KC Cal’s Weekly Super Fantastic Happy Explosion Awesome Article: The Draft
Hi everyone. My name is KC Cal, and Avinash has kindly let me fill in for him for a weekly segment over here at the Bears Necessity. I also run a blog at The Play in California. I excel at making up characters like Emo Alex Smith, Impatient Aaron Rodgers, and other jackassery. I will attempt to by snarky, witty, and funny, but most likely come off as insulting, ignorant, and offensive for all purposes.
When trying to come up with topics to write about the obvious one I could have picked was something about the NFL Draft. With many Cal prospects in the mix (DeSean, Lavelle, Stevens, to name a few), there’s much to cover. Hell, even Joe Ayoob might pop up out of no where and make a glorious comeback like Keanu Reeves did in the Replacements. Oh wait, I forgot. In order to make a glorious comeback, you have to obtain glory first. My bad.
Thus, in my first inaugural article, I’ll be analyzing each top potential draft pick from Cal as we head into the draft. Now, I know Avinash offers very serious analysis on this website. Don’t expect the same from me. My “expertise” basically comprises of what I read on ESPN and Sports Illustrated 5 minutes before writing this article, but hey, with that amount of research, I’m already a regular Peter King. Also, because I’m lazy and can only make dick jokes for so long, I’ll only be offering previews for four players, the three mentioned above and Andrew Larsen. Yeah, that’s right, Andrew Larsen. So, enjoy!
DeSean Jackson:
Out of all the players coming from Cal, the obvious one generating a lot of buzz is number 1 himself. He’s fast, agile, and can return punts with ease. Watching DeSean play the last few years as a punt returner has been pretty awesome. He has very Dante Hall like plays, causing defenders to miss tackles left and right. Watching him play as a receiver has been pretty ah-ight. Sure, he’s usually the go to man when Cal needs an air touchdown, but at the same time, his numbers haven’t been exactly mind blowing, and that’s only at the college level. He is a deep threat with his speed, but he’s also a liability with his size. Rivals.com lists him at 172 lbs. I know a lot of guys who are 172 lbs and in decent shape. I’m pretty sure they’d get post traumatic stress syndrome with one Ray Lewis crush, or stabbing. Hopefully DeSean’s conditioning will allow him to withstand it. DeSean has the chance to become the next Santana Moss or Dante Hall. Um, make of that as you will.
Who will probably draft him: Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys
Who will actually draft him: Detroit Lions
Lavelle Hawkins:
Lavelle Hawkins has spent a lot of his career playing second fiddle to DJ. He’s been a pretty reliable receiver and quick at shaking off coverage. He’s also the source of the most ridiculous college football chant in the world: the Hawk. The Hawk is basically when you put your arms in front of you and move them as if you had wings. Though this sounds cool, you actually end up looking like a guy with Parkinson’s trying to do the YMCA. His main downfall is his size, measuring up only to about a DeSean. You’ll probably see him fall to around to the 120’s.
Who will probably draft him: San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans
Who will actually draft him: Detroit Lions
Craig Stevens:
Before the combine, Stevens wasn’t really a hot prospect. Then after the combine, his name shot up faster than a heroin addict going on tour with Motley Crue. People site him as a rare example of a tight end who can actually block, something loss with all these “tight ends” who are basically just receivers. People like Antonio Gates and Todd Heap. That seems kind of like a cheat for those guys to be called tight ends. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we played back yard football. There would always be a blocker who would pretend to block but then come out and be a receiver. When all of us where like “what the fuck man?” he would just respond that he was playing tight end. Lame. Don’t expect Stevens to pull any of that pussy shit around in the NFL. He’d be a valuable asset to a team loaded with short field receivers.
Who will probably draft him: New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings
Who will actually draft him: Detroit Lions (Millen to front office : “He’s a receiver right?”)
Andrew Larsen:
Larsen is our punter. He can kick the ball real far. Teams who will need him have punters who cannot kick the ball as far as him. Yeah, that’s pretty much all you need to know.
Who will probably draft him: Tampa Bay Bucs
Who will actually draft him: Oakland Raiders, most likely utilizing an early pick. Al Davis will the comment on his own genius while hundreds of fans at the draft laugh out loud.
Well there you have it. Hope this article has prepared you for later this afternoon. It probably didn’t though, as I’m sure Avinash has already provided more in depth and factual analysis. You’re probably dumber for have reading this article. I guess I’m a regular Mel Kiper Jr!
