Oakland Tribune: Big Game finally has Cal, Stanford on even footing

AT LONG LAST, after a decade of dominance by one side or the other, the Bay Area has a real Big Game again instead of just half of one. No more Tom Holmoe or Buddy Teevens to gum up what used to be a pretty mean cross-the-pond showdown.  The 108th game between Cal and Stanford finally means something to both schools this year besides who gets The Axe and who gets to leave the snotty in-your-face phone messages to counterparts across the Bay.

Stanford can become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2001 with a victory over Cal, while the Golden Bears can reaffirm their diminishing but assured bowl status as well as keep their thumbs on their biggest rival. The stakes haven't been that high since 1996, the last time both schools went to bowl games in the same year.  What's more, there's actually some real doubt about who'll win the Big Game on Saturday at Stanford. The Golden Bears are officially favored by 4, but I'd rate it a "pick'em" if for no other reason than the uncertainty of both teams' quarterback situation. I might rate it a"pick'em" regardless, even if it were assured Joe Ayoob and Trent Edwards were playing QB throughout. Too many variables.

That's a good thing, though, even if both Cal and Stanford would just as soon beat the other 56-3. It's always better when the Big Game at least shapes up as a relatively even game, but that hasn't been the case in quite awhile. In three years under Jeff Tedford, Cal has dominated Stanford like at no other time since the Pappy Waldorf days. The Bears have outscored the Cardinal 99-29, including a 41-6 whipping last year at Memorial Stadium.  Cal doesn't want to let go of that edge, of course, especially with this year's game in Palo Alto. The Bears haven't won consecutive games on the Stanford campus since 1949 and 1951 under Waldorf, and no Cal coach has won his first four games against Stanford since legendary Andy Smith guided the Bears to six straight wins from 1918 through 1923. That's some pretty heavy history.  But Old Blues know all about heavy history, too. In the seven years prior to Tedford's arrival, the Golden Bears licked Cardinal boot for seven straight seasons while Tyrone Willingham was the Stanford coach. Cal finally got a win against Tyrone, but not until he arrived in Seattle this year as the new coach at Washington.  So is the epic series about to swing back the other way with Walt Harris now running a far more efficient operation at Stanford — not to mention Bill Walsh roaming the press box as the temp AD — or will Cal continue to maintain its edge under Tedford?

There are opinions running hot both ways this week. But in the end, it's really the doubt that counts.  In other words, it's high time for a significant Big Game that shapes up as relatively even and plays out as such. No, it's not 9-2 vs. 8-3, but it beats 3-8 vs. 4-7. There have been a few of those kinds of Big Games over the past decade, but they were forgettable frays played by bad teams.  This season is very reminiscent of 1996, when Cal won its first five games in Steve Mariucci's only season as coach only to limp home and finish 6-6 after a loss in the Big Game and an Aloha Bowl defeat against Navy. Stanford was 2-5 in'96, Willingham's second year, before rattling off five straight victories, including 41-21 over Cal and a 38-0 romp over Michigan State in the Sun Bowl.  Sound familiar? Cal opened the 2005 season with five straight wins, just like'96, but has lost four of five and enters the Big Game 6-4. Stanford opened this season 1-2, including that unfathomable home loss to UC Davis and a subsequent bludgeoning by Oregon, but has cobbled and clawed back to 5-4. Interestingly, both teams have a mortifying last-minute loss to UCLA on their resumes.  Bottom line, it looks like it should be a very interesting game if not necessarily a blockbuster. At this point, a modest confrontation between two aspiring programs is enough, because it may portend even bigger Big Games to come in the near future.  Following the'96 season, that definitely looked to be the scenario, but Mariucci suddenly left Cal to become the San Francisco 49ers coach, Holmoe was 3-8 in his first year and Cal never got significantly better under him, only worse. Stanford had a couple of more bowl seasons under Willingham, including a Rose Bowl appearance in 1999, but Teevens' 2-9 first season after Willingham departed for Notre Dame sustained the imbalance between Cal and Stanford. Now, at least for this year anyway, the two schools appear back on serve against each other competitively. Maybe, just maybe, that means they'll serve up a classic Big Game. Those of us stuck in the middle without a rooting interest can only hope.