So, below is our latest top-25, our BlogPoll ballot for the week.  BlogPoll should be updated on Wednesday.  Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to examine our ballot.  How do we come up with it?  Yellow Fever, HydroTech and I all write out a top-25, and Fever averages it, coming up with what you see below.  There’s no discussion or bickering or anything, at least not yet.  TwistNHook claims not to know anything about most of these teams, and so doesn’t bother us with his input.

The California Golden Blogs Top-25

1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Florida	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	West Virginia	—
6	California	—
7	Ohio State	2
8	Texas	1
9	Penn State	3
10	Rutgers	1
11	Oregon	6
12	Wisconsin	4
13	Boston College	12
14	South Carolina	2
15	Clemson	6
16	Alabama	10
17	Hawaii	5
18	Virginia Tech	2
19	South Florida	4
20	Louisville	10
21	Kentucky	5
22	Texas A&M	4
23	Georgia	3
24	Cincinnati	2
25	Missouri	1

Lots of movement in our poll this week, most of it upward.  Losses, most of them lopsided, dropped Nebraska, Arkansas, UCLA, Tennessee, Georgia Tech and Missouri from our poll, and sent Louisville plummeting from 10 to 20.  Thus, pretty much everyone outside the top 10 who didn’t lose gets to move up.

The other three to drop?  Well, Texas narrowly avoided an upset bid at Central Florida, and so they slip behind Ohio State, who looked much more impressive in winning at Washington.  Wisconsin, while not really in danger of an upset, let I-AA The Citadel hang around for far too long.  And Oklahoma was dropped from 3 to 4 only because Florida was so impressive in routing Tennessee.

On the flip side, big wins over previously ranked foes propelled Boston College (over Georgia Tech) and Alabama (over Arkansas) well up the rankings.  If $4M per year can’t buy you integrity, it looks like it can at least buy a top-25 ranking.

My one quibble with this top-25 list would have to be the ordering of Louisville and Kentucky.  Kentucky is undefeated and beat Louisville last Saturday — shouldn’t the Wildcats be ranked higher?  Yes, Louisville was ranked in the top 10 last week, and 10 spots is a long way to fall, especially considering it was a rivalry game on the road that came down to the very end, but when ranking teams with otherwise equal records, shouldn’t the head-to-head matchup be the trump card?  That’s what I think, at least.  However, before I go bashing my fellow bloggers for their polls, I should note that both this week’s AP and Coaches’ poll have Louisville ahead of Kentucky as well.

What do you think?  Does our top-25 look reasonable?  Perhaps you saw something we did not, especially if you were at home, flipping channels, instead of spending a beautiful day at Memorial Stadium.

On a different note, props to both Thizzle Dance and Freshman Bear, who paced our Pick ‘em game last week with 15 out of 21, thereby shooting into first and second place, respectively.  Congrats.  Still, before you guys get a big head about it, I’d like to point out that TwistNHook simply bet on all the favorites to cover and scored 14 out of 21.  No sophistication whatsoever.  I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.

First, I’m going to start with some Herm Edwards wisdom. 

"Let’s not get this thing twisted and think we backed into this deal. We didn’t lose, we won. Every team that played this weekend played at home and had an opportunity to get into the playoffs just like us. We just happened to win. What’s wrong with that? So, let’s not get it twisted and say, ‘Well, they’re lucky.’ We didn’t get lucky. We won." — Edwards defending the Chiefs’ 9-7 record and entry to the playoffs in 2006-07

And then I’m going to start off by saying once again that I wasn’t able to catch any of the game against Louisiana Tech. It was a bit surprising to me to find such barnburners as Lehigh/Princeton, Florida State/Colorado, Citadel/Wisconsin, and Norfolk State/Rutgers available on television here, but not Louisiana Tech/Cal. Ok, so maybe it’s not that surprising since I was visiting my parents in New Jersey. As a result, I can only go by what I saw in the box score, and what I’ve been seeing recently in the box scores is a team that seems to have (at most) as many problems as the teams that are ranked ahead of our Bears.  I’ve put together a short paragraph here about each team in the top 5 (the only teams ahead of our Bears in the latest AP Poll), along with their biggest remaining showdown games:

1. USC (def. Idaho 38-10, def. #24 Nebraska 49-31) - I don’t think there’s any doubt right now that this team is for real, though I’m still not totally sold on their passing game. Then again, if their stable of RBs runs for 300+ yards every game and their defense is as stout as it was last night against the Cornhuskers, Booty really won’t need to do anything special for them to remain no. 1, at least until November 10.  BIGGEST ROADBLOCK: at #6 Cal 11/10

