Hey, basketball season’s almost here!  During the Holmoe years, when Ben Braun was a hot new coach, coveted by the likes of Michigan, this exclamation was cause for hope.  Now, not so much.  Still, with the football team currently mired in a three-game losing streak, I’d bet a few of you have started turning your wandering eye towards Haas Pavilion; after all, with such low expectations, how could they possibly break your heart the way Tedford’s Boys have these last few weeks?

So, yeah, basketball…haven’t talked about that much lately…what’s going on with that?  Well, which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?  Aw, heck, you’re a masochistic Cal fan; you want the bad news first.

- Coming off a year in which injuries crippled what should have been a promising season, Braun was looking forward to a healthier group this year.  But two Bears have already been operated on before the season started:  Theo Robertson is recovering from hip surgery and likely out until January, while incoming freshman Omondi Amoke had a vascular abnormality in his calf operated on and probably won’t be ready for the start of the season.  Now comes word that Jerome Randle, a candidate to be our starting point guard, has had a biopsy on his kindey for an as-yet unknown condition.  Now, I’m not doctor (although I do watch a lot of House), but that sounds like it could be really serious, although nobody knows anything definite at this point. and probably won’t be ready for the season opener in a couple weeks.  Although we all hope this is no big deal, it sounds like no matter what, Randle won’t be ready for the beginning of the season.  Get better, Jerome!

What does this mean for the team?  Well, it leaves them dangerously thin at guard.  Nikola Knezevic is the starting point guard pretty much by default now, and Patrick Christopher will man the shooting guard position.  Backing them up?  Uh, walk-ons?  None of the 4 new scholarship players for the Bears play guard (a recruiting oversight?), so most likely to see playing time include David Liss, who played sporadically last year, mostly in garbage time, and Nican Robinson, who is transferring in after spending his freshman year on UCLA’s bench and sitting out last year.  Who knew we’d miss Alex Pribble so badly?

- OK, I promised you good news.  Well, in the first Coaches’ poll of the year, our Bears placed 14th, 3rd in the Pac-10 behind Stanford and Arizona State.  Of course, as you may have guessed, I’m referring to our women’s basketball team, which, unlike the men’s team, is quite highly regarded.  The heralded freshman class from two years ago is now a seasoned core of juniors, and coming off one of the best seasons in school history, head coach Joanne Boyle believes in this team so much that she turned down an offer from Duke, her alma mater, to remain the head coach of the Golden Bears.  Big things are expected from this group; you should make an effort to check them out.  In fact, if you’re a football season ticket holder like I am, you should have gotten a voucher for some free women’s basketball tickets with your ticket package.  Don’t let ‘em go to waste!

This is harder than it looks.

Oh, it doesn’t have to be.  Putting together a Top 25 ballot CAN be easy.  You could take the ballot from last week, drop everyone who lost a bunch of slots, depending on how bad the losses were, and move everyone else up.  So easy you don’t have to think about it.  Kinda like the Coaches’ Poll.

OR, you can sit down at the end of each week and reevaluate everything you thought you knew.  Starting with a blank piece of paper, list the best 25 teams in college football.  Come up with good reasons why one team is better than the ones below it.  This is not straightforward, especially if you’re looking for a solidly defensible position.  After all, HydroTech and I can’t even agree on who’s #1 this week (Yellow Fever took my side, which is how we ended up with LSU over Ohio State).  Given all the uncertainty, how can we hope to say whether Hawai’i is better than Tennessee or not?  (I say Tennessee would win easily — HydroTech disagrees.)

Before we started doing this BlogPoll thing, I thought filling out a top 25 ballot would be easy — after all, it’s easy to look at the latest AP poll and say "Michigan lost to App State!  There’s no way they’re better than Florida!"  But when I was putting together a ballot this week, I filled in the top 8 and then went "I have no freaking idea!"  I ended up putting a bunch of teams in a list, smushing them about until I didn’t absolutely hate myself, and then emailing it to Yellow Fever.  I’ve been doing that a lot lately.

Don’t believe me?  Try it yourself.  We here at the California Golden Blogs value your opinion, so if you think you know what order these teams should be in, we’d like to compare notes.  Watch some football this weekend, come up with a top 25 ballot, and send it to us at goldenblogs@gmail.com by Monday night.  We’ll average any ballot that seems well thought-out and reasonable with our own and call it our BlogPoll ballot for next week.

