Please excuse us while the new site is being built.

So, our new SBN site was supposed to launch today.  At noon.  Seeing as how we’re all still here, that obviously hasn’t happened.  We’re told it’ll go down tomorrow.  Minor issues, minor touchups.  Hey, let’s make sure we get this right.

Anyway, while we wait for the new site (and another AWESOME post from HydroTech that’ll really get us started over there), here’s some possible topics of interest.  Discuss amongst yourselves…

* According to reader RR, some guy was murdered in front of Top Dog last night.  That’s crazy, man.  I used to eat there at 1 AM all the time, and while people were sometimes pretty boisterous, I never felt like something like this would go down.  Crazy.

* Cal baseball lost 9-5 at UC Davis last night.  Man, the Bears have really struggled in the mid-week games this year.  They’ve got basically no pitching depth, which I’d have to imagine will come back to bite them in the postseason.

* Myles Brand says he’s going to look into the O.J. Mayo allegations.  Sucks to be an ‘SC basketball fan right now.  Personally, I don’t care, but I think at least part of the blame has to come down on the NBA and its age limit rule.  Mayo’s been essentially a professional basketball player for years, doing just enough to preserve his ‘amateur’ status, and there was no good reason he shouldn’t have been playing in the NBA last season.  None.

* Man, that Iron Man movie was pretty awesome.  At this point, I’d have to say that Robert Downey Jr’s career is pretty darn indestructible.  Try as he might, he can’t screw it up permanently.

Please excuse us for the lack of content lately.  Not only is it May, a traditionally slow time of the year for Cal sports (at least for those who only follow football and basketball), but we’ve finally(!) been handed the keys to our new Sports Blog Nation site, which should be up and running shortly.  We’re very excited, and honestly spending way too much time working on it right now.  Anyway, to tide you over until then, I give you…

Golden Bear Diamond Notes

First off, a note of congratulations to our women’s softball team (which BTW gets exactly zero coverage around here), who have qualified for their 23rd consecutive NCAA tournament.  23rd!  That’s just crazy.  I’ll bet there isn’t a single player on the Bears’ roster who is even 23 years old!

Anyway, the Bears will face off against San Diego State on Friday in the Fresno regional.  Fresno State and Sacramento State will be the other teams in the double-elimination regional.  Something to note is that host Fresno State is only the 16th national seed, meaning that they’re the weakest of the hosting teams.  The Bears will have a tough road to hoe (they already lost to San Diego State earlier this season), but I think they’ve still got a pretty decent chance of advancing to the super-regional.

—–

Now, I don’t want to go off on a rant here…but the next time someone decides to use the excuse of football players missing too much class as an argument against having a playoff, please point out that the Bears’ softball team, in participating in the NCAA tournament, will be missing finals on Friday and Saturday.  In fact, given the double-elimination format of the regionals, the softball team might be in Fresno until next Tuesday (an unkind fate, to be sure).  Of course, they’ll still get studying done on the road, and get their teachers to give them makeup finals; it’s not like these girls are getting out of their academic responsibilities.  If major college football decided to host a playoff, I’m sure that all the football players would have to do the same thing.

—–

From sustained success to ending a long dry spell, my next congratulations goes to the Cal baseball team, which accomplished something this weekend that they haven’t done in 30(!) years; with a 5-2 win on Saturday, the Bears took the season series vs. Stanford.  Even with a loss on Sunday, the Bears still went 3-1-1 vs. the Cardinal this year, an impressive accomplishment against a team that was ranked in the top 10 last week by Baseball America.

Despite having won 5 of their 7 Pac-10 series this year, the Bears sit at just 11-10 in the Pac-10, 4 games in the loss column behind ASU, and have basically no shot at winning the league this year.  Still, their overall record of 32-16-2 is quite impressive, and should almost guarantee that they don’t get snubbed by the NCAA tournament selection committee for a third year in a row.

—–

Finally, I thought I’d comment on the draft prospects of two of our Golden Bear stars.  I already talked a little about Friday starter Tyson Ross this year.  Keith Law of ESPN isn’t such a big fan.  Not only did he leave him off his list of top 60 prospects for the upcoming draft, but he had this to say about him in a chat last week:

Vern (SF): Going to a bonus baby double heder tomorrow. USF/USD to see Matusz v Frederickson and then down to Stanford to see my Cardinal pount Tyson Ross and Cal Teddy Bears. I know your thoughts about Matusz…what are your thoughts about Frederickson and Ross?

