BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -The hotel ballroom was silent that Friday night, with every California player immersed in final game preparations and his own thoughts. That's when Marshawn Lynch roared at the top of his lungs: "Roll call, defense!'' His teammates were stunned, but they instinctively replied, "Get the ball back!'' - just as they do in practice every day.
On the night before the 12th-ranked Golden Bears beat Oregon for the biggest victory in their current seven-game winning streak, that impromptu chant was almost as surprising to the Golden Bears as the player who started it. That's because Lynch normally dislikes attention even more than sprained ankles, opposing linebackers and formal dress codes. His reserve has made it difficult for Cal to promote him as a Heisman Trophy candidate, and even many of his teammates say they didn't know much about him beyond his bare-bones biography: An Oakland native who survived childhood in his hard-scrabble part of town to become the biggest star yet in the Bears' five-season resurgence under coach Jeff Tedford.
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