SB Nation User Blog: royrules22

CGB Top-25 Week 14 Results

royrules22 — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:23:38 -0000

A little late this time around because there were no games this weekend (other than Army/Navy neither of whom would be ranked) and because we only had like 3 ballots until much later. We only have 8 now, so it's not much of an improvement.

1	Alabama (5)	2
2	TCU (2)	1
3	Cincinnati	1
4	Texas	1
5	Florida	3
6	Oregon (1)	--
7	Boise State	--
8	Ohio State	--
9	Virginia Tech	--
10	Georgia Tech	1
11	Iowa	1
12	Penn State	3
13	Oregon State	3
14	Pittsburgh	--
15	Miami (Fla.)	1
16	LSU	1
17	Brigham Young	3
18	Stanford	1
19	Arizona	5
20	Nebraska	1
21	Clemson	2
22	Oklahoma State	--
23	Southern California	5
24	Utah	1
25	West Virginia	2

Others receiving votes:
California, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Carolina, Central Michigan, Texas A&M

Dropped out this week:
California

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
Southern California +10, Clemson +9, West Virginia -7, Central Michigan -7

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
West Virginia -9, Oregon State +5, LSU -4, Clemson UNR, Wisconsin UNR

Looks like a lot of people just mailed in their ballot without thinking about it (I'm guilty of this also). I mean what else describes our bias for Texas and ranking West Virginia significantly lower than the official polls. Other than that not much to say. Alabama for now is king of the hill and if we had our way we'd have a 'Bama v. TCU national championship. Unfortunately we don't.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... bluginger who voted for Cal as #12!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

Did you miss the game last Saturday? You know where Washington turned into a buzzsaw?

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... racsan, Takimoto, DougOLis, Kai, Davis Bear, and royrules22, all of whom did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Almost everyone else (coolingfan voted for Cal at #25).

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Utah
Southern California
Oklahoma State
Clemson
Brigham Young

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

Utah our bowl opponent is one of the perennial confused team. They haven't really done much to prove they're that good, and on the same token have done much to prove they're bad. As for USC, everyone is probably scared of dropping USC from a poll.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

West Virginia
Ohio State
Alabama
Iowa
Texas

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

So all (8) of us decided to vote West Virginia at a much lower position than the rest of us. It's interesting to note that Bama is not unanimous.

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

royrules22
racsan
Takimoto
DougOLis
Davis Bear

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

Heh. Really almost all of us had the exact same divergence. The only WTF vote was Takimoto's vote for Oregon at #1. The rest of us just had weird votes such as Cincinnati at #2, USC at #25 (me), or hell even Texas A&M at #25 (Davis Bear).

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

bluginger
coolingfan
Kai
Davis Bear
DougOLis

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

Everyone else. We only had 8 voters so there is overlap here.

Sorry, I didn't really put effort into this.

Looking ahead to 2010

royrules22 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:07:09 -0000

Yea I know there's still a bowl game to go, national signing day to come, etc but I think a preliminary look at next season might be useful.

If you're like me, the media or most other Cal fans you bought into the hype this year about Cal having one of it's best team since 2004. You thought that this year was the year, that our losses on defense and offensive lines could easily be "reloaded", etc. Even more this was not the first year you were burnt. 2009 was supposed to be Rose Bowl. 2008 a 9 or 10 win season (ok that worked out), 2007 Rose Bowl or even (gasp!) National Championship, 2006 Rose Bowl, 2005 9 or 10 wins, etc etc. That is of course unless you are HydroTech who always predicts our collapses. This time I refuse to be sucked into any hype whatsoever. Therefore I will try and take an objective look at what is the most pessimistic (and realistic) result we can hope to achieve next year. Keep in mind that this doesn't account for recruiting studs/duds and injuries among other factors.

Losses on Defense

We can safely assume that no one is going to declare to go in the draft (then again we said the same of Morrah). So all of ours losses come from seniors graduating. Oh what losses:

44 Tyson Alualu DL
50 Kevin Bemoll DL
10 Devin Bishop LB
20 Jesse Brooks DB
29 Marcus Ezeff DB
25 Brett Johnson DB
5 Syd'Quan Thompson DB
9 Eddie Young LB

I've bolded the players that either were starters or contributed significantly this season.

