2013 California football's 10 things to know: Inheritance and the transition checklist

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

1. A brief timeline

December 12, 2001: California hires Oregon offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford to replace Tom Holmoe, who had won just 16 games in five season in charge of the Golden Bears. His 2001 team was, according to Sports-Reference's SRS ratings system, the worst Cal team of all-time.

The 2001 Golden Bears did score 201 points (not very good, but not oh-my-god-awful) but allowed 431. They lost to 6-6 USC by 41 points and to 7-4 UCLA by 39, and they took on four 10-win teams and lost by an average score of 47-15. Under Bruce Snyder and Keith Gilbertson, Cal had a short run of success -- three winning seasons in four years from 1990-93, including a Citrus Bowl win and Top 8 finish in 1991 -- but removing those four years from the equation, the Golden Bears have attended just three bowls since 1951 and have finished with a winning record just twice in 20 seasons, never better than 7-4.

The 40-year old Tedford says he will "target players with speed, regardless of position, and being an effort to 'saturate the Bay Area' and include 'the western United States.'"

October 9, 2004. Tedford's No. 7 Golden Bears head to USC to face the No. 1 Trojans, looking for their second straight upset of Pete Carroll's squad. (They are the only team to have beaten USC in two years.) With a lineup that includes speedy, scary athletes like J.J. Arrington and Marshawn Lynch, along with a pretty good quarterback, Cal has risen to its highest point in the polls since 1991, and by the end of the year it will finish higher in the polls than it has since 1952. According to SRS, this is Cal's second-best team ever (behind Pappy Waldorf's 1949 squad).

Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers completes 29 of 34 passes for 267 yards, but USC recovers four of the game's five fumbles, and in six trips inside USC's 40, Cal scores only three times; the Bears lose a fumble, miss a 36-yard field goal wide right, and turn the ball over on downs at the USC 14 with 1:16 remaining. Cal loses, 23-17. USC will defeat its other 12 opponents by an average margin of 27 points; but the Trojans needed a little luck to get past the Golden Bears.

This will be California's only loss of the 2004 regular season. Cal will finish the regular season 10-1, ruing the fact that this single unlucky loss to USC has kept them out of the BCS title game. The Golden Bears are also somehow overlooked for a BCS bowl bid, instead getting relegated to the Holiday Bowl and losing in an uninspired performance versus Texas Tech.

November 17, 2012. The Tedford era ends with another uninspired loss: 62-14 at the hands of Oregon State. Once again, the Bears recover only one of five fumbles in the game; but luck doesn't matter in this one. Cal's defense, which ranked 14th in Def. F/+ in 2008 and was still holding onto 31st in 2011, has fallen to 67th. The offense, dominant in the mid-'00s, ranks 81st in Off. F/+ and has only once finished in the top 50 since 2008. Cal's quarterback play has ceased its dominance, and the team has followed suit. Recruiting remains in the top 25, on average, but results have not: The last time Cal ranked in the overall F/+ top 25 was 2008.

After a 3-9 season, Tedford is relieved of his duties. On December 5, Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Dykes is hired as his replacement. Dykes is in some ways Tedford 2.0, a career offensive coach who loves speed and whose system is heavily reliant on its quarterback's decision-making and skill level. Dykes has three more years of head coaching experience than Tedford did when he was hired; but the biggest difference between them is the program they inherited. Tedford has left behind a roster infinitely more talented and athletic than the one he found, and he has created a Cal program with infinitely higher expectations.

Tedford's Cal tenure is somewhat tragic in the ways that sports feel tragic but really aren't. He built a program capable of elite play but rarely managed to pull it off himself; and the one time all the pieces came together, his team was done in by bad bounces, and a blue-blood program that took its national title. College football's blue bloods get a lot of shots at titles; maybe they eventually reel one in. But the second-tier programs maybe get one shot every few decades. It hurts extra when a bad break or two prevents you from completing the rare journey to the top. (I know of what I speak; I am a Missouri fan, after all.)

2012 Schedule & Results

Record: 3-9 | Adj. Record: 7-5 | Final F/+ Rk: 77
Date	Opponent	Score	W-L	Adj. Score	Adj. W-L
1-Sep	Nevada	24-31	L	21.1 - 22.8	L
8-Sep	Southern Utah	50-31	W	39.1 - 29.2	W
15-Sep	at Ohio State	28-35	L	39.4 - 26.5	W
22-Sep	at USC	9-27	L	15.4 - 32.3	L
29-Sep	Arizona State	17-27	L	22.8 - 18.2	W
6-Oct	UCLA	43-17	W	40.7 - 20.0	W
13-Oct	at Washington State	31-17	W	38.6 - 29.2	W
20-Oct	Stanford	3-21	L	15.6 - 30.3	L
27-Oct	at Utah	27-49	L	41.9 - 34.7	W
2-Nov	Washington	13-21	L	30.6 - 34.5	L
10-Nov	Oregon	17-59	L	35.9 - 31.5	W
17-Nov	at Oregon State	14-62	L	27.3 - 42.7	L

Category	Offense	Rk	Defense	Rk
Points Per Game	23.0	93	33.1	98
Adj. Points Per Game	30.7	50	29.3	75

2. Teetering, then falling

California last finished in the AP Top 25 in 2006, but Tedford's Golden Bears had continued to produce at least reasonably decent results. They finished 5-7 in 2010, but they had still won at least seven games in nine of 10 seasons under Tedford -- great, considering most of Cal's last half-century -- and had managed to rank as high as second in the polls in 2007 and sixth in 2009 before fading.

But then 2012 happened.

Cal wasn't actually any worse last year than it was in 2010, but a) 2010 used Tedford's get-out-of-jail-free-card, and b) some bad luck conspired against the Bears in 2012. Tedford probably wasn't going to survive even another 5-7 season, but 3-9 definitely did him in.

It didn't start altogether poorly, however. The Golden Bears recovered two of nine fumbles in a seven-point loss to Nevada, and they damn near beat Ohio State in Columbus. The results weren't very good because the schedule was rough, but the quality of the team was above average. Hell, the win over UCLA was downright fantastic.

Adj. Points Per Game (first 7 games): California 31.0, Opponent 25.5 (plus-5.5)
Adj. Points Per Game (last 5 games): Opponent 34.7, California 30.3 (minus-4.4)

The defense completely fell apart over the last five games, and that turned Cal into a pretty bad team. The schedule continued to challenge, but Cal also lost to less impressive teams like Utah and Washington as well. Things just fell apart like they often do when the writing is on the wall for the head coach.

Offense

Category	Yards/ Game Rk	S&P+ Rk	Success Rt. Rk	PPP+ Rk
OVERALL	68	42	52	40
RUSHING	42	22	46	16
PASSING	89	59	59	57
Standard Downs		30	44	27
Passing Downs		82	76	82
Redzone		46	71	27

Q1 Rk	61	1st Down Rk	33
Q2 Rk	44	2nd Down Rk	21
Q3 Rk	42	3rd Down Rk	60
Q4 Rk	2

3. Air Raid compatibility grade: B+

California just wasn't a very good passing team in 2012, nor was it in 2011. Despite the presence of star receiver Keenan Allen, quarterback play just wasn't up to par. Zach Maynard showed interesting potential at times, but he took too many sacks, wasn't good enough with his legs to make up the difference, and was painfully inaccurate at times. He belonged to the "Makes the tough passes, bombs the easy ones" club that so many quarterbacks join.

Allen is gone, as are the top two quarterbacks (Maynard and Allan Bridgford) and the top two running backs (Isi Sofele and C.J. Anderson). So why the B+? Because I love where this receiving corps could be either this year or next. While Allen, Sofele, and Anderson were all pretty exciting players, so is running back Brendan Bigelow, and so are the fivesome of sophomore receivers that saw quite a bit of playing time last year: Chris Harper, big Richard Rodgers, Bryce Treggs, Maurice Harris, and Darius Powe. Four of the five had either catch rates of 63 percent or better or averaged better than 14 yards per catch.

Dykes is in no way Leachian in his approach. Last year, Louisiana Tech ran the ball 52 percent of the time on standard downs and 27 percent of the time on passing downs; both of those figures were six to eight percent below the national average but still much higher than what Leach was attempting at Washington State. He does skew more toward the pass than Tedford (lord knows offensive coordinator Tony Franklin's career suggests that he does, too), so it is just a happy coincidence that Tedford is leaving him with such a young, interesting, and deep set of receivers. And when you throw in Bigelow, you've got a situation where the new starting quarterback, no matter how young (freshman Jared Goff finished the spring first on the depth chart), will have interesting weapons around him on all sides.

Quarterback

Note: players in bold below are 2013 returnees. Players in italics are questionable with injury/suspension.

Player

Ht, Wt

2013 Year

Rivals

Comp

Att

Yards

Comp Rate

TD

INT

Sacks

Sack Rate

Yards/ Att.

Zach Maynard

180

296

2,214

60.8%

12

10

35

10.6%

6.0

Allan Bridgford

31

68

277

45.6%

1

3

2

2.9%

3.8

Austin Hinder

6'4, 200

Jr.

*** (5.7)

Kyle Boehm

6'3, 215

So.

*** (5.7)

Zach Kline

6'2, 210

RSFr.

**** (6.0)

Jared Goff

6'4, 185

Fr.

**** (5.9)

Running Back

Player	Pos.	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	Rushes	Yards	Yards/ Carry	Hlt Yds/ Carry	TD	Adj. POE
Isi Sofele	RB				146	756	5.2	5.5	4	-0.1
C.J. Anderson	RB				126	790	6.3	5.5	4	+15.9
Zach Maynard	QB				63	262	4.2	4.2	3	-4.3
Brendan Bigelow	RB	5'10, 185	Jr.	**** (5.8)	44	431	9.8	11.5	3	+19.4
Eric Stevens	FB				13	51	3.9	1.5	0	-1.0
Daniel Lasco	RB	6'1, 200	So.	*** (5.7)	6	109	18.2	21.2	1	+7.2
Darren Ervin	RB	5'10, 195	So.	*** (5.5)
Lucas Gingold	RB	6'0, 240	Jr.	NR
Khalfani Muhammad	RB	5'8, 174	Fr.	**** (5.8)

4. No choice but to give the ball to Bigelow

Brendan Bigelow must either fumble the ball all the time in practice, or he must not block well at all. Those are the only legitimate reasons for why he didn't get more touches in 2012. The then-sophomore was a home run threat at all times, scoring on eight of just 51 rushes and receptions and averaging 10.1 yards per attempted touch (defined as carries and targets). He was dynamite with the ball in his hands. (For instance...) And with Sofele and Anderson gone, he's now No. 1 on the totem pole at running back. This is a great thing for college football fans, even if he really does struggle with fumbles, blocking, general brain cramps, or something else. We don't have to worry about those things if we're not Cal fans; we only have to enjoy the home runs.

Receiving Corps

Player	Pos.	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	Targets	Catches	Yards	Catch Rate	Yds/ Target	Target Rate	%SD	Real Yds/ Target	RYPR
Keenan Allen	WR				89	60	746	67.4%	8.4	27.1%	59.6%	8.4	99.7
Chris Harper	WR-H	6'0, 165	So.	*** (5.7)	65	41	545	63.1%	8.4	19.8%	66.2%	8.3	72.9
Richard Rodgers	WR-Y	6'4, 275	So.	*** (5.7)	32	20	288	62.5%	9.0	9.7%	75.0%	9.0	38.5
Bryce Treggs	WR-X	5'11, 175	So.	**** (5.9)	29	21	217	72.4%	7.5	8.8%	55.2%	7.6	29.0
C.J. Anderson	RB				27	15	164	55.6%	6.1	8.2%	40.7%	6.6	21.9
Maurice Harris	WR-Z	6'3, 205	So.	*** (5.7)	20	9	99	45.0%	5.0	6.1%	65.0%	4.8	13.2
Darius Powe	WR-H	6'3, 210	So.	**** (5.8)	19	12	134	63.2%	7.1	5.8%	78.9%	7.7	17.9
Jacob Wark	TE	6'4, 250	Jr.	*** (5.6)	12	7	74	58.3%	6.2	3.6%	41.7%	6.7	9.9
Eric Stevens	FB				12	9	55	75.0%	4.6	3.6%	91.7%	1.7	7.4
Isi Sofele	RB				11	7	60	63.6%	5.5	3.3%	54.5%	5.4	8.0
Brendan Bigelow	RB	5'10, 185	Jr.	**** (5.8)	8	7	92	87.5%	11.5	2.4%	50.0%	11.8	12.3
Jackson Bouza	WR-Y	6'0, 185	Sr.	NR	3	1	18	33.3%	6.0	0.9%	66.7%	5.4	2.4
Maximo Espitia	WR-H	6'2, 215	So.	*** (5.5)
Stephen Anderson	WR-Y	6'2, 210	So.	NR
Kenny Lawler	WR-Z	6'3, 185	RSFr.	**** (5.8)
Drake Whitehurst	WR-X	6'6, 215	Jr.	** (5.4)

Offensive Line

Category	Adj. Line Yds	Std. Downs LY/carry	Pass. Downs LY/carry	Opp. Rate	Power Success Rate	Stuff Rate	Adj. Sack Rate	Std. Downs Sack Rt.	Pass. Downs Sack Rt.
Team	110.8	3.08	3.64	42.9%	65.2%	17.9%	75.6	6.7%	11.7%
Rank	22	47	25	23	79	45	99	97	116

Player	Pos.	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	Career Starts/Honors/Notes
Brian Schwenke	C				36 career starts; 2012 1st All-Pac-12
Matt Summers-Gavin	RT				32 career starts
Dominic Galas	RG				14 career starts
Tyler Rigsbee	LT				12 career starts
Jordan Rigsbee	LG	6'4, 325	So.	**** (5.8)	12 career starts
Chris Adcock	RG	6'3, 310	Jr.	*** (5.5)	12 career starts
Bill Tyndall	RT	6'4, 285	Sr.	NR	5 career starts
Matt Williams	LT	6'6, 310	Sr.	**** (5.8)
Mark Brazinski	C	6'3, 315	Sr.	**** (5.8)
Alejandro Crosthwaite	RG	6'4, 300	Jr.	**** (5.8)
Geoffrey Gibson	RG	6'3, 330	Jr.	*** (5.6)
Freddie Tagaloa	LT	6'8, 350	So.	**** (5.8)
Brian Farley	RT	6'7, 295	So.	*** (5.6)
Matt Cochran	C	6'2, 335	RSFr.	*** (5.7)
Christian Okafor	RT	6'6, 320	RSFr.	*** (5.6)
Steven Moore	LG	6'6, 280	Fr.	*** (5.6)

5. Size? Check

Cal returns basically 2.5 starters from last year's line -- one that was perfectly solid in run blocking but struggled in pass blocking (and probably didn't get much help from its quarterback in that regard) -- and while we don't know how this personnel will handle what are generally wider splits in an Air Raid system, we do know this: There are some big guys in the mix. Of the 12 players listed above, five are at least 6'6, and eight are at least 310 pounds. (Five were once four-star recruits, too.) An adaptable, quality line is part of the Air Raid Compatibility checklist as well (it's part of every checklist, actually), and Cal's line has a lot of potential.

Defense

Category	Yards/ Game Rk	S&P+ Rk	Success Rt. Rk	PPP+ Rk
OVERALL	95	40	36	39
RUSHING	72	28	28	29
PASSING	107	49	49	49
Standard Downs		36	35	42
Passing Downs		46	52	42
Redzone		41	66	31

Q1 Rk	40	1st Down Rk	38
Q2 Rk	43	2nd Down Rk	31
Q3 Rk	77	3rd Down Rk	118
Q4 Rk	59

6. Cal couldn't rush the passer, and opponents knew it

Defense had not been the problem for Cal in recent years. The Golden Bears were in the Def. F/+ top 50 in 2010 and 2011 -- not great, but better than the offense -- and the strength in 2011 was a lovely pass defense that ranked 17th in Passing S&P+ and 19th in Adj. Sack Rate. But without ends Trevor Guyton and Ernest Owusu (combined: 10 sacks in 2011), not to mention aggressive inside linebackers Mychal Kendricks and D.J. Holt (combined: 25 tackles for loss in 2011), Cal just couldn't make enough big plays. The Golden Bears fell to 113th in Adj. Sack Rate, and while the run defense was solid, they got pushed around too much in short-yardage situations. Cal was strangely awful on third downs (strange because of the Top 40 ranking on first and second down); poor short-yardage defense and an awful pass rush tend to be a toxic combination on third downs, huh?

Defensive coordinator Andy Buh, Jim Harbaugh's defensive co-coordinator at Stanford in 2008-09 and Nevada's defensive coordinator in 2010-11, enjoys taking some risks and doesn't seem to mind trading some big plays in the passing game for high efficiency. His first front seven at Cal will feature quite a bit of experience and quite a few former four-star recruits. (And yes, most of those four-stars were on the field during last year's collapse, too). It will be interesting to see if he is able to press the right buttons. Obviously if Cal is seeing success on offense and moving as quickly as it wants to move, then the defense will be put in position to give up quite a few yards and points. But if the defense can make enough big plays of its own, that will be just fine.

Defensive Line

Category	Adj. Line Yds	Std. Downs LY/carry	Pass. Downs LY/carry	Opp. Rate	Power Success Rate	Stuff Rate	Adj. Sack Rate	Std. Downs Sack Rt.	Pass. Downs Sack Rt.
Team	115.6	2.72	2.86	42.9%	73.2%	19.6%	64.0	4.2%	4.6%
Rank	13	32	29	110	94	58	113	74	96

Name	Pos	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	GP	Tackles	% of Team	TFL	Sacks	Int	PBU	FF	FR
Chris McCain	RUSH	6'6, 215	Jr.	**** (5.8)	11	39.5	5.4%	8.5	3.5	0	1	0	1
Deandre Coleman	NT	6'5, 320	Sr.	**** (5.9)	12	34.0	4.7%	8.5	3	0	1	0	1
Brennan Scarlett	DE	6'4, 265	Jr.	**** (5.8)	9	30.0	4.1%	6	2.5	0	2	2	0
Aaron Tipoti	DT				10	21.5	3.0%	0.5	0	0	0	0	1
Kendrick Payne	DE				11	18.5	2.6%	4.5	3.5	0	0	0	0
Dan Camporeale	RUSH	6'3, 250	Sr.	NR	12	16.0	2.2%	1.5	0.5	0	0	0	0
Todd Barr	DE	6'3, 260	So.	**** (5.8)	11	8.5	1.2%	4.5	2	0	0	1	0
Keni Kaufusi	DT				8	6.5	0.9%	3.5	2	0	0	2	0
Villiami Moala	NT	6'2, 340	Jr.	**** (5.8)	10	5.0	0.7%	1	0	0	1	0	0
Mustafa Jalil	DT	6'2, 275	Jr.	**** (5.8)	7	4.0	0.6%	0.5	0	0	0	0	0
Gabe King	DL	6'5, 295	Jr.	**** (6.0)	7	2.5	0.3%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ted Agu	DL	6'1, 245	Jr.	** (5.1)	4	0.5	0.1%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sione Sina	DE	6'4, 265	Jr.	*** (5.6)
Kyle Kragen	RUSH	6'3, 250	Jr.	** (5.4)
Marcus Manley	DT	6'2, 280	Jr.	** (5.4)
Takkarist McKinley	DE	6'3, 240	Fr.	*** (5.7)

