Former Cal Player Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme, another Gets Four Years for Rape

A bad day for Cal Football alumni.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that former Cal lineman Reed Diehl pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.  He was indicted on charges that he bilked a developer out of $2.5 million.  He faces 70 years in prison.  The FBI press release states:

According to a plea agreement in the case, Diehl falsely represented himself to potential clients as a banker who made "hard money loans" to businesses or individuals. Diehl also admitted that he fraudulently collected deposits for lines of credit for people who desired financing for construction and development projects in Mexico. In relation to the "hard money loans," Diehl told investors that he would pool their funds and make secured loans to individuals or businesses that had shortterm cash needs. Instead of using investor funds to make loans, he used investors' money to repay earlier investors and to fund his lifestyle.  In relation to the second part of his scheme, Diehl told victims involved in construction projects in Mexico that he could secure multimillion dollar lines of credit. Diehl told one victim that it would cost $1.175 million to secure a $24 million loan and that the deposit would be used as collateral for the line of credit. The victim eventually paid Diehl $2.5 million, money that Diehl used to pay, among others things, other people who had made investments with Diehl. None of the victims ever obtained a line of credit through Diehl.

According to this blog,

“While attending Cal, Diehl married his wife, Rachel, and they had two children. The player's ability to juggle football, family and academic duties impressed the San Francisco Chronicle, which wrote “At 6-4, 300 pounds, he is Cal's best offensive lineman and has started college games at tight end, tackle, center and guard. He has a chance to play in the NFL.  He is a husband to Rachel, the person he knew he would marry the first time he saw her, when he was 16.  He is a father to Preston, a football-crazed 4-year-old boy who wants to wear football jerseys everywhere, who loves hanging out with his father in the locker room to soak in the discussions and the atmosphere, and who has collected hundreds of the smelly wristbands and gloves discarded by players after games.  He is a father to Madison, a delightfully cute girl who has suffered through four scary bouts of pneumonia and who kisses the television screen when daddy's games are on TV.”

A very sad story all around, especially for his wife and two children.

 

Also making the news today was Noah Smith.  The Oakland Tribune reports that Noah Smith was convicted of rape and sentenced to four years in prison:

A former Cal football player found guilty this year of raping one student and trying to rape another was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison.  Ending a case that included unsubstantiated admissions of football player drug cover-ups and accusations by three other women of sexual assault by the former top high school prospect, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon sentenced Noah Smith to four years in prison instead of the 17 years sought by the county's district attorney. Smith, 23, who must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, was arrested in May 2007 after a fellow student told police the football player had forced her to give him oral sex and then raped her in her apartment during what was to be a meeting about a class. Investigations by the UC Berkeley Police Department found another woman who said Smith tried to rape her but she escaped. Smith was arrested and charged with one count of rape, one count of forced oral copulation and one count of attempted rape. During the trial, two other women stepped forward and said Smith raped them. Although they testified in the case, no separate charges were filed because they had not reported the rapes to police when they occurred and did not want to pursue criminal charges afterward. Both women told similar stories about how Smith feigned an illness that he said required him to collect and store his own sperm.

Read the entire article here.

Daily Cal: Q&A with Aaron Rodgers

(Sorry for the delay in posting this)

By Katie Dowd

As the quarterback for the Cal football team in 2003-2004, Aaron Rodgers guided the Bears to two bowl games while passing for 51 touchdowns and 5,469 yards.  Rodgers was drafted in the first round by Green Bay in 2005 and is now the starting quarterback for the Packers.  After an off-season practice in Green Bay, Rodgers gave the Daily Cal a call and reminisced about his days in Berkeley and shared some of his new experiences as the Packers' quarterback.  

Katie Dowd: You might have gotten a little bit of this at Cal, but obviously you're a bigger celebrity now, especially being in such a devoted fan base. Do you get any weird requests?

Aaron Rodgers: Oh, I got a ton. I don't know how many stories you want me to give you. I've had everything from people showing up on my doorstep last season. Multiple people. I averaged about two (door) knocks per week for a while there. Just random people.

I've had parents send photo albums of their daughters out to me. Also to my parents out in California. With letters attached telling either myself or them why I should be dating their daughter. A lot of parents just trying to pawn their daughters off on me.  Also, crazy requests like one woman asked me if I would be the best man in her and her fiance's wedding. I didn't know them either. Those are some of the highlights. Or lowlights.

