BERKELEY -- California reached the top 10 this season mostly on reputation and potential, so quarterback Joe Ayoob is eager to win a game that will prove the Golden Bears deserve their lofty ranking. At 5-0, the 10th-ranked Bears are off to their best start since 1996. All five victories were by at least 15 points, and they're averaging more than 40 points per game while limiting opponents to 10.6. But although coach Jeff Tedford won't acknowledge it, Cal has faced only middling competition. The Bears' first five opponents are a combined 5-19 so far this season, and Cal is the nation's highest-ranked team without a game against a Top 25 opponent. Everything changes Saturday in Pasadena when the Bears visit UCLA, also unbeaten and ranked 20th. With a victory, Cal could prove its stellar start wasn't because of the average teams across the line. “It's going to be a good chance to see where we're at — a good measuring stick," said Ayoob, who has completed 64.4 percent of his throws after an infamous 0-for-13 start to his Cal career. "It's exciting. I didn't even really realize I was playing in the Rose Bowl. It didn't hit me until now. I guess I could get too pumped up for it, but I think we're pretty prepared."
With another victory, the Bears would have their first 6-0 start since 1950. They've won their last eight Pac-10 games, and their 12-game winning streak in the regular season in the nation's third-longest. But UCLA is an impressive 4-0, highlighted by a victory over Oklahoma. With two Bay Area natives — quarterback Drew Olson and running back Maurice Drew — leading the offense, the Bruins have scored more than 42 points per game. Though Tedford always avoids any suggestion that one opponent might possibly be tougher than another, he believes the setting and the sellout crowd will be a test that his Bears haven't taken yet. "This will step it up a notch," Tedford said Tuesday. "It's going to be one of those games, like I told the team ... this is why you play. A Top 25 opponent on the road, in the Rose Bowl, it doesn't get much better." By most accounts, Tedford is remarkably effective in preventing his players from thinking about their place in the college football world. Though he has built a powerful program that's been ranked in the Top 25 for 19 straight weeks, he professes apathy when asked to discuss rankings — and he forbids such talk in the locker room. "I get the sense they understand," Tedford said. "I've been very pleased with our mind-set. Our guys have been focused for every game. It hasn't really wavered at all. That's not us, I don't believe. We don't ever really talk about rankings. There are enough veterans on this team to understand that it doesn't really mean anything." Last year, Tedford refused to acknowledge his team's hopes to play in the Rose Bowl until the final two weeks of the season. Cal missed out on its BCS dreams despite going 11-1, and lost to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl. So the Bears' perfect record this season means nothing to Tedford, who was unusually vocal about a few lapses in his players' otherwise easy home victories over Sacramento State and Illinois. Even a 28-0 victory over Arizona last week wasn't much cause for celebration. And Tedford is doing his best these days to avoid talking about top-ranked Southern California, even though reporters and boosters can't help looking ahead to the schools' meeting on Nov. 12. "Everybody keeps bringing up USC," Tedford said, shaking his head before lapsing into "one-game-at-a-time" coachspeak. There's sound logic behind Tedford's adamant stance against speculation. Given Cal's perfect record, improving offense and surprisingly stellar defense that hasn't allowed an offensive touchdown in 10 quarters, the Bears easily might get a bit full of themselves if Tedford's staff didn't watch it. "The coaches basically put a blinder on us," right tackle Ryan O'Callaghan said. "As we get higher in the schedule, we know UCLA is a good team, and it only gets harder. I like playing better teams."
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