Keith Law: Frederickson’s results are lousy for a guy with good stuff in a bad conference. Some arm strength, but not first-round stuff. Ross’ delivery is awful and his stuff isn’t that special. Neither is a top-two-rounds guy for me.

Ouch.  John Sickels, formerly of ESPN (and currently running the site ‘Minor League Ball‘ for SBN) likes him a bit better, listing him as #11 on his Top College Pitchers in the 2008 Draft.

11) Tyson Ross, RHP, University of California: 7-2, 4.47 ERA with 51/24 K/BB in 56.1 innings, 56 hits allowed. He’s winning games but command has been an issue for him and his component marks aren’t outstanding. Big guy at 6-6, but delivery looks funny (stiff and upright) and that hurts his stock a bit. Can hit 95 MPH.

From what I’ve seen, that sounds like a fair assessment.  He’ll definitely draw interest from some teams, because while you can teach someone a breaking ball, you can’t teach him how to throw 95 MPH.

However, Keith Law did include one Golden Bear on his list, placing 1B David Cooper at #20.  While Law is careful to note that his list is a ranking and not a mock draft, that sort of interest, should MLB baseball teams share it, could put Cooper into the first round of the June Draft.

Sickels also likes Cooper.  While he didn’t include him on his Top College Hitters of the 2008 draft (he named 10), Cooper was the first name mentioned in his list of Other Interesting College Hitters for the 2008 Draft, implying that he thinks Cooper could go towards the end of round 1.

Anyway, we’ll have more coverage of our Golden Bear draft prospects as June approaches, although I’m hoping I’m too busy obsessing over a Golden Bear run to the College World Series.  Stay tuned!

For those of you that do follow recruiting, I’m sure you’ve already heard that Cal got a football commitment.  For those of you who don’t follow recruiting, then I’m telling you that Cal got a new football commitment.  Why should you care?  

Well, he was named Co-MVP of the Nike Camp in L.A. 

For those of you that don’t know about the Nike Camp in L.A., well, it’s like… a big deal.  Basically a bunch of really good high school kids converge on one location to run drills and compete against each other in front of scouts in hopes to get noticed and get scholarships.

So who is this stud Co-MVP stud?  Meet QB Allan Bridgford of Mission Viejo High School.  

Here’s his Scout and Rivals profile.   

What do you need to know about him?  Well, he’s a junior.  Meaning he still has to play his senior year in high school.  This is a significant point to point out.  Why?  Well, Tedford & Co.  are very selective when it comes to offering juniors in high school.  Usually JT & Co. like to wait until the recruit’s senior year to see how they fair before offering.  Only a select few elite recruits get offered as juniors.  The fact that Bridgford got a scholarship this early speaks volumes as to how highly regarded he must be by the Cal staff.  

Want evidence of his capabilities?  In Bridgford’s junior season he threw for 2500 yards, and 22 TDs on about 290 attempts.   In this Scout interview, Bridgford reported was throwing at an 80% completion percentage towards the end of his junior season.  For those of you who aren’t stat junkies, that’s a very very good completion percentage.  65% is considered par.  Anything above 70% is great. 

What’s also interesting about Bridgford is that he apparently told the Cal coaches they could stop recruiting QBs because he committed.  So this brings up the question, is Cal really only taking one QB in this recruiting class?  Remember, Cal recently had former Cal QB Kyle Reed transfer to San Jose State.  This leaves only 4 scholarship QBs on the roster come fall (Longshore, Riley, Mansion, Sweeney).  Tedford has publicly stated that he likes to recruit one QB every year.  So will he recruit another QB this year to replace the loss of Reed?  I wish I had an answer.  Things get pretty crowded when you have 5 scholarship QBs on roster (most of which are Elite 11 QBs) when only one can play in the game.  Only keeping 4 scholarship QBs should prevent too much of an overcrowding and somewhat minimize losses due to transfers.  So this question of whether Cal will recruit another QB is something to chew on between filing court motions or pencil pushing. 

Thoughts On Recruiting Videos
(videos available at Bridgford’s Rivals’ profile page - premium subscription required).

First:  The first thing that popped out to me in his videos was his composure in the pocket.  He looked relaxed.  Calm.  Poised.  He didn’t look rattled or have jittery feet. 

Second:  He appeared to have good footwork.  Lots of clean dropbacks without false steps.  Little to none wasted lower body motion. 