Needless to say we're losing a lot of talent. Especially in the secondary where we've had problems all season. There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to miss Syd and Tyson who are both NFL level talent. Tyson was pretty much the only in the D-line that consistently did anything even when double teamed and Syd was your typical lockdown passer, so much so that some teams refused to throw to him. Of course that didn't help when your other corner sucked. We also lose Brett Johnson who was a pretty serviceable safety. I still think Cattouse has more of an upside and naturally he took over Ezeff's spot (who is also graduating) but I wonder who will take over for Johnson? Furthermore we lose two of our four linebackers. This linebacking corps only started playing up to it's potential towards the Arizona game and now we're losing half of it again.

The 2010 Defense

This is a hard question mainly because there are quite a few players who are red shirting right now that might have a chance to make some noise. But one would think that it would still be our seniors who play the most.

Assuming we stick with the 3-4 base set (and all signs point to yes) we need three defensive linemen. I'll bet my money on Cameron Jordan and Derrick Hill being two of the three (with Hill as the Nose Tackle). These two showed promise this year with occasional flashes of brilliance, especially Hill before he went down with an injury (a recurring problem). Hopefully they step up but Jordan is a senior now and we've been hearing about his so called potential and outside of a few games (i.e. Wazzu) I haven't seen anything so I'm not hoping for much. As for the third lineman? I'm guessing it will have to be a battle between Guyton and Owusu. I was impressed with Guyton in his limited playing time but Owusu has shown to be disruptive as a pass rusher. Then again we might get some new talent to take this spot or someone like Ryan Davis or Keni Kaufusi (who was great on the scout team this year) will step in. Whomever plays I don't see an improvement in this unit. Perhaps it might even be weaker barring some absolute breakout year.

As for our linebackers Mike Mohammed who has been solid to stud-like this year will most definitely be the anchor. Hopefully he learns to avoid taking the wrong angle with running backs. Chances are that Micheal Kendricks will be taking up a position next to MikeMo. Kendricks lost his starting job during the UCLA game due to injury and hasn't really played a lot. Here's hoping that he steps up and plays to his potential. He does have experience coming in and that will be crucial. Who will we see as the other two? Right now the competition might be between DJ Holt, Jarred Price and Jerome Meadows. I personally think that it might be Holt and Meadows because Price is just a little too undersized to play Pac-10 ball, but don't be surprised to see him out there when the game is on the line. Chris Little (who moved to LB earlier this year) is probably in contention as well. I was impressed with what I saw of him in the spring game. With that said expect them to struggle again early in the season. It probably might not be as bad as this year (though if the D-line struggles it could get ugly) but don't expect a Follet situation. The only good thing I can think about is that we should have a solid unit in 2011 as we only replace one player (Mohammed).

If you thought that was bad wait 'till you take a look at the secondary. Firstly let's look at the the safties/defensive backs. I personally think that Cattouse was our one shining star in the secondary this year and look forward to seeing him laying the lumber again next year. Expect to see more of Moncrease, DJ Campell and others. I really don't know what to make of our DBs other than it's probably meh. Conte should hopefully get some playing time outside of the nickle defense but he still makes boneheaded decisions so it may not be the best thing.

As for our corners? Uh oh. With Syd gone there is a huge gap here. Who plays? Darian "I can't defend but I can taunt" Hagan? If he recaptures his 2008 form then I'll be happy but right now I'm going to assume the worst. Josh Hill was continuously picked on by defenses and for the most part he didn't do much. He did have a game winning tackle against ASU and a pick or two throughout the season but I wonder how he'll do as the featured corner. Then we have Marc Anthony who I have yet to see play even though he'll be a RS Sophomore. Supposedly he was good in the scout team but that means nothing to me right now. I'm hoping that Steve Williams (who RS this year) will be what he was billed to be. This is the 4* recruit we stole from Oklahoma this year. Whatever the case we're going to be susceptible to the pass again.

Losses on Offense

I'm going to assume that Jahvid Best leaves for the draft (and to be honest there's a very good chance he does), but that no one else leaves early.

