This week’s BlogPoll ballot is almost entirely my fault.  No one else here quite felt like voting after this weekend.  After I had put it together, Yellow Fever convinced me to move Cal back up to 7 (I had them at 9) and ahead of Oregon, which I can definitely see the logic in.  Everything else here, however, is my Sunday afternoon stab in the dark.

(Pay no attention to the deltas.  I didn’t.  Like I do most weeks, I started this ballot from scratch.)

The California Golden Blogs Top-25

RankTeamDelta

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

So who’s #1?  Well, it’s clearly not Cal anymore, and the thought of moving Ohio State up to #1 after they beat up on another cupcake (this week’s patsy:  Kent "is not a" State) repulsed me.  Plus, I still remember how Ohio State waltzed through a soft Big 10 schedule last year into the NC Game and then got creamed by an opponent that actually had some team speed.  Anyway, I waffled back and forth between LSU and South Florida, before battling it out in my head, and deciding that on a neutral field, I’d still take the Tigers over the Bulls.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if South Florida won.  I don’t know if I’d be surprised by much of anything this year anymore.

For the rest of the top 10, I wrote down a list, in no particular order, of all the teams I’d consider "top 10" material.  That list of 13 teams comprises the top 13 you see above.  Things to note:

- LSU beat South Carolina at home.  South Carolina beat Kentucky at home.  Kentucky beat LSU at home.  Thanks, guys, that helps a lot.  My solution:  UK at 3, USC at 4, reserving the right to change my mind at any juncture.

- Oklahoma continues to impress.  More and more, I’m writing off that loss at Colorado as a blip on the radar, much like I’m hoping Cal’s loss to Oregon State was.

- Re: Ohio State, BC, ASU, Kansas and Hawaii.  Not having lost isn’t as special as winning impressively.  I’m reserving judgement on all of them.

After the top 13, I extended my list to include all the teams I would consider "top 25" material (although I really had to stretch my definition of "top 25" to get a large enough list).  The resulting list of around 32 teams was then whittled down and ranked according to the oh-so-accurate "would team X beat team Y on a neutral field?" thought experiment method.  Of note:

- In my mind, the gap between 13 (West Virginia) and 14 (Kansas) is pretty large.  Kansas has won big, but they haven’t played much of anyone besides Kansas State, and they still haven’t left the state of Kansas this year.  Which is hard to do, when you consider there are only 2 teams in Kansas.

- Penn State is on here mostly because I felt I should include a second Big 10 team, and neither Illinois nor Wisconsin was going to cut it.  I thought about including Michigan instead, but that App State loss is such an albatross around their shoulders.  Maybe next week.

- After watching Hawai’i escape San Jose State with an overtime win last Friday night, all I could think was "isn’t this San Jose team the same one that got shut out 37-0 at Stanford?"  Although USC fans might not consider that such a shameful result.  Still, conditions were sloppy and an undblemished record should still count for something (after all, there are only 6 left), so Hawai’i still gets to be ranked this week.

A lot of people want to cast blame on this person or that person.  Kevin Riley is a popular choice.  Bob Gregory is equally as popular at being unpopular.  Some people say that it was a team effort, that it was not just one person or that person.

But I’ll let you in a little secret.  There is 1 person wholly and completely responsible for the loss.  One person who should, nay must, shoulder all the blame for this terrible loss.  Joshua "Airbears" Arribere.  Yes, this year’s Drum Major.  I have photographic evidence that he failed (FAILED!) to catch the baton.

 

Can you not see!  Unbelievable!  Now, what’s odd here is that it actually kinda bounced up and he caught in between his knees.  We spent a long while discussing whether or not that counted?  I hoped dearly for "YES!"  Apparently, I was wrong.  

So, there you go.  A clear reason as to why we lost.  Then again, the drum major from ‘05 told me that there was many a game where he caught the baton, each catch more glorious than the last.  And Ayoob well, yknow, did what Ayoob did best.  Smoke massive amounts of pot.  So, I was hoping that the baton thing wouldn’t really affect the game. 

How naive I was.  But me, I’m a nice guy.  I’m an open and forgiving guy.  I will promise right now that if Mr. Airbears wants an open forum to personally apologize to each and every Cal fan, this blog can be his soapbox.  Take this opportunity, Airbears!  Let’s just move forward clean from this sad, sad episode. 

So, that’s my analysis.  When you want the Xs and the Os, you look to Ragnarok, Yellow Fever, or HydroTech.  All I have to offer is an insatiable thirst for taking photographs at the Cal games.  And even there I don’t have the necessary equipment of those dudes over at Excusemeformyvoice.  All I have are moxie and elbow grease.  Plus, some giant balls.  Since I don’t have the equipment to zoom in all fancy, I just have to get closer to the action.  So, I have some of my old band people sneak me onto the field before the game. 

Really, even if you don’t have the on-field hookup, it’s not too tough to chillax old skool by the players.  You just have to get there early enough.  You have to get there about an hour early.  For the 4 PM start, I entered at about 3 PM.  Enter from the North Tunnel entrance, go up the stairs, and then down.  I usually do it on the east side, so I can easily walk over to the young alum section, but you could easily do it on the west side.  

Oh, almost forgot to mention an update on the oak grove.  Nothing new to really report.  Same circus as always.  Runnie Dub with his soliqouys.   Random hippies playing music (one had a stand up base this week).  A plethora of cops (9th grade vocab word!).  The only real difference was that it seemed some of the tree sitters had come out to the front branches that hang over the sidewalk.  They were just chilling up in the air, yelling at people. 

 

Anyway, I was standing there just as the offense came out.  I was embolded to see Longshore in full gear, running about.  I even called a friend to update him as to the status of Longshore.

 

 

I cannot BELIEVE they allow Mansion to wear 10.  I mean yeah, sure, he’s supposedly the future or whatever.  But still.  That’s Marshawn’s number.  They should retire it.  And 24, too.  Marshawn had it for one year, that counts!  They should have retired 24 after the 2004 season even though Marshawn had yet to be the starter.  HE’S MARSHAWN FOR TEDFORD’S SAKE!

If the players were as nervous as us fans, they weren’t showing it.  They seemed incredibly relaxed.

 

Lavelle came out and was hanging out with some kids.  High fiving them and whatnot.  They were just eating it up!

 

DeSean breezed through at a much faster pace.  He also broke 2 tackles and made Jairus Bird look foolish coming out of the North Tunnel.  That’s just what he does!

 

 

Then, Mr. Consistent came out.  Kids a stud any way you slice it!

 

Craig Stevens seemed like a class act.  He was glad handing all the kids.  I would make a joke about attempting to shake their hand and then missing their hand, but he seemed nice and I don’t want to be a jerk about it.

 

 

 

Then, Craig Stevens decided to give the kids something a bit more personal.  Guess he felt like he really connected with them or something. 

 

Alright, that’s good for an opening salvo.  At about 3:15, the band came marching in, I got onto the field, and that’s when things got totally awesome.  I got some videos of the players warming up, I’m working on uploading them and embedding them, but YouTube is totally sucking it.  Hopefully, we’ll get those up soon along with the fotografias. All in "Well, *that* sucked Part II."  

GO BEARS!