Third:  Good eyes.  Bridgford can be seen reading the field in many of his clips.  His head turns from one side of the field to the other as he goes through his progressions to find the open receiver. 

Fourth:  Bridgford has great accuracy.  Of course, I was seeing his highlight tape with all his best throws, but if he can consistently do what he does in these highlight videos I think we’ve got ourselves one incredibly accurate QB.  Ball after ball was neatly placed at chest height when they needed to be or up high for the WR to go get it. 

Fifth: Bridgford seems to have a very effortless throwing motion.  It almost seems slow although it’s probably not.  It’s just not the fastest motion but he sure does still get a decent amount of velocity on the ball despite the effortless looking throw.  I imagine if he did really put his arm into the throw if needed he could really throw a bullet but the videos really didn’t show much of that.  Clearly, from his videos he appears to be more of a touch passer.  His balls have a nice arcing trajectory - no Kyle Boller laser beams here.

Sixth: Nice mechanics.  Holds the ball well.  He does seem to have a bit of a 3/4ths release though.  It’s a little hard to tell in the videos.  It certainly doesn’t look to be quite a 100% overhand motion, but still efficient enough. 

Seventh:  Great timing.  Hits his WRs in stride. 

Eighth: decent speed.  He’s not going to beat out linebackers but he should be able to scramble for a few when the pocket breaks down.

Overall, he looks like a very very promising prospect and worthy of his Co-MVP L.A. Nike Camp title.  FYI, who did Bridgford Co-MVP with at the L.A. Nike Camp?  None other than #1 QB prospect Matt Barkley who is currently a Southern Cal commit (yeah, he’s so good he has his own Wiki page already).

Here’s a few more links to read and a good way to waste your employers’ time: 

ESPN: Barkley and Bridgford are the most talented QBs at the L.A. Nike camp;  

ESPN: Bridgford Scouting Report.

The nominal author of this regular series, Yellow Fever, is on vacation these days.  So, I figured I’d whip something up.  Something linky.  With just an added dash of link.  And an extreme Marxist bias!  I mean we are from Berkeley, right?  And don’t worry, we are aware of Bridgford, Hydro’s drafting something up about it.

LINK #1:  Comrade DeSean Jackson understands the nature of the communal demands.  From each according to his ability, to each according to his need!  He must do not for himself, but instead for the greater entity: the team.   "“I just want to do anything and everything possible to help out this team. I don’t want to come in expecting to do too much or not expecting to do too much. Any way I can fit in, that’s what I’m willing to do.”" said the reformed Trotski-ite.  He hopes to succeed better than the previous six WRs taken by Andy Reid:  Billy McMullin, Gari Scott, Todd Pinkston, Reggie Brown, Freddy Mitchell, and Freddy Mitchell’s hands.  Wow!  Really shooting for the stars there, DeSean.

Sub-link:  Glorious Punt Returner Of Sun-Rising Skill is also featured on the front cover of a video game.  Such as:

The California Golden Blogs *would* congratulate DeSean on this achievement, BUT video games are the modern day opiate for the masses.  The bourgeois hopes that the proletariat will lay down their arms in the global struggle against capitalism to pick up their copies of Guitar Hero or Rock Band.  Golden Running Runner Of SupraHuman Ability should know better!  Punt returners of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your drum kit and microphone!

LINK #2:  Potential Capitalist Pig Tom Schneider has joined another team!  Oh noes! The central NCAA politburo has rejected Shneider’s bid to return to Cal and so he must ply his trade elsewise.  Here’s the money quote:  ""I was expecting this bumbling town, but I was really impressed," Schneider said. "They have regular stores, like Best Buy and Target.""  Schneider’s fairly controversial thesis is that Alabama as both a concept and a state isn’t really just crazy hick weird like you might think.  Thanks, Tom!  Making us Dub See-ers look good! 

LINK #3:  Lavelle Hawkins is kinda like Derrick Mason.  But better?  How can one player be better than another when we are all equals in the great battle against capitalism?  Good call.  Clearly, Lavelle is equal to Derrick Mason!  This is how the bosses keep divisions within the worker class.  All of history is class strife!  We must not allow the bosses to slice us up like this.  Lavelle MUST be equal to Derrick Mason!  For all global future success!  He is the vanguard of the wide receivers!

LINK #4:  Photos of some of the draft picks in camp.  Now you can *see* the football proletariat get exploited by the ruling owner class.  Such as:

"Take that ball for all workers, Justin!  The bosses may no longer have the means of production!" 