KD: Do you come back to Berkeley at all?

AR: I was back this spring actually for a charity event in San Francisco ... I stopped by Cal the next day and saw some of the guys. I'm buddies with Kevin Riley so I saw Kevin.

Read the rest of the article here.

ESPN: Hope and Concern: California

By Ted Miller

(Link, where there are lots of comments)

Biggest reason for hope -- A good defense and Jahvid Best.

California welcomes back eight starters from a defense that ranked second in the Pac-10 in scoring (19.9 ppg), and that doesn't include Mike Mohamed, the Bears most versatile linebacker. Particularly of note: The secondary, led by All-American cornerback Syd'Quan Thompson, returns intact, and it led a pass defense that intercepted 24 passes a year ago. As for Best, he rushed for 1,580 yards last year -- averaging an eye-popping 8.1 yards per carry -- and is the West Coast's top Heisman Trophy candidate.

Biggest reason for concern -- Will the passing game improve?

California's quarterback play wasn't terrible in 2008: See 25 touchdown passes vs. 10 interceptions. But it was mediocre: See just 190 yards per game and a pass efficiency rating that ranked sixth in the Pac-10. Junior Kevin Riley won't have to share the quarterback job with Nate Longshore again this year because Longshore graduated, but coach Jeff Tedford hasn't yet anointed Riley as his starter over Brock Mansion. That's curious, and obviously a sore spot for Riley. The Bears really don't have any obvious holes, and if they are even just solid passing the ball, this could be a special season.

Seattle Times: So how have first-year head coaches fared?

By Bob Condotta

The last few times I've thrown the blog open for Q-and-A's, I've gotten varying versions of questions wondering how first-year coaches have fared through the years in the Pac-10. So in an attempt to answer all of your queries on that topic, I decided I'd first list every new coach in Pac-10 history (dating to 1978, when the conference expanded to 10 teams) followed by some analysis. So here we go, with each school's coaches listed by the year they took over, their record that first season, and in parantheses, the coach and record of the previous season:

(edit)

CAL

1979 Roger Theder 6-5 (Mike White 7-4)

1982 Joe Kapp 7-4 (Theder 2-9)

1987 Bruce Snyder 3-6-2 (Kapp 2-9)

1992 Keith Gilbertson 4-7 (Snyder 10-2)

1996 Steve Mariucci 6-6 (Gilbertson 3-8)

1997 Tom Holmoe 3-8 (Mariucci 6-6)

2002 Jeff Tedford 7-5 (Holmoe 1-10)

Tedford's 2002 season at Cal is obviously the greatest turnaround, and the one UW fans can cling to for hope of a massive rebound this season. Unfortunately, the reality is that there are probably as many similarities in UW's current state to Cal's in 2002 as there are to all kinds of other teams on this list that needed a few years to finally get turned around. I've pointed out before that two big differences are that the Cal team in 2002 played an easier schedule and had a more experienced team (including a senior QB in Kyle Boller) than UW will have this season. That's not trying to pour cold water on optimism, just trying to be realistic.

Link.

An Oddsmaker's Analysis of Cal Football 2009

The following is from Jimmy Boyd’s website (link):

2009 California Football Predictions

By Jimmy Boyd

The Cal Golden Bears rode star running back Jahvid Best and a strong defense to a nine-win season in 2008. If the offense can achieve a little more balance to keep defenses guessing, USC’s may have finally met its match. Get my take in this 2009 college football betting preview. Cal is listed at +5,000 to win the 2009 BCS championship.  

Offense - Junior running back Jahvid Best led the Pac-10 in rushing despite battling nagging foot and elbow injuries. He rushed for 1,580 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season. His 131.7 yards per game were good for third nationally. He underwent surgery on both his foot and elbow in the offseason and is expected to be 100 percent this fall. Who knows what Best can do completely healthy? A 2,000-yard campaign may not be out of the question. And who knows what he’ll be able to do if the Bears can present a passing attack for the opposition to respect. Cal’s passing attack averaged just 189.8 yards per game through the air last season (83rd nationally). Improvement is expected from Kevin Riley after gaining valuable experience last season. He threw for 1,360 yards and had a decent 14 touchdown to six interception ratio. The wide receiver corps was unproven and inexperienced last season. While they are still largely unproven, experience was gained and that usually breeds improvement. Look for breakout seasons from Nyan Boateng and Verran Tucker. The offensive line was banged up much of last season and it loses All-American center Alex Mack, but plenty of talent remains for the Bears to boast of the best offenses in the league.

