Once again, another rumor.  And it’s a rumor because there isn’t anything official… yet.  But supposedly Coach Delgado is leaving Cal to coach at Louisville.  I suppose he’s going to be the DL coach over there. 

Interesting.  Delgado certainly has taken his share of heat this past season for being the coach of a DL unit that wasn’t so great against the run or pressuring the passer.  But was he really that bad?   Just because a coach’s unit is bad doesn’t necessarily mean the coach is bad.  Supposedly, people who are in on the whole coaching circle thing say that Delgado was actually quite a very good coach.  At the very least, he was a big time recruiter for Cal in securing the Hawaiian, Somoan, and Pacific Islander football players. 

So who replaces Delgado at the DL Coaching position?  A promotion of former Cal defensive end Tosh Lupoi?  He’s a graduate assistant for the team and has been working with Delgado on the DL for the past two years.  I think it’s quite a jump for Lupoi, who has no prior position coaching experience, to go from a graduate assistant to the defensive line coach for Cal.  But then again, Coach Daft went from being a graduate assistant to the QB Coach prior to the 2007 season. 

If this rumor is true… this off-season just got even more intriguing and interesting.  

I’ll admit, I was worried.  OJ Mayo, USC’s all-everything frosh was slicing his way through the bear defense, knifing through traffic and stabbing pull up jumpers at will.  After Cal built a 13 point lead, OJ mercilessly cut the deficit to 6 by halftime and single-handedly without an accomplice killed any chance of an easy victory - everytime Cal would start to pull away, OJ was there to eliminate the deficit.  With such a cold-hearted predator on the floor, where would the bears turn?

Enter Eric Vierneisel.  We usually cringe when "Verny" checks in (the Haas announcer, in need of a nickname for Eric for the first time in his four year career, hastily settled on this) and lobby loudly for Boykin or Kamp, as we did for the first 15 of his 23 minutes on Thursday.  Then, with Cal clinging to a 1 point lead late in the second half, Vierneisel knocks down three pointers on consecutive possesions, sparking a huge Cal run and a double digit win.  He even hits 4 free throws down the stretch as USC intentionally fouls to extend the game.  I’m generally satisfied with Vierneisel when he stays out of the way on offense and doesn’t create a 5 on 4 advantage for the opposing team on defense.  On Thursday, he was the difference in beating hated USC in a must-win game.  In terms of unexpected contributions, this performance ranks just above Joe Ayoob’s comeback versus WSU in 2005 and just below John Turturro as Jesus in The Big Lebowski.

Nobody f*cks with the Eric Vierneisel.

I’m gushing a little about Vierneisel but I don’t wan’t to neglect our other players, from whom I expect much, much more.  Randle was poised running the offense, rarely out of control but still aggressive, always penetrating with a purpose instead of hazardly running into opposing bigs, and finished 4-8 from behind the arc.  He had 9 assists to 4 turnovers, and 2 of those turnovers were not his fault.  He’s now played very well for the last three games, but the real test comes this afternoon against the bruins.  Christopher had 24 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds while guarding OJ the entire game.  Anderson had a quiet 15 points and 9 boards, and Hardin notched his first double double in 7 games.  The entire team played well and the result was a 10 point win over a ranked USC squad at home.  Will this sort of effort be enough to beat UCLA this afternoon, or win at Eugene next Thursday?   Can the bears play any better, or is this their ceiling?  Will they be able to pull out victories when some of the usual suspects inevitably struggle?  I’d say maybe, not really, and hopefully, but what do YOU think?

Regardless of the outcome versus UCLA today, this was a great start to Pac 10 play.  Haas was nearly full and pretty loud, especially considering the low student turnout during winter break.  The team played well together (23 assists), trusted each other (witness Randle feeding a previously ice cold Vierneisel without hesitation), and seemed to really like one another as they celebrated in the waning minutes.  Beating $C always feels good (if only we could translate our success in men’s basketball, women’s basketball, water polo, and etc. to football), and I took particular pleasure in watching OJ brick two free throws late in the second half as I stood directly behind the basket shouting "Knife it OJ!  Stab it!  Stab it through the hoop!"  If you’re a high profile athlete named OJ and you choose to go to USC, I think you deserve whatever you get.

Go Bears, beat the bruins!  (what’s a bruin anyway…)