ESPN just moved Cal’s recruiting class form #22 to #20, leaping ahead of Notre Dame and Washington. The Pac-10 teams ahead of Cal are USC at #10, Stanford at #14, and UCLA at #15.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
ESPN: Cal's Recruiting Class Moves up to #20
J.R. Ferguson Picks Louisiana State over Cal
J.R. Ferguson,a 6-foot-3, 270-pound defensive end from Hargrave Military Academy has announced that he’s headed to LSU. He was considering both Cal and Miami.
ESPN: Alabama Says No Thanks to Package Deal
Not only is Alabama coach Nick Saban one of the best recruiters in the business, but he's also one of the pickiest when it comes to handing out scholarships. Keenan Allen, a highly rated receiver/safety prospect from Greensboro, N.C., was one of Alabama's biggest targets this recruiting season and had been committed to the Crimson Tide for some time. But when his half-brother entered the picture, former Buffalo player Zach Maynard, things changed.
Saban wasn't interested in playing two-for-one, at least not when it came to giving out another scholarship in this class. So in one of those strange-but-not-so-uncommon recruiting stories, Allen ended up signing with California on Wednesday and is taking his half-brother with him along with two other players from the Greensboro area.
USA Today: California makes late rush with signings of Keenan Allen and Gabe King
California looks to be one of the big winners on signing day. The Golden Bears have lured five-star defensive back Keenan Allen of Northern Guilford in Greensboro, N.C., to Berkeley. Considered the No. 5 prospect in the country by Rivals.com, Allen was committed to Alabama and also had Clemson as a finalist. In the end, he chose to join his brother Zach Maynard, who played quarterback for Buffalo this season and is transferring to Cal, and his high school teammate Chris McCain, a linebacker that switched from Oregon to the Golden Bears on Wednesday. It didn't stop there for Jeff Tedford. He also got the signature of defensive end Gabe King of South Eugene in Eugene, Ore. King is considered the 30th overall prospect by Rivals.
Sports Illustrated: HUGE STEAL FOR CAL FOOTBALL: Keenan Allen Signs with Cal over Alabama
Excerpt:
Top safety Keenan Allen originally committed to Alabama, but dropped the Tide for Cal.
Keenan Allen, Rivals.com's top-ranked safety, has dropped Alabama and signed with Cal. That means a quadruple-dose of good news for the Golden Bears. Allen, from Greensboro, N.C., is the nation's No. 5 overall prospect according to Rivals. And according to the Greensboro News and Record, Allen will bring some friends with him to Berkeley, including his half-brother, Zach Maynard. Maynard started at quarterback for Buffalo in 2009 but announced he would transfer after Bulls coach Turner Gill left for Kansas. One of Allen's high school teammates, linebacker Chris McCain, also signed with Cal. Another friend, defensive end Gabe King, also signed.
King, ranked No. 30 overall by Rivals, lost an eligibility appeal that would have allowed him to play alongside Allen this past season. North Carolina's high school athletic association banned King from playing in the state after it accused him of supplying a false address for school eligibility purposes. Unable to play in North Carolina, King moved to Eugene, Ore. Though some assumed King would sign with Oregon, plenty of schools kept recruiting him. Allen originally committed to Alabama, but when he learned the Crimson Tide didn't have room for Maynard, he changed his mind. Now, northern California will have a distinctive North Carolina flavor. If Cal coach Jeff Tedford is smart, he'll make sure the Golden Bears' training table adds vinegar-based barbecue sauce.
Greensboro News Record: Allen chooses Cal; half-brother, friends going with him
Keenan Allen is headed to the University of California at Berkeley. And he's taking family and friends with him. The senior football player at Northern Guilford High School signed his national letter of intent with the Pac-10 Conference program this morning in a ceremony in downtown Greensboro.
Joining him will be his half-brother, Zach Maynard, who will transfer from the University of Buffalo; Gabe King, a former Page defensive end who moved to Oregon in September; and Chris McCain, a Northern Guilford teammate.
Allen, a Parade All-America and the News & Record Player of the Year, accounted for 53 touchdowns this season, made 145 tackles and eight interceptions, averaged 43.5 yards per punt and led Northern Guilford to a 12-2 record and its first conference title. He appeared in the U.S. Army All-American Game on national television two weeks ago, forcing two fumbles and nearly running a punt back for a touchdown. Allen was rated the No. 1 safety in the United States by Scout.com, No. 5 overall by Rivals.com and No. 33 overall in the ESPNU top 150.
California went 8-5 in 2009 and lost to Utah 37-27 in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. Cal will open the 2010 season at home Sept. 4 against UC Davis.
SF Chronicle: A-list players could upgrade 'D'
Cal fans, weary of watching Washington and Utah players prance into the end zone in the final two games last season, might find solace in this: The Bears landed several potentially dynamic defensive players in their 2010 recruiting class, which they will announce today. The Bears are expected to sign one of the top linebacker groups in the country, highlighted by Chris Martin, who went to Bishop O'Dowd-Oakland before spending his senior season at Grandview High in Aurora, Colo. Martin counts as the most decorated of Cal's 17 recruits, though he could have company.
Gabe King, a highly regarded defensive end from Eugene, Ore., is "99.9 percent" certain to sign with Cal today, according to one source. If Keenan Allen joins King - Allen, the No. 1-ranked safety in the country, apparently is considering Cal after earlier committing to Alabama - then the Bears' class would rise into another realm. "That would be huge," said Brandon Huffman, West regional manager for scout.com. "Then it may be one of the best defensive classes in the country, outside of Florida."
King and Allen would lift the Bears into the top 20 nationally. It's an annual exercise in guesswork, of course, but ESPN.com ranks Cal's class at No. 22 in the country. Rivals.com puts the Bears at No. 23 and scout.com has them at No. 38. Part of the ranking is a function of how many scholarships schools have to offer, and Cal will have a smaller class than usual. But the linebackers on their way to Berkeley - namely, Martin, Cecil Whiteside of Newport Beach (Orange County) and David Wilkerson of Monte Vista-Danville - should give the Bears a needed boost.
They struggled to replace pass-rushing linebacker Zack Follett last season, and that's a role Martin could fill quickly. Scout.com ranked him as the No. 1 prep linebacker in the nation. "I would expect him to make an immediate impact at any school," Huffman said. "He's been college-ready for two years."
Martin and Whiteside are projected as outside linebackers. Wilkerson is pegged to play inside. Cal also nabbed a coveted running back in Trajuan Briggs, who originally seemed headed for USC. Briggs had a big junior season at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa (Los Angeles County), then missed most of his senior season because of a foot injury. He enrolled at Cal this semester and will participate in spring practice. Other notable players expected to sign with the Bears today include quarterback Austin Hinder of Steamboat Springs, Colo., and offensive tackle Alex Crosthwaite of San Diego.
SJ Mercury: Signing day news and notes: Cal's home run, Stanford loses Zumwalt and more
The first item on the docket is Cal: Signing day has been good to the Bears so far — very, very good.
They reportedly locked up Keenan Allen, the top-ranked safety in the country, in addition to well-regarded defensive end Chris McCain. In Allen (scholarship offer from Alabama) and OLB Chris Martin, the Bears have two players ranked No. 1 at their position by scout.com. I’d imagine Cal’s class will be ranked in the top-12/15/20 nationally when the day is done.