4 Jahvid Best HB (*)
8 Nyan Boateng WR
83 Skylar Curran TE
33 Brian Holley FB
44 Tad Smith TE (**)
58 Chet Teofilo OL
79 Mike Tepper OL
86 Verran Tucker WR

* Best is a junior
** Tad Smith may apply for injury RS and return though it is doubtful

Surprisingly (or not) other than Best and maybe Tucker we don't see any huge losses like we did on defense. And with Best we have a very capable and proven backup who has already assumed the mantle of starter. That is not to say we don't miss Best because we will miss his explosive style but Vereen is more than capable of hitting a home run. We might miss Boateng here a bit, especially his downfield blocking, but he was sort of "phased out" early in the season and we had others step up so it won't be too bad. Curran really stepped up towards the end of the year and we will miss him but we still have Miller who is the true star at TE. Holley may not be a Ta'ufo'ou but he did admirably well (as well as you can do with an O-line that couldn't had more holes than swiss cheese) and we're going to have to find a replacement yet again. Chances are that it is Will Kapp but it remains to be seen. Tucker was a starting WR and he had some clutch catches (and some very un-clutch drops) and will surely be missed. Tepper... well this might be addition by subtraction. I hate to say anything about him as he really seems to be a great guy who has been through some tough times but he's no where close to his 2007 form. He commits way too many penalties (how many false starts and holding calls went against #79?) and is pretty poor in pass blocking. I don't think we miss him that much to be honest.

The 2010 Offense

The general feeling is that this offense should be better than the 2009 one mainly due to the increased experience of the players. Despite wanting to feel pessimistic I have to agree.

The offensive line is where it begins and ends (as we found out disastrously in 2009). It doesn't matter if it's Best, Vereen, DeBo or Yarnway in the backfield, but if the O-line continues to suck it up it will be another long season. Thankfully all but one of our starters return for 2010 and here's hoping that the one full year of experience will cure most maladies. Matt Summers-Gavin (aka MSG) was the catalyst this season. Without him we got blown out. With him we beat a red hot Arizona and Stanfurd team. Needless to say I hope he stays healthy! Schwartz seemed solid despite suffering what looked like a small sophomore slump. Guarnero is too small to play Pac-10 ball as a center. It will be interesting to see if maybe Fisher or Brazinski do replace him. However if they do be prepared for some sloppy play. I've been frustrated with Cheadle all season but I hope a year's worth of experience means he'll mitigate the disaster. It will be interesting to see Boskovich, Edwards and Galas all play. I do think that this unit will be better next year (I mean how could you not!?) but just how much remains to be seen.

I think we should be well set at wide receiver. Marvin Jones really stepped up big and he was only a sophomore so we will be seeing more of him in 2010. I'm starting to think he's in the mold of Robert Jordan and Hawkins (with a few drops) which bodes well for us. Ross is a wildcard. Surely three years would teach him how to catch the damn ball because when he does he's got the potential to break one free. Lagemann has only one dropped pass (at UW) and that was mostly Riley's fault. My only knock on him is the fact that he's always on the ground catching. Calvin is a depressing thought. He was supposed to be the best receiver on the team and right now he's struggling coming back from his ACL injury. I don't have high hopes but surely he'll do better than pedestrian next year? We will miss Tucker and perhaps even Boateng but I think we will make up for those losses sooner rather than later. I know I this is being optimistic but the fact that we retain nearly 80% of our WR corps including the playmakers makes me happy.

Anthony Miller is a stud at TE. He comes up absolutely clutch with those catches over the middle of the field and is a threat in the redzone which we need. I hope in his junior year he will continue to improve but I will not make any assumptions. Furthermore he better not have a sophomore slump. We will miss Curran but Spencer Ladner (who started out higher on the depth chart than Curran) who missed most of 2009 with an injury should theoretically be equal to Curran.

At fullback we miss Bryan Holley who performed decently well and chances are Will Kapp takes over the spot unless something else happens. To be honest I don't know what to expect out of this position. It was mediocre in 2009 and it will probably remain the same.

This is Kevin Riley's team now more than ever. There might be another open QB compeition but I highly doubt Riley loses this one. He has really come of age towards the end of the season (UW non-withstanding considering he spent most of the game running away from defenders) and we have to hope he continues to improve. Even if he doesn't I don't see him being better than a RS Soph in Sweeney, RS Junior in Mansion or RS FR in Bridgford, none of whom have any meaningful Division 1A snaps. Riley may never be an All-Pac-10 QB but he's got the potential for being a fringe NFL player. And he's the best we have.

At halfback it is without a doubt Shane Vereen's show. The kid has proved he is as capable as any backs to have played for Cal. Of course a lot depends on the O-line's ability to open holes but I look forward to seeing Vereen run. And behind Vereen we have DeBoskie who has impressed me in his limited carries (he had one carry of less than 5 yards!), Isi who has the speed for the fly sweep a la James Rodgers, and Desarte if supposed to be the second coming of Marshawn. If there is any position on this team where a hyped player has panned out year after year it is a Coach Gould coached running back so I have no hesitation in trusting Yarnway. This is (as usual) our strongest unit on the team. However we should start recruiting as we're going to need some new backs soon.

Special Teams

(Note: I had originally forgotten the ST... with good reason)

There's nothing really to say here. We don't lose anyone other than hopefully Pete Alamar. In fact this is almost all on coaching. We have one of the best punters in the conference or even the country and he had to resort to talking to his high school coach to regain form. Tavecchio looked like he was doing well towards the latter half of the season so hopefully he'll come back and continue the trend. His kickoffs also seemed to be gravitating closer to the endzone at snail's pace but it's an improvement. We just need to improve coverage both for kicking and returning. We have talented returners in Isi and Ross but they need some space to run. I will continue to not have hope for this unit until we get a new coach.

A look at our schedule

Sept. 4 - UC Davis
Sept. 11 - Colorado
Sept. 18 - at Nevada
Sept. 25 - Washington
Oct. 2 - at Arizona
Oct. 9 - UCLA
Oct. 16 - at USC
Oct. 23 - Arizona State
Oct. 30 - at Oregon State
Nov. 6 - at Washington State
Nov. 13 - Oregon
Nov. 20 - BYE
Nov. 27 - BYE
Dec. 4 - Stanford

Bolded are home games and I have inserted the bye weeks into the schedule.

Well this schedule is not going to remain as it is. We are playing 11 games in a row! What the hell? Expect to see a game moved down. We might also end with a non-Big Game game again which is unfortunate. Since I have no way of knowing what the final schedule is I'm going to avoid talking about when we face a team.

UC Davis shouldn't be a problem for us to handle at all (and if it is... well...) and Colorado at home under a coach that would've been fired if they had the money should be easy enough to handle. No our first real test comes at Nevada with Kapernick and his pistol formation. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we lost this one due to our passing defense inefficiencies especially as this game might be pretty early in the season. We get UW, UCLA and ASU at home and these are teams I don't see improving significantly. UW will be better but I think Locker will leave which should give our defense some breathing room especially at home. UCLA is a toss up because Prince should be better and they'll have some experienced WRs. But will their O-line come together? ASU I don't really know but I'm going to guess that they're not going to be much better. However the chances are good they'll be going with that Syzacky guy who can run on us if we're not careful. Although we play at Wazzu and Tuel will probably burn us for another 300 yards I think we can beat them unless something miraculous happens. As for the other teams? Well Barkley will be better and USC will rebound, Oregon returns their stellar O-line, Masoli and LaMichael James, Oregon State will find somebody better than everyone else, and Stanfurd will have Luck even though they'll lose Gerhart. Perhaps the only good thing is that we get Stanfurd and Oregon at home.

Conclusion

It still is premature to guess our record but I do think that this is a team with decent to really good offense with what might be a subpar defense that might even be worse than this years. This may seem too negative but I'm not going to blindly hope for a miracle again. Unless we can teach these guys to block the damn receivers and break up passes it's going to be another long season unless we can score more than the other guys.

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 14!

royrules22 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:56:55 -0000

Whoops forgot to do this yesterday in my Washington hatred

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 14.

The directions are listed on the voting page and it should be simple enough. Please let me know if you encounter any troubles. The results will be posted either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Blah blah blah blah

Important: There are two bugs on the poll that I haven't fixed it yet but I hope to soon! So be careful. You can vote for the same team twice (ask rags how). Don't do it! Also if you drop a team out (by pressing X) and then in the drop down select another team and then want to vote the original team back in... you can't. So try not to do that m'kay?

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CGB Top-25 Week 13 Results

royrules22 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:24:14 -0000

1	TCU (3)	--
2	Florida (6)	2
3	Alabama (2)	1
4	Cincinnati (1)	1
5	Texas	3
6	Oregon	1
7	Boise State	1
8	Ohio State	2
9	Virginia Tech	4
10	Oregon State	4
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	Iowa	3
13	California (2)	2
14	Pittsburgh	5
15	Penn State	3
16	Miami (Fla.)	1
17	LSU	1
18	Southern California	2
19	Stanford	2
20	Brigham Young	2
21	Nebraska	2
22	Oklahoma State	6
23	Clemson	4
24	Arizona	2
25	Utah	1

Others receiving votes:
Houston, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, UCLA, Texas Tech, Central Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Navy, Troy, Connecticut

Dropped out this week:
Wisconsin

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
Houston -8, California +6, Arizona +5, Penn State -5, Stanford +4, Brigham Young -4, TCU +3, Oregon State +3, Iowa -3

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
Oregon State +6, California +6, Brigham Young -6, Stanford +5, Penn State -4, LSU -4, TCU +3, Virginia Tech +3, Iowa -3, Clemson UNR, Arizona UNR, Houston UNR, West Virginia UNR

Poor Houston and West Virignia. They're totally not in our poll even though they are ranked nationally (Houston even pretty high!). Aside that we continue to rate Pac-10 teams higher than the media and the BCS. This means that as usual Cal is ranked highly by a Cal blog (!). That aside the top-5 remains generally stable with only minor flux (and two of these teams will duel it out this coming Saturday). However TCU remains the #1 vote for two weeks in a row. Only major drops are by Oklahoma State, Pitt, Georgia Tech and Clemson. But that aside it's not that much more different than last week, albeit with fewer voters. Personally I found this week the hardest to vote since the beginning of the season.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... rocksanddirt, and Hydrotech, all of whom voted for Cal as #1!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

I sense an imposter. The real Marshawnthusiast capitalizes the T in Tech.

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... Kai who did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Wait what? You freedom hating commie!

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Utah
Oklahoma State
Clemson
Arizona
Brigham Young

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

WTF has Utah done that is worthwhile. In my opinion they're living off the hype of last year. Okla St and Clemson are meh teams anyway.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Alabama
Oregon
Florida
Cincinnati
TCU

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

Surprise surprise, Alabama and Florida once again make an appearance. I want people to be confused with them for once! Oregon is a surprising visitor to the list however.

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

rocksanddirt
Hydrotech
Kai
katster
royrules22

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

rocksanddirt wins this week's crazy voter award with votes such as Cal at #1, Stanford at #7, UCLA at #19, Navy at #25 and of course not voting for Florida at all. Fake Hydrotech came in second with votes such as Cal at #1, Florida at #5, and Iowa at #15.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

Rated-R Superstar
Takimoto
Ohio Bear
Berkelium97
DougOLis

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

It seems almost every week Rated-R Superstar shows up and we see a performance from one of the Bears in Ohio. Rated-R Superstar's only big difference was Cal at #18.

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 13!

royrules22 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:45:44 -0000

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 13.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CGB Top-25 Week 12 Results

royrules22 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:50:09 -0000

So many votes! This is the most popular week as we nearly tripled the number of ballots from last week! Some of these voters are new and possible CGB lurkers. Hey guys start posting!

1	TCU (4)	2
2	Alabama (10)	1
3	Cincinnati	1
4	Florida (2)	2
5	Oregon (2)	2
6	Boise State	2
7	Georgia Tech	1
8	Texas (2)	3
9	Pittsburgh	1
10	Ohio State	1
11	California (6)	11
12	Penn State	2
13	Virginia Tech	1
14	Oregon State	3
15	Iowa	--
16	Oklahoma State	--
17	Miami (Fla.)	1
18	LSU	7
19	Clemson	--
20	Southern California	--
21	Stanford	8
22	Brigham Young	1
23	Nebraska	--
24	Utah	1
25	Wisconsin	1

Others receiving votes:
Arizona, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Houston, Arkansas, Washington, West Virginia, Northwestern, Navy, Oklahoma

Dropped out this week:
None

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
California +10, Mississippi -7, North Carolina -5, Houston -5, Texas -5, Oklahoma State -5, Oregon +5, Stanford +5

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
California +11, Texas -5, Iowa -4, Oklahoma State -4. Stanford UNR, Nebraska UNR, Wisconsin UNR, Mississippi UNR, North Carolina UNR, Houston UNR

Wow what a weird pol. Tons of homer-ish voting causing total confusion. TCU is in first place by 28 votes despite the fact that 'Bama had 6 more first place votes! This is what happens when people don't vote for 'Bama. I'd also like to point out to you guys that Texas isn't a bad team and that Cal is not such a good team. At least not good enough to deserve 6 first place votes! In other news Florida drops to the lowest it's been this season while Oregon rises again. The biggest movement this week is of course California's rise combined with LSU's and Stanford's drop.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... gol, jl, steveo, Ghost of Joe Roth, kk, and Rocksanddirt, all of whom voted for Cal as #1!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

Sigh. Come on guys we're not *that* good.

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... Ohio Bear who voted for Cal as #21!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

And we're not that bad!

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Wisconsin
Nebraska
Stanford
Utah
LSU

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

So why did Wisconsin and Nebraska end up getting ranked anyway? Has Wisconsin done anything notable this season anyway?

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Alabama
Boise State
Florida
TCU
Cincinnati

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

As usual it's teams in the top 10 that are devoid of confusion.

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

Rocksanddirt
aslkdjfgregs
Ghost of Joe Roth
steveo
jl

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

Rocksanddirt had came in first votes for Cal at #1 and Oregon at #2 while totally omitting Alabama from his ballot, in addition to voting in Stanford at #8 and Navy at #25. aslkdjfgregs flipped it around with Oregon at #1 and Cal at #2 and Georgia Tech at #3. At least he voted for Alabama at 5.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

Berkelium97
neodarksaver
MadBum
Ohio Bear
CruzinBears

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

How do you do this Berkelium? Always knowing exactly how it's going to turn out so that you can match your ballot as closely as possible?!

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 12!

royrules22 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:50:11 -0000

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 12.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CGB Top-25 Week 11 Results

royrules22 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:59:15 -0000

I'm late yet again... In any case this week was the first week in which Rishi voted! Or at least someone claiming to be him. In the end I had to throw out the ballot because it was ridiculous. Cal at #1 was the best part of the ballot because it had stinkers like Wazzu, Temple, Duke, SMU, UTEP, etc. Outside of Cal no other team on his ballot deserved a single vote. Unfortunately this means we only have 9 ballots this week.

1	Alabama (4)	1
2	Florida (2)	1
3	TCU (2)	--
4	Cincinnati	--
5	Texas (1)	--
6	Georgia Tech	1
7	Oregon	1
8	Boise State	2
9	Ohio State	1
10	Pittsburgh	2
11	LSU	--
12	Virginia Tech	5
13	Stanford	10
14	Penn State	4
15	Iowa	1
16	Oklahoma State	4
17	Oregon State	4
18	Miami (Fla.)	5
19	Clemson	5
20	Southern California	11
21	Brigham Young	1
22	California	16
23	Nebraska	4
24	Wisconsin	4
25	Utah	9

Others receiving votes:
Arizona, North Carolina, Houston, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Boston College, Rutgers, Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee

Dropped out this week:
Arizona, Houston, Oklahoma

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
Rutgers -9, Wisconsin -7, California +6, Oregon +4, Virginia Tech +4, Oklahoma State -4, Nebraska +4, Houston -4, Oregon State +3, Miami (Fla.) +3

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
Wisconsin -8, Oregon +4, Stanford +4, Oklahoma State -4, Clemson +4, Utah -4, California +3, LSU -3, Virginia Tech +3, Houston UNR, Nebraska UNR

A couple of big moves but most in the bottom half of the poll. Namely Stanford's and Cal's rise and USC and Utah's fall. Arizona and Houston also falls out from a pretty high up position in the poll. Houston I can understand, but 'Zona? In other news Alabama takes over Florida's spot and it makes no difference as they'll play each other anyway. TCU also recieves two first place votes but it doesn't do enough to upset the top 2. Isn't it odd seeing USC in the 20s?

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... DougOLis, who voted for Cal as #21!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

Most everyone who did vote for Cal voted for us in the low twenties. No surprise here.

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... Missing Barry, Ohio Bear, and Kai, all of whom did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Anyone surprised to see Missing Barry in here?

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Utah
Brigham Young
Clemson
Virginia Tech
Miami (Fla.)

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

Utah because well they got killed by TCU, BYU because well what have they done notable other than beating up a Bradford less Oklahoma and the other three are schizophrenic ACC teams.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Wisconsin
California
Nebraska
Alabama
Florida

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

I'm a little surprised to see Wiscy on here as I'm definitely confused about them

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

Kai
Missing Barry
Takimoto
BeastMode
royrules22

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

"Rishi" would've won this but since he's not included it's Kai! He had votes such as TCU at #2, Florida St at #23, LSU at #21 and Clemson at #8! It's crazy I tell you!

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

Ohio Bear
Rated-R Superstar
Berkelium97
DougOLis
royrules22

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

Hey look I get two awards! That's because only 9 people voted... argh. Ohio Bear's life in drab Ohio is reflected in his poll, yikes!

Statistical analysis of the Cal pass defense

royrules22 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:49:46 -0000

We're missing a Rocky fanpost so I'm trying to fill the gap here, but I think this fanpost isn't up to his usual standards. Wait what am I missing? Oh yea "FIRE GREGALAMSHALLFORD"!!!

Ok more seriously, this fanpost will attempt to take a look at Cal's defensive performance against the quarterbacks we've faced this year (i.e. up to yesterday's game against Foles of Arizona). This means this does not look at situational stats such as performance on 3rd down. I had to chose an area to focus on!

This post will contain many charts but they always come in two flavors. The first chart will show how Cal performs against a QB versus the QBs season stats. However since the season stat contains the Cal game the second chart shows the same except it excludes stats from the Cal game.

Be sure to click on the images to see a larger version.

QB Rating

So basically we got owned by Masoli (big surprise right?), Tuel (!) and Canfield. What this is showing is that yes our defense doesn't force a quarterback to have a worse game than usual (unless you are Turner or Foles), but it's not as bad as everything believes it to be. Sure the variation between Masoli's season rating and how he performed against Cal is stunning, but keep in mind that this was early in the season with a LBs corps that was still learning. As you will see the Pac-10 quarterbacks are miles beyond anything we faced in our OOC schedule (Nichols has gaudy stats but he plays in D-1AA for a reason). Many were angered at our performance against Canfield but he is good. He is quite possibly the best Pac-10 quarterback we have faced yet. And keep in mind that our entire team was probably down after the Best injury and focused mostly on stopping the Rodgers brothers. Tuel is the only inexplicable result.

Difference Between the QB ratings

This is basically comparing the season QB rating of a quarterback versus his rating against Cal. Simply put the more positive the number the better (because that means his season rating is much better than what he did against Cal).

It's way more obvious here how badly we performed against Oregon. But enough of that. I want you to focus on the positive numbers versus Barkley and Prince, two quarterbacks many feel shredded Cal. That is not true according to this. After our dropping the ball versus Wazzu, Cal seems to have picked up and started performing better, culminating in a dominating performance against Foles.

Percent Completion per game

This is basically the completions per game divided by attempts per game

This shows just about the same thing as the QB rating shows. Dismal performance against Masoli, Tuel and Canfield. But surprisingly it's not as dire of difference as QB rating shows. The only big difference is that we let Nichols complete more pass against a BCS defense than he does otherwise.

TDs per game

(Yes the legend is wrong. But trust me it's the correct graph!)

This is interesting. This I think just shows our "bend not break" defense and how it's somewhat effective (at least with respect to pass defense). Throwing out Masoli, Tuel and Canfield we've held the opposing QBs to near or below their average TDs per game. Weber and Barkley are the only surprises. Weber because of Hagan's brain farts and Barkley for not scoring a single TD versus Cal. That was all on Cal's offense and special teams.

INTs per game

I like how Weber threw the most INTs against Cal than anyone else, granted they came in garbage time. But once again our trend of under-performing against Oregon and Wazzu shows up, but surprisingly we picked off Canfield more than he usually does (but not by much). Does it surprise anyone that Barkley throws more picks than Tuel (14 and 5 respectively in their seasons though Barkley has played 4 more games in full).

Sacks per game

Now we come to the aspect of pass rush. This is basically the number of times a QB has been sacked which is a function of both his O-line and the QB itself. I nominate this chart as perhaps the most surprising of all. Outside of Canfield we have sacked the QB nearly as many times as they get sacked per games if not more times.

I think the Cal pass defense has only had three "bad" games. Oregon who dominated us in all aspects, Wazzu (who basically had to throw the whole time) and Oregon State. I can't make any excuses for the Oregon performance. I think with Wazzu people were just taking it easy because well it was Wazzu and it was a blowout. With Oregon State the defense was focused on the run and probably was mentally down after the Best injury.

So true the Cal pass defense isn't the world beating group we thought prior to the season, it isn't that bad.... Oh who am I kidding, FIRE GREGORY!!

Addendum: Masoli's progression over the season

Well damn. This is probably the ugliest thing for the Cal defense. I can't say anything other than, wow we got beat. Interestingly Masoli's completion percentage seems to be dipping ever lower.

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 10!

royrules22 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:35:56 -0000

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 10.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!