The Golden Bears Are Getting Drafted
Oh, really? It’s tomorrow? Okay then…
Well, DeSean Jackson has been taken through the ropes the past few days. Like here. And here. And here. And here. He’s not exactly getting the benefit of the doubt.
If anything, I’m flabbergasted at how overhyped translates into overrated. The MEDIA overhyped him, and now they’re taking a dump on him.
In Cal’s four biggest games before they fell off the map–Tennessee in the opener, Oregon in Autzen to establish Pac-10 prominence, UCLA in the Rose Bowl to regain the initiative, Arizona St. to save the last hopes for a Rose Bowl season–Jackson had his strongest performances of 2007. Ditto versus Arizona last year, where he did everything he could to keep Cal on track to the Rose Bowl. He has never performed well against USC because of the two/three man packages that face him (hence strong performances by Hawkins the past two years). So Jackson has done what people expected he would do in games he was needed the most. What more could you want from him?
In any case, this is the best thing that could happen to Jackson–if he really does have what it takes to play up to his level, all this trash-talking that’s downgrading his draft stock will help build up his shield for criticism. If he does suffer from the prima donna attitude, he’ll hopefully be humbled by the disrespect he’s receiving.
Here’s a great in-depth look into DeSean by NFL Films.
Teams interested in Jackson: Rams, Eagles, Cowboys, Bucs, Niners (???), Titans & Ravens, and I’m sure more.
Justin Forsett, doing Saturday workouts with the Niners, and taking physics midterms two days before. Golden Bear through and through, that’s for sure.
Lavelle Hawkins might not be going too far. The Niners seem to be buzzing about him. Also interested: Broncos and Cowboys and Chiefs.
Thomas DeCoud, as expected, will be a solid third round prospect. He’s solid. Solid as a rock. Not a liquid. Here’s a draft profile.
Craig Stevens, loved by the Seattle Seahawks, Redskins, Patriots, Bills, and a lot of other teams. The farther down you go, every team is looking out for you. It seems he’ll go pretty safely in the fifth-sixth round somewhere.
Nothing at all for Mike Gibson and Robert Jordan, but here are links to my brief profiles.
My thoughts? This might be the largest group of talent Tedford has had available to the draft–2006 might have had better all-around players in college, but only one seemed guaranteed to be a bona fide star, ghostriding the turf of Buffalo (by the way, Happy Birthday Money!). This year you have a strong number of prospects who will probably never become superstars (maybe DeSean), but all have the opportunity to end up to play key roles as top receiver, second or third options at receiver or running back platoons, backup tight end, etc. Everyone will be able to find a role they can fit into and survive well in the NFL. Perhaps one or two of them will push themselves to that star level.
Considering how valuable they all appeared together at Cal, it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with the stigma of their slide. Hopefully we’ll see enough of this team in the NFL to see if the psychological hangover was left behind in college.
Provide your thoughts on the NFL Draft.
No Stars, Better Team?
As spring moves along, we get the usual, upbeat note, after a season relegated to the Dark Ages.
Sure enough, senior linebacker Zack Follett said he first noticed an uptick in the team’s mood even before spring ball.
“Right when we hit the weight room,” he said.
But this good vibe seems to transcend what happened last year, time’s healing properties, the low-stress environment of off-season drills, and the natural euphoric cocktail of spring, the great outdoors and the best years of a young man’s life.
“No question,” Tedford said after his pass-throwing drill. “The chemistry of this team is something I’m very happy with. It starts with leadership at the top. The young class is probably the best young class we’ve had here in terms of character and accepting senior leadership.”
Certainly, if there’s anything positive to take from this year, it’s that Cal is starting a new slate. This team will have to shed its explosive offensive moniker to win games this year, and it’ll not be easy to win on a talent-level. But the chemistry is back, so the likelihood of a meltdown is minimal. There will be senior leaders (like Follett and Mack) tacking control in the huddle and in the locker room, so there will be less head shaking after losses.
And this year, there will not be any detracting focus, like, say, a Heisman candidacy.
If you follow Cal football closely it shouldn’t be difficult to crack that code. Suffice to say the school likely won’t be designating a Heisman Trophy candidate this season as it did last fall.
“(Tedford) is not putting up with any BS,” Follett said. “He’s making sure there are no star attitudes.”