(And I’d encourage everyone to keep ratings, rankings and stars in perspective: They mean something, but they do not mean everything — not close to everything.)
* The NLI Day news isn’t so good for Stanford: Huntington Beach linebacker Jordan Zumwalt, who committed to Stanford months ago but kept his recruitment open, is signing with UCLA. This is a blow to the Cardinal’s class because he’s a top-notch player and Stanford did a ton of work to get him admitted to school (or so I’ve been told). But it’s not an unexpected blow: Zumwalt had hinted that a change in plans was coming, and Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel is known as a first-rate closer — not a guy you want to be fending off at the last minute.
* Also worth noting: Even though Pete Carroll is gone, USC hasn’t lost its closing ability. The Trojans have received several commitments from four- and five-star prospects in the last 24 hours: Receiver Markeith Ambles and cornerback Nickell Robey. And I’m guessing there will be more.
Tuscaloosa News: Keenan Allen Drops Tide, Signs With Cal
Turns out the rumor mill and the message boards were right this time. Five-star football prospect Keenan Allen, an elite safety who had verbally committed to Alabama in November, said this morning that he'll attend the University of California at Berkley instead. In the week leading up to National Signing Day, word began to get out that Allen was considering Clemson. Last weekend, he reportedly visited California with his half-brother, quarterback Zach Maynard, who decided to transfer from the University of Buffalo when head coach Turner Gill took the job as head coach at Kansas.. Penn State was even being mentioned as a possible destination for Allen, the nation's top-rated safety according to recruiting analysts for Scout.com and Rivals.com.
"If Turner Gill doesn't leave Buffalo we aren't having this conversation," said Otis Yelverton, who aided Allen during the recruiting process. Yelverton said Wednesday that he has received death threats from Alabama football fans. Allen's mother, Doria Lang, was asked if the family plans to move to California now. "I don't know that yet," she said. Lang and Yelverton had a Tuscaloosa News correspondent removed from the restaurant where the signing ceremony was held after the question about the family moving was asked.
Where does this development leave Alabama? Without the 6-foot-2, 194-pound Allen, the national champions slipped to No. 4 in the latest 2010 recruiting class rankings of both Scout.com and Rivals.com going into signing day. In fact, the latter service inserted archrival Auburn's haul at third overall.
"That'll probably cause the (message) boards to explode," Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Barry Every said before Allen's announcement at a downtown restaurant in Greensboro.
Every, however, said the Crimson Tide should be fine despite the late setback.
"They're pretty stacked at safety, to be honest," he said. In this year's recruiting class alone, Alabama is bringing in two four-star safeties, in-state prospects Jarrick Williams and Nick Perry. The Tide also snagged five-star cornerback DeMarcus Milliner, who at about 6-2 has a 50-50 chance of moving to free safety, according to Every. Neither Every nor Scout.com analyst Chad Simmons could see Alabama head coach Nick Saban going so far as to offer Allen's half-brother a scholarship just to lure the higher-rated player. It's not clear yet how big a factor that relationship was in Allen's decision. Simmons said he wasn't sure the Alabama coaching staff would "reach" for another prospect just to fill Allen's scholarship spot. "Bama's going to be satisfied with their class even if they land nobody else," Simmons said.
Sporting News: Cal lands two SN100 players, Allen and King
They were high school teammates for a short time in Greensboro, N.C., before one of them moved out of state--but now they'll be training together again. Sporting News' No. 58 prospect, DE Gabe King, and No. 70 prospect, DB Keenan Allen, both signed with Cal today. Allen had been an Alabama commitment since November, but when his brother, Buffalo sophomore quarterback Zach Maynard, transferred and was on the market, Allen wanted to play with his brother. Alabama wouldn't offer Maynard, so Allen dropped his pledge to the Crimson Tide.
Maynard will also join the Golden Bears, as well as another of Allen's prep teammates--four-star LB Chris McCain. McCain had previously been committed to Oregon. In a summer interview with Sporting News, King raved about Allen. "I've been guarding Keenan a lot when we're practicing by ourselves, and I've seen the best of the best, and he's the best by far," King told Sporting News.
Contra Costa Times: Cal's top recruit Chris Martin prepped at Bishop O'Dowd until senior season
Winning might be the greatest recruiting tool, but Chris Martin is an example that there are many other factors that go into choosing a college.
Martin, a highly decorated senior from Grandview High in Aurora, Colo., who played his first three prep seasons at Bishop O'Dowd, is expected to sign with Cal today on National Letter of Intent Day. Martin is the No. 1 outside linebacker in the country according to scout.com and the 10th-best overall prospect. Rivals.com ranks Martin as the nation's 18th-best player.
Cal went 8-5 last season, but the Bears have had trouble keeping up with the national elite in recent years. Cal has finished each of the past three seasons outside of the Associated Press Top 25.
Martin could have gone to just about any major college football power. He orally committed to Notre Dame but switched to the Bears after Irish coach Charlie Weis was fired.
It made for interesting timing when Martin committed to Cal just after the Bears ended the regular season with a 42-10 dud at Washington. Cal then went on to lose to Utah in the Poinsettia Bowl.
But Martin said he wasn't bothered by the way the Bears closed out the season.
SF Examiner: Another receiver and now someone to throw to him
Rob Calonge
Cal has now received its third wide receiver commit, but now Tedford also has his annual Elite 11 quarterback recruit as well.
Colorado's top 2010 recruit, Austin Hinder, made it official this morning at 7:53 AM PST, with the faxing of his letter of intent to the Golden Bears. The 6'4", 185-pound quarterback will join Cal's Kevin Riley, Brock Mansion, and Allan Bridgeford as the fourth of Cal's former Elite 11 signal callers.
According to Scouts INC., "Hinder has loads of upside to develop into an outstanding college player." That 'upside' tends to relate to being somewhat of a 'project' for Coach Tedford to mold.
Scout.com says this about Hinder: "Hinder is an athletic quarterback that is at his best when he is on the move. He struggles when he is in a classic dropback position and forced to rely on pure mechanics." While consistency and accuracy are two things that Hinder needs to improve upon, Rivals.com talks about his ability to pass on the run as his most impressive feature: "Hinder has uncanny accuracy throwing the ball on the run, and he puts excellent touch and air under his fade passes. He also brings to the table a very intelligent insight into the game of football."
Daily Cal: A Look at Signing Day 2010
The Cal football team prepares to sign its incoming 2010 class that could be one of its best in recent memory
By Gabriel Baumgaertner
Ten years ago, it's hard to believe that the average Cal fan could rattle off any prospective Bear unless they saw them play in high school. Now thousands of fans nationwide clamor for more and more information about players that they have never seen play. Millions have already logged onto the internet and tuned into ESPN to see the rankings of each school's class. Today is National Signing Day, the day where high school players are first allowed to sign letters of intent for schools that have recruited them to play football.
And believe it or not, Cal will be headlining this new football holiday despite its disappointing 2009 season.
Through the dynamic efforts of defensive line coach and lead recruiter Tosh Lupoi, Cal is in play for several of the most sought-after players in the nation.
