Yesterday I had the great privilege to attend the Cal-Utah press conference as well as the Poinsettia Bowl Luncheon.  I'll cover the press conference here and post luncheon photos and Poinsettia Bowl gameday events sometime in the near future.  And keep your eyes on the CGB twitter this afternoon and evening.  I'll provide updates from the press box as well as from the post-game press conference.

(Click each image for a larger version)

After the jump we'll get down to business, with various photos and comments from Utah coach Kyle Wittingham as well as Tedford's comments.

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Many of these predictions have been posted over the past week and a half, but it seemed like a good day to collect them all and post them together.

The eternal Cal optimist, our friend Ted Miller picks Cal to win 28-24 because...well, why not?

California 28, Utah 24: You never know which Cal team will show up, but seeing that the Bears are coming off an embarrassing and confounding blowout loss at Washington, why not assume they will again swing wildly and finish strong against a good Utah team? 

Scouts Inc. gives Cal an advantage in QB, RB, DL, and LB while giving an advantage to Utah in WR, OL, special teams, DBs, and coaching.  They ultimately pick Utah to win 23-17.

ESPN's AccuScore simulation gives Cal a 27.7-26.6 advantage, with Cal winning 51.3% of the time.

Three out of five Yahoo experts predict a Cal victory.

Two out of five CBS experts predict a Cal victory.

NBC's John Tamahana predicts a 26-23 Utah victory.

Since it's a game day (and I'll be in San Diego all day anyway), the GN will take tomorrow off, but return Thursday with recaps and analysis of the Poinsettia Bowl.

After the jump I have practice notes, articles on Ludwig and Holley, an update on Rulon Davis, a special holiday video from Cal basketball (more caroling!), Joanne Boyle's 100th win, and more.

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Update: There is a moderate chance that Syd won't play Wednesday. If he does play, it sounds like he won't play as much as he normally does.  Hill is still out with his shoulder injury, leaving Cal very thin at cornerback this week.

Eddie Young's father plans to release a documentary to show what it takes to succeed academically and athletically in college sports.

Henry Young - whose older son, Sean, played wide receiver at Cal - began gathering video about six years ago, as Eddie and his prep teammates worked out or interacted with teachers and counselors. Henry and his camera became omnipresent at bustling Berkeley High.

There were nearly 3,000 students at the school, more than those teachers and counselors sometimes could handle. Henry Young saw kids slipping through the system, prompting him to get involved in more than merely Eddie's life.

He often personally escorted student-athletes to guidance counselors - and made sure they asked the right questions.

"A lot of kids were ineligible and didn't have anyone at home to support them," Henry Young said. "I was basically trying to give the kids some tools they could use. I was trying to tell them, 'Listen, you're in charge here. If you don't take control of your life, you're not going to be successful.' "

His filmmaking journey stretched into Eddie's time at Cal. One prime figure is former Bears wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins, now with the Tennessee Titans. Hawkins was raised by his grandmother in housing projects in Stockton - a "pretty rough" environment, as Henry Young put it - but emerged to make it through Cal and reach the NFL.

Young interviewed Hawkins' grandmother, uncle and brother in an effort to portray the difficult circumstances he faced.

The piece ultimately will touch on many people and many issues, taking a broader scope than "Hoop Dreams" did in shadowing two aspiring basketball players through their inner-city youth in Chicago. Young hopes his film drives home several messages, from reminding athletes of the long odds of going pro to showing them coaches are not always mentors to illustrating the value of embracing schoolwork, rather than simply trying to stay eligible.

After the jump we have a recap yesterday's bowl events (with pictures!) including the zoo visit and Make-A-Wish Foundation visit, practice/injury updates, Ted Miller's bowl prediction, Cal-Kansas info, and more.

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Monty talks about the upcoming matchup against Kansas.

On Cole Aldridge:

He's very big. He's got great hands, and they use him a lot. They play a lot of high-low basketball. They go to him and make him very effective. I don't know who else we'll see in terms of an offensive player down below, but he's plenty good enough right now.

On Xavier Henry:
He's strong, aggressive and he can shoot the ball. He's a big wing player. He was a very highly-touted player coming into the program. He's a double-figure scorer for them as a freshman. I think part of that is because of the emphasis on their low-post game. People have probably elected initially to double up or play off and try to protect the inside, and he's taken advantage of that. I would guess that might balance out as time goes on, but right now, for a freshman to come in and average 18 points a game is pretty impressive.