2. LSU (def. Miss. State 45-0, def. #17 Virginia Tech 48-7, def. Middle Tenn. State 45-0) - I’m still not sold on Virginia Tech, so I’m not sure how impressive a win for the Tigers that was against the Hokies last week. Sean Glennon had been doing his best Joe Ayoob impersonation not only this year, but last year as well. Somehow everyone managed to overlook all of this during the preseason when VA Tech was anointed 9th without any real reason to back that up, and everyone decided to give them a pass when they essentially stunk up the joint against East Carolina in their opener. It’s possible that pregame ceremony took something out of the team that day, but it’s also possible that the team just isn’t as good as everyone thought. That isn’t to say that LSU hasn’t looked great, because it has. But I don’t think their win was any more or less impressive than the whipping USC put on Nebraska last night.  BIGGEST ROADBLOCK: vs. #3 Florida 10/6

3. Florida (def. Western Kentucky 49-3, Troy 59-31, Tennessee 59-20) - Tim Tebow is Superman, we get it. We’ll see what happens when they hook up with LSU in a few weeks. What that means, of course, is that one of the two teams will be moving below our Bears once that happens.  BIGGEST ROADBLOCK: at #2 LSU 10/6

4. Oklahoma (def. North Texas 79-10, def. Miami 51-13, def. Utah State 54-3) - The Sooners were also impressive two weeks ago in their matchup with the Hurricanes, but as everyone from Ivan Maisel to Stewart Mandel to Bruce Feldman has said, that wasn’t 2001 Miami they just beat. It was a shadow of their former selves, in the same way that a win over Florida State doesn’t carry the same weight now that it did a few years ago. Sam Bradford has been terrific and DeMarco Murray and Allen Patrick have done a good job filling the shoes of Adrian Peterson, but I don’t think we’ll find out much about this team until they meet Texas.  And even then, Texas has looked so shaky (I think they’ll roll the Longhorns) that they might be drastically overrated too. BIGGEST ROADBLOCK: at #7 Texas 10/6

5. West Virginia (def. Western Michigan 62-24, def. Marshall 48-23, def. Maryland 31-14) - I love watching these guys on offense, and Noel Devine means the Mountaineers have an embarassment of riches on the offensive end. Of course, with all the hoopla this past Thursday over how Steve Slaton felt slighted over the fact that Maryland pulled his scholarship offer and that multiple schools only wanted him on defense, well, maybe they’d be better off if he could play corner too. It certainly seems as if their defense will be their undoing, either in a shootout with Louisville, or against Rutgers’ underrated defense and vastly improved passing game.  And don’t forget that South Florida and Cincinnati are looking frisky too.  The Big East is no joke.  BIGGEST ROADBLOCKS: at #11 Rutgers 10/27, vs. #18 Louisville 11/8

As Cal fans, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to expect and want perfection from our team. It’s certainly better than the alternative, and that’s having no expectations and turning out to your university’s football game because it’s going to be some kind of morbid spectacle. You know, like being a Stanford fan. But the point is, whatever problems our Bears have had, the team has won, and won in impressive fashion. After all, what else did Herm Edwards say?

And from that analysis above, I’m going to say that if our Bears play like they can, a worst case scenario has our Bears going to the Rose Bowl this year, with one of LSU/Florida guaranteed to lose, and West Virginia likely to fall to a conference foe at least once.

There’s no doubt that the team can play better.  And it will, in all likelihood, have to in order to run the table.  I don’t know that I’d put my money on the Bears against USC, LSU, or Florida at this point, though I’d feel pretty good going up against Oklahoma or West Virginia.  We’ll get our shot against USC, and either LSU or Florida won’t be in the picture.  But can our Bears make it to the national championship game playing the way they have?  It’s not impossible.  To put it another way - which team ranked above do you think is an absolute lock to make it to the national championship game?  Hard to say, isn’t it?

On Friday I asked for time off from December 22nd to January 8th to cover all possible bowl games that our Bears could make it to.  Of course, the only reason I’d need 1/7 and 1/8 off is in the event our Bears make it to the national championship game in New Orleans.  I was debating whether or not I had to do that, but if they made it and I couldn’t go?  I’d kill myself.  I sent my boss an email asking for the time off, and explained why.  His response?

"You’re very optimistic."

Maybe I am.  But he’s a Michigan alum, so what does he know? 

Yet another game of "What ifs?"  What if Longshore could connect in the first half?  What if the refs weren’t unimaginably wrong?  What if I hadn’t worn man capris to the game?  Really, a wide variety of hypotheticals that hope for a better future (esp. if I don’t wear anymore man capris!).  I think enough people have complained about Longshore’s success in the first half (which isn’t well reflected by his stats).  So, I won’t go too in depth here. 

