Besides the obvious fact that we attempted a field goal on 2nd down with 12 seconds left.

Alot of us started booing and Tedford turned around and made a gesture at us as if to tell us to shut up.

I don't think I need to explain why this bothered me.

Never in the 2000 season was I as irritated as I was after Tedford did that.

Then after the game...

"There is no way in the world we are folding our tent" JT

and yet you're kicking field goals on second down; down 20 with :12 left in the second quarter

yeah i dunno Jeff but where I come from that seems an awful lot like you were at the very least putting your 1 million dollar a year sleeping bag back in the gunny sack.

Such a d-bag

Continue reading this post »

Thus bringing the total to 3 for 2010 (all top 100 recruits). This is obvious proof that the SAHPC is having a positive effect on recruiting as these guys will probably be the first class to enjoy 4 years of SAHPC.

Our committs for 2010 so far...

http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=110&p=8&c=1&nid=3436360

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=89760&Sport=1

http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=3932640

Is Kevin Riley the second coming of Joe Ayoob?

Is Nate Longshore #6  the second coming of Nate Longshore #9?

We may never know. Earlier today Tedford officially reopened the qb competition between Kevin Riley and Nate Longshore.

Putting my faith in either one of these guys is like picking between Obama and McCain...I just know the one who wins is going to fail miserably.

As sad as it may sound I think Nate has out-played Kevin so far this year.

But when?

Somehow I think this Longshore's spot to lose. Riley has been throwing the ball very poorly. I remember last year when he came in during the 3rd quarter of the Oregon game I was disgusted by the way he threw the ball. Very lofty, wobbly passes with a lot of touch but not alot of zip.

It seems Riley has returned to throwing the ball that way.

Who knows? Hopefully we are blessed with a win this Saturday and Longshore doesn't throw 12 4th quarter interceptions and Riley doesn't underthrow 15 wide open receivers in one possession.

WHERE IS KYLE REED DAMIT!

Oh that's right......

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=174204

Jerry Rice Jr. apparently wants to be a lot of things. 

Ok, after watching that OSU game yesteray, who else is PSYCHED for MSU tomorrow?  Last year, I felt so nervous going into Tennessee.  Even though this team seems less talented than last year's squad (on offense at least), I feel a lot calmer.  Maybe it is because MSU isn't as hyped a team as Tennessee, I don't know.  But man, even though it was just OSU/Stanford, that was an exciting game.

Because it was football!  And it counted!

And it had a crazy ending.  This might bring back a few memories to you:

Oregon State's Darrell Catchings absorbed a hit from Stanford safety Taylor Skaufel just short of the goal line and fumbled into the Stanford end zone with 57 seconds on the clock. The touchback halted a Beavers comeback and Stanford was able to hang on for a 36-38 win at Stanford Stadium.

via imgs.sfgate.com

Why does the Stanford football team have a cartoonishly oversized deck of cards on the sideline??  This makes no sense?

Well, they are the winner.  The winner.  The chicken.  The dinner.

Let's get to some links:

Women's volleyball looks to have a successful season.

BERKELEY - No. 5 California looks to return to prominence after the most successful season in school-history, advancing to the NCAA semifinals.

THE FACTS: The No. 5-ranked California volleyball team opens the 2008 season by hosting St. John's and UC Santa Barbara, Aug. 29-31, in the Cal Molten Classic at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif. The Golden Bears will take on the Red Storm in a 7 p.m. match on Friday (Aug. 29), before facing the Gauchos in a 1 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 31) match. In between, St. John's will tangle up with UC Santa Barbara in a Saturday, (Aug. 30) match at 1 p.m. Live statistics for all three matches will be available via GameTracker and Cal fans can watch the Bears live on the internet via Cal All-Access. Please visit www.CalBears.com for links to stats and video.

Cal is really getting into this blog thing:

BERKELEY - Golden Bear fans who are unable to attend in person can add an extra dimension of information and enjoyment to their football gameday experience with the official in-game blog available via Gametracker on CalBears.com, starting with Saturday's opener vs. Michigan State and continuing with every home football game this season.

Access to the blog is easy and free with an Internet connection. Simply scroll to the schedule section at the bottom of the homepage and click the "Gametracker" link next to the "Football vs. Michigan State" listing. The same can be done from the football schedule area of the website by clicking the "Gametracker" graphic in the right-nav info box.