Regardless how you feel about DeSean, I found the promotion of his Heisman campaign a complete nuisance from the season’s start. It was an ESPN production, something that took away from the team’s torrid 5-0 start. It made DeSean the focus of Cal’s success in the big Oregon and Tennessee games, ignoring the strong team effort by our defense and the creative playcalling that exuded the strengths of Longshore, Forsett, Hawkins, Jordan and Stevens. That’s not to take anything away from Jackson, who had a good 2007 season. But you can’t help but speculate how much of an effect the exaggerated hype on one player had on a locker room of young adults.
So it’ll be nice to get back to basics this year. No one individual stands above everyone else. Everyone will be on the same page when the season starts. It’s something Cal football so desperately needs. We can’t hope to out-star the rest of the league. We have to out-team everyone else.
Is it good to have stars? How many stars are too much?
(Image from GoldenBearSports.com)
Black Swans of Cal Football
(As the offseason moves along–four more months to go, WOOOOO!—I’m going to give smarter Cal fans their chance to voice out your opinions. If you want to become a regular contributor or a guest poster, just check this post out for details on what to do.
Today I’m handing it to Tony, a longtime commenter on this site. Enjoy what he has to say about the Bears.)
Offseason Epistemology
By now, we’re all painfully well-versed in the big questions facing the 2008 Golden Bears. Since you know them by heart, I’ll just list a few in shorthand: QB? WR? RB? 3-4? These are the known unknowns and, as obsessive fans, it’s our duty to speculate about them despite the fact that the information available to us sucks. For example, if I hear Brock Mansion lit up our own secondary in a scrimmage am I supposed to get happy, sad, or drunk?
Receiving less attention are the unknown unknowns. I’m currently reading “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; a book that ostensibly has nothing to do with college football. Taleb’s basic thesis is that although unforeseeable events have a disproportionate impact on history, our predictive models tend to ignore the possibility of such events.
In football terms, this means that chances are some unfathomable occurrence will have a bigger impact on 2008 than, say, whether Kevin Riley is under center against MSU, or whether Best is still wearing a red jersey in Fall camp. (For God’s sake Jahvid, TAKE OFF THAT RUDDY GARMENT!). But because we can’t imagine what the Black Swans will be, we act as if they don’t matter and focus on the color of Jahvid’s jersey instead.
To see what I mean, let’s look back at Cal’s last several seasons and reflect on how what really made the difference were unforeseeable and highly improbable events:
2003
lost Boller, Igber and pretty much the entire defense. But what proved consequential was the unforeseen emergence of massive playmakers like Rodgers and McArthur.
2004
Who could imagine that Cal could rise to national prominence based on a loss to U$C, then tank in the Holiday Bowl because the team was disappointed by a BCS snub?
2005
Cal started the season with two strong candidates to replace Rodgers, but then Longshore went down in the first game, and Ayoob proved to be a horrendous match for Tedford’s system. Let me know if you ever imagined that a walk-on QB would end up leading us to wins in the Big Game and the Las Vegas Bowl.
2006
After “atmosphere” obliterated the Bears’ game plan at Tennessee, Longshore emerged as Tedford’s next great mentee. Unfortunately a phantom pass interference call at Arizona kept Cal out of the Rose Bowl once again.No, blown calls aren’t really “unforeseeable” in the Pac-10. But who knows which way they’ll go?
2007
A sprained ankle proved to be the difference between “can beat anyone” to “can’t beat Stanfurd.”
So what will be 2008’s Black Swans? Obviously we can’t know (but feel free to speculate). We just need to keep in mind that there will be Black Swan’s in 2008 – probably both good and bad. Personally, I take some comfort in that. With the mainstream outlook for our Bears worse than it’s been in years, its good to know there are unknown factors out there that will intervene one way or another.
Map of The Play
Have you ever been thinking, man, I really want a dorky map of The Play, even though I have the video saved on YouTube, can watch it on any classic sports highlights reel, can see reenactments at almost any Golden Bear event? Of course you haven’t. That’s exactly why I decided to make one. You can never have enough of The Play.
Here, you can go in alphabetical order and track down the chronological order of events leading to the ownage of Gary Tyrrell. There is absolutely necessary for indoctrinating your children into the inordinate amount of hate they must direct to all things red. If the image is not working, you can also click here for some useful narration on the side (thanks to Concharto), because after all, The Play is as grand a historical event as you can get.
View A Larger Map
If you see anything that’s missing, you can register on the site (only takes a dozen or so seconds) and contribute to the process. That’s what wiki’s are all about.