Monday, February 01, 2010
SF Examiner: Has Tedford lost his recruiting magic? We'll find out Wednesday
After reeling in top-20 recruiting classes in 2004 through 2006, Jeff Tedford's efforts haven't been as spectacular. Starting in 2007, the year of the great Cal collapse, Tedford's classes have been declining in the annual rankings given out by recruiting giants Scout.com and Rivals.com. To make matters worse, Stanford has been pulling in top-20 classes since Harbaugh has been in charge the last two seasons. Why is that worse? Both schools are selling the same thing...and Stanford is winning.
For instance, both schools are selling stellar academics, the beautiful San Francisco Bay, national notoriety by playing in the Pac-10, and of course, now they are both selling a winning program with bowl games attached. Stanford, who has already been to a Rose Bowl in this millennium, has an extra weapon in it's arsenal. That's something that Cal can't claim. In fact, most Bear Backers weren't even born the last time Cal made it to Pasadena for the "Grandaddy of Them All". Right now, Scout.com ranks Stanford's incoming class at No. 14, while Cal falls way behind at No. 38. Rivals.com has Stanford ranked No. 19 and Cal closely edging up to No. 23. The differences between how both scouting services rank the classes shows that there is no exact science to recruiting. This is good news for Bear Backers who trust that Tedford is getting the players that he wants in the program. Better news may be on the way soon. Reports out of Alabama are circulating that Cal has stolen the Crimson Tide's top commit, safety Keenan Allen, and his half-brother Zach Maynard who visited this past weekend. This coup would give the Golden Bears one of their best defensive classes in the Tedford era.
Contra Costa Times: Recruiting Update
Jonathan Okanes writes:
A source has told me that Gabe King is going to Cal. He’s just not saying anything because he wants to wait until Wednesday to make the official announcement. But it’s a done deal. King is coming.
The source also said that Cal is definitely in the mix for Keenan Allen. Some perceive it as a long shot but apparently he’s seriously considering Cal. That being said, Allen hasn’t made his final decision.
Ted Miller of ESPN comments that
“That's a blow to Oregon because King transferred from North Carolina to South Eugene (Ore.) High School this past season. The Ducks also are apparently out of the running for ESPNU 150 end Owamagbe Odighizuwa, who attends Portland's David Douglas High School.” He goes to suggest that Cal’s recruiting class may move up from 22nd nationally, as King is the third ESPNU 150 defender to commit to Cal, joining end Chris Martin and outside linebacker Cecil Whiteside.
Israel Declines to Press Charges Against Police for Shooting Tree Sitter in Head
Note: not a lot of news about Cal football of late, so I’m including this:
Excerpt from this article in the SF Chronicle:
Israel's Justice Ministry declared Sunday that no indictments will be filed against police in the case of an Oakland activist who was hit by a tear gas canister and left comatose during a violent demonstration in the West Bank last year. Tristan Anderson, 38, was critically injured during a Palestinian protest in the West Bank village of Naalin in March. Amir Moran, spokesman for Israel's Tel Hashomer hospital, where Anderson is being treated, said his condition has not changed.
***
Before going to Israel, Anderson was one of the tree-sitters who occupied a grove next to UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium until September 2008 in an unsuccessful bid to stop the university from clearing the trees to make room for an athletic center.
Per this article, he was the protester that called himself Crickett. When he finally gave up on the tree protest, he was wearing a half-rabbit, half-skunk outfit. He had spent a year and a half in and out of the trees.
SF Chronicle:
At 79, Ron Fimrite, The Chronicle's legendary "Sporting Tiger" columnist and retired senior writer for Sports Illustrated, is still pounding away at his 1949 Royal. The latest work to come out of his overstuffed home office in Presidio Heights is "Golden Bears: A Celebration of Cal Football's Triumphs, Heartbreaks, Last-Second Miracles, Legendary Blunders and the Extraordinary People Who Made It All Possible," released late last month.
Q: Why 517 pages on Cal football?
A: Because it is a book about social history and about Bay Area history. My intention was to meld the sporting culture into the general culture. What other school has had somebody run the wrong way in a Rose Bowl game? Or had "the Play"?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Contra Costa Times: UC Berkeley banking on unusual plan to fund stadium work
UC Berkeley is nearly ready to firm up the shakiest stadium around. The university this year will begin preparing 87-year-old Memorial Stadium, which straddles the dangerous Hayward fault, for a $320 million renovation that is expected to make the football venue much safer. The upgrade is scheduled to be finished in time for the 2012 football season. University of California regents last week handed the Berkeley campus its final approval to go ahead with the project, completing years of planning.
"I'm just so excited because it's just one more step to be able to know that it's going to be a reality," said Cal football coach Jeff Tedford, whose team will play home games at either Candlestick Park, AT&T Park or the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in 2011. "It's a big piece of the puzzle that's been missing for a while," he said. "It's very exciting to know that it's for real." The school will use a scheme with roots in the NFL to finance the project. The university will borrow the $320 million and pay it back over 30 years with the help of seat licenses, which fans buy for life and pay off annually. The money raised by the licenses, a concept used by the National Football League, would collect interest in an endowment. Those profits — which university officials hope will outpace interest on the borrowed money — would pay off the loan if all goes as planned.
ESPN: Two Receivers Commit to Cal
Cal had a big need for receivers this year and brought in a pair of under the radar types this past weekend. Long Beach Poly (Calif.) standout Kaelin Clay committed over the weekend and you can now add Terrance Montgomery (Los Angeles, Calif./West Adams Prep) to the commitment list as well.
Montgomery is a name that not many people have heard much about it. West Adams Prep is a small school and Montgomery in fact, is now the first football player to ever receive a FBS scholarship from the school. Cal had been recruiting Montgomery on and off since his junior season and he picked up their interest in the last month. He visited this past weekend and upon being offered a scholarship by coach (Jeff) Tedford, wasted no time in jumping on it.
Monday, January 18, 2010
SF Examiner: Tedford goes to Michigan to replace fired Alamar
Rob Calonge
After letting Pete Alamar go after the season, Coach Jeff Tedford conducted a national search for a replacement to coach both the tight ends and special teams for 2010. Today, Cal announced that the search is over. Former Eastern Michigan head coach Jeff Genyk has been hired to improve upon a special teams unit that was a major disappointment in 2009. Genyk will also fill the same role as Alamar did by coaching the tight ends as well.
In a released statement, Tedford was quoted as saying, "We are excited about bringing in an experienced coach with Jeff's high level of expertise, energy and passion." In the same statement, Genyk stated, "I will work relentlessly to do everything I can to help the program continue to be successful and reach an even higher level."
AP: Cal Hires New Special Teams, Tight Ends Coach
California has hired former Eastern Michigan coach Jeff Genyk as its special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. Golden Bears coach Jeff Tedford made the announcement Saturday that Genyk would replace Pete Alamar on his staff. Genyk spent five years as head coach at Eastern Michigan before being fired in 2008. He had a 16-42 record at Eastern Michigan. Genyk previously spent 12 seasons as an assistant at Northwestern. He ran the special teams there in his final eight seasons with the Wildcats. He helped Northwestern win shares of three Big Ten titles and go to the Rose Bowl following the 1995 season.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
LA Times: Lane Kiffin is a Lightweight for USC's Heavyweight Program
Bill Plaschke
What was Mike Garrett thinking? This question, of course, is based on the large and dangerous assumption that he was actually thinking. On the contrary, in handing his heavyweight USC football team to lightweight Lane Kiffin on Tuesday, Garrett has seemingly lost his mind. The USC athletic director's few remaining defenders have always deflected criticism toward Garrett by claiming he is a true Trojan.
