CAL SUPER FAN REPORT: CAL VS. ILLINOIS

Once again, thanks to Cal Super Fan Justin for this report:

 

ILLINOIS SEPTEMBER 17, 2005

 

            Altering our usual modus operandi, this time my wife and I decided to drive up to see this game.  We left Los Angeles at about 5:00 p.m. and drove to Santa Nella, where we spent the evening in a motel prior to driving into Berkeley on Saturday morning.  After we got in town, we parked the car in our space, had some really atrocious Korean food on Telegraph, and then went to the Bears Lair for pre-game merriment.  The Illinois turnout was substantial, and not entirely ex patriate, as many of the Illini fans were clad in what is apparently their new symbol in thee post-NCAA politically correct days:  "CHIEF".  Never having seen these before, I though that they were Kansas City fans!  So lots of orange clad beer gulpers were sitting around wearing bright orange shirts that said "CHIEF" and "HAIL TO THE CHIEF" in 52 font across the chest.  The Illini fans were loud and rowdy, and they started doing some Illini cheer.  None of the Cal fans said anything. 

 

            So after fortification we took the long hike up the hill to QQ and were AMAZED at the number of Illini fans in the Stadium.  They not only took up the MM-P section but were also represented well on the shady side of the stadium between the old alums and the blue zone banner.  They brought a bunch of male and female cheerleaders, including Ahnold Cheerleader.  The Cal band took the field for the pre-game show, and in order to "welcome our guests" started to play the Illinois fight song.  All I can say is that Illinois has a really long fight song.  In any event, the Illini started clapping along in a Cal-fan like fashion and apparently enjoyed hearing their song played.  Hey, more power to 'em.  The alumni band was also present sitting in the EE (or thereabouts) section, and they were loud and sounded really good. 

 

            So the game starts and we have the one guy who is trying to get the entire section fired up right in front of us, and he is spitting on the people behind him (presumably not intentionally) and they are getting upset with him.  For the record, eventually they crushed the life out of him and he pretty much gave up and was silent.  In any event, right next to this loud guy is an old guy and his wife, and the old guy is an Illini fan decked out in an orange hat and a blue button down work shirt.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but some REALLY DRUNK Cal fan came over and started issuing an incessant stream of profanity at this guy, tried to knock the old guy's hat off, and actually spat on the guy before some other fans intervened and pulled the drunk frat guy off of this fellow.  Welcome to Berkeley!  It reminds me of the time about a decade ago that we played Hawaii in Memorial and this one Hawaii fan was sitting near us holding up one of the hula dancer push button statues (you know what I'm talking about, a little model on a cylindrical base where the joints are articulated and if you press the base of the stand, the model moves).  So this guy ten years ago was holding up this model when Hawaii scored (they won that game, too, it was like their first win ever against a Pac 10 team and their first win against a major conference team on the Mainland, blah, blah, blah), and when he did so, people pelted him with garbage.  In response, the guy yelled:  "I thought you were educated, you animals!"

 

            So anyway, we win the toss, receive, and drive down the field easy as you please on the ground for an easy 7, and we're thinking:  "all right, the Bears SHOWED UP!"  In the words of that College Gameday dork:  "not so fast!"  The Illini received the ball and were equally efficient moving the ball down the field, and they scored with great ease.  Their offense in the first half was a thing of beauty, as from Row 46 we could easily see the mis-directions and patterns developed by the spread offense, and immediately we thought Texas Tech.  Basically, the Illini took advantage of a relatively soft Bears middle by spreading and running, as well as dragging, waggling, and otherwise sending outside receivers back to the middle of the field for 5-10 yard dinks and dunks.  They were really efficient.

 

            Although the Illini didn't bring their band, the brought their cheerleaders, including Arnold Cheerleader, who would pick up 3 female cheerleaders and carry them around for a while during plays to try and fire up the crowd.  Though numerous, the Illini crowd was by no means the most boisterous group of visitors ever to visit Memorial.  When the Illini scored, their cheerleaders would rush into the endzone and do push ups, and then do "tumbling runs" across the South endzone in front of their fans such as those done by gymnasts during the Olympics.  The cheerleaders also had those signs telling the crowd to say "defense" and the like, but even right next to them you couldn't make out what they were saying.

 

            For the remainder of the half, the Illini moved the ball with ease, and were helped by Cal penalties, though these penalties did not make the difference.  On their second drive, we had them stopped deep on their own side of the field, but an offsides on a punt (a punt!) gave them a first down and immediately after they received such gift, they moved the ball efficiently down to field for another 7.  There was also a drive saving questionable pass interference call (I being in a much better position to determine what happened 46 rows up than was the official standing right next to the play), that they didn't replay on the Bear Vision.  The Illini also seemed to get preferential non-calls, as a clear late hit out of bounds (helmet to helmet) was not called the personal foul that it was, and late in the game an obvious grounding was not called.  Pac-10 ref's.  It would've been better to have Big-10 ref's, I tell 'ya.

 

            The half time show involved Cal Band and Cal Alumni band playing pop rock songs, and was not the best half time show our great band has ever put on.  What was exciting was when the women's soccer team was announced.

 

            The game was really a tale of two halves, and it was obvious from the opening gun of the second half that the Bears were a changed group.  You could just feel the Bears OL take over the game and start pushing those Illini defenders out of the way.  It was palpable.  When Ayoob hit Okeith for a long gain and a touchdown the game started to turn.  The Illini, on the other hand, started the third quarter off well, and moved the ball throwing it, but their first two drives stalled.  After that, Zook became doggedly insistent upon the run, and for some reason abandoned his successful passing game.  As an admittedly ignorant fan, it seems that Zook's abandonment of the run, combined with his  failure to go for it on 4th and long with 4:00 minutes left in the 4th, killed whatever chance the Illini may have had to win the game, and those decisions were completely indecipherable. 

 

            From our viewpoint, however, things started to look all right.  It was very comforting to feel the change in momentum, in fact, one of the big, if not the biggest, change under Tedford is the "dependability" of the team.  For 25 years, I have always said that there was virtually no lead that was "Cal Proof", i.e., there was no lead that we couldn't blow at the end.  Some of the early JT games (like Colorado State, for example), did nothing to change that opinion.  But now, after the passage of a couple of JT years, it's not like I don't feel that we can blow a lead (what's that, a triple negative?), but I don't have the same feeling of dread going into the 4th quarter and the same certainty that we will do something stupid to beat ourselves and wind up losing.  That is an ENORMOUS change from before, and I thank JT for instilling such feeling in me and apparently (and more importantly) the team.

 

            So things start to go really well, we get a touchdown, they get a field goal, we get another touchdown and members of the Cal Band run out to the South Endzone and do a mocking portrayal of the Illinois touchdown push ups and then barrel rolls to simulate the Illini back flips.  Sorry, it was funny, even though it wasn't the most sportsman-like display ever, but what the heck, we DID play their fight song before the game, and for a freaking eternity, I might add.

 

            So we win, have a quick exit down the I-5, and turn the Sirius radio to the Florida Tennessee game.  When that was over, we listened to 'SC Arkansas, just as 'SC was going for it on 4th down in the 3rd when they were up by like 30.  Now speaking of bad sportsmanship . . . .