Daily Evergreen: Save the defense, the Golden Bears appear solid

By Jack Follman

A promising set of receivers should align the UC Golden Bears to be a worthy contender next season. That is if the defensive line can block anyone.  The Golden Bears boast what looks to be the best set of receivers in the Pac-10. Junior DeSean Jackson could be the most explosive receiver and punt returner in the country. Jackson put up huge numbers on the scoreboard as a receiver and returned an impressive four punts for game touchdowns. Joining Jackson will be experienced seniors, Robert Jordan and LaVelle Hawkins. All of these receivers are fast and have the abilities needed to get into the end zone. Expect big things from this group in 2007.  Junior quarterback Nate Longshore had a huge first year as a starter in 2006. He threw more than 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. Longshore is a big, physical quarterback with a rocket arm and good accuracy. Expect him to frustrate opposing defenses in 2007.

The Golden Bears lost star running back Marshawn Lynch to the NFL draft, but underrated senior Justin Forsett will be his replacement. Forsett has been effective as Lynch’s backup for the last three seasons. This could be the year Forsett finally breaks out of Lynch’s shadow and shows his full potential.  Senior Craig Stevens returns as the starter at tight end and will give Longshore yet another good target. Stevens is a versatile player who is a good receiver and blocker.  The offensive line should be strong as three starters return from last season. Junior center Alex Mack leads the group and is an All-American candidate. Health will be a huge key for success here as the depth and experience of the reserves is questionable. If the offensive line can stay healthy, the Golden Bears should have the one of the better offensive lines in the Pac-10 next fall.

The key question will be whether or not the defensive line can replace last year’s starters effectively with a new inexperienced group. Only one starter will return, senior tackle Matt Malele. Look for attacks from the opposing offenses on this weak area of the Golden Bears’ defense in 2007.  However, the linebackers should be the strength of the Golden Bears defense. Juniors Zack Follett and Worrell Williams have the potential to be stars with their size and athleticism. The linebackers did a great job stopping opponents’ running games, covering passes and rushing the quarterback in 2006, and there is no reason to believe they won’t do the same in 2007.

Much like the rest of the defense, the Golden Bears’ secondary team is young. Junior starters, safety Bernard Hicks and sophomore cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, will return. Both players were solid in 2006, and together totaled more than 100 tackles and three interceptions. With a weak defensive line, the secondary team will have added pressure to help stop opponents’ running games and cover receivers, without the aid of pressure on the opposing teams quarterback.

Coach Jeff Tedford has done an excellent job keeping the Golden Bears firmly planted near the top of the Pac-10 standings in recent years. Since 2002, they seem to be the only program that can somewhat contend with USC year after year. The offense is more than ready for another good season, but the entire defense is a huge question. Regardless, the Golden Bears should be able to put points on the board in 2007. Although, the big question will be will they be able to stop anyone? If the defense becomes solid, expect the Golden Bears to compete for the Pac-10 championship.

Women's Football Huddle

California head coach Jeff Tedford and the Golden Bear coaching staff will host the fourth annual Women's Football Huddle the evening of Friday, Aug. 3, from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. The event, designed especially for women, will interactively teach participants about the ins and outs of football, from officials' signals to individual position responsibilities.

 

Registration takes place from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Memorial Stadium concession area between gates G and GG. The Women's Football Huddle commences at 6:30 p.m. on the turf at Memorial Stadium. Participants should wear workout apparel and tennis shoes.

 

Registration begins on July 1 by visiting www.CalBears.com. Appetizers, drinks and a Cal football t-shirt are complimentary with the $35 registration fee. All participants must be over 21. Sign up a friend and pay only $60 for two. For more information, call 510-642-3857.

 

The 2007 Cal football season kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 1 with the Golden Bears hosting Tennessee at Memorial Stadium. After the road trip to Colorado State, the Bears return home to face Louisiana Tech in another inter-sectional game on Sept. 15. Season tickets are still available at www.CalBears.com or by calling 1-800-GO-BEARS.

Sports Illustrated: Top 25 Toughest Schedules

Here is the link.

 

Cal is not on the list, but the following opponents are:

 

#1: Washington

#6: Tennessee “Tennessee's difficult season opener at California and its relatively tough matchup with Southern Mississippi compensate for the cakewalks against Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette that make up the rest of the Vols' nonconference schedule.”

#8: USC

#9: Stanford

#20: Washington

#22: Arizona

Sports Illustrated: Top Ten Games for 2007

Here is the link.

“Cal will be out for revenge, as John David Booty and USC clinched their fifth straight Pac-10 title by beating the Bears in 2006.”