On what it will take to win the game:
It's not about individual matchups. It is matchups within matchups, but it's about the team. For us to have any chance, we're going to have to play very well together. We're going to have to help each other out. If we execute, we'll have a chance, but if we don't, we're not going to be able to get things done. I'm not just talking about this game; I'm talking about generally across the board. People will have their hands full with their individual matchups, and we'll have to get help where we can.
...

On coming off of the two-week break for finals after two decisive victories:
It's been kind of tough. Finals have been kind of tough on the players. We've had days off in between, and everybody has finals after practice. Guys have probably been up late studying. We've gotten some things done, but as is normal, it's been a bit lethargic at times. We haven't practiced real long, but we've tried to get a couple things done in some areas that we weren't happy with. 

After the jump we look at the Bears' first day in San Diego (as well as video from their trip to the zoo), some difficulty Utah has had selling bowl tickets, a look ahead to the week in basketball, and more.

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Gary Peterson says Best's decision to leave for the NFL should be an easy one.  He would be shocked if Best didn't declare college football Sanchez.

It's an easy call all the way. Short-term, he hasn't practiced since his heart-stopping injury on Nov. 7, the one that left him with a severe concussion and a sore back. Best-case scenario, pun marginally intended, he'd have five days of practice to knock off 40 days of rust. That's an overly ambitious timetable.

It's especially overambitious in that Best's most concerning injury is the one to his brain. He fell from a height of more than six feet, landing on his back and head with enough force to cause his helmet to come shooting off like a cork propelled from a champagne bottle.

There are times when you can rush a guy back from a sprain, or a strain or even an arthroscopic procedure. There are times when doctors tell a player, "You can't make it worse. So if you can handle the pain, you're good to go."

None of that applies to what happened to Best. Trying to rush him back — and this would have been rushing him back — would have been a mistake. But, you say, it's the Poinsettia Bowl! Doesn't matter. Whatever the bowl and no matter the stakes, the timing isn't right.

But, you say, he has to come back to prove to the NFL that he's fully recovered! Not really. Doctors forecast a complete recovery, so ultimately his concussion should be no more worrisome to NFL teams than the hip injury that forced him to miss spring practice in 2008 or the foot and elbow surgeries he had last offseason. Whatever concerns they have can be alleviated at the scouting combine, where prospective draftees are weighed, measured, drilled and subjected to psychological testing. Even a personal workout would do the trick.

...

Best has taken the first step toward a pro career, contacting the NFL advisory committee to gauge his draft prospects. Draft expert Phil Steele already has Best pegged as the No. 4 running back in next spring's draft. The fourth running back chosen last spring was LeSean McCoy, by Philadelphia late in the second round. According to reports, McCoy signed a four-year, $3.48 million contract ($1.73 million guaranteed).

No doubt Best will want to consult his inner circle on that as well.

Best: Do you think I could live on $1.73 million guaranteed?

Inner circle: That's more than you're making now, last time we checked.

Best: Yeah, me too. 

After the jump we look at Tedford's pre-pre-bowl press conference, a strange list of the most exciting bowl games, an update from the last practice in Memorial in 2009, and more.  Best of all, we have some comments from Bill Cosby on the EagleBank Bowl.

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Andy Ludwig's recent departure from Utah makes the Poinsettia Bowl an intriguing matchup.

"It's kind of fun, but it can be distracting, because I'm not just watching x's and o's," Ludwig was saying this week. "Every player's got a story, and I know most of those stories."

That's why the story of this bowl game, as much as anything, is Andy Ludwig vs. the Utes. Mix in the longtime friendship between him and Ute coach Kyle Whittingham, the reunion with the offensive coaches he supervised for four seasons and the mixed views of his schemes in Salt Lake City, and we have the makings of an intriguing evening in San Diego.

"Fun for you, maybe," Ludwig clarified for a visitor, smiling.

As for himself, Ludwig again must find ways to attack Whittingham's aggressive defense -- having lost to the Utes in previous existences with Fresno State and Oregon -- and figure out his own offense, the group that averages 29 points but never scores 29 points, exactly.

"We either scored 50 or three," Ludwig said, barely exaggerating. "If I could explain it, I'd fix it."
...

Among fans, little sense of loss was publicly registered last December when Ludwig announced he would be leaving (initially, joining the Kansas State staff, before moving again in February) after the Sugar Bowl. Partly because of having to follow the dynamic Alex Smith/Urban Meyer offense, Ludwig never was embraced.

Even last season, when Utah won every game, much of the credit went to senior quarterback Brian Johnson for directing rallies against Oregon State and Texas Christian and orchestrating a no-huddle offense that stunned Alabama in the first quarter.

That scheme was Ludwig's parting shot. Yet, true to his self-effacing nature, he described the strategy as his effort to "take the coaches out of the game."

Whittingham ("Andy did a very good job for us") and Johnson ("He definitely made me the player that I was") need little prompting to praise Ludwig's contributions. After a season when Whittingham took some duties away from Dave Schramm, Ludwig's successor, and Utah five times settled for field goals in a loss to BYU, perhaps the glee in Uteville regarding the departure has lessened somewhat.

In any case, Schramm and play-caller Aaron Roderick now have to live up to Ludwig's 4-0 bowl record with the Utes, with averages of 32 points and 438 yards.

After the jump we have more on the decision to seat Best for the bowl game as well as his thoughts on his post-season plans,  more previews of the Cal-Utah matchup, 20 questions with Max Zhang, and more.

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You're all familiar with the sections on the left of the page, right?  Some of you aren't?  Well, they are a handy way to look at posts according to various topics.  You can sort posts by "football," "recruiting," "basketball," and so forth.  Now there is a section called "Golden Nuggets" where the GN posts will be stored.  If you need to catch up on several day's worth of news just click that section and you'll see all the most recent posts.

Tedford has announced that Jahvid Best will miss the Poinsettia Bowl.  He said he is progressing well, but that it would be too soon for him to play in the bowl game.  I'll post more details when they're made available.

Here's what Daily Cal had to say:

Tedford said that Best is "doing excellent" in rehabbing from the head and back pain that have kept him out of football since he suffered a scary concussion on the field during the Bears' loss to Oregon State on Nov. 7. But with Cal returning to practice Wednesday just a week away from its bowl game against Utah, the team didn't feel that Best would have enough time to get himself back into game shape before Dec. 23.

"He's been out a long time, and since this game is so early, to get him back in game-ready form -- we don't feel like that's something that we can get done to him ready to play," Tedford said.

Best might have been available to play had the Bears gone to a post-Christmas bowl, Tedford said. That possibility was erased when Cal closed out its regular season with a 42-10 loss at Washington.

Tedford said that the decision was made "over the last couple of days." The Bears' practice Wednesday was their first since Sunday, as players are in the midst of finals week.

Best will make the trip to San Diego to watch Cal play Utah in San Diego.

"He wishes he could be out there with us," Vereen said. "But at the same time he understands that he needs to get better and healthy." 

After the jump I have quotes from Chris Martin as well as more stories on his commitment to Cal, previews of the Cal-Utah matchup, more bowl information, bracketology, and info on how you can do your holiday shopping with Randle, PC, Zhang, and Boykin this Saturday.

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For the third year in a row, Cal women's volleyball fell to Penn St in the elite eight round of the NCAA tournament.  Penn St has now won 100 games in a row and last year did not lose a single set until the final four.  Those are some phenomenal accomplishments.  Now let's see if Cal can avoid Penn St's bracket next year.

"Our team can hold their heads high," Cal coach Rich Feller said. "We made it a long way, we were the only team remaining from the Pac-10 and there are only four teams that have made it as far as we did in the last three years."

For facing a team approaching a triple-digit winning streak, the Bears turned in a solid performance. Cal had trouble tracking Alyssa D'Errico's spin serve -- she had five aces -- and experienced some occasional confusion along the net. Otherwise, Cal played Penn State close for the majority of the match.

It was the runs that cost Cal a chance at the victory.

"For the most part we hung with them," Feller said. "We'd get point for point, they'd get two or three, we'd go point for point, they'd get three and the game would be over."

The Bears received a much-improved showing from outside hitter Hana Cutura, who had struggled with Penn State in the past two seasons. An All-American likely to win the award again this season, Cutura had hit negative in both the 2007 and 2008 matches against the Nittany Lions.

Cutura's 16 kills led the Bears today. Freshman Correy Johnson played like she was a tournament regular, hammering home seven kills in 12 attempts and at one point, stuffing potential tournament MVP Megan Hodge for a block assist.

Despite continually playing aggressively and avoiding major dry-spells, the Bears struggled to keep up with Penn State's physical play and seemingly error-less volleyball.