(Examples of non-reasonable ballots include those with nothing but SEC and Pac-10 teams, those with teams listed in alphabetical order, those with Washington State listed ‘because my brother goes there’, and any ballot with Hawai’i in the top 5.  Just because they’re undefeated doesn’t mean they’re any good.)

Anyway, here’s our ballot for the week:

The California Golden Blogs Top-25

1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	—
3	Oregon	—
4	Boston College	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	West Virginia	1
7	Kansas	5
8	Arizona State	—
9	Georgia	10
10	Missouri	3
11	Texas	7
12	Michigan	8
13	Virginia Tech	3
14	Florida	8
15	Alabama	8
16	Auburn	6
17	Tennessee	9
18	Connecticut	8
19	Hawaii	2
20	Kentucky	5
21	South Carolina	7
22	South Florida	11
23	Southern Cal	14
24	California	8
25	Boise State	1

- Is Boston College terrible for getting shut out at Virginia Tech for 57 minutes, or fantastic for making a dramatic comeback in the last 3?  I’m unsure, but I’m guessing it’s more of the latter.  As mediocre as they looked for most of that game, Blacksburg, VA on Thursday nights is still a place that title dreams go to die, and coming out of there with any sort of victory is impressive.  The top 3 teams still kick their butt in BCS game, however.

- OK, I’m not saying Texas A&M is good or anything, but Kansas still put on an impressive 2nd half performance at Kyle Field on Saturday night.  Will they win the Big XII?  I say Oklahoma beats them good in the title game.  Still, I feel a lot more comfortable about having them in the top 10 than I did last week.

- Sooo…Georgia got blown out at Tennessee, who got blown out at Florida, who got beat on a ‘neutral’ field in Jacksonville by…Georgia.  You figure it out.

- Hey, Connecticut, you’re in the top 25!  Now you’ve just got to get past Rutgers this weekend to stay there.  Is it weird to anyone else that Rutgers at UConn is actually an important game with BCS implications?

- Yeah, despite the disastrous month of October, I still think Cal is one of the top 25 teams in the country.  This may say more about the number of quality teams out there than it does about Cal.

- Welcome back to the top 25, Boise State.  I know we’d all forgotten about you after the UW loss, but 7-1 will get you some attention (including an impressive beatdown of Fresno State).  No BCS for you this year (losing to Washington is an automatic disqualifier), but some attention nonetheless.

I’ll be honest with you - I am severely lacking in motivation this week.  Up until five minutes ago, I even forgot who our Bears are scheduled to play this Saturday.  Washington State?  I know like…one guy on that team.

• Pretty good scouting report from Scout.com on the Cougars.
• Doba shows our Bears some love, and addresses the fact that they have zero commitments for next year.  Seriously.  Zero?  How is that possible?  I wonder if Doba knows you’re allowed to start recruiting yet.
• Some information on the more notable players on the Washington State Cougars.  Because I know you haven’t heard of them before now either.
• This just in - UCLA players are whiners.  Especially with regards to travel into the middle of nowhere.
• Washington State’s Wikipedia - "The first mascot was a terrier named "Squirt". Campus folklore has it that the terrier was selected because someone brought a pet dog to campus."  That sounds only slightly less threatening than Oski.

Next up, we have what is probably the easiest part of the team to grade:  Wide Receiver. 

TwistNHook: I’m extraordinarily satisfied with how our WRs are playing across the board.  There are enough problems with this team and the WRs are the least of our worries.  My only concern is what happens next year!

HydroTech:  I must agree with you, Twist.  The WRs have been performing extremely well.  There have been very few drops and some excellent clutch catches as well as runs after the catch.  What is sort of puzzling is how the TEs have taken on a reduced role in the offense.  In prior years, the TEs were consistent targets of the QBs - especially in short yardage situations.  This year it seems as if we only throw the ball towards the TEs only twice a game.  I think the reason is that JT has been keeping Stevens in to pass block more so than receive while sending out Morrah or a 3rd WR out instead.  Why?  Stevens is a superb blocker, and Morrah and Jordan are excellent receivers.  This is simply putting the best players in their best positions.