 

2. USC at Cal, Nov. 10

If you agree with the prevailing consensus that QB John David Booty and the Trojans are the team to beat in 2007, then it stands to reason their national-title hopes will hinge on this game. USC can afford to lose a game early, but not this one -- a late-season road trip against an explosive, veteran team.

ESPN: Ivan Maisel's Mailbag

Here is the link.

 

From Steven in Berkeley: Which do you think is a more pivotal win for California: Tennessee or USC? Nate Longshore, Justin Forsett, and DeSean Jackson obviously make the offense as explosive as ever. It is the defense which is keeping me up at night. I think if we meet the Trojans with an unblemished record in Berkeley, Chris, Kirk, and Lee will have to make their first trip *ever* to Strawberry Canyon.

 

Maisel: I think Tennessee is the more important game for Cal, and no I haven't fallen asleep next to an open Sharpie. After the way the Vols embarrassed the Bears in Knoxville last year, I think Cal needs a win to prove to the voters that it is ready to become a national power. In the end, of course, USC will be a more important victory. But if Cal doesn't win that first one, a victory over the Trojans would be seen as a major upset, not a victory of one top team over another.

Scout.com: Miller Opts to Stay by the Bay

By Jim McGill

Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Ca) tight end Anthony Miller spent a day in Berkeley at Cal’s summer camp last week and came away with a verbal commitment to the Bears.

“Cal’s been my favorite for awhile,” said Miller. “I’ve watched them when I’ve had a chance. The combination of some of the best academics and athletics in a team that’s close is what stood out for me. They’re a good program.”  The versatile Miller already possesses D1 size, strength and speed at 6-3 ½/247, with 4.76 forty speed and 18 reps of 185 on the bench with a max of 300. Though starring on offense, Miller also had 70 tackles, 4 ½ sacks and 10 tackles for loss at outside linebacker for Mitty. 

Read the entire article here.

 

Slow Week For Cal Football

Since there’s not much going on right now, I’ve compiled a list of Cal-related articles for your enjoyment.

 

Stanford lifts band suspension

Mercury News

Strike up the band! The lunatics of the Stanford Marching Band have been released from the asylum and will be loosed (sic) upon football fields again this fall.

And while history may suggest otherwise, they promise to be good this time.  Stanford University announced Monday it had lifted the band's indefinite provisional status, imposed in September after the band was suspended July 18 for vandalism and other bad behavior.  Read the entire article here.

 

Ex-Cal rugby player accused of fracturing S.F. student's skull

SF Chronicle

A former Cal rugby player has been charged with felony battery in an attack that fractured the skull of a San Francisco State student outside a UC Berkeley co-op on the same day the team won the national championship, authorities said Monday.  James Sehr, 22, of Elk Grove was charged in Alameda County Superior Court with felony battery causing great bodily injury in connection with last month's incident that severely injured Charles "Chaz" Rochon.  At about 9:30 p.m. May 5, Rochon was eating dinner with his housemates at the Andres Castro Arms cooperative at 2310 Prospect St. near the Memorial Stadium when someone broke a window at the building, said Berkeley police Lt. Wes Hester.  Read the entire article here.

 

Court Dates Set For Oak Grove Lawsuits

Berkeley Daily Planet

The lawsuits aimed at saving the grove at California Memorial Stadium are consuming a few trees of their own as the blizzard of paperwork continues in the leadup to an eventual courtroom showdown.  The pulp friction that’s headed for the courtroom showdown centers on the university’s grandiose building plans embodied in the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects, an architectural extravaganza that will result in three new buildings and expansion of the stadium, with a total new build-out equivalent to a third of the size of the Empire State Building.  The immediate issue is the Student Athlete High Performance Center, a four-story high-tech gymnasium and office planned along the western wall of the venerable stadium.  During a court conference, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller confirmed the Sept. 19-20 courtroom date for hearing the case, and set dates for depositions and submissions of paperwork in the case.

The California Oaks Foundation, Panoramic Hill Association and the City of Berkeley are all challenging the university’s plans for a series of massive development projects at and around California Memorial Stadium, a city landmark and an entry on the rolls of the National Register of Historic Places.  Approval by the UC Regents of the environmental impact report on the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) last December was followed a month later by the lawsuits, each challenging the regents’ action on similar grounds—though reflecting the somewhat differing interests of tree advocates, neighbors living near the project and a cash-strapped city.  The gym is the first of the projects slated for construction, and the lawsuits forced at least a year’s delay, which UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Ed Denton has said will cost the school at least $8 million to $10 million.  Construction had been planned to commence with the demolition of the grove of Coastal Live Oaks along the stadium’s western wall, which triggered both the lawsuits and an ongoing tree-sit that continues into its seventh month.  The logging operation would have been followed by excavations for the four-story gym and office complex. Both were halted by the lawsuits and a subsequent injunction granted by the judge.   A since-completed university-funded seismic study contends there are no active earthquake faults under the gym site, so the university argues that construction should commence. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they are challenging the study’s adequacy and also say the presence or lack of a fault immediately under the gym site is only one of several key legal issues.