LINK #5:  An ESPN analyst has Cal baseball going to Omaha.  According to his projection, we’d be in Nashville and potentially face off against something called a Lipscomb.  Many people would be shocked to find that Karl Marx LOVED baseball.  And baseball loved him.  He had quite the cult following back in the 1800s.  Where do you think Johnny Damon got his inspiration:

I think I once saw a "Karl Is My Homeproley" shirt sold at a 19th century Urban Outfitters.  Yes, Urban Outfitters existed in the 19th century.  And it was brutally overpriced back then.  3 bees for a pair of pantaloons!  Nothing has changed.  Nothing has changed. 

LINK #6:  Much to the frustration of the California Golden Blogs, the Cal Band is engaged in a "voting contest" to see best college marching band.   The best college marching band should be chosen by the Party Newspaper, Pravda.  But since the cultural zeitgeist of the Best.Damn.Band.In.The.Land cannot be trumpeted by the party mouthpiece, voting *sigh* must be employed.  Cal faces off against Troy State.  Vote for Cal, people!  This is an excerpt what Pravda had to say about Troy State in a recent editorial entitled "Muddle Instead Of Music" with an anonymous byline:

"With the general cultural development of our country there grew also the necessity for good music. At no time and in no other place has the composer had a more appreciative audience. The people expect good songs, but also good instrumental works, and good marching band halftime shows.

From the first minute, the listener is shocked by deliberate dissonance, by a confused stream of sound. Snatches of melody, the beginnngs of a musical phrase, are drowned, emerge again, and disappear in a grinding and squealing roar. To follow this "music" is most difficult; to remember it, impossible.

Boy did I just waste your time!  That’s a joke (used in the loosest sense of the word), that even many Shostakovich fans might not get. 

"You don’t even know who I am" 

But hey don’t blame me when the entire Troy State marching band gets hauled off to the gulag (i.e. the cellar under Mack Brown’s house).  You won’t be able to hear the Sound of the South through those sound-proof walls!  What?  Too soon? 

Ok, fair enough fair enough.  Can I interest you in a joke about Mack Brown’s rather disastrous choice to allow Barabbas to go free instead??  Really takes the onus off of us Jews for that one.  Then again, Barabbas probably wouldn’t have died for our (your?) sins, so I guess it evens out.

(Metaedit:  Can I just say that that is the least funny, most hilarious joke I have ever written.  It manages to involve a)Marxism, b)20th century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, c)Shostakovich’s relationship with Stalin as it regards the legendary Pravda article, "Muddle Instead Of Music", d)that Family Guy episode where Peter doesn’t know who Benjamin Disraeli is, e)marching bands, f)that emotionally devastating Austrian cellar situation, g)Cal fans’ everloving hatred for Mack Brown, h)Biblical history, and i)two thousand years of blood libel.  What, I couldn’t stuff a Rachmaninoff’s 5th Piano Concerto joke in there somewhere?

And the best part.  The target audience!  College football fans.  Oh, college FOOTBALL fans.  Yeah, those bastions of Soviet culture and Biblical knowledge. Well, maybe Biblical knowledge.  Most of them probably won’t make it past "20th century Russian composer" without moving on to the next Link.  EPIC PHAIL!  I love it!  I love it!  You’re just begging for Yellow Fever to come back from vacation, aren’t you?  I’m so filled with self-loathing right now.  Now I know how Dennis Miller feels.)   

LINK #7:  Forget Marxism (and that most of the Link #6 joke, please).  The politics of failure have failed!  People can, should, and MUST earn what they deserve.  And by people, I mean Tedford.  And by Tedford, I mean GOD!   According to the Chron, Teddyboy makes the most money of an UC employee.  Take that, Phillip Leboit!  Capitalism rocks!  Just like video games, minor Alabama colleges, AND THE CALIFORNIA MARCHING BAND!

Next week, Yellow Fever will return and this series will return to a calm, genuinely hilarious normalcy.  I’m filled with self-loathing!  Until then, vote for the Cal marching band above and GO BEARS! 

Here’s a look at the depth chart at the end of spring ball.  This needs to be taken with a large grain of salt because of the number of notable players (Best and Nasty Nate, for starters) out with injuries.  There is also room for some fall arrivals to make the two deep, particularly at wideout.  That said, here’s where things stand now:

Owusu and Jordan were two of the most impressive guys on the entire team this spring.  They will definitely play notable minutes.