Yellow Fever: My knee-jerk reaction is to say that the WRs haven’t been playing well because THA1 has been inconsistent, but then I remembered that Hawkins has been great whenever THA1 has disappeared.  So as a unit, yeah, I’m happy with our wide receivers.  Could they possibly be better?  Well yeah, because a passing game encompasses not just the quarterback, but his receivers as well.  So if you’re going to blame Longshore for his bad decision, at some point you’ve got to blame his receivers for not getting more open.  But as a unit, I still think they’ve played well.  Now next year…

Ragnarok: As a pass-catching unit, I can’t find any fault with our wide receivers.  My one quibble might perhaps be with their blocking, particularly DeSean.  I seem to remember a number of swing passes and screen plays that didn’t develop because our WRs put up little to no resistance against the defense.  But that’s a minor quibble at best.

TwistNHook: There is going to be a WHOLE lot of Jeremy Ross next year.  .  Also, who knows what will happen with Boateng?  But this is more about the WRs so far this season and not 2008.  Perhaps there is disagreement, but I’d go with As across the board pretty much.  I mean our Big 3 are averaging well over 10 yards a catch.  Tough to argue with that.
 

After a quick peruse of BearInsider it’s quite apparent that Longshore isn’t loved.  And it’s not like I can deny that Longshore didn’t have a great game.  He definitely missed some open receivers.  But as for those two INTs, those weren’t so much a bad pass as they were bad pass protection. 

Here’s the situation on Longshore’s 1st interception:

4th Quarter, 15:00 left
Cal’s 38   1st and 10   11 personnel    under-center, ace-slot

Longshore is under center.  Stevens and Jordan split right, with THA1 and Hawk split left.  Hawkins is in the slot with THA1 at split end.  Longshore drops back to pass - appears to be a 5 step drop.   Before Longshore completes his drop, the ASU nose tackle shot the A-gap (gap between Mack and De La Puente) and is coming down on Longshore hard.  Forsett is in pass protection, he sees this and attempts to pick up the block.  Longshore completes his drop and attempts to side step a little bit to his left.  At this very same moment, the ASU right defensive end hits Gibson (our left tackle) with a spin move and shoots past Gibson coming hard at Longshore from the outside.  Longshore has nowhere to run and with two ASU defenders in his face, he does not step into his throw.  Longshore throws off of his back foot and the ball is intercepted. [ANALYSIS]  A lot of fans are just going to throw this down as 100% Longshore’s fault but that is naive.  Yes, Longshore should have just taken a sack.  Yes, he could have tried to step into the throw despite a pending hit.  But what caused this interception was the lack of pass blocking and ASU’s defensive pressure.  It appears as if there is either a blocking breakdown between Mack (the center) and De La Puente (the left guard) or De La Punte gets beat.  I’m not sure which it is because I don’t know the play and the pass blocking scheme.  Either way, an ASU defensive lineman is in Longshore’s face as Longshore is STILL doing his dropback.  Gibson provided better protection but the ASU DE gets by him with a spin move which cuts off Longshore’s escape to the outside.  Longshore sees that THA1 is open and tries to get the ball to him but he can’t.  Interception.

Here’s the situation for Longshore’s 2nd interception:

4th Quarter 11:38 left
Cal’s 36   2nd and 8   12 personnel   shotgun, ace formation, twin-WRs right