Defense – The Bears return eight starters from a unit that ranked 23rd nationally in scoring defense (19.9 points per game) and 26th in total defense (315.2 points per game). It all starts up front with bookend defensive ends Tyson Alualu and Cameron Jordan. This duo is considered among the best in the country and they get great help from returning nose tackle Derrick Hill on the inside. The secondary returns all four starters and is led by one of the league’s best cornerback duos in Syd’Quan Thompson and Darian Hagan. Thompson made the Pac-10 first-team following a four interception campaign. The Bears do lose three of their four starting linebackers from 2008, but I’m not expecting much of a drop off, if any. Junior Michael Mohamed is the team’s top returning tackler, making 87 stops while starting five games and backing up all four linebacker spots last season. The program is also big on sophomore Mychal Kendricks.

Prediction: 2nd Pac-10 Conference – Cal won nine games with teams stacked to stop their running attack.  With an improved passing attack to keep the opposition honest, I expect Cal to be even better. We’ll find out what the Bears are made of early as they open Pac-10 play at Oregon and then return home to play USC. If they can get one of those two and then win out, Cal could find itself in the Rose Bowl for the first time in fifty years. Cal is listed at +400 to win the Pac-10.

Fan Appreciation Day

Fan Appreciation Day will be held on August 29^th this year.

Updates

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog over the last two weeks.  We relocated and I’m just now back online.

SF Examiner: 4th of July Bear Tracks

By Rob Calonge

Call it a case of the summer flu, or maybe it's the summer session, but as the fourth of July nears, I find it more and more difficult to come up with anything mildly entertaining.

Normally, this feeling comes upon me much earlier in the spring, but not this year.  Now that it's finally hit me, I'm that eight-year-old boy, daydreaming in class after lunch recess, staring out the window, and hoping that the day would end soon so I could meet up with my buddies to play a heated street football game, bike tag, baseball, a pickup hoops contest, or some other game that kids used to play.

Link to rest of article.

Gainsville Sun: Cal Ranked 19th

Link.

19. CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS

2008 record: 9-4

Returning starters offense/defense: 7/9

Strength: As is often the case in Berkeley, the Bears should have no problem running the ball. Cal has had seven straight seasons with a 1,000-yard rusher. Expect the tradition to continue for coach Jeff Tedford with dynamic running back Jahvid Best, who averaged 8.1 yards per carry last year as a sophomore. Senior cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson leads an experienced secondary that should give opposing offenses headaches.

Weakness: Most of the defense remains intact, but Cal may not have enough quality linebackers to run a 3-4 defense after losing three to graduation (Zack Follett, Worrell Williams and Anthony Felder). With Nate Longshore gone, quarterback Kevin Riley will need to improve to keep the Bears from becoming too predictable on offense. Riley completed just over half of his passes last season and will need consistency from his wide receivers to turn around Cal’s passing game. Nyan Boateng, a Florida transfer, is the top returning receiver with 439 receiving yards and five touchdowns last year. The Bears’ offensive line lost some leadership with the graduation of center Alex Mack. Junior Chris Guarnero will have big shoes to fill.

Biggest star: Junior Jahvid Best is already receiving some Heisman hype after his lofty numbers last season (1,580 yards, 15 TDs).

Rising star: Sophomore right tackle Mitchell Schwartz has the size (6-foot-6, 335 pounds) and skills to be the Golden Bears’ star on the offensive line.

Toughest game: Cal’s toughest game comes on Homecoming (Oct. 3) as perennial Pac-10 favorite Southern Cal visits Berkeley.

Tedford's Twitter Page

Tedford has 892 followers, but hasn’t updated it since June 10^th.  Here’s the link.