Offensive Line

The offensive line, particularly the second string, is pretty muddled right now.  I couldn’t find #54 Chris Guarnero, but it’s safe to assume he’ll be somewhere in the two deep.  Tedford and Offensive Line Coach Michalczik have always emphasized that they’re looking for the top 8 guys, so looking at the second string as a whole is almost irrelevant.  We’ll have to wait until fall to see who becomes the 7th and 8th guys.

*Cameron Morrah was sick for the last week for practice so Skylar Curran and Tad Smith shared first team reps in his place. 

*Mark Boskovich and #73 Richard Fisher Split first team reps at Left Guard, so it’s unfair to call either of them second string.  Matt Summers-Gavin ran with the second team at this position.

Skill Positions

*First, the elephant in the room: the starting quarterback has not been determined.  Nate missed most of spring practice with an injury, but he was taking first team reps before he went down.  This battle will (hopefully) be decided in the fall, and Mansion will be third string.

*Likewise, the starting (and backup) tailbacks have not been determined due to injury.  Best participated in practice wearing the red (no contact jersey) and # 34 Shane Vereen missed a lot of time with a hamstring injury.  Slocum had a strong spring, but with Best and Vereen healthy in the fall, it will be a tough competition.  I would expect all three of them to get carries, and DeBoskie might see the field as well.

*The second string fullback appears to be up for grabs as well.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Calvin, Boateng, and Ross are clearly the top 3 receivers, but it is wide open after them and I would expect some of the new recruits to make the two deep this fall.  Drew Glover stepped in as the third receiver for Ross after Ross went down with an injury late in the spring. 

Go Bears! 

According to Scout, Cal men’s basketball has a new recruit:  Jorge Gutierrez.  ESPN says that this Mexico native may have trouble qualifying.  The world reknowned Miami Hawk Talk has this blurb about Cal’s newest Golden Bear:

2008 PROSPECT; Jorge was a former Mr. Basketball in Colorado and now runs the show at Findlay Prep in Henderson, NV.  Gutierrez does whatever his team needs for a win. His team does not need any plays runs for him on offense to keep him involved. Gutierrez has a high basketball IQ as well as great basketball instincts. He prefers to involve his teammates over scoring the ball himself, though he indeed has the ability to score. He easily finishes around the rim, using his either hand, though he shoots jumpers as a righty. He rebounds the ball well for a player of his height and seems to make the right plays at the right times. He also plays defense well and typically matches up with the opposing teams best perimeter player. Gutierrez plays with a remarkable amount of poise and maturity beyond his years and does all of the dirty work for his team.

Judging from this photo, it is true, he won’t have trouble scoring:

MAJOR HOTTIE ALERT!  Finally, Cal has found somebody with hair as amazing as my own to fill the void.  It has been many rough years since I left.  Nobody with the sort of je ne sais quoi attending our fine institution.  Nobody as attractive as me.  Such as:

"Stock TwistNHook photo used for the 50th time" 

Damn, I’m so hot, if I don’t say so myself!  Either way, hopefully this modern day Samson will qualify for school and help with our team’s diversity.  Max Zhang and Michael Cera-lookalike can only do so much.  Go Bears!

Cal’s sports report cards are out.  And the situation looks good!  Yes, the Academic Progress Report was released for 2008.  What’s the APR, you ask, hypothetical question construct?  Here is some general information:

Academic Progress Rate (APR). The APR is the fulcrum upon which the entire academic-reform structure rests. Developed as a more real-time assessment of teams’ academic performance than the six-year graduation-rate calculation provides, the APR awards two points each term to student-athletes who meet academic-eligibility standards and who remain with the institution. A team’s APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible.

Ok, so you get two points per term per athlete.  But what is the goal each team is attempting to reach?

Immediate penalties?  Historic penalties?  Speak English!  Does this mean there’s a chance an athlete might get tarred and feathered???  Damn, calm down non-existant computo-being, we’ll answer all your questions.  You ask more questions than my wife!  But at least, fewer than my mistress.

Immediate penalties. Known also as contemporaneous penalties, these are the most immediate penalties in the academic-reform structure. They occur when a team with an APR score below 925 loses a student-athlete who would not have been academically eligible had he or she returned (an "0-for-2" student-athlete). An immediate penalty means that the team cannot re-award that grant-in-aid to another player. In effect, a team’s financial aid limit is reduced by the amount of countable aid awarded to the student-athlete who did not earn eligibility and was not retained.