This is who a true Trojan hires? A program that defines itself by victories over UCLA just signed a guy who was out coached by UCLA's Rick Neuheisel just four months ago, Kiffin's Tennessee team losing to the Bruins in Knoxville. I haven't yet talked to Neuheisel, but I can guess his two-word reaction to this move. "Thank you." This is who a true Trojan hires? A program that defines itself in consistency of leadership just acquired a guy who walks out of a Tennessee program after only one season.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
LA Times: Lane Kiffin returns to replace Pete Carroll
Former Trojans assistant, who had short stints as head coach with the Oakland Raiders and University of Tennessee, is the surprise choice. He will have his father, Monte, and Ed Orgeron on his staff.
By Gary Klein
Given the giant task of replacing charismatic, championship-winning football coach Pete Carroll, USC on Tuesday surprised no one by turning to one of its own. But the coach the Trojans chose was a shocker.
Lane Kiffin, a Carroll protégé who had quickly become among the most controversial coaches in college football during his one season at the University of Tennessee, rejoined a program he helped to glory in six seasons as an assistant. "We are really excited to welcome Lane Kiffin back to USC," Athletic Director Mike Garrett said in a statement announcing the hiring. "I was able to watch him closely when he was an assistant with us, and what I saw was a bright, creative young coach who I thought would make an excellent head coach here if the opportunity ever arose."
Kiffin, 34, will be introduced at a news conference at USC's Heritage Hall at 4 this afternoon. He was hired on the day Carroll was introduced in Seattle as the new head coach of the NFL's Seahawks, completing a move that sent shock waves throughout football's highest levels. USC enjoyed one of the most successful runs in college football history under Carroll, but the coach left behind a Trojans program that is being investigated by the NCAA for various rules violations.
Monday, January 11, 2010
SF Examiner: Going pro is Best for both Cal and Jahvid
Few were surprised and practically all Bear Backers were disappointed that Jahvid Best chose to forgo his senior season at Berkeley and head for the NFL. He'll likely be a first-round selection, but whether or not he'll move into the top five of the draft is yet to be determined. Should Best move into the top five of the NFL draft, he could end up calling St. Louis, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Washington, or Kansas City home for next season. Of the five teams drafting in the top five this year, Detroit, Washington, or Kansas City are the most likely destinations for the former Cal Bear.
No matter where Best goes in the first round, just getting drafted in the NFL's premier prime-time slot will guarantee Best enough money to BUY over 100 Cal Berkeley tuitions. And that's just for the life of his first contract. Education is important, so if Best was slated to be a second-round pick, I might have a different take on his situation, but with the amount of money he's about to make, his innocent baby-faced smile, and his incredible athletic ability, it's a no-brainer for the future Wheaties-box hero. Not only will he be making money off his initial NFL contract, if he shows an inkling of the promise he's shown at Cal in his rookie season, he'll become the new face of the NFL. Clean living, talent, and good looks has a way of doing that for a player...and it also helps that unlike other NFL stars, he doesn't struggle with the English language.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Los Angeles Times Confirms Pete Carroll Has Resigned as USC's Headcoach
From USAToday:
The L.A. Times and L.A. Daily News reported that Carroll had resigned as head coach Southern California on Sunday. The Times reported that Carroll intends to accept the position as the Seahawks' next head coach. Carroll emerged as the leading contender for the Seattle job after the team fired Jim Mora on Sunday. He met with Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke on Sunday. Multiple outlets, including the Daily News, the Times, NFL.com and ESPN, had earlier reported that Carroll had reached a deal with the Seahawks. ESPN reported that Carroll had convinced his offensive coordinator at USC, Jeremy Bates, to join him in Seattle. Bates had been a contender for the Bears' vacant OC position. ESPN also reported that Ken Norton, Carroll's linebackers coach with the Trojans, will join him in Seattle. If the deal becomes official, it will be Carroll's third stint as a head coach in the NFL. He went 33-31 in four seasons with the Jets and Patriots in 1994 (Jets) and 1997-1999 (Patriots). -- Sean Leahy
Seattle Times: Pete Carroll Resigns as USC Head Coach
Pete Carroll has resigned as USC head coach, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. An agreement to make him the Seahawks next head coach is close at hand, but that deal was not announced Sunday night. Carroll is apparently returning to the NFL after nine years at USC where he compiled a record of 97-19, won two national titles and had seven successive seasons with 11 or more victories. He returns to the NFL one decade after he was fired from New England in 1999, and the Seahawks indicated over the weekend that he would not be hired with final say over personnel, something previously characterized as a prerequisite for his return to the league. As an NFL coach, Carroll was 33-31 overall with two playoff appearances and one playoff victory. He would become the seventh head coach in Seahawks history, replacing Jim Mora who was fired after just one season. Seattle still must hire a general manager, and according to ESPN, four candidates have been lined up for interviews this week: Floyd Reese, previous GM of the Oilers and Titans who currently serves as senior football adviser; John Schneider, Green Bay's director of football operations, and a well-regarded personnel evaluator; Marc Ross of the New York Giants' college scouting department; and Omar Khan, the Pittsburgh Steelers' business and football administration coordinator who handles contract negotiations.
Both Ross and Khan are young up-and-coming executives in their 30s while Reese is a veteran. Schneider worked in Seattle for one year in 2000 where he was vice president of player personnel under Mike Holmgren. The exact title Carroll may end up holding in Seattle is not known, however, and it's possible that Seattle is creating a new organizational structure in which Carroll would report directly to the CEO, Tod Leiweke, and not the general manager. Although Carroll will not have a final say over personnel in terms of the draft, free-agent signings and trades, he might have final say on who makes the 53-man roster. USC has a potential vacancy, and the Los Angeles Daily News reported the Trojans contacted University of Washington coach Steve Sarkisian to gauge his potential interest, and he said no thanks. Sarkisian, however, said Sunday in an e-mail he had not been contacted. On Friday after news of Carroll's potential departure to the Seahawks was reported, Sarkisian said to The Seattle Times he wasn't interested in going elsewhere. "People don't understand it, but this is my dream job," he said.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Contra Costa Times: Cal coach Tedford vows to find answers
By Jonathan Okanes
Cal football coach Jeff Tedford has spent the past week holed up in his office, trying to process a maddening season that has left a bad taste inside and outside the program. He hears the criticism from fans and the media and acknowledges that some of it is justified. But Tedford is eager to move forward, and he would like to do so with fans and alumni on board. However, he understands there are droves of Old Blues demanding some answers before that can happen. So Tedford contacted the Bay Area News Group to speak to Cal's fan base. In a lengthy, exclusive interview in an otherwise empty Cal football office this week, Tedford sympathized with the widespread disappointment over the season, acknowledged that an eight-win season isn't good enough and asked fans for their support in turning negatives into positives. "I feel terrible about it," he said. "There's a knot in my stomach. I feel sick to my stomach every time I think about it. You lose sleep thinking about how you can improve and get better. There are a lot of internal expectations, but I don't lose sight of how people take pride in our success and are disappointed in our failure. I feel that as much as you can possibly imagine." The 2009 season was one of the most highly anticipated in years in Berkeley. The Bears returned 16 starters from last year's 9-4 team, and with USC going through a slight rebuilding phase, many observers felt Cal could make its first Rose Bowl appearance in over 50 years. The Bears were ranked 12th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25. Not only did the Bears come up short in a number of performances, but they also failed to be competitive. Cal finished 8-5 and was outscored 182-57 in its defeats. The Bears' 37-27 loss to Utah in last week's Poinsettia Bowl turned out to be their closest setback. "I'm disappointed we lost five games, but more than that probably is the way those went," Tedford said. "You try to figure that out. The first place I look is in the mirror. We have to make sure we do whatever it takes to improve and not have those issues. I'm really anxious to get back at it to fix that."