SF Examiner: Golden Bears Steal Another Recruit From Washington

By Rob Calonge

Maybe 'theft' is a harsh term for what is obviously just a better job of selling.  When kids get into trouble for the tussle they've gotten into, it's common to hear the phrase, "Well, they/he/she started it."  In the case of the recruiting war going on between Cal and the University of Washington, Jeff Tedford could also make that same statement.  So could Steve Sarkisian of Washington. It was bound to happen.  Two schools within the same conference, both having a similar amount of prestige, and in close enough proximity to each other, is going to cause these sorts of rivalries off the field as well as on it.

While the Bears and the Huskies have been Pac-10 rivals for quite some time, it seems that the rivalry has heated up since former line coach Jim Michalczik accepted an offer to be the offensive coordinator of Sarkisian's "best coaching staff in the country."  Soon after, the Bears took the top defensive lineman recruit from the state of Washington, after he had verbally committed to the Huskies.  Rumors of recruits having both teams on their top lists have surfaced since, with each school getting wins over the other.

Link to rest of story.

Seattle Times: Tevin Carter to Cal?

By Bob Condotta (Here’s the link to the article…the comments are kind of funny)

Sounds as if the Huskies might have lost one of their marquee commits for the class of 2010 as ESPN as there are reports today that Los Angeles-area receiver Tevin Carter has switched commitment to Cal. You can see the headline here on ESPN.com (the story is part of the premium Insider package). And it's also being reported here by Rivals.com (also a pay story but you can see the headline and lead paragraphs). Carter announced a commitment to UW in May but then said earlier this month he was softening his commitment and would explore his options further. That came in the wake of some sterling performances in California regional and state track meets that raised his stock. Carter was part of an impressive early haul of recruits that has UW ranked No. 11 in the country right now for the Class of 2010 by Scout.com. But Carter's apparent switcheroo also gives further evidence to the vagaries of recruiting and truth to the coach's maxim that it's never really over until the letters are signed.

 

Frederick News-Post Online: Thomas Johnson's Forbes Commits to California

By Greg Swatek

Link.

When Nick Forbes stepped off a plane at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport on Monday morning, the bright future suddenly laid out before him was not one he could have even imagined four months ago.

Forbes, a soon-to-be senior at Thomas Johnson High School, had just returned from a three-day West Coast trip, on which he verbally accepted a full scholarship to play football for the University of California.

After being pursued by hundreds of schools on all levels of college football and receiving scholarship offers from roughly 15 high-profile Division I programs, the 17-year-old Forbes disclosed one of the biggest decisions of his life to the Cal coaching staff at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday.  By that time, he was six hours into his second visit of the campus.  "I was holding back. There was a smile on my face all day," said Forbes, a muscular 6-foot-1, 225-pound inside linebacker and running back for the TJ football team. "Two hours into the trip, I knew this was where I wanted to be."

News traveled across the country quickly that another domino had fallen in Frederick County's highly touted recruiting Class of 2010. Jeremy Grove, who recently committed to East Carolina and plays beside Forbes in TJ's linebacking corps, received a text message from his workout partner and close friend around 11:30 p.m. Friday.  "I couldn't fall asleep for about an hour," Grove said. "I was excited."

At Monday evening's workout session in the TJ weight room, coach Ben Wright was already wearing his souvenir from Forbes' trip, a navy blue T-shirt with a large Golden Bear print on the front.  "Nick's one of the hardest workers on this team. I am happy for him," Wright said. "I couldn't think of a better place for him to go to school." Forbes was a coveted football recruit for two years. The website Rivals.com ranked him as the seventh-best high school linebacker in the country following the most recent season, in which Forbes led the Patriots with 106 tackles and was named The Frederick News-Post's All-Area Defensive Player of the Year. But, as recently as late February, Cal was not among Forbes' top choices.

When the Golden Bears' offer arrived in what Forbes described as a nice, shiny envelope, he was flattered by the attention, but immediately dismissive of the idea he would go to school there. "I was like, 'There is no way I am going out there,'" he said. Distance from home was the primary concern. Plus, there were attractive offers from Duke, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia.  Forbes viewed all those schools as finalists for his decision. On the final weekend of February, Forbes headed west with the purpose of visiting Stanford.  Since Cal had expressed such a strong interest and even sent one of its recruiting coordinators to TJ to make a face-to-face offer in the middle of a school day, Forbes thought it wouldn't hurt to make the 43-mile trip north from Palo Alto to Berkeley to take a look at the Cal campus.