"Penn State does not make mistakes," Feller said. "They are a very low-error team and they've got so many physical weapons offensively that if you don't get a chance right away they've got a 50/50 chance or better of getting a kill."

The team was clearly disheartened by the loss, Feller described himself as "getting over it," but how exactly is it for the same team to end your season three times?

"I wouldn't be surprised if (Penn State) walked out with their third national championship," senior libero Kristen Kathan said. "It's the third year in a row we got stuck in their bracket, but when you go out, you want to go out against the best."

After the jump I have all the latest info on Cal's 5-star rush linebacker recruit Chris Martin, an update on the announcement of Best's status, updates on football practice, a look at why the Poinsettia Bowl means so much to Utah (and why Sofele is so determined to beat Utah), the ESPN Pac-10 All-Freshman team, JO's Heisman ballot, and more.  The GN will take a break tomorrow and will return Wednesday with more practice updates, info on Martin, and any other news that breaks between now and then.

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A committee in the House is channeling its inner Teddy Roosevelt by trying to ban the BCS.

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that would prohibit the Bowl Championship Series, a collective arrangement of most Division I college football teams, from marketing any merchandise or game as a national championship unless it is the result of a playoff series.

Since its founding in 1998, the bowl system automatically qualifies the best team in each of the six biggest football conferences plus the University of Notre Dame. It uses computer rankings and polls to fill in the remaining slots–a system that critics argue can exclude some of the best teams from smaller conferences.

Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas), a main sponsor of the legislation, said the bill is designed to send a message to administrators of the bowl series that fans want a more equitable way to determine a national champion and distribute revenue among colleges. And he noted the bill does not dictate exactly how college football arranges its post-season play. "The BCS will eventually get there," Barton said. "You shouldn’t have to hit the mule over the head too many times."

Only one lawmaker, Rep. John Barrow (D., Ga.), registered his opposition when the bill passed on a voice vote. "I don’t like the BCS system any more than anybody else does," Barrow said, "but I think going so far to make it a law is a little bit overboard."

"This is not the nation’s top priority," said Rep. Bobby Rush (D., Ill.). "But I do think there is time in our pursuit of more difficult issues to not overlook the fact that colleges and universities are funded by taxpayer dollars."

The House legislation wouldn’t take effect until the 2012 championship game – but passage is hardly a romp. The House bill must clear the full committee and the chamber, and at this point there is no companion legislation in the Senate.

After the jump we look at how the Poinsettia Bowl is a homecoming for Utah's QB, a list of goodies players will get by playing in the Poinsettia Bowl (as well as other bowls), a list of which Pac-10 juniors should or should not go to the NFL (and who will go anyway), 20 questions with Brandon Smith, and another dominating win for women's volleyball as they advance deep into the NCAA tourney.

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After SJSU's surprising 68-66 upset over the Cal women's basketball team last night, Joanne Boyle was not too happy. 

"San Jose State did a great job. I thought they brought everything you need to win a game. Toughness and energy. We came in and played the first six minutes like we should have and then we checked out. I'm embarassed. I told them the one thing I have always taken pride in is that we've always had tough teams. People would knock you on your butt before they'd get an offensive rebound in the last two minutes of a game. You might have four fouls and five turnovers, but you knew when you left, you had played your butt off. We are soft. Physically and mentally, from top to bottom, we were soft tonight. And we have a habit of that. Being soft and not being mentally tough will get you a loss to anybody. That's where we are right now."

"We need to find some leadership on this team. And we need to find some mental and physical toughness."

"I can't lead them. I am obviously not doing a good job with them in teaching them that being soft is not acceptable at this level. I am not asking them to make baskets. I am not asking them to do anything but play hard and rebound. When someone comes into your gym and scores 32 on you. And the team scores 36 points in the paint and no one is over 6 feet tall, that is a problem. I need to step away and they (the team) need to figure out what they want for their season. Or tell me how to coach them better."

On the third straight game shooting 50% from the freethrow line

" Kids have to be in the gym shooting freethrows. That is not necessarily something you take an hour out of practice to shoot freethrows. Part of it is are they focused at the line? Are they working on it? Do they understand the importance of them? If you don't learn a lessen after the first one (game shooting poorly from the freethrow line), and you don't learn it after the second one, I don't know what to tell you."

After the jump, ESPN rates the bowl matchups, men's bball sends a record crowd home disappointed, and more.

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