After each of Cal's losses, Tedford was quick to give credit to the opponent while also pointing out his own team's mistakes. He said the Bears ran into hot quarterbacks in lopsided losses to Oregon and Washington. He said his staff was outcoached on a few occasions. "We're going to do everything we can to define the problems and fix them," he said. "I understand the frustrations. Nobody is more frustrated than me. Eight wins is not what we set out to do. We set out to be better than that. " When Tedford turned Cal from a Pac-10 doormat into a Bowl Championship Series contender in three years, his name surfaced often when high-profile coaching jobs opened up. Tedford said he has declined three head-coaching offers in his eight years at Cal that would have made him more money, one as recently as last year. Tedford now is signed through the 2015 season. He has a deep passion for Cal. He said that's what makes the 2009 season even more frustrating and why he hopes the Cal football community will stick with him. What can Tedford do to cure the warts of 2009? He still is in the preliminary stages of figuring that out. Tedford said he's going to make an exhaustive list of everything that goes on in the program and get together with coaches and players to evaluate them. While Tedford often makes references to working harder when things go wrong, he said that doesn't necessarily mean things will otherwise remain status quo.
"We're not just going to work harder at what we already do," he said. "Part of the hard work is defining who you are and what you're going to be, what you're going to actually be working at. At every turn, there are certain things where you may feel like you have to do things differently. Maybe some of the things we've always done are not good enough." Tedford's immediate to-do list includes replacing special teams/tight ends coach Pete Alamar, who was fired earlier in the week, and hitting the recruiting trail up until signing day Feb. 3. In the meantime, he is hoping to break through the negativity that has clouded the team at the end of the season. "I just hope people will still lend support to what we're doing so it doesn't get so negative," Tedford said. "I'm just asking for people to support us and our players so that we can move in the right direction. We're going to do our best to learn from it, and we're going to work on it and continue to try to reach all of our goals. "I know there are a lot of questions. I'm not naive to the disappointment, I'm not naive to the naysayers, I'm not naive to the critics. I want them to know that I'm going to do my best to address the things because it's important to me that we make people proud."
Jahvid Best Decides to Turn Pro
Ted Miller - ESPN
With the blessing of coach Jeff Tedford, California running back Jahvid Best will bypass his senior year and enter the NFL draft this spring. "This is an opportunity I can't pass up, so I have to take advantage of it," Best said. Best said he consulted a number of people about the decision -- including the NFL -- and he believes he could be selected anywhere from the first to the third round. Best began the season as a top Heisman Trophy candidate and his outstanding speed will catch NFL scouts attention. He rushed for 867 yards and 12 touchdowns, despite missing the Bears final four games. In 2008, he led the Pac-10 and ranked third in the country in rushing, averaging 131.67 yards per game and finished with 1,580 yards, which ranks second in the Cal record book. Best suffered a severe concussion and injured his back on Nov. 7 against Oregon State after he was flipped in the endzone after scoring a touchdown. He said he's still not 100 percent but expects to be by the NFL combine.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Oakland Tribune: Pete Alamar out as Cal football team's special teams/tight ends coach
LINK.
Cal's football team may have been inconsistent in 2009, but there was one element about the season that was pretty regular — opponents usually started possessions with good field position. The Bears had severe shortcomings on kick and punt coverage, and special teams/tight ends coach Pete Alamar took the fall Monday as he was not asked back for the 2010 season. Alamar had been in charge of Cal's special teams and tight ends since 2003, but special teams coverage had suffered in recent years. With the rest of the bowl season still remaining, the Bears are ninth in the Pac-10 in kick coverage and 48th in the nation. They are 99th in punt coverage. Last year, Cal ranked 102nd in punt coverage and 51st in kickoff coverage.
The Bears also have struggled to find a consistent place-kicker in recent years. After former Lou Groza candidate Tom Schneider suffered a season-ending injury before the 2007 season began, the Bears have cycled through Jordan Kay, David Seawright, Giorgio Tavecchio and Vince D'Amato, and all have been inconsistent. There have been good elements about Cal's special teams as well. Punter Bryan Anger, punt returner Syd'Quan Thompson and kick returner Jahvid Best all have appeared among national leaders, and Best was an All-Pac-10 first-team special teams pick as a freshman. The Bears also blocked three kicks that were returned for touchdowns in 2008.
Alamar also has produced quality tight ends in recent years, as Craig Stevens and Cameron Morrah were NFL draft picks. Cal coach Jeff Tedford said a national search for a replacement will begin immediately.
SF Chronicle: Cal will not bring back special teams assistant
California will not bring back special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Pete Alamar next season.
Coach Jeff Tedford announced in a statement Monday that Alamar's contract would not be renewed. A search for his replacement will begin immediately. Alamar finished his seventh season at Cal. The Golden Bears finished the season 8-5, losing the Poinsettia Bowl to Utah last week 37-27.
Here are some of the comments from sfgate.com:
Goodbye Pete, and good luck. Thanks be to God!
Yea. It was obviously the special teams coach that sent Cal into oblivion.
Just don't even consider letting go the architect of that universally feared down-the-line screen. Someday that play will work.
Good luck Coach Alomar! I'm sure you'll land somewhere really good, like maybe the forty yard line of the receiving team.
I disagree with those people who think that Cal has lots of holes to fill. Here is my short list of very pressing needs:
Get rid of the special teams coach: CHECK
Get rid of the special teams: To do
Get a new offensive line coach: To do
Get an offensive line that can keep the opposition out of the QB's face for more than three seconds
Find new DB's.
Find new DB's coach
Find receivers that can catch balls that hit them in the numbers
Find receivers that can run on those few occasions that they actually catch the ball.
Ditch the 3-4 scheme. It should have gone with Desmond Bishop.
By all means keep the QB. People were screaming that He was the Savior, so save away, baby.
Please drop the "We're like Oregon!" riff. You're not, and that's generally to your credit.
Please, please please get rid of those fonky uniforms! They suck! But then, 40% of the time so do you, so maybe just wear them when you play Oregon, 'SC, UW and OSU. Otherwise, blue jerseys and gold pants work fine. Go Bears!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Contra Costa Times: Cal's disappointing season puts pressure on Jeff Tedford
THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL season began with Jeff Tedford making a curious confession. The man who once avoided outside estimations of Cal's program was now acknowledging them. Inventorying them, in fact, and using them to broach with his players the concepts of goal-setting and addressing expectations.