Upon arriving, Forbes, prominently wearing TJ colors, was scolded by Cal head coach Jeff Tedford. "Man, you are lucky anybody let you through the door wearing all that red," Tedford told Forbes, referring to the red and white of the Stanford Cardinal, the Golden Bears' arch rival in the Pacific-10 Conference. It wasn't Forbes' intent to wear Stanford colors, even though he was on his way there for a visit. But Tedford's friendly jab sent Forbes a strong and direct message: Even wearing enemy colors, the Golden Bears wanted him pretty badly. And, in the span of a few hours, Forbes started to fall in love with all of the opportunities that were being presented to him in Berkeley.

Not just on the football field, but in the classroom, too. Forbes carries a 3.6 grade-point average at TJ and wants to study mechanical engineering. "I had the opportunity to go to the No. 1 public school in the country and compete on a top-10 caliber team. This year, they are rated No. 11 in the country," Forbes said.

Suddenly, Cal had shoved its way into Forbes group of finalists and all those cross-country flights didn't seem so bad. "One of the stats I heard was that 44,000 kids apply to pay close to $50,000 a year to go there," he said. "It's truly a blessing to be able to go there and play football on top of that."

By the time Forbes touched down for his second visit on Friday afternoon, accompanied by his mother, Carol, his decision was basically a formality. "I wanted my mom to see the school because I wanted her to be comfortable with my decision," he said. Forbes understands his choice will require some major adjusting within his family, but, by Monday evening, he was convinced, "It was the best decision I ever made. I am really confident about it. It just feels really great to get it over with so I can focus on my senior year (at TJ)." Forbes has yet to make his official, school-sponsored visit to Cal, which he is planning to take the first week of September when the Golden Bears play host to Maryland on Sept. 5.

Despite the thousands of miles of separation, Forbes anticipates his family will come out to see most of his games. He said, "My mom is going to be racking up some frequent-flier miles."

ESPN: Cal adds top LB Forbes and OL Croswaithe

By Greg Biggins

Cal could be on the verge of putting together one of its best recruiting classes in years after picking up two more elite prospects over the weekend.  The headliner was Nick Forbes (Frederick, Md./Thomas Jefferson), one of the elite linebacker prospects in the country. Forbes earned LB MVP honors at the Penn State NFTC and has the size and talent to play early for the Bears.

Ironically, at the time of the Nike Camp, if there was a school out West that looked to have a good shot at Forbes, it was the Bears in-state rival Stanford. That all changed after the linebacker camped with Cal over the weekend and decided to pull the trigger.

Forbes actually committed before the camp even took place on Saturday. He spent Friday touring the campus and decided he had seen enough. Along with earlier commitments from Cecil Whiteside (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) and David Wilkerson (Danville, Calif./Monte Vista), the Bears may have the top linebacker class in the nation.

Whiteside is underrated nationally, but earned LB MVP honors at the loaded USC NFTC. Wilkerson earned first team, all-state underclass honors last season and like Forbes, has the ability to swing between any of the linebacker positions in Cal's 3-4 scheme. Whiteside is probably the best athlete of the group and is a natural weakside linebacker with superior cover skills. The three complement each other very well and all could see the field at the same time down the line.

The Bears also landed one of the state's true road graders in offensive lineman Alex Crosthwaite (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral). He was the top lineman on arguably the state's best offensive line a year ago. He's a true guard prospect with natural strength, toughness and a mean streak.

Crosthwaite is the third offensive lineman the Bears have secured and probably the best of the group. He turned down offers from schools like Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Nebraska, Fresno State, Minnesota, Duke, UNLV and San Diego State. He was also beginning to draw heavy interest from USC and UCLA.

In other positive news for the Bears, quarterback-commit Austin Hinder (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) had by far his best workout of the spring at the Nike Camp in Colorado. Hinder struggled a bit at the Elite 11 regional camp at Cal and the Nike Camp at Stanford back in May, but was spinning it very well with a lot of zip in Boulder over the weekend.

Hinder already has all the intangibles you could want in a quarterback. He's a great kid, a natural leader and his teammates will love playing with him. He works hard and has a strong desire to be coached and get better. When you combine all that with his physical tools on a frame that will easily be able to pack on a lot of weight, it's easy to see why quarterback guru Jeff Tedford made Hinder such a huge priority.

Link to entire article.