But I just remember at half, talking with some friends saying that Cal was playing a fraction of its ability and making many mental mistakes at key times and letting the refs run roughshod all over them and Cal was still up by many, many points.  I also talk in run-on sentences.  I swear Cal coulda thrown up a hundy on them yesterday if they were playing at full potential.  Or perhaps even remotely close to full potential.  

It makes me scared.  Scared to see what this team *could* do if it played at the level I know it can play at.  And scared that we might not play at that level for games where our opponent isn’t LA Tech.  But hey, at least we aren’t UCLA.  Or Notre Dame.  Or University of California at South Bend, who, if it existed, would have some pretty sad fans today. 

Before I get to any game recap, let’s talk about our dear friend, Zachary RunningWolf and his band of sour pranksters.  On the way to the game, I went by the grove to kick it old school with my besties!  Or just take some photos as I walked through holding my nose.  One of the two.  They place was swarming with police officers.  There were many people sitting on the steps in front of the grove.

TRAMBOPOLINE!  You can’t really see what those signs say AND I didn’t want to stick around long enough to read them.  So, sorry about that.  Plus, there were signs in the treehouses, but I couldn’t really tell what they said either, mostly, because I didn’t stop and take a long gander.

As I was walking by, there was a nice look woman handing out flyers. Her clothes appeared to be washed.  Her hair appeared to be washed, too.  I don’t know who this magical woman was, but she apparently was on the side of the ewoks.  Because she was handing out flyers.  These flyers had the football team roster on one side.  It also said "Go Bears!  Go Oaks!"  The other side looked like this:

If you cannot read that, this is what it says:

SEVEN REASONS THE OAK GROVE SHOULD NOT BE DESTROYED:

1.  It is a Native American burial ground.  Native American remains were found at the site in 1923 when the stadium was being built.  UC Berkeley tried to hide this from the public, but documentation was leaked by a conscious UCB employee.

2.  It is a World War I Memmorial site.  The stadium and the Oak Grove are named in honor of Californians who died in World War I.

3.  Berkeley City Law prohibits removing mature Coast Live Oaks.  Coast Live Oaks are protected heritage trees in the city of Berkeley.  If UCB, the largest landowner in Berkeley, doesn’t have to follow city ordinances, why should anybody else have to?

4.  The new proposed development is adjacent to the (recently active) Hayward Fault.  Since the tree-sit started on Dec. 2, there have been seven earthquakes (ranging from 2.0-4.2 on the Richter scale) on the Hayward fault, which runs directly under Memorial Stadium.

5.  There are four lawsuits against UC Berkeley.  A diverse group of institutions and organizations; the City of Berkeley, California Oaks Foundation, Panaramic Hill Association, and Save Tightwad Hill, are challenging the proposed development as being in violation of various regulations, including CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), the Alqsuit-Priolo Act, (earthquake fault proximity), and laws regarding emergency access and response requirements.

6.  Global Warming is the biggest problem we face today.  Cutting down old Oak (and other) trees accelerates warming and climate change.  Replacing these trees with saplings does not come close to replacing the bio-mass lost.

7.  There are other viable alternative sites for the facility.  The athletic training facility can be built at Maxwell Field with the playing surface maintained above.  The parking lot at Bancroft/Fulton is another option.  A third option is the building at 2223 Fulton St., which is in need of demolition.  A further option is expansion at the Edwards Field site.  These are only some of the many alternatives to building at the Oak Grove.

Ok, so there you go.  Now, a very brief glance at these 7 arguments shows that pretty much ALL 7 are fairly specious.  Esp. 1 through 4 and 5 through 7.  But esp. all 7.  This is, however, probably the most reasonable thing I’ve ever seen the ewoks do.  And they got a non-hippie-looking person to hand them out.   

What really disturbed me was when I was walking by the girl handing the flyers out, I saw her ask a gentleman if he wanted one.  He said something along the lines of "I don’t want anything from your mentally retarded friends" or something like that.  This is disturbing to me for 2 reasons.

1.  Runnie Dub and Co. have proven themselves to be physically violent liars.  Let’s try to keep the moral high ground on this one.  Calling them "mentally retarded" probably isn’t the best way to prove that their points lack pretty much all semblance of honesty and truth.  Allowing them to make their points is the easist way to do that.  