Just a hunch: Those conversations were a lot more enjoyable in September, when Cal was ranked 12th in The Associated Press preseason poll, than they are in the wake of Wednesday's Poinsettia Bowl loss to Utah. Cal met few, if any, expectations this season. Certainly not AP's — the Bears disappeared from the Top 25 even before their bowl game beatdown. Nor did they validate the preseason forecasts of ESPN (also 12th), The Sporting News (16th), CBSsports.com (17th) or Sports Illustrated (20th).
During a season in which the Pac-10 race was as wide open as ever, Cal lost its first two conference games and was never a factor. While the Bears participated in a bowl game for the seventh consecutive season, the Poinsettia qualified as a tumble down the cellar steps. And there they got spanked. As a result, Tedford finds himself in another curious position. For the first time during his tenure at Cal, he's on the clock. Not on the clock in the "Gentlemen, start your buyout cash call" sense. There still is a lot to like about his work, starting with the school-record streak of bowl appearances. He's also produced eight consecutive winning seasons, tying the school record set from 1918-1925.
Deseret News: Defense shakes shaky start, finds form to stop Cal
Near the end of the first quarter of Wednesday night's Poinsettia Bowl, Cal sophomore running back Shane Vereen had six carries for 72 yards, including a touchdown scamper of 36 yards when he waltzed into the end zone with nary a Utah defender in sight. Vereen came into the Poinsettia Bowl averaging 144 yards per contest over his three-game stint as Cal's starting running back — he entered the lineup after Jahvid Best suffered a severe concussion Nov. 7 against Oregon State.
With Vereen off to such a fast start on Wednesday night, the Golden Bears' offense had the look of a unit that was primed to run roughshod over the Utes all night long. It looked as if Utah would have to make serious adjustments to its defensive scheme if it had any hope of holding Vereen below 200 yards rushing. Turns out, all the Utes really needed to do was just relax and play their game. "The first one that got out of the gate, the (36-yard) touchdown, we had a gap that we didn't fill," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "We had a missed assignment. That long run was a blown assignment. From that point forward, we played sound football and tackled well.
SF Chronicle: Poinsettia Bowl: Utah 37, Cal 27
Cal's season began with grand ambitions, three consecutive wins and one heady week at No. 6 in the national rankings. It ended in a half-empty stadium two nights before Christmas, with another in a curious collection of desultory losses. The Bears jumped ahead early in Wednesday night's Poinsettia Bowl, played dreadfully for a long stretch and fell 37-27 to Utah. The Utes won their ninth consecutive bowl game, the longest active streak in the nation, while Cal lost a bowl game for the first time since 2004. In some ways, it was a fitting end to the Bears' utterly strange season. They put together little sustained offense - quarterback Kevin Riley faced heavy pressure, threw two interceptions, fumbled once and seemed indecisive all night - and the defense struggled to contain Utah's spread-option attack.
"This is going to sting for a while," coach Jeff Tedford said. A crowd of 32,665 at Qualcomm Stadium watched the Utes finish their season at 10-3 and give the Mountain West Conference its second consecutive bowl victory over a Pac-10 opponent. BYU thrashed Oregon State 44-20 in the Las Vegas Bowl on Tuesday night. Cal (8-5) made the final score respectable by scoring a late touchdown, but even that came with a semi-embarrassing moment. Tedford initially sent the kicking team onto the field to attempt an extra point, rather than try for two - with his team trailing by 10 and obviously needing to slice its deficit to eight (only 1:46 remained). Tedford realized his gaffe and called a timeout before the kick. (Cal's subsequent two-point try failed.) He later said he mistakenly checked the laminated chart he holds during games, when he should have checked the scoreboard.
At any rate, Cal's players - and especially the seniors - struggled to digest ending their season this way. They were riding high Nov. 21, after an impressive win in the Big Game left them 8-3, gave them five wins in six games and put them on track for a strong finish.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Utah Beats Cal 37-27
A disappointing end to a disappointing season. The game was not as close as the score would suggest.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
SF Chronicle: Bears, Utes used to Winning Ways
Offensive tackle Mike Tepper counts as a unique figure on this year's Cal football team, in ways beyond his size, loquaciousness and status as a sixth-year senior. Tepper also is the only member of these Bears to lose a bowl game. It happened here in San Diego, when Texas Tech flattened Cal in the 2004 Holiday Bowl. Tepper vividly remembers the feeling, so he gathered his teammates during practice last week in Berkeley and implored them to treat tonight's Poinsettia Bowl with urgency.
"That sour taste in your mouth is the worst thing in the world, 10 times worse than spinach or whatever vegetable you hate," Tepper said. "You lose a bowl game and your offseason is terrible. All the coaches do is rag on you." The Bears (8-4) face a sizable challenge in avoiding the ragging, despite falling into a low-profile bowl. They meet No. 23 Utah, which sports a splashy 22-3 record over the past two seasons - 13-0 last year, capped by a Sugar Bowl thumping of Alabama, and 9-3 this year. The Utes also arrive with the nation's longest active bowl win streak, at eight games. Cal counters with bowl wins in each of the past four years, from the Las Vegas (over BYU) and Holiday (Texas A&M) to the Armed Forces (Air Force) and Emerald (Miami).
SF Chronicle: After walking on, Holley gets carried off
Brian Holley's final practice at Memorial Stadium ended on a note fit for Jahvid Best. Cal's running backs extended a long tradition by carrying Holley off the field Friday, a ritual reserved for seniors and accompanied by much chuckling and good-natured grief. Holley, mindful of his improbable path to this triumphant scene, wore a wide smile as his teammates hoisted him into the air. By no means does he count as a star, not with only three carries and six catches this season. Most of the periodic media attention he commanded involved talking about Best or Shane Vereen, the swift tailbacks for whom he blocks.
But as the Bears prepare to end their season Wednesday night against Utah in the Poinsettia Bowl - and Holley and 15 other seniors prepare to end their Cal careers - it's worth remembering that not every college football player wades in scholarship offers, savors splashy headlines or eyes a tantalizing future in the NFL. There also are players such as Holley, a squat, thick-necked fullback whose story smacks of patience and persistence. He received exactly zero scholarship offers coming out of Diamond Ranch High in Pomona. UC Davis showed the most interest, inviting him to play as a walk-on.
Holley, in filling out the universal UC application online, noticed the box for Berkeley. He clicked it. Before long, he received his acceptance letter, convinced his high-school coaches to call their counterparts at Cal and found himself nervously auditioning for a spot in the 2005 freshman class alongside future stars DeSean Jackson and Zack Follett. "I didn't know if I was on that level or not, because everybody else doubted me," Holley said. "So when I first came here, it was definitely a learning experience. It was humbling." Holley made the team, but he seldom made it onto the field. He redshirted in 2005, spent '06 on the scout team in practice and the next two seasons as a special-teams stalwart, stuck on the depth chart behind accomplished fullbacks Chris Manderino, Byron Storer and Will Ta'ufo'ou. (Holley earned a scholarship after the '07 season.)
Even this year, with the starting job open, running backs coach Ron Gould was skeptical. He told Holley he needed to lower his body fat and improve his athleticism - so Holley spent the summer outside Atlanta, diligently working out with former Cal player Zach Smith and his father, Chip, who owns a sports performance training company.
