Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Daily Cal: Midweek Notebook

Matt Kawahara

When Jahvid Best talked to the media on Nov. 18, for the first time since sustaining a concussion on Nov. 7, the tailback made it clear that he wanted to be back in uniform for the Cal football team's regular-season finale against Washington. On Tuesday, coach Jeff Tedford made it clear that that will not happen.

Best was in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Tuesday, having his head evaluated to make sure that there are no lingering effects from the concussion. Michael Collins, a nationally renowned sports concussion clinician and researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was the specialist who saw Best, although Tedford said that the junior hasn't experienced symptoms such as headaches for a couple of weeks.

"It's still just making sure that the head is 100 percent completely clear," Tedford said. "It's something that we said after that happened, that we'd by no means take any risk or anything like that with him."

Best's back is still bothering him, Tedford said.

After their trip to Washington, the shortest amount of time that the Bears would have before playing in a bowl game would be roughly two weeks -- the Las Vegas Bowl, which Cal could theoretically fall to, is on Dec. 21. That, of course, would be Best's last chance to play this season. If Best does not return for Cal's bowl, he will face the decision over the offseason of whether or not to declare for the NFL Draft.

Link to rest of article.

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