The 19th-ranked California Golden Bears will try to put themselves in position for a better bowl game this weekend, as they wrap up their regular season slate against the Washington Huskies in Pac-10 play at Husky Stadium. The Bears were idle this past week, as they had time to enjoy their 34-28 upset at nationally-ranked Stanford on November 21st. "That's a big one right there," said head coach Jeff Tedford. "Stanford's got a great football team. I'm really proud of our kids, our staff, the preparation that we put in the week." Coupled with an upset of nationally-ranked Arizona (24-16) the prior week and Cal defeated a pair of Top 25 teams in consecutive weeks for the first time since 1950. It has been a quite a turnaround for the Bears, who have won five of their last six games after being outscored 72-6 in a pair of losses to Oregon and USC to being Pac-10 play. Now at 8-3 overall, Cal is assured of its school-record seventh straight bowl game, but where and when, will be determined by this weekend's outcome.
As for the Huskies, they finally found their way back into the win column last weekend, blanking Washington State, 30-0, to take the Apple Cup. "I'm really, really proud of our football team," said head coach Steve Sarkisian. "We made a huge emphasis on making this a physical game, playing for 60 minutes, relentlessly and not worrying about what the score is, but playing the fashion of football that I know we're capable of playing." It marked the program's first shutout since 1997 and snapped a four-game slide by Washington, which last won against Arizona back on October 10th. The Huskies are now 4-7 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10 in their first season under Sarkisian and it's hard to ask for anymore considering the squad went winless a year ago.
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