Linebackers

Name	Pos	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	GP	Tackles	% of Team	TFL	Sacks	Int	PBU	FF	FR
Nick Forbes	MLB	6'1, 235	Jr.	**** (5.9)	12	65.0	9.0%	4.5	1.5	1	3	1	3
Robert Mullins	LB				11	49.0	6.8%	4	0.5	0	0	2	1
Jalen Jefferson	SAM	6'2, 235	So.	*** (5.7)	8	35.0	4.8%	1.5	1.5	0	1	0	0
Khairi Fortt (2011 Penn State)	WILL	6'2, 235	Jr.	**** (6.0)	13	21.5	3.0%	6	2.5	0	0	0	0
J.P. Hurrell	LB				7	13.5	1.9%	2.5	2.5	1	0	0	0
Nathan Broussard	WILL	6'3, 245	So.	*** (5.5)	11	13.0	1.8%	3.5	3	0	0	0	0
Lucas King	LB	6'3, 230	Jr.	** (5.2)	11	3.0	0.4%	1.5	1	0	0	0	0
David Wilkerson	WILL	6'2, 245	Jr.	**** (5.8)
Michael Barton	SAM	6'1, 230	RSFr.	**** (5.8)
Hardy Nickerson	MIKE	6'0, 225	RSFr.	*** (5.6)

7. 4-3 compatibility grade: B-

Though more defenses seem to be moving from a 4-3 to a 3-4, Buh will engineer the opposite move in 2013. He explained why back in February.

"First of all, it's what I know -- that's probably the most significant reason. Any time you coordinate a defense, you want to be a master of it. […] It can defend all the different types of offenses we're going to face. I believe in the way football has become where the quarterback is such a threat, both run and pass, that four defensive linemen are almost critical in terms of keeping linemen off the linebackers, having good pass-rush lanes, squeezing and constricting gaps and not making it such a space game. Those are all the principles of the 4-3. We'll sit more on our technique and our fundamentals than our scheme."

Transitioning personnel in this direction can lead to undersized defensive ends (former outside linebackers) and both poor depth at tackle and not enough play-making ability from linemen recruited to occupy blockers more than defeat them. (Yes, that's a gross generalization.) But the transition could go at least alright in that regard. Chris McCain (currently suspended) is an awfully skinny rush end at 6'6, 215, but there is potentially reasonable depth at tackle (at least, as long as former star recruits like Viliami Moala can fill in at a backup level), and in players like Brennan Scarlett and Todd Barr, Buh will have some ends who meet both the size and athleticism requirements for a 4-3 end.

Secondary

Name	Pos	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Rivals	GP	Tackles	% of Team	TFL	Sacks	Int	PBU	FF	FR
Josh Hill	S				12	68.5	9.4%	0.5	0	1	9	1	0
Steve Williams	CB				12	68.0	9.4%	7	0	3	10	1	0
Michael Lowe	FS	5'11, 210	Jr.	*** (5.6)	12	54.0	7.4%	3	1	3	1	0	0
Marc Anthony	CB				11	43.5	6.0%	7.5	0	2	3	1	0
Avery Sebastian	SS	5'10, 190	Jr.	**** (5.8)	11	43.5	6.0%	1.5	0	0	1	0	0
Kameron Jackson	CB	5'9, 175	Jr.	*** (5.7)	12	23.0	3.2%	0	0	3	3	0	1
Alex Logan	FS	6'2, 200	Sr.	*** (5.7)	9	20.5	2.8%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stefan McClure (2011)	CB	5'11, 200	So.	**** (5.8)	11	19.5	2.8%	1	0	1	2	0	1
Joel Willis	DB	5'10, 195	So.	*** (5.6)	12	6.0	0.8%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Adrian Lee	CB	5'11, 200	Jr.	*** (5.6)	7	1.0	0.1%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Isaac Lapite	CB	5'9, 185	Jr.	NR
Cedric Dozier	DB	5'11, 175	RSFr.	**** (5.8)
Damariay Drew	SS	6'0, 205	RSFr.	*** (5.5)
Darius Allensworth	DB	5'11, 175	Fr.	**** (5.8)
Cameron Walker	DB	5'10, 180	Fr.	*** (5.7)

8. Tedford's recruiting will help

One never knows how a transition will go, from coach to coach and from system to system. But Dykes and company certainly inherit a roster with a lot of potential and athleticism. That's not always the case. And while recruiting rankings aren't perfectly predictive -- if they were, Cal wouldn't have ranked so low last year -- you'd rather inherit a roster of former four-stars than walk-ons.