Deseret News: Utah Utes football notebook: Cox has filled defensive-line vacancy
When Utah starting defensive end Derrick Shelby went down with a season-ending knee injury against TCU, it was a big blow to the Utah defense. At least it seemed like it at the time. However, thanks to junior walk-on Christian Cox, the Utes' defense has hardly skipped a beat. Cox has started the past two games at left end and come up with eight tackles and two sacks. On the season, he leads the team in sacks with five and in tackles for loss with eight. "We miss Shelby, but between Christian, Junior Tui'one and Nai Fotu, we've been able to hold down the fort," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "Christian has been a valuable asset for us. He's a self-made guy. He's got to where he's at through sheer determination and hard work."
It's not like Cox has come out of nowhere, this year at least. He played in every game, and got a lot of reps at both defensive end positions and ranks 13th on the team in tackles. "I've been able to play all season," he said. "(Starting) has given me more opportunities to make plays. I credit it to my coaching. It's been a great transition."
Deseret News: Pair of Utahns are thriving on Cal's roster
Isi Sofele and Keni Kaufusi both grew up in Salt Lake City and used to attend football camps at the University of Utah. However, the two former Cottonwood High standouts will find themselves on the opposite sideline at the Poinsettia Bowl Wednesday night when the Utes take on Cal. Sofele is a 5-foot-7, 170-pound running back who is one of three true freshmen to play this year for Cal and has played in every game. He's returned six kicks for 127 yards, has rushed for 82 yards on 12 carries and has nine tackles on special teams. Kaufusi is a defensive lineman who is redshirting this year. "They are hard workers, quality guys," said coach Jeff Tedford. "Isi is a guy who has contributed for us. He's a great kid. Kaufusi has a bright future here. He's done a great job on the scout team this year."
Kaufusi committed to play for Utah in early 2008, but his offer was rescinded when he was arrested on a weapons and alcohol charge a couple of months later. The following January, he signed with Cal along with Sofele. Whittingham acknowledged the Utes recruited both players, but said the Utes had filled their scholarships at Sofele's position and that "it didn't work out" with Kaufusi. Former Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, who has the same job for Cal, says he works with Sofele on a daily basis and calls him a "super person" and "a very good football player."
Ludwig said he doesn't work with Kaufusi, but of the two, he said, "Both are doing very well in terms of academics and socially and adapting to Division I football." Sofele says he loves it at Cal. "It's different, but you've got to explore the world," he said.
SECOND-BEST: At the start of the year, Cal running back Jahvid Best was considered a Heisman Trophy and all-American candidate. However, after gaining 867 yards rushing, he went down with a head injury in the Oregon State game last month and is out for the season. However, the Bears aren't sweating much about Best's absence because they have a guy named Shane Vereen who has stepped up and hardly missed a beat. Kind of like Eddie Wide stepping up for Matt Asiata. In three games, Vereen has run for 444 yards on 88 carries, an average of 148 yards per game. "In my mind, he's always been considered a starter," Cal running backs coach Ron Gould told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I'm not surprised by the performances he's produced the past few weeks."
Sporting News: Utah's Robert Johnson: Coaches tell me to be the human eraser
Senior Robert Johnson knows a thing or two about stepping up when the spotlight is turned on him. He intercepted three passes in the fourth quarter this season and picked off two in the Utes' victory against Alabama in the BCS Sugar Bowl last season. Johnson talked with Sporting News' Ken Bradley about Thursday's Poinsettia Bowl matchup against Cal.
Utah relishes a chance to play a big-time school like Cal, Robert Johnson says.Sporting News: You had two picks in last year's BCS bowl win against Alabama. You enjoy the big games like this?
Robert Johnson: I love playing all the games. It seems like when a team really doesn't know that you're a good player, they kind of throw the ball toward you and I just try to try my hardest to make teams pay whenever they do throw the ball anywhere by me. Some of the big games we've played in this year like TCU and BYU, they didn't really have anybody throwing the ball by me. So I guess it was respect wise, I'm happy with it but sometimes it's more fun to do what I'm supposed to be doing. The coaches just tell me to be the human eraser.
SN: How big is it for Utah when it plays bowl games against BCS conference schools?
RJ: It's very big. Right now it's hard for certain Mountain West teams to even play against some of the big-time Pac-10 schools. The only time you run into them is around bowl games. Cal was ranked No. 4 early in the season. Cal is a real good team and has some real good players. Just to get the chance to play against them, that's one of the biggest things that makes this game even more special. It's a bowl game, but you're playing against an elite team so you want to get out there and really show you can play against them and give you the chance to really show that you can play.
New York Times Picks No. 23 Utah to Defeat Cal in Poinsettia Bowl
This year’s Poinsettia Bowl may not carry the cachet of last season’s high-profile matchup (Boise State vs. T.C.U.), but the game will feature one team coming off of a B.C.S. bowl appearance and another whose preseason expectations included hopes of a B.C.S. spot of its own. Utah, as we know, rolled through the 2008 season undefeated before routing a talented Alabama squad in the Sugar Bowl. While the Utes slipped to 9-3 this regular season, Utah remains among the top 25 teams in the nation. California, on the other hand, has seen itself slide from a trendy pick for the best team in the Pac-10 in the preseason to a disappointing 8-4, sixth in the conference.
San Diego Country Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Wednesday, 8 p.m., ESPN
Utah
Like its more staid neighbors in Provo, Utah is in the midst of one of the great periods in program history. The Utes may not be playing in another B.C.S. bowl, but even after dropping one to rival B.Y.U. to end the season, they find themselves ranked and with a shot at a second consecutive double-digit win season. Such a finish was far from a certainty early in the season. The Utes have missed the consistency at quarterback of year’s past, though that position seems to be more settled following the promotion of the freshman Jordan Wynn, who replaced the JUCO transfer Terrance Cain in the starting lineup with five games left in the regular season. The defense has done its part (again), limiting opponents to less than 20 points and 175 yards passing per game. Cal quarterback Kevin Riley would be wise to keep an eye on free safety Robert Johnson, who leads the Utes with five interceptions; that total gives him 12 over his three seasons with the program. Utah did drop its early-season Pac-10 matchup, losing by 31-24 at Oregon in September.
California
Yes, losing star running back Jahvid Best could serve as a valid excuse for a significant decline in offensive productivity. (Shane Vereen, a sophomore, has actually picked up the slack in the running game quite well.) Nevertheless, there is no excuse for scoring 5 less points per game this regular season compared to last, and there is certainly no excuse for the pitiful performance Cal put forth against premier Pac-10 competion: 3 points each against Oregon and U.S.C. and 14 against Oregon State. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Golden Bears scored only 10 points in a disheartening 32-point loss to underdog Washington in the season finale. Suffice to say, this is a team heading into postseason play with confidence issues, in dire need of a win over a top 25 opponent in order to propel itself into the off-season with some semblance of momentum. The good news? Despite periods of inconsistency, Cal’s 3-4 defense has had its moments, especially against the run. Getting to the quarterback has been an issue — linemen Tyson Alualu (an all-conference pick) and Cameron Jordan are the only players with more than two sacks — limiting the defense’s ability to stop the pass.
