The Bears Are Roaring, The Baby Bears Are Moaning (Cal-UCLA Preview)

Posted by: Avinash on Friday, October 19th, 2007

KevinRileyTenacity

Unless I make a 100% recovery, I won’t be writing too much this weekend–my body is still battling for its constitutional right to be healthy (that is a right, isn’t it?). I’ll be monitoring the games as best as I can, and give you my thoughts on Monday. I know this is literally the worst time in the world for me to be sick, and I apologize to all my readers, but there’s really nothing I can do but rest and watch games prostrate on the futon. Utterly craptastic. Let’s point some big middle fingers at my stomach shall we?

Let’s get to the game.

Longshore’s ankle refuses to heal, meaning Kevin Riley will probably be behind center on Saturday again. If he does get the start, hopefully the jitters that plagued his first twenty minutes on the field will be behind him for his first road start. Robert Jordan and Cameron Morrah should be back to full strength. Our defensive injuries seem to be taking a little longer.

Sadly, it looks like Tom Schneider’s season (and Bears career) is over. He’s petitioning for a sixth year of eligibility, but it’s not likely he’ll be allowed to return since he’s only been injured for one year. Jordan Kay will be in the role the rest of the season.

Despite the loss last week, Cal players are getting plenty of dap for their first half season performances. Alex Mack is one of the semifinalists for the Rotary Lombardi award, and is also in the Sporting News All-American college lineup with Desean.

Turning to UCLA, Bruin Roar has his partisan but lighthearted fark manips. All pretty funny and misleading, but I have an addition that I certainly think he’ll enjoy (my first photoshop creation, pardon the crudeness). Speaking of “Kal-Aid”…

tedforddorrell

Thoughts and previews around the Net after we jump.


As for the despondent Bruins Nation, they provide an answer to “Who wants UCLA to lose more than Bears fans?” Thoughts like this make you wonder…

A win over Cal this weekend sets into motion what I have been fearing for the last couple of weeks: a “Doomsday Scenario” where, by sure luck and happenstance, a season full of unexpected mishaps and upsets produces a Pac 10 Champion (and hence BCS participant) with 2 conference losses. A scenario where, at 8-4 or better, the Bruins, losers to pathetic Utah and Notre Dame, would likely find themselves giddy at the top of the Pac 10. And let’s face it Bruins Nation: if Dorrell wins the Pac 10 and goes to a BCS bowl game, the chances he gets fired are, well, fairly hopeless.

So if the Rose Bowl seems a little bit rowdier on Saturday when the Bears are on the move…well, now you know.

Previews abound, even from the normally non-analytic Scout forums. The Band Is Out On The Field is as perplexed as anyone about the mystical UCLA Bruins, who defy logic, understanding, prediction. If he were still alive, Heisenberg would be their #1 fan, and not just because they play next to CalTech.

Thankfully, the hopelessly homerific Rose Bowl Before I Die dispenses with any such pessimism and is quick to predict victory of the highest order (and I mean absurdly high). New to the game, Oski Talk also has high hopes.

The Bruin Show podcast has interviews with Ragnarok and TwistNHook from the Golden Bloggers and Ken from Excuse Me For My Voice. Everyone picks Cal, but the Bruin hosts pick Cal big. You can almost here the pleading in their voices, as if they want to see UCLA go down. It’s almost enough to make you feel bad for them–until you realized that they mocked you in football for almost the entire sixty years before Tedford’s arrival. Baby bears until the end.

So enjoy your Rose Bowl tailgating, fellow Cal fans making the trip down south. Perhaps I’ll join you next time. Whether in two years or on some odd January night…

(Note: There will be something a little special showing up later today. And it won’t be me and my silly weekly call-to-arms. It’ll be much, much cooler.)



Topics: Blogs, Cal Football, Sports

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