Longshore is in the shotgun.  Stevens is at the end of the OL to the left and Morrah is at the end of the OL to the right.  Hawk and THA1 are split right in twins.  Forsett is to Longshore’s left.  The ball is snapped.  ASU rushes only their front four and drops seven into coverage.  Cal runs a max-protect pass play, Stevens and Forsett stay in to block.  Morrah along with THA1 and Hawk go out.  All the reads are on the right side of the field.  Longshore feels the pressure from ASU’s left defensive end, throws the ball and is intercepted.  [ANALYSIS]  What goes wrong here is that Longshore drops back too far and doesn’t step back up into the pocket despite the OL maintaining a good pocket.  Keep in mind that Longshore is in the shotgun.  After the snap he drops back slightly - approximately three yards.  ASU’s left defensive end across from Cal’s right tackle (Tepper) sees that Longshore drops back, and speed rushes to the outside.  The DE knows that unless Longshore steps up into the pocket that he can get pressure on Longshore.  This is exactly what happens.  Longshore doesn’t step up into the pocket depsite a large 5 yard cushion the rest of the OL has provided.  The defensive end gets around Tepper (who is only mildly at fault here if at all) and hits Longshore just after he throws but appears to put just enough pressure on Longshore to make Longshore throw before he’s ready.  Longshore probably should have stepped up into the pocket, taken the sack, or thrown the ball away.  On this particular play, Longshore is almost entirely at fault.  But WHY Longshore doesn’t step up into the pocket is the offensive line’s fault.  Longshore was hesitant to step up into the pocket because of all the defensive pressure that ASU had been getting on him throughout the game.  Longshore had been hit many times earlier and those hits left lasting memories in Longshore’s mind.  Consistent defensive pressure will usually make ANY quarterback hesitant to step up into his pockets and his throws for fear of getting hit.  Yes, great QBs will step up into the pocket and their throws despite oncoming hits but that doesn’t make immunize the OL of fault for not adequately protecting the quarterback.

Anyways, the point of this post is to just help fans realize that there was more to those interceptions than just a bad throw.  I’m certainly not saying Longshore shouldn’t bear any fault, or that fans don’t have any reason to be critical of him.  Fans certainly have that right and a good reason to be critical of him.  Longshore did miss some open receivers throughout this game.  But if fans wish to be a credible and intelligent critics, then I must say that simply relying on the fact that Longshore threw two INTs as reasoning for their conclusion that Longshore sucks, is short-sighted and ignorant of everything else that happens out on the field.  I’m seeing too many fans ream Longshore over his bad throws without a mention of at least the pressure he was under for some of those throws.  I implore you, Cal fans, to remember that passing the football doesn’t start with the quarterback, but with the offensive line. 

So begins the our Midseason Report Card.  Unfortunately, we don’t root for Stanford.  There won’t be grade inflation.  Let’s start with QB.

TwistNHook: Let’s start this off with the bizarre.  At the sports bar where I was watching the ASU game, when they showed Riley warming up, people started cheering.

Yellow Fever:  Is it sacrilegious to suggest that Tedford prepare for next year by putting Riley in for the rest of the year?  I can’t say I’ve been able to see either of the last two games, but with most of the year’s major goals already being out of reach, isn’t it time to consider the possibility?  I’ve always thought our passing game should be much more explosive than it has been this year given the talent at wide receiver.  I don’t know if this is a case of "what have you done for me lately?" but…really, what has he done in the past few games?  Maybe it’s the injury, maybe it isn’t all his fault, but it might be time to shake things up.  Call it knee-jerk if you want, but I’m also a guy who thinks the Eagles should stick with McNabb over Kolb.  So there. 

Ragnarok:  I don’t know about sacrilegious, but part of preparing for next year is getting back to winning games this year.  Just benching the seniors and playing the young guys doesn’t really work if the younger players don’t get to experience winning.  And I’m not sure Longshore, even injured, doesn’t give us the best chance to win football games.

HydroTech:  I think Longshore’s injury has affected his game, somewhat.  I think fans are a little too quick to point out that the ankle is the reason why he hasn’t been playing so well the past few games.  Surely it has some effect, but not as much as most fans would lead you to believe.  Yes, Longshore doesn’t always step into his throw but it’s not just because of the ankle.  It’s because of defensive pressure in his face, and -as I’ve stated earlier- he doesn’t always step into his throws in the first place.  He’s always sort of slinged passes from a flat stance. 

Anyways, I think the criticism that Longshore is receiving is the classic case of QBs getting too much love when the team wins and too much fault when the team loses. 

TwistNHook:  That first INT yesterday was like a Farve throw.  Across his body on his back foot into quintile coverage or whatever.  Is that due to the injury?  Maybe, but even for a great QB that’s just a bad throw.  But he also had some great throws yesterday.  He hit Robert Jordan on some sick throws including one where he hit him in stride, which I think was on 3rd down.

