By Rob Calonge
Link. (If you click on the link, you can leave your thoughts for Rob).
The Bears are again in the polls, but the question on many minds is 'How long?' We are very fortunate that one of our partner sites, a Cal Bears Examiner Best Blog, has been pondering this very question. The staff at California Golden Blogs has been thinking about it and has graced us here at CBE with those very thoughts.
Like Sisyphus, Cal fans feel as if they are destined to push the same boulder up the same hill for all of eternity. What is that boulder? Hope. If we are lucky, it's hope! If we are lucky, a glimmer of hope appears, until that damnable other shoe drops and, with it, that godforsaken boulder. Whether it's being prohibited from attending a bowl game for the first bowl-eligible season in years or finding new and inventive ways to screw ourselves out of the Rose Bowl, Cal seems to always do what it can to crush fan's dreams at the world's worst moment.
Take last year, for example. Ranked #2 in the nation, Cal loses in the final moments against OSU; a more emotionally devastating ending could barely have been scripted. And from that disaster, the team splintered and a potential National Title Contender turned into a pumpkin well before midnight. Unfortunately, heartbreak like that has been more common than anybody has liked. Like the year before, when Cal tied with USC for the Pac-10 title, but was DeSean Jackson's big toe away from the outright title and that long-awaited Rose Bowl berth. Or 2004, when some Mack Brown behind-the-scenes lobbying kept Cal out of the Rose Bowl even though they had only 1 loss, in which they outplayed eventual national champion USC.
From that repeated punching, a nebbish fan base has arisen. Like some sort of latter-day Woody Allen, every insecurity is magnified, every fault increased. Every reason to think we aren't good enough is given way too much credence. That brings us to today. October, 2008. Cal is 4-1 with 2 blowout wins over "inferior" competition, 2 solid wins over competitive Power Conference teams and 1 perplexing loss. But not a Pac-10 loss, so it's not *that* important in the scheme of things. You would think that Cal fans would be ecstatic! You would think Cal fans would be giving many compliments to Coach Tedford for crafting such early season success, especially in such a parity-filled conference. If we were USC fans, we'd be buying tickets to Pasadena already.
You would be wrong. Many fans are either expecting the inevitable painful losses or are actually in open revolt. Open revolt, you say? Over a 4-1 team? Yes! Only in Berkeley. Cal fans seem upset that Nate Longshore started the game against ASU, a pre-season Pac-10 contender. Because he played poorly? No, we won and he threw 3 TDs. It's not as much how he played, but more *that* he played. Because Nate Longshore has yet to achieve the goal of being Kevin Riley, people are actually, genuinely, insane-ily UPSET over our 24-14 victory. I have to apologize, because I am sure I've confused you. People being upset over the winning QB, because he wasn't another human being? Yes. Allow me to explain.
See, last year, Nate Longshore guided the team to an undefeated 5-0 record with victories over 2 ranked teams. Cal was ranked #2 in the nation. But Longshore suffered an ankle injury and was not himself for the rest of the season. He played well enough to keep the team in the games, but bad enough to throw at least one back-breaking 4th quarter interception in each loss. Cal racked up brutal loss after brutal loss, falling to 7-6 on the season. Kevin Riley, our backup QB, who had ended the Oregon State game on a rather terrible note, became the Man Of The People. Cal fans started suffering from Backup QB-itis, affixing amazing traits and abilities on to a redshirt freshman who had exactly 4 quarters of live college football under his belt. Toxic battles erupted between fans as they broke into factions. Longshorites versus Rilerians. Sunni versus Shi'a, Catholic versus Protestant, Jew versus everybody ever, nobody had ever seen *anything* like this!
But that was 2007, this is 2008. Entering this year, Cal had both QBs, Longshore and Riley, vying for the starting spot. The most vocal fans were Rilerians, ready to support Kevin Riley no matter what. When Kevin Riley was named the starter a week before MSU, people went crazy. At the preseason Cal FanFest, Longshore didn't even show up, whereas Riley was mobbed by fans just a few steps after he got onto the field. The worst possible thing took place: we got hope!
Riley proceeded to then guide the team to victories over Michigan State, Washington State, and Colorado State with a loss to Maryland mixed in. Even though Cal was racking up points and Riley was showing flashes of brilliance, his play remained rather uneven. Tedford said he was re-opening the QB controversy. Rilerians were apoplectic over the thought that not only might Longshore return to their life, but also that Tedford wasn't giving Riley the benefit of the doubt that he gave to Longshore in 2007. Many assumed that Tedford was merely trying to light a fire under Riley. Push him as Cal entered a tougher stretch of games. When Riley was announced as the starter on the stadium videoboard immediately prior to the ASU game, it seemed that that was the case. But then, stunningly, Longshore ran out to start the game. And Riley never took a snap. Longshore was not amazing, but did throw for about 200 yards, throwing 3 TDs and 1 pick. Not perfect, but comparing any QB to the standard of "perfection" will find them wanting. Cal won 24-14. Yay, right? Cal wins! Go Bears?
No. Instead, some Cal fans exploded over the decision to play Longshore in the first place. Forget the victory, forget the 3 TDs, his actual presence was so odious that Coach Tedford made a big mistake. Maybe not a mistake for the ASU game, because other non-Longshore factors managed to propel Cal to victory. But that's the thing about Cal fans, even when we win, we think we've lost. Even when we win today, we are pessimistic about tomorrow.
What will it take to cure this malady, to finally get that boulder up over the hill? Probably a Rose Bowl victory. Cal hasn't been there in about half a century. So, to play in and win the Rose Bowl would be an amazing boon and an unbelievable wealth of manna for this boon- and manna-starved fanbase. No Cal fan could grouse or grumble if we were to win the Rose Bowl. Unless, y'know, Nate Longshore leads us to the victory.
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