamoto condoms shipped in from Japan, so you don’t have to buy Magnums.

…….you refuse to see "Firecrackers:  The Silent Killer" or any other of Troy McClures movies.

Goddamn, I hate USC.  This might be a controversial thesis, but I hope Cal defeats them in the upcoming football season!

YellowFever: I’ve gotta be honest though.  I’ve got conference pride.  When USC makes it to the national championship game or plays another overrated scrub from the Big 10 in the Rose Bowl, I can’t help but pull for them.  It’s like rooting for whatever team that bounced you in the playoffs in any other sport - you want whatever team that beat you to prove itself to be the best so you can say hey, we’re not that bad.  No one else can beat them either, and at least we proved we’re pretty good as well in defeat.  Of course I’d rather our Bears actually beat them like they did in 2003, but our time is coming.  I think it’s going to be this year.

HydroTech: I’ll have to agree that there isn’t too much to say about USC football.  They have a bagillion blue chip recruits at every position and even at the ballboy positions.  Their 6th stringers could start for 90% of other NCAA teams and their defense is so good it’s supposedly verging on the lines of illegal.  The only weakness is on the offensive side of the ball.  And that weakness is inexperience in their WR corps.  We certainly can’t say that they don’t have talented WRs because they do.  It’s just that they lack a lot of playing time.  Anyways, moving on.

I am ashamed to say that I almost went to U$C.  I basically chose between U$C and Cal.  Private versus public.  Red versus blue.  Arrogance versus humility.  Despite the fun I would have experienced amid the success of U$C’s football program in the past 5 years, I think I made the right decision.  While winning is always fun.  I think it’s more meaningful and special to be a part of a team on the rise.  And that last statement is mainly the reason why I hate U$C.

I hate them because the majority of their fans take the team and its wins for granted.  Success has always come fairly easy for them.  They have tons of money, are located in Los Angeles, have tons of publicity, tons of celebrity connections, they have a huge history to back them up, but yet they still act like a bunch of self-righteous douche bags.  And while they have been through some hard times and worked hard to get back on top, there is no need to take your success and rub it in the face of other teams and fans.  It’s just amazing how such a large majority of their fans compared to other schools act like complete assholes.  Money and power corrupts, and I think U$C’s fan base is a perfect example.

Speaking of $C’s fan base, a lot of them are also just Los Angeles football fans who are looking for a local team to support and some games to attend.  As we all know, Los Angeles does not have a pro football team.  So all those football fans in LA just choose the next best thing: college football.  And when choosing between U$C and UCLA, it’s always more fun to be a winner so the majority of them just turn into bandwagon $C fans.  Of the 90,000 fans or whatever that attend every $C home game, I bet only 20,000 of them or so are actually $C alumni. 

Unfortunately, just like YellowFever, I do find myself rooting for $C when they play their OOC schedule and in bowl games.  Not because I like $C, but in the bigger picture regarding conference strength, it’s always best for teams in your conference to win their OOC games.  But I also find much joy in watching them lose too.  In fact, watching $C play an OOC opponent is like a win-win situation for me.  I’m happy for the Pac if U$C wins, and then I’m also happy as a U$C hater if U$C loses. 

The Ballots

In the order of: HydroTech, Ragnarok, TwistNHook, Yellow Fever
1.  ?????????????????????
2.  ?????????????????????
3.  OSU,  UCLA, OSU, UO
4.  UCLA, OSU, WSU, UCLA
5.  OU,  ASU, UCLA, ASU
6.  WSU, OU,  OU, UW
7.  ASU, UA,  UA, OSU
8.  AU,  WSU, ASU, AU
9.  UW,  UW, UW, WSU
10.  SU, SU,  SU, SU