But here we are trying to look at this more long term.  Yes, Longshore had a rough game yesterday, but how has he done all year?  Well, earlier in the year many were saying that he hadn’t seemed to get it together.  We had such amazing skills players and the one limiting factor seemed to be Longshore.  He was having trouble with some of his longer passes.  I had my concerns, but hoped that with times thing would improve.  Unfortunately, whether it is the injury or not, things do not seem to be improving.  Certainly, worrisome.  Is Riley the key at this point?

I’d say No.  Tedford is a)very loyal to his QBs (see Ayoob v. Levy) and b)known for helping QBs develop.  I think we can overcome this, but I admit that I am puzzled by how this season has turned out for Longshore.  I had higher expectations for his play.  I have said that this offense could be truly amazing, but we have only seen that in 1 quarter.  The 1st quarter v. Arizona.  What a quarter!  What a quarter, indeed. 

With all the bad news coming in these days about Cal football, it’s good to finally have some good news.  The tree-sitters apparently are out.  Here is the Chron article.

Of course, this is written by Carolyn Jones and the Chronicle, so who knows if it’ll stand up.  But if true, it is just what the doctor ordered for a post-ASU "blue" period.

GO BEARS! 

On the last Saturday in September, I was in Eugene, Oregon to watch Cal take on the Oregon Ducks.  The game was tight see-saw battle between two immensely talented and well-coached teams.  However, despite the tough opponent and the intimidating home crowd, the Bears never got down, never buckled under pressure.  It wasn’t just blind optimism; there was real confidence backing it.  So every time the Bears fell behind, they went out and marched right back down the field.  The offense put up just enough points and the defense made just enough plays, and they were rewarded with a hard-earned victory.  That day in Eugene, I swear that Cal team could’ve beaten anyone in the country.

Fast-forward a month later, and the Bears, once national title front-runners, have gone oh-for-the month of October, falling out of the national title race, the conference race, and the top 25.  It’s been a soul-trying journey, and during Saturday’s loss, you could visibly see the changes that had overcome this team.  Where the Bears were once confident even while coming from behind, they now looked shaky and uncertain with the lead.  Even as the Bears took a 20-7 lead late in the 2nd quarter, even as I cheered at DeSean Jackson’s latest spectacular touchdown grab, I remember thinking, "That’s not nearly enough, not by a longshot."  Every play was just a struggle to hold on, a fight to not give in to what began to seem inevitable.  As I watched Cal drive in the third quarter, I began to expect a fumble every time a Sun Devil made a hard tackle on a Bear.  It didn’t used to be this way, but this team looked beaten long before the final seconds ticked off the clock.

There are lots of reasons for this.  Two consecutive heartbreaking losses will shake the confidence of any man, as two consecutive fourth-quarter comebacks came tantalizingly close only to fall improbably, even cruelly, short.  Physically, these men were tired and beaten.  Injuries have continued to take their toll this season, and when the offense couldn’t hold onto the ball in the 2nd half against ASU, the defense, gassed as they were, had to trot back onto the field.  Our quarterback just doesn’t look right throwing the ball, and our offensive line doesn’t seem to hold the line like they used to.  Players get sloppy, missing easy tackles and committing stupid penalties.  This team has had its goals and aspirations shattered, and they need to regroup in the worst way.

So with the Rose Bowl out of the picture, what do you play for?  Well, despite the losses, there’s still the possibility of a 10-win season.  It can still be a bowl season.  There’s still the matter of retaining the axe, and there’s still a dangerous, though similarly wounded USC looming ahead in two weeks.  There’s lots left to play.  But it starts this Saturday against Washington State, a team that just drilled UCLA at home.  These guys need a win badly, and they need their home crowd cheering them on.  They need to rediscover what it takes to win, what it takes to make the 4th quarter ‘ours’.  This is where the Bears have to take a stand to save their season, because if they don’t, it’s going to very quickly sink into oblivion.

I wasn’t feeling up writing anything last night but I think I’m up to writing a small something today.  Be sure to check back in a day or so because Ragnarok is going to have a more complete post-game thoughts analysis.

*Coaching.  A quick peruse around the internet and seems people are complaining that the next few years with Tedford are going to be just as bad as the Holmoe years.  Okay, that was a big of an exaggeration but I think more and more Cal fans (although still a minority) have lost faith in Tedford.  That’s understandable.  But I don’t think these three losses mean he’s lost his mojo or anything.  Oregon State was a play away from a possible win.  UCLA was demoralizing and by far the most dis-heartening.  The ASU loss was frustrating but the things that went wrong during this game are fixable.   

*Longshore.  He was 18/36 for 263 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs.  Obviously, the stats suggest he had a poor game.  Indeed it was a sub-par performance.  He missed a few open WRs throughout the game.  He threw two picks.  BUT I don’t think he was quite at fault for ALL of his mistakes.  The offensive line had trouble pass blocking.  Longshore was getting hit a lot.  He might have been a bit rattled and tentative to step up into the pocket.  On the INT pass that was intended to THA1 but was underthrown, he had defensive pressure in his face the instant after the snap.  Similarly, on his other INT he had some defensive pressure within the pocket.  I will elaborate on this later in another post but my point here is that while Longshore definitely wasn’t in the zone for this game, the offensive line is partly to blame.

*Run blocking.  Shady.  Forsett’s longest run was 11 yards and he only averaged a 3.6 yard average.  Once again, this week I feel like our big uglies in the trenches got outplayed.  

*The defense.  Well, upon first glance it seems like they didn’t do so well since they gave up 30 points.  But I think part of the problem was that they were on the field so much.  Did you happen to notice the time of possession for this game?  Cal had the ball for 22:30 and ASU had the ball for 37:30.  That’s a HUGE difference.  Usually things are bad enough when the TOP is something like 25/35 but that much?  Wow.  I know the defense wasn’t great but I’m willing to give them a pass just because they were out there for so long.  Oh, and they did get pressure on Carpenter via blitzes sporadically.  It wasn’t consistent but there were a few occasions when our defense was getting in their licks.  I don’t think there can be much complaining about how Gregory didn’t blitz.  He did but Carpenter was getting the ball out faster than we could get to him.  And also, one of ASU’s passing touchdowns as well as a few other deep passes came against a blitz.  Prime examples of the disadvantages of blitzing.  Blitz = less men down field to defend the ball and tackle the receiver thus big gains if the pass is completed. 

*Penalties.  Lots of ‘em.  One of ASU’s scoring drives seemed like they got 50% of the yardage from our penalties. 

Final thoughts: This game was winnable.  ASU deserves some credit because they out-played us in some aspects but we also folded and gave them other parts of the game.  While this loss hurts because it’s three in a row, I feel like there is still hope because the problems can be fixed.  We’re not ourselves.  The team has played better before.  We are better than we played the last two games.  The team knows it and the fans know it.  It’s one thing to lose because you just are just plain inferior and it’s another to lose because you’re not performing to potential.  Anyways, I know these are trying times but let’s try and keep up the hope.  Remember, we’re not the south.  There is life after football.  These are just 18-22 year old kids out there.  Let’s be rational, and reasonable with our criticisms before we start throwing players under the bus. 

Anyways, this is about as much as I feel like writing about.  Check back later for Ragnarok’s more substantial post-game thoughts. 

Except for the chiseled Dutch look and perfectly tousled hair, this is pretty much how I look right now.  I’m trying to cry.  Oh, how I’m trying to cry, but I just can’t.  Now, in my case, it’s not because I’m a substandard actor.  No, it’s because my tear ducts have been empty for weeks now.   

The pain we felt 2 weeks ago was falling from the National Championship game to the Rose Bowl.  The pain last week was falling from the Rose Bowl to the (maybe) Holiday Bowl.  The pain last night was falling to the Poulon Weed Eater Bowl (does that even still exist?).  I feel a lot more calm in the wake of last night’s debacle than the last few weeks’ debacles.

So, instead of throwing a temper tantrum about how this coach needs to be fired or that player needs to be benched, we are going to go position by position and take a look at how things are going.  Are the players meeting the expectations from the start of the year?  If not, why?  Hopefully, we’ll try to stay reasonable and analytical. 

Personally, I think there is a clear and easy way to fix ALL of Cal’s current problems.  Move the team to Boston!  This is a plan that can’t fail.  Except in relation to the Cal Hockey Team, where it most assuredly will fail.

