Archive for Report Cards

If Only There Were Trees To Cut: The Big Game Experience

So I attended my first Big Game on Saturday, and it was quite pleasant. Figures that I’d go four years of undergrad without attending one Big Game. I even passed on the 2004 one when we all thought we were chomping on roses–probably for the best, since I’d probably have been in a coma after […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

California-Oregon State Report Card

Quarterback: 11-25 for 117 yards isn’t good. But then again, Riley was getting battered around like a pinball for much of the final three quarters. Getting rushed not only from the edges, but in between the tackles, at the gaps, from the sidelines, whatever. Nevertheless, other than the early Tucker touchdown, Riley only had flashes […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

California-USC Report Card

Nate Longshore: Another strange performance. It wasn’t like Nate was bad, even though he had those two interceptions called back on bizarro penalties. Interestingly enough he seemingly replicated his 2006 USC performance with three nice rollouts. But the offense moved like it was playing in a mudstorm (three timeouts had to be called to avoid […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

California-Oregon Report Card

More postgame thoughts: Hydrotech at the Golden Blogs, The Bear Will Not Quit, Bears With Fangs, Oski Talk, Ken’s podcast from Excuse Me For My Voice. Quarterback: To his credit, Riley was looking good out of the blocks after that “whaaa?” interception. Kevin converted all of his remaining third down opportunities into first down, first down, […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

California-UCLA Report Card

Thanks to Tony for saving me for this weekend. It’s going to be a sporadic run to the finish. Um, yeah, I went to the game. I was actually standing next to the CGB guys, which was as surreal as it sounds. It was made even better by the fact that I could barely speak. […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Cal-Arizona Report Card

Nate Longshore: We’ve seen this script before. It’s the typical Nate Longshore game we’ve seen the past two years. Let’s move on before people start yelling. Grade: C Kevin Riley: Ditto. Grade: C Running backs: Just when it looked like Arizona was ready to run us off the field, Jahvid Best scorched the Wildcats and […]

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, October 20th, 2008

Cal – Arizona State Report Card

Quarterback: Feels like we haven’t discussed this topic enough, eh? Longshore did enough to win the game, but he didn’t do enough to distinguish himself from Kevin Riley. On one hand, the Cal quarterback kept things simple with swing dumps and screens early. On the other, Nate floated a few passes that took some adjustment […]

Posted by: Avinash on Sunday, October 5th, 2008

California – Colorado State Report Card

Quarterbacks: Kevin Riley is a work in progress. Although his pass protection isn’t quite as good as we’d like it to be, and his receivers have dropped some catchable balls (including one touchdown) he’s still underthrowing catchable balls or misreading routes by quite a bit. The rapport with his wideouts isn’t quite there yet. While […]

Posted by: Avinash on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Let’s Speak of It One More Time: Cal-Maryland Report Card

(Check out Testudo Times for a report card of Maryland’s team) First of all, everyone’s looking for a scapegoat to blame Cal. The humidity, the weather, the turnovers, the coaching. Clearly, Maryland did nothing to win that game; this was all Cal playing below their level, right? Fine, if you’re going to blame someone, blame […]

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, September 15th, 2008

Cal – Washington State Report Card

Every week the Golden Bears play a game, I write up a report card. You can click to read the extensive Michigan State one from last week. Here are the final grades from that 66-3 smashing. Quarterbacks: Nate Longshore clearly inserted himself back into the quarterback competition with a strong second half performance, completing 7 […]

Posted by: Avinash on Sunday, September 7th, 2008