 

Devon Hardin Withdraws From Draft, Stays for Senior Year

Contra Costa Times

DeVON HARDIN has always been a pretty smart and stable guy. He was a 4.0 student at Newark Memorial High School and a young man who clearly understood the value and importance of getting a college education at a place like Cal. What's more, Hardin always has had a strong family behind him, supporting the tough decision-making processes a 6-foot-11 basketball prodigy has to make.  That's why it seemed so strange when another Bay Area newspaper reported Sunday that Hardin had hired an agent and was ready to take the NBA draft plunge despite uncertain prospects that he would be a first-round pick.  Thankfully, those reports were erroneous. Hardin will be returning to Cal for his senior season, which is great news for coach Ben Braun and the Bears but an even better development for Hardin. Quite likely, he will make himself a significantly richer man a year from now than he would have had he decided to take the gamble of turning professional now.

Read the entire article here.

 

On a purely personal note…

If anyone can provide me information regarding handicap access at Cal home games, please email me at demichael@gmail.com.  My father has attended Cal games since the 40’s, but is now battling Parkinson’s Disease.  He’d like to attend the Tennessee opener, but I don’t know how it would work with a wheelchair.  Unfortunately, the Cal athletic department has been no help whatsoever.  I’ve called several times and have not been given an answer, and I even emailed Sandy Barbour, as well as several other athletic department directors, but have not even had the courtesy of a reply.  If you know what the procedure is for watching the game in a wheelchair (are there special tickets?  Is it possible for me to sit with him?) please let me know.  Thanks in advance, and beat those Vols!

Knoxville News: Cal's Longshore recalls long day - in shell shock

By JOHN ADAMS, adamsj@knews.com

Cal quarterback Nate Longshore's take on last year's season opener at Neyland Stadium isn't much different from everyone else's. "Shell-shocked" he said.   That applied not just to a quarterback starting his first college road game but an entire team of Golden Bears, who were blitzed by big plays and bedeviled by their mistakes while falling behind 35-0. In scoring the last 18 points, Cal succeeded only in producing a misleading score.   Otherwise, its much-anticipated opener was an abject failure. And it couldn't have come at a worse time.  The nationally ranked Golden Bears were a program on the rise, perhaps ready to challenge Southern Cal for the Pac-10 championship. UT was coming off a 5-6 season.   Cal spent the next eight weeks playing up to its preseason hype, scoring more than 40 points in five consecutive games and winning eight straight games. The more it won, the more inexplicable its season opener seemed.   "I think we were prepared (for UT)," Longshore said in a telephone interview. "We had practiced well. But sometimes, you have games that don't reflect what happened in practice.

"We didn't play well. They were on their game."  The Golden Bears actually wound up with a better record and higher ranking than the Vols. They finished 14th in both polls with a 10-3 record, which included a 45-10 rout of Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl.  Both teams will enter the 2007 season as consensus top-20 teams. UT has been ranked as high as seventh; Cal is ranked ninth nationally by espn.com.  The preseason rankings add luster to their season-opening rematch in Berkeley. But what happened last year at Neyland Stadium adds even more.  The defeat wasn't just an embarrassment for Cal. It was an embarrassment for the entire Pac-10.  The Golden Bears will have an opportunity to redeem themselves on national television Sept. 1.  Based on Longshore's comments, redemption isn't a rallying cry. But he's a veteran quarterback, which means he's frightfully susceptible to lapsing into coach-speak at anytime.

"We try to look at it as one game at a time," Longshore said. "Definitely when you have a history with a team (that can add to your motivation). We focus more on when the season is starting. We know we've got so much time."  Maybe I should have asked a Cal linebacker.   But quarterbacks come first at Cal since Jeff Tedford became the head coach. Longshore, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound junior, is a prototypical drop-back passer, rated as the No. 5 quarterback in the country by The Sporting News. His season opener against UT, which was only his second college game, was an aberration. He spent most of the rest of the season playing like an NFL prospect.

He's only one of the concerns for a UT defense, which will have three new starters in the secondary. Cal's top three wide receivers, including preseason All-American DeSean Jackson, also return.  Although the Golden Bears lost star tailback Marshawn Lynch, they return backup Justin Forsett, who has rushed for more than 1,600 yards the last two seasons. Also, three starters return in the offensive line, including All-Pac-10 center Alex Mack.  "Our backups (in the offensive line) played a lot last year," Longshore said. "Everyone is experienced. I'm impressed with the work ethic they've had. I think the offensive line will be improved."  So should the entire offense, which returns eight starters, including five players who have made either first- or second-team All-Pac-10 this preseason. That offense will have to make up for a defense that lost five starters.  A different venue also should help Cal, which seemed unprepared for the volume of Neyland Stadium last year.  "That type of noise ... I don't know if you can prepare for it," Longshore said. "It was a new type of loud. I was impressed."  And shell-shocked.

 

Daily Cal: Former Bears Do Battle on Japanese Gridiron

BY Ryan Gorcey

It turns out that bowl season isn’t quite over for the Cal football program. The Bears still have one more to go: the New Era Bowl.  While the name bears the familiar corporate stamp of many college bowl games, the game shares little else in common with the NCAA’s postseason match-ups. Rather, the July 8 game will be played in Kensai, Japan and feature former Cal players along with current Bears coaches instructing a Japanese football team and then playing against another team coached by a contingent from the University of Hawaii.

Former Cal players Chase Lyman, Tosh Lupoi, Joe Maningo, Mike McGrath, Tom Sverchek and Reggie Robertson will fly to the Land of the Rising Sun on June 30 along with quarterback coach Kevin Daft and defensive line coach Ken Delgado for a week of preparation followed by the game itself.   “Basically it’s almost like a corporate league over there, like the top football players in Japan,” Cal spokesperson John Sudsbury said. “They do it every year. They pick two colleges each year, and our coaches and those players will coach the team for a week and then they’ll go up against another team.”  The former Bears players will coach and play for the Blue Star team, while

the Rainbows will coach and play for the White Star team.  “The players serve as player-coaches,” Sudsbury said. “They’ll coach during the week and then actually play in the game.”  Lyman is the most notable of the Cal alumni, last playing for the Bears in 2004 before being drafted by the New Orleans Saints. Prior to his senior season being cut short by a knee injury suffered in the team’s fourth game of 2004 against USC, Lyman had 14 catches for 414 yards and five touchdowns.

Robertson last played for Cal in 2004 as a backup to now-Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Robertson is most noted for coming on in relief of Rodgers against the Trojans in 2003, when the Bears crushed USC’s national title hopes in a 34-31 triple-overtime upset.  Lupoi, a former Bears defensive lineman, should feel at home in the role of player-coach, as he is currently a graduate assistant for Cal after finishing his collegiate playing career in 2005.  Maningo was an All-Pac-10 honorable mention linebacker in his senior season of 2004, tallying 45 tackles and six sacks.  Another 2004 Pac-10 honorable mention, McGrath, made 19 total tackles—12 of them unassisted—in his final season for the Bears. He was a special teams standout in his four years for Cal, earning a scholarship after walking on in his freshman year. Sverchek, a defensive tackle, was signed by the New England Patriots in 2005 after being named to the Pac-10 All-Academic team in his 2004 senior season. Sverchek made 30 total tackles in his final campaign for the Bears, and had 5.5 sacks.  The coaches accompanying the players, Delgado and Daft, are entering their sixth and fourth years with Cal, respectively. Delgado’s 2004 defensive line, of which several of his traveling companions were a part, allowed just 82.5 rushing yards per game, good for second in the nation.  Daft came to Cal as a graduate assistant coach after a six-year professional football career, which included stints as a quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, the San Diego Chargers, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers.

SF Chronicle: Big Game on Versus beats no TV at all

Scott Ostler

The news that this year's Big Game will be televised on a channel named Versus has some Cal fans feeling uneasy and underappreciated, but it might not be as bad as it seems.   It's a real channel. You won't need any fancy additional equipment to pull in the Versus signal, although if you can convince your mother-in-law to stand on the roof holding a coat hanger for three hours, more power to you, Old Blue. Spin to your left a tad, Eunice!  Cal announced additions to its TV football schedule in a news release that brags, "The Stanford game will be Cal's debut on Versus."  To which many Cal fans are saying, "Pinch me."  And many Stanford fans are saying, "Geez, we scheduled Cal again?"

The good news for Bear backers is that the Big Game will be televised. As reported in Tuesday's Chronicle, about 30,000 Cal fans will be SOL (sorrily out of luck) when it comes to Big Game tickets this year because the game is at Stanford's greatly downsized House of Pain.  The only way for some Cal fans to buy a ticket to that game is to buy a Stanford season ticket. Awkward!  Of those 30,000 ticketless Cal fans, it is estimated that less than half can afford to charter a blimp. That leaves TV as the remaining option.  But is Versus really TV? Yes and no.  Cal fans who have grown quickly into their Tedford-era sense of entitlement might feel disrespected by their team's relegation to Versus, which ain't ABC or ESPN, although it is sound and light emerging from the same plastic box.  Cal backers might be comforted to know that World Extreme Cagefighting recently made its national television debut on Versus. (Personally, I prefer World Moderate Cagefighting, where you can bite off an opponent's ears or fingers but must give them back.)

Versus was known as the Outdoor Life Network. It televises the Tour de France, the world's most prestigious urine-testing competition. It televises the Louis Vuitton Cup, which is either a yacht race or a competition among airport baggage handlers. Versus has the American rights to America's Cup coverage.  Versus also televises NHL hockey, bullriding, lacrosse, fishing and hunting. The Versus series "Holy @#%*!" is not a religious program but rather a roundup of "snowmobile crashes, rodeo wrecks, bungee-jumping disasters and skydiving mishaps." Stanford football highlights could be added to that mix, depending.  Versus is also the TV home of the Premier Darts League.  It is, then, a manly man's channel, expanding and evolving, although still working out the kinks. Versus went all Heidi on us in Game 1 of this year's NHL Western Conference playoffs, when the network cut away just before the fourth overtime to go to an infomercial.  In short, Versus should be an exciting place for Cal fans to visit come Dec. 1. You won't have to venture into the triple-digit channels to find Versus. On my TV, it's channel 75. Reportedly, it is available to all subscribers who receive Fox Sports Net.  The semi-trusty Wikipedia notes that "Versus is available to significantly fewer households than ESPN." Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen says Versus is received in 72 million of America's 111 million television-equipped homes.  Don't blame or credit Cal for the Big Game TV decision. It will be on Versus because the Pac-10 allows Fox Sports Net to sub-license five or six games per season to another network. In recent seasons, those fringe games went to TBS, which has since pulled out of college football.

Fox Sports Net handed those games to Versus, which is owned by Comcast, whose president of programming is Jeff Shell, who is a Cal alum. So the Bears are likely to be handled with the reverence and respect they deserve on this year's Big Game telecast.  Cal has become a TV team under Jeff Tedford, averaging nine televised games per season, up from six per season in the five years Before Tedford. The Bears will go into the season ranked just out of the top 10 in most national polls.  Cal supporters should remember that the Big Game isn't exactly a dream matchup for much of America, although some viewers might be drawn in by the Stanford Band's halftime "Salute to Bungee Jumping Disasters."  If you still want to complain about your team being relegated to a lesser network, Cal fans, go beat Tennessee, then start making some noise.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finding Versus

Cal football announced three new TV games Wednesday. The most notable was the Big Game at 4 p.m. on Dec. 1. It will be on Versus.   In the Bay Area, Versus is usually on Comcast channel 75 or 81, on DirecTV 608 and on Dish Network 151. The channel will carry a number of Pac-10 games this season (including Stanford at USC on Oct. 6).

These other Pac-10 rivalry games are on more traditional football channels: UCLA-USC (ABC), Oregon State-Oregon (ESPN2), Arizona State-Arizona (ESPN/ESPN2). Washington-Washington State has no TV scheduled at this time.  The other TV games announced by Cal on Wednesday will be on FSNBA: at Arizona State, Oct. 27, 7 p.m.; vs. Washington State, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.

SF Chronicle: Big Game Blues

SHUT OUT: Downsized Stanford Stadium means Cal fans need to get creative if they want tickets to hallowed event this year

When 14-year-old Zack Hazarabedian heard his family would miss their first Big Game in decades, he was devastated.  The Hazarabedians and roughly 30,000 other Cal fans will be shut out of the fabled contest this year because of limited seating at the newly rebuilt -- and significantly smaller -- Stanford Stadium.  "He thought we should sell the house to buy tickets," said his mother, Bonnie Hazarabedian of Moraga. "I told him, 'Sweetie, we can't.' To him, missing the Big Game is unthinkable."  Perhaps never in the history of the game have Old Blues suffered so much anguish half a year before kickoff.

The 115-year-old Cal-Stanford football contest transcends mere athletics. It's a gathering of the tribes, a bacchanalian ritual akin to Mardi Gras and Christmas combined. For fans of both schools, the Big Game is seared into their internal clock like the turning of the seasons.   In the past, any Cal season ticket holder automatically got a ticket to the Big Game. But that has changed -- tickets for November's showdown are expected to be rarer than Stanford victories last year. The only way for Cal fans to get Big Game tickets at this point is to have donated at least $6,800 to the athletic booster fund or to buy Stanford season tickets.  Many have.

Read the entire article here.

Scout.com: Cal Lands a Big Target in Ladner

By Jim McGill

The Golden Bears hauled in a big target today, as 6-7/235 Pembroke Hill (Kansas City, MO) tight end Spencer Ladner committed to the Bears. Ladner’s commitment represents another foray for Cal onto the national recruiting scene, building on last year’s broadened recruiting base with the ’07 class’s record out-of-state haul.   The tall and athletic Ladner has favored Cal for quite some time and finally had the opportunity to fly out west and check out things firsthand with an unofficial visit to campus. His experience  reinforced all that he’d previously felt –the Cal was the place for him.

Read the entire article here.

 

ANG Newspapers: Jahvid Best might be Cal's best bet yet

By Bob Fitzgerald

PETE CARROLL'S PROGRAM remains two touchdowns better than any in the West, so he really doesn't have to care, but you can bet every other Pac-10 football coach took notice of the 100-meter sprint champion at the state high school finals Saturday.  Here's hoping Cal's Jeff Tedford headed that list.   Given the recent success of the program, it would be no surprise if the Bears featured the best running back in the conference next season, even after Marshawn Lynch bolted to the NFL. And I'm not talking about Justin Forsett.   If you've seen Salesian High's Jahvid Best run with a football, you've had to wonder how the small-school star would fare against the highest level of competition in the college game.

Bears fans who watched him dust the state's sprint heavyweights Saturday in record-breaking fashion and lay claim to California's fastest prep honors no longer have any doubts. This uniquely talented kid should be considered a Heisman Trophy candidate as a freshman.  Yeah, I know Tedford's history of being overly loyal to imcumbants and being harder on rookies than Don Nelson. But this blur has to be an exception.  If Best doesn't get at least 15 touches in the Sept. 1 opener against Tennessee, Tedford's making a huge mistake — one the Bears probably wouldn't be able to overcome against a quality opponent such as the Volunteers.   Congratulations, Jahvid. Here's hoping you take the opening kickoff of the 2007 season 100 yards in about

.

Yahoo! Sports: Best Games of 2007

Here is the link.

 

Week 1: Saturday, Sept. 1

Tennessee at Cal: We expected this game to be a toss-up last year, and Tennessee instead scored the game's first 35 points on its way to a 35-18 triumph. California should put up much more of a fight at home. Both programs could start the season ranked among the top 15 teams in the nation, which makes this the most attractive game in a relatively lackluster opening weekend.

<snip>

Week 11: Saturday, Nov. 10

Southern California at Cal: Southern California's chances of winning a sixth consecutive Pac-10 title and playing for the national championship could depend on whether the Trojans can pull off this road victory. California will need a big performance from Nate Longshore, who completed less than half his passes and threw two interceptions last season in a 23-9 loss to USC.

CBS Sportsline: Vols CB Johnson found not guilty in toy gun assault case

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A jury on Friday found Tennessee cornerback Marsalous Johnson not guilty of assault, after an off-duty sheriff's deputy said Johnson waved a gun at him while driving on the interstate.  When the deputy alerted on-duty officers and they pulled over Johnson's vehicle, they found a toy Uzi submachine gun under the passenger seat.  Johnson's case was postponed several times since the incident last July and finally went to trial in Putnam County Circuit Court. A jury found Johnson not guilty of simple assault, court clerk Marcia Borys said.   Johnson was originally charged with aggravated assault, but the charge was lowered to a misdemeanor in November and sent to a grand jury.  "I am really happy for Marsalous and his family. They have been through a lot of heartache and emotion through all of this," coach Phillip Fulmer said in a statement.   Johnson, a rising sophomore, was suspended for the first four games of last season as punishment for the arrest. He is projected to start at cornerback this season.

 

Contra Costa Times: Cal finds quarterback next door

Tedford's one-time neighbor gives Bears an oral commitment

By Jonathan Okanes

Beau Sweeney's welcome to Cal's football program was a little different than most.  Sweeney, a junior quarterback at Clovis West High School in Fresno, gave Cal coach Jeff Tedford an oral commitment last week. Sweeney's father, Kevin, was Tedford's teammate at Fresno State, when they both played for Sweeney's grandfather, Jim. When Tedford later became Fresno State's offensive coordinator, he lived just around the corner from the Sweeneys.  So after Sweeney committed, Tedford sent him some old photos that featured his kids and Sweeney at various birthday parties and holiday functions.  "I was a little kid, so I don't remember it too much," Sweeney said. "There were quite a few pictures. It was a good laugh."

Sweeney obviously has football tradition on his side, but only lately did he become prevalent on the recruiting radar. Sweeney performed well at recent camps at Stanford and Cal, and ended up securing offers from Oregon, Arizona State, Nebraska, Colorado, Boise State, Oregon State and Arizona, along with Cal.  Sweeney said he didn't want to wait to see what other schools might extend offers, partly because Cal was recruiting other quarterbacks and because of he and his family's history with Tedford.

"There are so many great things about Cal," Sweeney said. "I have a really good relationship with coach Tedford. It was a tough choice for awhile, but every time I kind of thought about what my priorities were, Cal kept coming up No. 1."

Tedford, who has been lauded for his work with quarterbacks throughout his coaching career, is stockpiling the program with highly regarded signal-callers. Starter Nate Longshore, along with backups Kyle Reed, Kevin Riley and Brock Mansion, were all considered blue-chip recruits coming out of high school.  Sweeney acknowledged there might be a fight for playing time when he arrives in Berkeley.  "I didn't really consider that because I was looking to go to a Pac-10 school, and wherever you go in the Pac-10 you are going to have to compete," he said. "Wherever I go, I am going to be competing with someone. So why not Cal?"

 

Contra Costa Times: Ayoob endures struggles for a Cal degree

Worth its weight in gold

By Jonathan Okanes

BERKELEY -- Every now and then last season, there were reminders that Joe Ayoob still was part of Cal's football program. He was seen holding for place-kicker Tom Schneider. A television camera occasionally would steal a shot of him on the sideline.  No, Ayoob had not given up on college football or transferred to get away from all the bad memories. He simply had become similar to so many other student-athletes -- off the main stage, in a reserve role, attending classes and working toward his degree.  To say that Ayoob's playing career didn't work out would be an injustice to what he endured. But his ineffective play at quarterback, his ensuing lack of confidence, the booing and nasty e-mails from fans, and ultimately, the loss of his starting job, never prompted Ayoob to lose sight of the one thing he had in his sights -- a Cal diploma.

Read the entire article here.

Oakland Tribune: Cal-bound Salesian football star blazes to MOC record in 200 meters at Edwards Stadium

Best of show: Prep leaves indelible mark

Column by Carl Steward

BERKELEY — Jahvid Best hasn't even officially enrolled yet at the University of California let alone slip on a pair of football pads, but he already has left an indelible mark on its campus.   Saturday at Edwards Stadium, the lithe, explosive Salesian High track and football star repeated his North Coast Section Meet of Champions sprint double of a year ago, blowing away the competition in the 100 and 200 meters as expected.  For Cal football fans who can't wait to see this kid move up the hill to Memorial Stadium as one of Jeff Tedford's prized incoming tailbacks next fall, you have to love this: Best is significantly faster now than ever.   Already the state leader in the 100 (and second-fastest in the nation) with a 10.36 clocking, Best narrowly missed the long-standing MOC record with a time of 10.44. A poor start probably cost him the meet mark. That was not in the case in the 200, where Best blasted out of the blocks perfectly, and despite running into a slight headwind, obliterated the meet record of 21.24 with a time of 20.92.

For comparison's sake, Best won the NCS 100-200 double last year with times of 10.78 and 21.77, respectively, then clocked 10.56 to finish fifth in the state 100 and 21.31 to finish third in the 200. His times Saturday made those clocked as a junior look silly. Goodness, he was nearly a full second faster in the 200.  "I wanted to go out here leaving a mark, leaving something to remember," said Best of his spectacular 200. "I think everybody who saw me run today saw me at pretty close to 100 percent of my capability."   A splendidly cut 185-pound package of power and speed, it was easy to envision what Best might be capable of when he puts on a football uniform at Cal. It's tough to say how much playing time he's going to get as a freshman with a number of backfield candidates vying for the void left by Marshawn Lynch's departure to the NFL. But there's little doubt Best has a chance to make an immediate impact with the kind of incredible breakaway speed he possesses.  Simply stated, one nice hole and nobody's going to catch this guy. Gone. See ya. Touchdown. To see him burn up the track in the 100, leaving Deer Valley's Taiwan Jones in his dust after Jones got the early jump out of the blocks, was a frightening sight but a fantastic one if you're a football fan.  Does Best ever think about being on a football field while he's running one of his track races? Not really, he confessed.

"When I run track, I'm thinking about my form while I'm running," he said. "But in football, I just run."  But what about those breakaway runs, of which he had so many memorable ones for his small parochial high school in Richmond?  "Well, yeah, then I start to run like I'm running the 100," he said. "I get my knees pumping up a little higher."  Best has one last challenge as one of the most remarkable East Bay dual-sport athletes in recent years. He wants to be a state champion next weekend at the state meet in Sacramento. He'll be the 100 favorite, but faces a formidable challenge in the 200 against Long Beach Poly's Bryshon Nellum, who has the nation's fastest time of 20.58 (Best now has the second-fastest nationally in both the 100 and 200).

Nellum, who signed a track/football scholarship with USC, is a wide receiver in training but primarily a 200/400 track star. He won't try to play football until 2008. Best, on the other hand, will have football on his mind first when he arrives at Cal, even though he also will run track at Berkeley.  Can he beat Nellum?  "I don't know, we'll see," he said. "But he's not going to walk away with it."  Best tried to size up what it's going to be like being the favorite in one race and the underdog in another at the state meet.

"I'd rather be the underdog, but being on top is just as hard because you've got to worry about somebody," he said. "When you're the underdog, you see the top dog and you have to try to beat them. But when you're on the top, you don't know who's coming, so you have to be ready for everything."  If nothing else, Best looked more than ready for Cal on Saturday. I asked him if he left tickets for Tedford to watch him run his two electric races. He chuckled.  "Nah, he's probably busy doing something else," Best mused.  It's hard to believe anything else could take priority over watching this young man run. Except maybe designing a stack of football plays for him, and then watching him run.

Daily Cal: ESPN Gameday Shoot At Cal Not a Certainty

BY Ryan Gorcey

Despite widespread speculation that ESPN’s premier college football pre-game show, ESPN Gameday, is coming to Berkeley for the Sept. 1 season-opener next fall, the visit is not yet official.   On May 13, BearInsider.com, part of the Scout.com network, reported that the program was a lock to come to Berkeley for the Cal football team’s rematch against Tennessee, however nothing has been confirmed by Cal or by ESPN representatives.   The program, hosted by Chris Fowler and featuring analysts Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, last covered the Bears in 2004, when Cal visited USC at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum a year after derailing the Trojans’ national title hopes in a triple-overtime win at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. The Gameday crew has never visited Cal in the show’s 20-year history.   Cal football spokesperson John Sudsbury said that Cal had been contacted by ESPN about the possibility of hosting the show, but nothing was finalized, much less where the program would be located on campus, which has been a favorite point of speculation for Bears fans.

“The only thing we know right now is that we’re in consideration for it,” Sudsbury said. “Nothing has been decided yet and nothing has been confirmed, even though it was on that one website (BearInsider.com). They just said that we’re definitely in the consideration.”   One reason for the speculation surrounding the possibility of Cal hosting the program is the lack of other big games being played on that day, as the next-most significant game will be between Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, scheduled to be broadcast by NBC. Other games being nationally broadcast are Kansas State at Auburn, Arizona at BYU, Virginia at Wyoming, New Mexico at UTEP and Baylor at TCU.  “I think we have the most appealing game for it,” Sudsbury said. “But, I don’t know what ESPN’s looking at.”  Nevertheless, at this point in the year, planning for next fall’s football season is not in any final form, according to ESPN Senior Media Relations Director, Rob Tobias, who could not confirm that Cal would be hosting the program.  “It’s unlikely that we’ve determined what sites we are going to visit in the fall just yet,” Tobias said. “I don’t think we’re even close to finalizing our schedule.”

Napa Valley Register: Cal Ranked 11th in Pre-Season Poll

Here is the link.

 

Athlon Sports has ranked the UC Berkeley football team No. 11 in its preseason Top 25. The magazine has also selected DeSean Jackson as a Preseason First Team All-American and Alex Mack as a Second Team All-America honoree. The magazine hits newsstands on June 5.

 

Joining Jackson and Mack as Preseason First-Team All-Pac-10 selections by Athlon are tight end Craig Stevens and punter Andrew Larson.

 

Offensive lineman Mike Gibson of Napa, quarterback Nate Longshore, wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins, linebacker Zack Follett and kicker Tom Schneider have been named Second Team All-Pac-10 for the preseason.

 

Gibson played at Napa High and Solano Community College-Suisun before transferring to Cal. He started last year as a junior at tackle on the offensive line for the Golden Bears.

 

Gibson played in all 12 games with eight starts last year as Cal beat Texas A&M, 45-10, at the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to cap a 10-3 season. He was All-Pac-10 Second-Team and recorded 24.5 knockdown blocks.