3rd Down Offense in the Pac-10
Numbers are always fun to look at, and this week I’m going to look at the all-too-crucial third down conversion. While I can’t generate anything as awesome as MGoBlog’s graphs, I can do some basic breakdown of numbers.
The Division I rushing yards per carry ranking is listed in parentheses.
| Rushing | 3rd and 1-3 | 3rd and 4-6 | 3rd and 7-9 | 3rd and 10+ | 3rd down |
| Arizona | 11–21 (8) | 1–6 (114) | 1–5 (117) | 0–8 (46) | 13–40 (78) |
| ASU | 25–39 (62) | 3–18 (102) | 1–15 (114) | 1–12 (56) | 30–84 (110) |
| Cal | 23–34 (33) | 2–4 (1) | 1–3 (12) | 1–10 (14) | 27–51 (6) |
| Oregon | 26–37 (24) | 9–19 (4) | 4–8 (23) | 4–18 (60) | 43–82 (8) |
| OSU | 25–40 (32) | 1–11 (95) | 1–11 (87) | 1–15 (98) | 28–77 (84) |
| Stanford | 12–27 (116) | 3–11 (110) | 2–16 (104) | 1–15 (109) | 18–69 (119) |
| UCLA | 23–36 (14) | 4–16 (89) | 2–12 (61) | 2–23 (79) | 31–87 (62) |
| USC | 29–36 (11) | 4–10 (57) | 3–13 (42) | 1–22 (58) | 37–81 (30) |
| UW | 25–36 (98) | 7–13 (32) | 2–9 (20) | 1–11 (86) | 36–69 (57) |
| Wazzu | 8–15 (88) | 3–11 (29) | 4–12 (29) | 0–8 (13) | 15–46 (21) |
As you can see, the Golden Bears run it up yard-wise on 3rd down. While on the 3rd and short situations Cal performed modestly (33rd, 6th in the Pac-10), they also ran the ball even stronger in unlikely running situations, primarily because the passing game was supposed to be so feared. This goes to show that even if Cal’s running backs don’t pick up a 1st down on 3rd and long, they picked up a significant chunk of yardage. Tedford appeared to minimize risk on his 3rd down situations, going for the run in the obvious situation and going for the pass in the obvious situation, with contrasting results (as you will soon see). However, in terms of total yardage gained, there’s no doubt Forsett, Montgomery and Best did their job.
Oregon might not have picked up as much yardage per third down attempt, but they made up for it with a plethora of conversions. The Ducks picked up 43 on the season, nearly half in situations that were longer than 3 yards. Obviously this is the strength of Dixon and Stewart at work; for Oregon to be feared as far out as 3rd and 10 to either run or pass made it difficult for a defense to adjust until Dixon’s leg gave out in the desert.
Interestingly, Arizona is awesome on short 3rd down rushing situations. Why is that? Because the Wildcats pass so damned much that it’s almost a surprise when they run, even on 3rd and short. Ditto 3rd and long. It was just everything in the middle that made the Wildcats look pretty inept.
Washington State had a similar situation with Alex Brink–because they were a pass-oriented team, the run options were open on third down, and the offense took advantage of the situation (finishing 21st in yards per carry in the country). Unfortunately, once the running game stalled, they had to go the air, and the results were less than desirable for the Cougars. Ditto Washington, who seemingly went crazy on the ground in situations where a 1st down conversion was not likely. No one feared Jake Locker’s arm last year.
Contrast that to Arizona State, who were so inept in their third down run game it’s almost impossible to comprehend how they won ten games. Apparently if the situation wasn’t short-yardage (1 to 3 yards), Dennis Erickson must have come up with mind-numbing, terrible running calls. Perhaps total yards per carry doesn’t mean as much as it should if ASU can finish 110th in that category and still finish where they finished.
So considering how great Cal was at picking up yards on the ground, you’d expect another ten win season from the Bears, right?
You know where this is going. After the jump, here comes 3rd down passing offense.
Ask the Readers: Call for Cal Writers
I’ve been putting it off long enough, and now with the new site design going in and Cal sports reaching a lull, it’s a good time to look for new writers.
Writing seven times a week seems great, but the rest of my life has suffered because of this site. Eventually I’ll crash and burn, and I don’t really want to leave the Golden Blogs as the only source left for Cal sports. So, long-time readers, I’m looking to involve you guys in the discussion directly. