By Jonathan Okanes
And now, presenting Cal's last game of the season. A game rich with all the tradition, pomp and circumstance appropriate for a season finale. A game against ... Washington? It seems a bit odd to have the Bears wrap up the regular season against an opponent not named Stanford. But that's what Cal will do Dec. 6 when Washington visits Memorial Stadium. The game originally was scheduled for Oct. 11, but the teams agreed to move it to the end of the season because they each would have had nine consecutive contests without a bye week. It was a decision made in the name of practicality, not history. "I think it's fitting to end your season (against your rival), but unfortunately in this particular case, we couldn't do that," Washington Coach Tyrone Willingham said.
Since 1946, Cal has ended the regular season against an opponent other than Stanford only five times, and the past two weren't originally scheduled that way. In 2004, the Bears had to reschedule a visit to Southern Mississippi after a hurricane led to a postponement. In 2001, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 forced Cal and Rutgers to move their game to the end of the season. The Bears finished the 1993 and 1968 seasons at Hawaii and played Washington State in Tokyo to finish the 1987 season. Both Willingham and Cal Coach Jeff Tedford said they prefer to end the season against their rival, but it made more sense to deviate from tradition this year. Many teams end the season against their natural rival, but programs will finish off against other opponents now and then.
Washington State visits Hawaii on Saturday to end the season, one week after beating Washington in the annual Apple Cup. USC finishes the season with Notre Dame and UCLA, but there have been years in which the Trojans have ended the year against the Fighting Irish. "As the season goes for us right now, having our last two games against Notre Dame and then over at the Rose Bowl (against UCLA) is as good as it gets for us," USC Coach Pete Carroll said. "I wish it was always like that. The season builds and the anticipation and the excitement at the finish adds to it to a point where our fans can't even handle it because it's so exciting. I wish we could all do that." Tedford said he believes offensive tackle Mike Tepper will petition the NCAA to earn a sixth year of eligibility after missing this season while recovering from left-pectoral muscle surgery.
Tepper redshirted his first year in 2004 but was forced to miss the 2005 season after getting hit by a car in Berkeley when he tried to help a female companion who was getting harassed by some men in the car. Tepper was projected as the Bears' starting left tackle this season. "We just have to figure it out," Tedford said. "We feel like he has a pretty good case for it."
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