I feel tired, I think this is a good start.  A bunch of link.  So, let's dump some more!  If you see any Cal-related links, esp. related to football and/or the MSU game, let's dump em here.  Dump away!  GO BEARS!  BEAT THE SPARTANS!

Maybe Nate Montana can xfer from ND and it can be 4th grade pick up football all over again.

Unfortunately Tedford has yet to offer him. Not sure why you wouldn't offer a child star star of his stature. That would be perhaps one of the biggest boosts to Cal recruiting since Desean Jackson. Not by any means, because Rice Jr. is a stand-alone talent (which he has shown signs of), but because it would be a huge draw to other recruits who are.

Given Jerry Sr.'s recent mentorship of Djax and appearances at our pro-days I think it would be a huge mistake not to offer this kid and get him in Blue and Gold.

Well, you guys are lucky.  After reading Deadspin's "Michael Phelps Gay Porn Fiction Contest" (which I will not link to for our collective sanity), I thought to myself "Hmm, a Gay Porn Fiction Contest, I can't see how that could go awry at the California Golden Blogs.  I should prepare one immediately!  And for Marshawn." 

Then, BearsNecessity did his whole "Previewing MSU thing" yesterday, knocking me back a day.  Fair enough.  Fair enough.  Just giving me more time to write Marshawn Lynch Slash Fiction, right? 

But then, I saw this angry screed against Gay Porn Fiction.  Apparently, it's sexist and demeaning to women.  And around here we want to create an inclusive community.  We don't want to exclude anybody.  I want to be demeaning towards people based NOT on the color of their skin or their dangly parts, but instead the content of their character. 

So, you guys have officially dodged a bullet.  I will shelve the Marshawn slash fiction.  And I had some great lines, too!  Everything from needy ("Like an emotional Patrick Chung, I was holding on to anything, while Marshawn was trying to push me away) to romantic ("Looking into those giant saucers known as Marshawn's eyes, I was quickly reduced to a rambling wreck of a man") to disturbingly disturbing in a disturbing sort of disturbing way ("And that was when I noticed it wasn't just Marshawn's arm that was stiff).

Disturbing!

So, there you go.  No more Slash Fiction here.  It's over! 

via www.squibkick.com

"No homo"

As a reminder, the season is upon us.  Things might get hairy here, soon.  If you have a great link or an amazing web-page you want to share with us, we'd love to read it.  But to help keep things clean around here, please post it in the DBD or as a FanShot, if it's just a short blurb. 

If there's more to it than just a little link or a C+P job, then feel free to make it a FanPost.  FanPosts don't have to be 4,000,000 words long like a Danzig classic.  But if everybody posted up a FanPost every time they ran across a link, it'd push them all down off the page way too fast. 

We're not going to be aggressive dicks about this, deleting posts here and there.  Instead, we just ask for your help with this.  And we'll be passive aggressive dicks about it, shaming you in the only way I know how (Jewish guilt).

That said, let's get on to the links:

Natalie Coughlin is going to be on TV:

Berkeley - A two-time Olympian and the greatest female swimmer of all-time at California, Natalie Coughlin, will appear on Thursday night's broadcast of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on NBC.

Coughlin made Olympic history in the pool, becoming the first American woman ever (in any sport) to medal six times in a single Olympiad after garnering a silver in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing at the 2008 Summer Games. Overall, Coughlin garnered three bronze, two silver and a gold at the Olympics in Beijing. She has attained 11 career Olympic medals, one shy of former U.S. star Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres, who are tied for the record for most Olympic women's swimming medals with 12. Coughlin is however tied with former Cal men's swimmer Matt Biondi with the most Olympic medals by any Cal athlete.

Coughlin also became the first woman to repeat as the 100-meter backstroke champion since its inception to the Summer Games in 1924.

This was noted in two other locations, but for those who missed it, Gameday for B-Ball is coming to Cal:

BERKELEY - ESPN's College GameDay and Saturday Primetime will make its Berkeley debut when the television road show comes to Haas Pavilion for the Feb. 28 Cal-UCLA men's basketball game.

The college basketball version of the popular College GameDay football series - featuring two one-hour shows at 8 a.m. and approximately 5 p.m. PT - will originate from Newell Court on campus before and after the Bears' final home game of the 2008-09 campaign.

via grfx.cstv.com

Okanes has an update on practice:

Wednesday’s practice was fairly uneventful. Quarterback Kevin Riley continues to play well. His accuracy during the last several practices has been impeccable. Wide receiver Michael Calvin continues to be held out of practice with his sprained toe, but coach Jeff Tedford said he hopes to get Calvin reps on Thursday. Cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson is doing more and more each day at practice and it looks as though he’ll be ready for Saturday.

Tedford was asked once again about the receivers after practice, and he continues to stress that six or seven guys will be rotated in and out. He said there will be new receivers on the field on practically every play. "It doesn’t matter who’s starting," he said.

Tedford also said the coaching staff still hasn’t decided on who will handle kickoffs. Tedford previously announced that walk-on freshman David Seawright won the placekicking job over senior Jordan Kay, but the two are battling for kickoff duties as well. For the record, Seawright has been kicking with the first team in practice

I thought I saw this, but if not, here's a Ted Miller piece on Javon Ringer.  It has a lot of other info on Cal, too:

While Ringer, a 5-foot-9, 200-pound spark plug with outstanding speed, finds himself obscured by the massive Big Ten shadow of Ohio State's Chris "Beanie" Wells, he's an All-American-type talent after rushing for 1,447 yards in 2007, with an impressive 5.9 yards per carry average.

"He's a guy who has great balance, vision and he's tough," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "He'll run between the tackles, and you better make sure you rack him up or he can bounce out of there and make some great plays. He's an elusive guy. It's going to take gang tackling, it's hard to bring him down with just one guy."

He also runs behind a line that averaged 308 pounds and features with three returning starters. The Spartans blocking style is engage and knock over.

"We're going to get a true test," Tedford said. "When you line up, they're not a spread team. You're playing a downhill, physical football team, we better be ready for it."

via assets.espn.go.com

It is also apparently, the location where Nasty_Nate found the following:

From ESPN:

 "Folks from Cal have told us that they're expecting probably 15,000-16,000 Spartan fans. It's not traditionally a loud stadium. How do you use that in recruiting? Not a traditionally loud stadium. Ouch."

 

Not sure if this was taken out of context (it more than likely was), but given Dantonio's history of talking out of his ass I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he actually said these things.

So, if you see a Cal-related link or any Marshawn Slash Fiction, bring it on over!  Well, maybe not the Marshawn Slash Fiction.  But at least the Cal-related link.

Let's just get to some links here without the witty "waddyaknows" from yours truly.  I'll skip those, so you can know the pain of trying to greet the morning without them.  I want you to yearn, dammit!  Yearn!

Some football camp info:

The California football team displayed high energy once again with a spirited single practice on Sunday evening in Memorial Stadium, with continued emphasis on 11-on-11 sessions, goal line situations and other drill specific techniques.

One group that was particularly fired up in Sunday's practice was the defensive line. Led by the vocal leadership of senior Rulon Davis, the d-line swarmed to the ball and the quarterback on several different occasions. Sophomore Cameron Jordan, along with Davis and Tyson Alualu all made disruptive plays in the first 11-on-11 session. Davis also forced Kevin Riley to throw the ball away in another 11-on-11 situation with his outside pressure. One of the new additions to the defensive line is Kevin Bemoll - a converted offensive lineman - who made his first big play of camp when he batted a pass in the air which was promptly intercepted by freshman Mychal Kendricks.

Under the direction of defensive backs coach Al Simmons, the Cal secondary has also been progressing nicely during fall camp. Sophomore Darian Hagan showed quick hands in a few of the drills today, including a pass break up in the end zone in Bears' red zone drill. Hard hitting senior safety Bernard Hicks managed to slap the ball away in mid air on an intended pass for a receiver as well in the 11-on-11s.

Don't forget about Fan Appreciation Day this Saturday:

Festivities will run from 12-2 p.m., with a pre-event starting at 11 a.m. by the North Tunnel. The stadium will not open for the event prior to 12 noon. Fans are encouraged to use public transportation (BART) when visiting the Cal campus. For specific parking information, log on to http://pt.berkeley.edu.

via grfx.cstv.com

One of the most touching scenes I've seen of the Olympics so far (more than the 40 hours of synchronized diving I've been forcemarched into watching) was the US women winning the rowing eights.  I don't know much about rowing (and was saddened that my friend got last place in the Quad Sculls finals), but the emotion that the athletes showed was unbelievable.  I don't think any of us can understand what that is like.  To work so hard for 4 years for 1 thing and finally achieve that goal. 

Well, a Golden Bear was on that boat:

BEIJING - Former California rower Erin Cafaro won a gold medal with the United States in the women's eight on Sunday Beijing time in the 2008 Summer Olympics at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park. The U.S. eight posted a time of 6:05.34, as the Netherlands took silver in 6:07.22 and Romania claimed bronze in 6:07.25. The U.S. victory stopped the Romanians from claiming their fourth straight Olympic eight gold.