Historical penalties. While immediate penalties are designed to be rehabilitative in nature, the historically based penalties carry more significant sanctions for teams that the APR identifies as chronic under-performers. The penalties will be incremental in nature, beginning with a warning once teams fall below a 900 APR cut score. Historical penalties progress to practice and financial aid restrictions, postseason bans and ultimately restricted membership in Division I. Teams scoring below 900 are subject to further examination to determine if historical penalties are warranted. Specifically, teams are compared against the bottom 10 percent within their sport, general student body academic performance, and performance expectation given the resources of the institution.

There’s a lot more information to the situation, but that is a sort of general overview straight from the horse’s mouth.  But enough of these bland generalities, what about Cal?  Here is a link to Cal’s APR.   The good news:

Cal is above both cut scores in all sports.  In some of the racing sports, like Men’s XC and Track/Field, the numbers are close.  And, the biggest eye popper is that men’s basketball is very close, too.  It posted a score of 942.  However, men’s basketball across the board is not very good.  The average score is 928, barely above the cut score of 925.  A comparison of poor scoring sports might illustrate the difference.  Men’s XC had a score of 947, which translated to a percentile rank of 20th-30th in its particular sport. 

Men’s basketball had a slighter lower score, but had a percentile rank of 60th-70th in its sport.  This is not to excuse the poor showing by men’s basketball, but instead to give a fuller context for what the number 9-4-2 means.  In better news, football has a score of 967, which puts it in the 80th-90th percentile.  Congratulations to coach Tedford for maintaining both on the field and off the field success. 

Let’s take a broader look at the Pac10.  Here are the links for the schools:  Arizona State University, Wazzu, Stanford, Oregon State, Arizona, USC, UCLA, Oregon, UDub.

Here are the rankings for the two money sports.  First, let’s look at basketball.  The average for basketball, as noted previously, is 928. 

1.  Oregon - 975 

2.  UCLA - 968

3.  Stanford - 954

4.  Washington - 943

5.  Cal - 942

6.  OSU - 935 

7.  Arizona - 933

8.  ASU - 905

8.  Wazzu - 905

10.  USC - 863 (!!!! They got dinged for this) 

Cal is in the middle of the pack here.  Now, let’s look at Football.  The average for football is 934. 

1.  Stanford - 986

2.  Cal - 967

3.  USC - 948

3.  Washington - 948

5.  UCLA - 941

6.  ASU - 933

7.  OSU - 926

8.  Oregon - 921

9.  Wazzu - 916

10.  Arizona - 903 

Cal is way up at the top.  USC was the only team to receive penalties (as noted above).   As a minor note, the score for "private schools" is higher than the score for "public schools" pretty much across the board.  Ammo for the Stanford complaintniks?????  Only time will tell!

Go Bears! 

As you may have noticed, we don’t have much Rugby coverage around here at the California Golden Blogs.  It’s not that we don’t care; it’s just that we don’t have anything particularly interesting to say about their continued excellence.  Still, a national championship is a National Championship, and you sure don’t see one of those around every day at Cal.  It’s something to be celebrated — perhaps one of those margaritas you toss back tonight could be for our beloved ruggers?

Anyway, I thought a fitting tribute for our Bears might be to compare Jack Clark’s record with the greatest dynasties in American sporting history, just to see how these guys stack up.  For the record, Saturday’s 59-7 smackdown of BYU was the Bears’s:

* 5th consecutive National Title
* 17th Title in the last 18 years
* 20th in Jack Clark’s 25 years as the Head Coach of the Bears
* 24th overall title (since a championship was first staged in 1980)

It’s also worth noting that, before the Bears lost in the 2003 semifinal, they had won the previous 12 consecutive championships.  In his 25 years of coaching, Jack Clark has compiled a 440-66-5 record, good for an .870 winning percentage.  Frankly, these accomplishments are just ridiculous.  I don’t know how the Bears live up to these impossible standards year after year, but they do.  So, how does this compare to America’s greatest dynasties?

NFL - Probably the greatest dynasty in pro football was the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers of the ’60s.  Between the ‘61 and ‘67 seasons, the Packers won 5 NFL titles, the last three in a row, including the first two Super Bowls.  In those seven seasons, the Packers ran up an 83-20-4 record, good for an .806 winning percentage.  Mighty impr