Special Teams

Punter	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Punts	Avg	TB	FC	I20	FC/I20 Ratio
Cole Leininger	6'1, 200	So.	60	39.9	1	26	13	65.0%
Steffan Mos	6'0, 195	Jr.	2	37.5	0	0	1	50.0%

Kicker	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Kickoffs	Avg	TB	TB%
Vincenzo D'Amato	6'1, 200	Sr.	59	60.5	18	30.5%
Noah Beito	6'0, 180	RSFr.	1	64	0	0.0%

Place-Kicker	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	PAT	FG (0-39)	Pct	FG (40+)	Pct
Vincenzo D'Amato	6'1, 200	Sr.	30-33	12-14	85.7%	4-9	44.4%

Returner	Pos.	Ht, Wt	2013 Year	Returns	Avg.	TD
Brendan Bigelow	KR	5'10, 185	Jr.	35	23.0	0
Mike Manuel	KR			12	19.2	0
Keenan Allen	PR			15	14.1	1
Chris Harper	PR	6'0, 165	So.	4	1.0	0

Category	Rk
Special Teams F/+	76
Net Punting	55
Net Kickoffs	104
Touchback Pct	80
Field Goal Pct	72
Kick Returns Avg	80
Punt Returns Avg	25

2013 Schedule & Projection Factors

2013 Schedule
Date	Opponent	Proj. Rk
31-Aug	Northwestern	35
7-Sep	Portland State	NR
14-Sep	Ohio State	10
28-Sep	at Oregon	2
5-Oct	Washington State	97
12-Oct	at UCLA	43
19-Oct	Oregon State	25
26-Oct	at Washington	45
2-Nov	Arizona	30
9-Nov	USC	17
16-Nov	at Colorado	115
23-Nov	at Stanford	5

Five-Year F/+ Rk	55
Two-Year Recruiting Rk	24
TO Margin/Adj. TO Margin*	-7 / -1.9
TO Luck/Game	-2.1
Approx. Ret. Starters (Off. / Def.)	10 (4, 6)
Yds/Pt Margin**	+3.7

9. Dykes on the Pac-12 vs. the SEC

This is neither here nor there, but when I interviewed Dykes for my book (now due out in late-July!), he dropped a tidbit I hadn't really considered when discussing the college football arms race.

"Cal has 29 sports, so any new money (from a playoff) is going to go to diving, or soccer, or any number of other sports. We're not going to build a new football facility, then build another one five years later just because we can. The day-to-day facilities race in the South -- they just don't offer that many sports, so it's got to go somewhere. An assistant to the assistant to the assistant. You're going to have 20+ coaches on a staff, not just the nine listed. At some point, the NCAA's going to have to put a stop to it."

Depending on your rooting interests, that quote is either cogent and enlightening or sour grapes. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

10. This shouldn't be the most painful transition

California unveiled a pretty, new version of its Memorial Stadium last year; now would be a good time for that stadium to develop one hell of a home field advantage. Cal hosts Northwestern, Portland State, Ohio State, Washington State, Oregon State, Arizona, and USC. Go 5-2 at home, and you just have to win at Colorado to become bowl eligible and generate momentum again. But that will most likely require an upset or two, and going just 4-3 at home will require a road upset, too.

Dykes inherits a football program with a high ceiling, thanks in part to Tedford's 11 years in charge. And thanks to his recruiting, Dykes has a chance to make some decent noise early in his tenure. How much noise will depend on the typical learning curve of transition, the ability of the defense to bounce back after a poor year, and the amount of noise Memorial Stadium can generate.