Cal left tackle Mike Tepper didn't want a bye week — until the bye week actually happened. The Bears played their most complete game of the season in a 34-28 win over Stanford in the Big Game on Nov. 21. Considering that came after a 24-16 victory over then-No. 18 Arizona, Cal was feeling pretty good about itself. The last thing the Bears wanted was to put an artificial obstacle in front of that momentum — until the scars from playing six weeks in a row began to surface. "Usually by Wednesday, stuff stops hurting, and Thursday I'm feeling pretty good," Tepper said. "But (last) Wednesday, I thought maybe the bye week wasn't such a bad thing after all. I was pretty beat up. But I really did want to keep playing. We were on a roll."
After using the bye week to heal and rest, the No. 19 Bears now have to regain their momentum as they prepare for Saturday's regular-season finale at Washington. Cal (8-3, 5-3 Pac-10) has won five of its past six and will achieve a 10-win season if it defeats the Huskies (4-7, 3-5) and wins a bowl game.
"We were feeling pretty high," Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed said. "It's something you want to keep rolling. But at the same time, we had a lot of guys dinged up. We want to get that energy back. Hopefully, we're coming back fresh now and ready to close out the season."
No comments:
Post a Comment