How does this sound?  University of California at Boston Golden Bears!  It’s got a nice ring to it.  Here’s a quick .jpeg that I drew up.  It took all my MS Paint skills to do this.  Clearly, I need to stick to lawyering and leave the MS Paint to HydroTech.

Anyway, I think these days a lot of Cal fans are having their Cal puberty moment as Will noted below.  The new fans who weren’t around for the Holmoecaust are finally remembering that being a Cal fan is like being Rocky.  Apollo Creed just punches us over and over and over and over.  And then we lose.  After that, we become fools who get pitied by Mr. T.

"Go Bears?" 

But don’t get down yet.  There is a lot of football left to be played and a lot of fun left.  We still have 2 more home games (including USC) and the Big Game.  If we beat USC, beat Stanford, and then win whatever bowl game Cal makes it to, it’ll certainly salve the pain.  So, don’t forget to get out there the next two weeks and cheer on the team.  No, we might not make the National Championship game.  No, we aren’t even going to make the Holiday Bowl. But that doesn’t mean we just give up and go home.   

So, keep it tuned here for mid-season review on the team.  And, no matter what, GO BEARS!

A short note from TwistNHook:

There comes a time in every man’s life when they notice some changes.  Down there.  And their voice is deeper.  And he becomes embittered to the world.  It happens to all of us.  It’s called puberty.  Cal puberty.  It’s when you start to realize that the rest of your life is going to involve feeling the unending pain of crushing defeat.   Will, a friend of ours, who posts here and elsewhere as CBKWit, is going through it right now.  During his transformation to the emotional void we know as the "true Cal fan", he wrote the following tirade.  It is both harrowing and cathartic, and we at the California Golden Blogs hope it comforts you in your time of pain.

——

Almost every Cal fan past 30 has had a moment.  It may have been one LA nemesis upsetting the other to leave us Rose Bowl-less (indeed bowl-less: no Pacific Life Insurance or Diamond Walnut Bowl back then) in ‘75, or perhaps it was losing to Washington in ‘91, one of 19 straight to the Huskies but this one so much more damaging and heartbreaking than most.  Maybe it was more recently — Mack groveling for votes or DeSean wearing a size 10 instead of a 9 in Tuscon.  Regardless, the majority of Cal fans old enough to appreciate decades of futility can remember, with painful clarity, their personal, intimate moment when they finally gave in and exclaimed, “Enough!”

My moment came, not without warning but with a still unexpected swiftness, Saturday, October 20th, in dry, scrubby Pasadena.  I’m not a particularly optimistic person (no one would ever describe me as “sunny”), but what I lack in happiness I make up for with youthful naiveté.  I am 23, and my first year as a Cal fan (I followed my family’s school, Michigan, before college) was 2002.  The first play I witnessed was an 80 yard halfback pass involving two promising young players, Terrell Williams and David Grey, who were subsequently relegated to the bench as Jeff Tedford recruited better and better players.  In the 1st quarter, Cal put up a school record 35 points.

Although I’m a relatively new Cal fan, I’ve been to southern California on six occasions to watch the Bears.  I’m 0 for 6, and the least painful game was the Holiday Bowl blowout to Texas Tech in 2004.  Cal fans are loath to remember (but who can forget?) SC ‘02 (Kareem Kelly’s phantom touchdown), UCLA ‘03 (net points on six field goal attempts? -1), SC ‘04 (1st & goal from the 9), the aforementioned Holiday Bowl, UCLA ‘05 (Maurice Drew), and most recently, UCLA ‘07 (Forsett up the middle for a yard).  For someone who already detests LA, these losses do not sit well.  Walking out of the stadium following the latest torturous loss, I dramatically vowed to never return to southern California.  (This may cause problems, as my girlfriend’s family is located entirely in LA.  She’s also a Bruin.  Yes, this may not last).  In the days since, I’ve amended my vow only slightly:  I’ll return only when we play for the Rose Bowl, because although we may lose (if I’m in attendance, we almost definitely will), I couldn’t bear to miss a victory.