LA Times: Having missed out on Roses, Cal faces a thorn in Pac-10's side
The Bears' erratic season ends Wednesday night at the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. Their opponent will be Utah, which has had a lot of success lately against Pacific 10 Conference teams.
Followers of Pacific 10 Conference football hold these truths to be self-evident:
USC will go to a bowl every year under Pete Carroll.
Stanford's Jim Harbaugh will say or do something to irk one of his coaching colleagues.
And Utah will be a cactus-sized thorn in the side.
The Utes are 6-3 against Pac-10 teams since the start of the 2003 season, with two of the victories coming against ranked opponents.
No. 23 Utah (9-3) hopes to pull rank for a change Wednesday evening at Qualcomm Stadium against California (8-4) in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Bears will play without star tailback Jahvid Best, who continues to be held out because of the concussion he suffered last month against Oregon State.
Back in August, Cal was hoping for a trip to Pasadena instead of San Diego. Then the season started, and the Bears looked alternately horrid in losses to USC and Oregon and unstoppable in victories over Washington State and UCLA. The inconsistency continued to the end of the regular season -- an upset of Stanford in the Big Game, followed by a 42-10 loss to Washington.
"Some weeks they really light it up and play exceptionally well and other weeks they're not as consistent," Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham said.
The Utes have been surprisingly consistent despite some key personnel losses. After finishing 13-0 last season with a victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Utah lost senior quarterback Brian Johnson, a few other players who departed early for the NFL and both coordinators. Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig took the same post at Cal.
Sporting News: Utah's Beadles: 'Leaving is going to be very bittersweet for me'
Utah's Zane Beadles is a 6-4, 304-pound tackle who has been projected to be drafted this spring in the first four rounds. The Utes will play California in Wednesday's Poinsettia Bowl — Beadles' last game for the Utes after four years of starting.
Zane Beadles: "I never thought I'd be starting in the Sugar Bowl, a BCS game."
Utah-Cal is a really good matchup and we're definitely looking forward to this game. Our season didn't end up like we would have liked it to with the loss to BYU in OT. We've had a bad taste in our mouths for a while now, so we want to finish our season right. We have an eight-game bowl winning streak on the line and we want to extend it to nine — and our senior class is the winningest in school history, so we want to close that out on a good note too.
Cal is very talented, and they've also had their ups and downs. Their losses are big losses and their big wins were really big wins. They're sort of an unpredictable team. I'm personally looking forward to the matchup with their two defensive ends — Cameron Jordan and Tyson Alualu. They're both very good, very talented. I wouldn't want this any other way for my last college game.
Contra Costa Times: Cal Lands Top Recruit
Excerpt:
Action: Cal receives a commitment from Chris Martin, the No. 3 defensive end in the country. (The Oakland native, who now lives in Colorado, had offers from Oklahoma, Florida and USC.)
Reaction I: Given his rating and his position — top-tier defensive linemen are so hard to find — Martin is arguably the biggest recruit of the Jeff Tedford era.
Reaction II: Then again, ratings don’t mean everything. (Kyle Reed was the No. 6 quarterback. Darian Hagan, awful for most of ‘09, was the No. 5 cornerback.)
Reaction III: But if Martin is merely half as good as the projections, then Cal will have one of the best DEs in the Pac-10 for several years. And if he’s as good as the projections … Andre Carter?
SF Examiner: Strength of Pac-10 kept Cal from more victories
Glenn Dickey
For Cal supporters who wonder what happened to the Bears this season, I’d suggest an answer: the Pac-10 Conference. For a number of reasons — geographical alignment, concentration of population and media east of the Mississippi, biased perceptions — the Pac-10 conference is underrated nationally, but top to almost bottom, it’s very strong.
The one exception is Washington State, which has fallen so far behind it may suffer the same fate as Idaho, which was once part of the conference but was expelled because it wasn’t competitive. With the resurgence of Washington under Steve Sarkisian, not to mention non-conference Boise State nearby, the Cougars will have even more trouble recruiting in the northwest. And geographically, Washington State is the least attractive location of the conference schools. Otherwise, though, the conference is solid and will be even more so as UCLA improves. Every week is an adventure. The Pac-10 is the only major conference which plays a round-robin schedule, which makes it difficult to produce a national champion.
Salt Lake Tribune: Cal coach says Utes good enough for Pac-10
Some critics might discount the No. 23 Utes because they don't hail from a BCS conference, but don't count Cal coach Jeff Tedford among those who underestimate the Utes. In his assessment, Utah is good enough to play in the Pac-10, Tedford said during Tuesday's Poinsettia Bowl press conference.
"Utah I don't think is any different than any other Pac-10 team," he said. "Utah can play in the Pac-10 very easily and could be competitive. Playing tough competition all year long, even our non-conference games were pretty tough competition, so I think our team understands what we are up against here as far as Utah is concerned. They are a great football team and our kids have a lot of respect for them and it's going to be like another Pac-10 team for us." Utah coach Kyle Whittingham also attended the press conference and said Tedford's comments were a "nice compliment." The Utes are 2-2 against the Pac-10 in bowl games, 2-4 against Cal and are 18-11 against BCS teams since the BCS began in 1998. "We are competitive," Whittingham said. "Our track record speaks for itself, the win-loss record in those situations. Good football is good football whether it's in the Pac-10 or MWC or whatever the case might be." Despite their recent success and ranking, the Utes are three-point underdogs going into tonight's game against the Bears.
Whittingham acknowledged that often being the underdogs gave the Utes a "chip on their shoulder and an us against the world mentality." "Those guys who are making the point spreads get paid to get it correct most of the time, but I hope it's not correct this time," Whittingham said.
In the stands
A crowd of 30,000 to 33,000 is anticipated for the Poinsettia Bowl, with Cal and Utah both hoping to sell between 3,000 to 4,000 tickets, organizers said. To help bump up the ticket sales, Utah is working with former Ute Eric Weddle , who plays for the San Diego Chargers, to distribute tickets to local charities.
Weddle has spent some time hanging out with the Utes, but will miss the Poinsettia Bowl because the Chargers leave Wednesday for their game at Tennessee on Friday.
Recruiting ties
The Utes and Bears often cross paths in recruiting since California is a priority state for the Utes, who have 27 players with California ties on their roster. Among those is Utah defensive back Kamaron Yancy , who originally signed with Cal but couldn't attend because he was a class short of meeting the academic requirements. During the year he was taking the class, Yancy decided Utah was a better fit for him. Cal has two players from Utah on its roster, both of whom prepped at Cottonwood High. One is Keni Kaufusi , whose scholarship offer was rescinded by the Utes after he was involved in an altercation in Salt Lake City. He is now a freshman for the Bears. The other is freshman running back Isi Sofele , who has 12 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown this season. Whittingham said playing in San Diego would be helpful for the Utes' recruiting. "Any time you can get a recruiting footprint and play a game, the exposure you get on national TV is very positive for recruiting," he said.
Clock watch
Many of Utah's players have used their free time to wander the Gaslamp section of San Diego, where numerous hotspots and hip bars are located. Just to make sure the players don't get caught up in the nightlife, Whittingham instituted a midnight curfew earlier in the week and one for 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night to make sure players get plenty of rest. "Nothing good happens after midnight," he said.
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