But, most disturbingly:

2.  That interaction was probably the most Berkeley thing I’ll ever witness.  Football game.  Protestors.  Angry guy, trying to insult protestors.  But he says "mentally retarded."  Not "retarded" or "tard" or "Ayoob" or something really insulting like that.  I doubt he’s up to date on the newest lingo, so he didn’t use uber-pc terms like "special needs" or "developmentally disabled."  Nonetheless, to the average person "mentally retarded" is a PC term.  So, he tried to insult this girl, but at the same time used, at least in his mind, the most PC thing he could think of.

Even in Berkeley, our insults are PC! 

*Like Ragnarok pointed out in the post below, THA1 isn’t going to win the Heisman.  It’s not that he’s not talented enough - we all know he is.  It’s just the fact that he’s not getting enough touches and stats.  Cal’s offense isn’t the type in which you just throw it to your go-to guy.  Tedford requires his quarterbacks to go through their progressions.  Often, THA1 might be the primary read but will be bracketed or double-teamed.  Other times, THA1 might be the 2nd or 3rd read.  Tedford can end-around, and reverse all he wants but without receiving yards - since wide receiver is THA1’s primary position - THA1 is not going to win the Heisman (THA1 currently has 9 receptions for 84 yards and 0 touchdowns). 

*THA1 knows he’s fading off the Heisman radar.  I think that’s why THA1 tried to make punt returns out of those punts which shouldn’t have been returned.  Well, maybe one of them was excusable since the ball bounced towards him and he might have been unable to get out of the way.

*Injuries, injuries, and more injuries.   THA1 went out late in the game after aggravating his thumb injury.  Matt Malele was driven off the field.  Rulon Davis went out with an injury.  Follett disappeared half way through the game - which I suspect was also of an injury.  Am I missing anybody?  Did the ballboys get injured too?

*Justin Forsett once again proves that he can be a 25-carry back.  I suppose it’s only natural that some Cal fans were skeptical since he’s not exactly a big fat bruiser such as Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne.  After Igber, and now Forsett, I think we should just give all of our small runningbacks the benefit of the doubt. 

*Longshore looked okay.  Honestly, he had some not-so-great throws today.  And before I pulled up the official stat sheet on him, my opinion was much lower than after I looked at the stat sheet.  He did complete 66% of his passes - a GOOD percentage - and had 2 TD throws.  Statistically speaking, he had a pretty good game actually.  But he could have been even better.  If some of his throws were not so not-so-great, he could have had a 75%-80% completion percentage.  And as for that INT, yeah, he probably should have thrown the ball away. 

*Defensively, I think most Cal fans are fairly happy.  We kept Louisiana Tech under 300 yards total yards and their QB Zac Champion barely completed 50% of his passes.  We also had 4 sacks and 2 INTs.  The best sack of the game was by Cody Jones.  I got a concussion just from watching that sack.  Once again though, the studs on defense today were Anthony Felder and Marcus Ezeff.  Those two had 10 and 8 total tackles respectively. 

*While I was in the student section, I heard a lot of complaining about how Louisiana Tech was beating us with "the same play" over and over again.  Well, I doubt it was the same play over and over again, but what Louisiana Tech did do well is complete passes to the hook area below our linebackers.  As our DLine rushes forward, and our LBs drop back into zones, a void is created between the DL and the LBs.  Louisiana Tech (as well as an SEC opponent we played this year) dropped passes in that void for what seemed to be all.  day.  long.  Yeah, it kinda sucks.  Yeah, it’s kinda frustrating.  But remember, that’s Gregory.  Bend but don’t break - keep everything in front of us.  Love it or hate it, it isn’t that bad of a defensive philosophy.  And I use the word "bad" with a touch of sarcasm because it really isn’t a "bad" philsophy at all.

*Signals.  After the whole New England Patriots ordeal, I spent extra care to watch coach and QB signals today.  While I haven’t been intently watching the defense as I have the offense, I believe we are using some new defensive hand signals.  I recognized some, and didn’t recognize some others.  As for offense, which is more of my specialty, I saw a lot of false and masked signals out there - more than I have noticed ever before.  I think we’re doing enough to make things very difficult to decipher the hand signals. 

Alright, I still have a massive headache and sensitivity to light and noise from Cody Jones’ sack on Zac Champion.  So I’m going to bed.  Be sure to check back tomorrow because I’m sure some of the other guys will have more thoughts and some great analysis.  

One last thing, just in case you missed it, here are Lee Corso’s thoughts on putting Cal #5 in his Top-5 teams rankings for this week:

"I go with California.  Alright.  Why?  I like the way they play.  They look real good throwin’ the football."

Thanks for the love, Lee.  We love you too.