Saturday, September 02, 2006

Contra Costa Times: A guide to Bears vs. Vols

Tennessee has overwhelming home record against non-SEC teams; nice weather expected for today's game
By Jay Heater
When you sit down to enjoy the Cal at Tennessee football game on ESPN (today, 2:30 p.m.), you might be pondering some of these questions:
Q. Why would the Bears open a season at Tennessee before 110,000 screaming, orange-clad Vol fans?
A According to Cal deputy director of athletics Teresa Kuehn, "We wanted to play with the big boys."
Q. What does Cal coach Jeff Tedford think about playing at Tennessee, then hosting Minnesota to start a season?
A "At the time, we thought it was important to schedule Tennessee," said Tedford, who added the powerful Vols to the future schedule shortly after his arrival in 2002. "But I wouldn't want to live every year playing not just Tennessee, but Minnesota, back-to-back."
Q. What kind of payout is Cal getting?
A Actually, nothing. The Bears do receive $200,000 from Tennessee, but Tennessee will get $200,000 next season when the Volunteers travel to Berkeley.
Q. How have other non-SEC foes fared at Tennessee?
A Over the past 10 years, Tennessee is 24-2 against nonconference opponents at home. The lone losses came against Miami in 2002 and Notre Dame in 2004.
Q. Who are the Vols' best three players?
A Offensive tackle Arron Sears, tailback Arian Foster and defensive tackle Justin Harrell. Sears is considered one of the nation's top offensive linemen, Foster rushed for more than 100 yards in all five games he started last season, and Harrell had 71/2 sacks last season.
Q. How many Cal fans are expected at the game?
A Cal sold out its allotment of about 5,000 tickets. With Cal fans in the area also going, there should be in the neighborhood of 10,000. That means that Tennessee will have only a 100,000-fan edge.
Q. How much of a factor will the crowd be?
A If you can't hear when 60,000 people are yelling, it doesn't matter much if you add another 50,000. The Bears have been in this situation before playing at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or at Autzen Stadium in Oregon. As former Cal offensive lineman Jack Clark said of his game at Neyland Stadium in 1977, "The crowd noise only affects you if you give them something to yell about." The Bears won that one 27-17.
Q. What Pac-10 stadium most closely resembles Neyland Stadium?
A Tennessee and Washington have the only stadiums adjacent to bodies of water. You can float to the game.
Q. What is the capacity of Neyland Stadium?
A It supposedly seats 104,079 but there were 109,061 at the Tennessee-Florida game in 2004. It is the nation's third-largest collegiate football stadium.
Q. Because there will be an SEC officiating crew, how much will that impact the game?
A Perhaps the biggest impact will be when Bears tailback Marshawn Lynch is running the ball. Officiating crews on the West Coast are familiar with his strength and ability to break tackles when the play seemingly is stopped. SEC officials might blow the whistle a bit early, perhaps robbing Lynch of extra yards.
Q. When was the last time a ranked Cal team played another ranked team in the opener?
A It came in 1976 when No. 15 Cal faced No. 16 Georgia in Athens, Ga. The Bears lost 36-24.
Q. Is the weather supposed to be a major factor?
A Actually, no. The highs are projected in the low 80s and the humidity is not expected to soar.
Q. Who has the greatest name on the Tennessee roster?
A That would have been backup quarterback Jim Bob Cooter, but he was dismissed from the team this summer.
Q. Why orange and white for Tennessee?
A The colors were that of the American daisy that grew in profusion on campus.

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