Mary Whipple, the gold-medal winning U.S. coxswain, who took silver with the U.S. eight in the 2004 Athens Olympics, is the twin sister of Cal women's crew assistant coach Sarah Whipple.

Along with the gold medal won by former Bear Jake Wetzel and the men's eight and the silver medal won by former Cal star Natalie Coughlin with the U.S. 4x100-meter medley relay on Sunday, Cal has now won 13 Olympic medals in Beijing and would rank 12th in the overall medal standings between Ukraine (14 medals) and the Netherlands (10).

Natalie Coughlin continues her impressive march into the record books:

Beijing, China - Natalie Coughlin made Olympic history in the pool on Saturday evening, becoming the first American woman ever (in any sport) to medal six times in a single Olympiad after garnering a silver in the women's 4x100-meter medley relay at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing.

The greatest woman's swimmer in Cal history, Coughlin swam the first leg of the medley. Rebecca Soni, Christine Magnuson, and Dara Torres rounded out the quartet who posted an American record time of 3:53.30.

Coughlin has now attained 11 career Olympic medals, one shy of former U.S. star Jenny Thompson and Torres, who are tied for the record for most Olympic women's swimming medals with 12. Coughlin did however tie former Cal men's swimmer Matt Biondi with the most Olympic medals by any Cal athlete.

Although America didn't win the Men's Eights in rowing, a Golden Bear did:

BEIJING - California alumnus Jake Wetzel won the Olympic gold medal in the men's eight with Canada on Sunday at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park. Canada's top boat posted a time of 5:23.89 to surpass silver medalist Great Britain (5:25.11) and the bronze medalist boat from the United States (5:25.34) in the final rowing event of the 2008 Games.

Canada led at 500 meters, 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters but had to hild off the surging British and U.S. eights down the stretch.

Cal Olympic Summary Day 9.

Cal Olympic Summary Day 8.

Many of you have probably heard of the race between Phelps and Cavic where Phelps won by .01 seconds.  But only those who had, yknow, read those Better Know An Olympian posts might know that Cavic is a Golden Bear.

via grfx.cstv.com

Cal women's soccer dominates St. Mary's in a pre-season exhibition game. 

BERKELEY, Calif. - No. 17 California received goals from five different players in its season-opening 7-0 exhibition victory over Saint Mary's Saturday afternoon at Edwards Stadium.

"We felt like we had a good preseason so far," said second-year Cal head coach Neil McGuire. "The girls came in fit and worked really hard on the things we felt were important at this stage of the season. We are young and inexperienced, but our play today showed a lot of maturity. As a result, we were fortunate enough to score a lot of goals."

Ok, lot's of Olympics news here.  But there's still a ton more out there.  So, grab your links and bring them on over. 

As a reminder, I'm not sure you can copy and paste entire articles here.  My understanding is that you can only a small part of it due to fair use laws.  So, if you have a link, please post the link and maybe a short excerpt to give the essence of the article.  Dump Away!  Go Bears!

FROM THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE

BERKELEY — Two plaintiffs who sued to stop UC Berkeley from building a $140 million sports training center next to the university's football stadium have withdrawn a motion for a new trial.

The California Oak Foundation and the Panoramic Hill Association — two of the three plaintiffs that sued the university in December 2006 to stop the center from being built on a grove of trees — where protesters have been living for 20 months — had filed the separate motion in Alameda County Superior Court based on alleged building code violations.

But that motion was withdrawn Friday because of a "technicality regarding jurisdiction in the building code,'' said Mike Kelly president of the Panoramic Hill Association, which represents homeowners who live near Memorial Stadium.

"We are very pleased" that the plaintiffs withdrew their motion, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

In a one-page filing, the plaintiffs said UC Berkeley officials have complied with state law in one aspect of the university's proposed 158,000-square-foot project. Michael Lozeau, the attorney for association, however, said important issues remain.

The city of Berkeley was the third plaintiff to sue in 2006. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller rejected those suits last month. The oaks group and neighborhood association then appealed to the state Court of Appeal, but the city did not join thatappeal.

Last week, the state Court of Appeal sent the case back to Miller's courtroom, saying her work was not done. Miller will hold a hearing on Aug. 25 to hear arguments from both side before issuing her final ruling.