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My brother, a sophomore at Washington State, left me a message (I had turned off my phone in an effort to numb myself through sensory deprivation) following the heartbreaking OSU game, scolding “Man up!  We just got beat 56-7.”  While it’s hard to watch your team get consistently blown out, and while I’m certainly not one of the masochists who want to see our program turn back into a group of lovable loser mired in mediocrity (isn’t men’s basketball fun!), it is definitely less stressful to root for a team with nothing to lose.  When a successful season for Cal meant beating San Jose State and hopefully stealing the axe, it mattered little whether or not we beat teams like Oregon State.  If we did, you were happily surprised and if we didn’t, it didn’t mean very much anyway.  Now it matters, and it has since arguably the Insight Bowl at the conclusion of the 2003 campaign, with perhaps a brief hiatus in 2005.

UCLA mattered, and it mattered a great deal to me.  I live Cal football, in that the bulk of my mental energy is spent processing depth charts, individual match-ups, injury reports, and recruiting classes.  I even dream Cal football, with startling accuracy.  I have dreamt the outcome of four games over the last two years; all four of my subconscious winners ended up winning their actual games, and this list includes three underdogs (Tennessee over Cal last year, Cal over UO and OSU over Cal this year) and two road dogs.  I had a sinking feeling after my OSU dream, and my co-workers blame me completely for the loss.

Of course, one does not examine his priorities or a potentially unhealthy devotion after a win.  Only two weeks ago, I sat on my couch, fat and happy, reveling in a Cal victory over Oregon with which I had nothing to do.  It takes dire circumstances, like two soul crushing losses in the span of a week, to create the impetus for self-reflection and — maybe — even change.  I grappled with the particulars of the game, as I always do (throw the ball downfield!), but helplessness and the finality overpowered the second-guessing and what ifs.  It hurts.

Eventually, as my party meandered across the golf course turned parking lot searching for a morbid post-game tailgate, my analysis came to special teams and our field goal kicking.  I realized painfully that with our starting kicker in the lineup, we would likely have won both prior games and one at the very least, which would place us right in the hunt for the Rose Bowl or national championship.  (Tom Schneider, our all Pac-10 kicker, pulled his quad warming up before the first game).  Suddenly, I said it.  Enough!  No More!  I would no longer center my existence on a football team, even my beloved Cal Bears.  This is what happens when you fully grasp that your happiness, your entire mental well-being is determined by a 20 year-old’s pulled muscle.

Most of the tailgaters were several years older than me, and having lived through leaner periods of Cal football, knew exactly what I was going through.  They laughed familiarly as I ranted about my transition from youth to true Cal fan, replacing optimistic devotion with detached acceptance.  It was comforting to feel the cynical kinship among us.  I laughed at my absurd obsession and ate more spinach dip.

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Most of the golf courses now deserted as dusk settled in, we wandered back to our car, 9 holes away.  The manicured landscape was littered with trash, dense pockets marking now departed SUVs.  Inspiration struck me when I spotted a lonely Miller Lite can standing upright atop a small hill.  Taking a slow, then quickening run, my right arm raised and index finger skyward, I did what Tom Schneider couldn’t:  I kicked off.  I encountered bottles, cans, and a gallon jug of salsa, which skidded impressively across the fairway, leaving a trail of mild Pace picante.  Appreciating the irony more with each kick, we increased the spectacle by lining up in formation, one person looping behind the kicker in the role of gunner-extraordinaire Jahvid Best.  Only my final kick backfired, the red cup located twenty feet from the car exploding on impact, leaving my pants soaked with generic beer.  I have never had as much after a Cal loss.

Where does this leave me?  Well, the losses still hurt, as an hour in the fetal position on my hotel bed taught me, only two hours removed from my supposed breakthrough.  I still love our school, our team, The Tedford, and I still despise stanford, ucla and $C.  I’m still going to all of the games (save to those in So-Cal), I’ll still become a bearbacker once my income creeps above the poverty line, and I’ll still read all the blogs, emails, and articles I can find.  Maybe now, though, I won’t be so tense that I’m prevented from sleeping (before Tennessee) or eating and drinking (before and during Oregon).  Instead of relieved when we win, I’ll be excited, and functional instead of destitute when we lose.  I’ll be relaxed enough to have a beer, curse the opposition, appreciate a great play, and interact with fellow Cal fans.  Most of all, I’ll remember that 20 year olds playing a game, even if they are 20 year olds who attended the greatest university in the world and are coached by our generation’s patron saint, are still just 20 year olds playing a game.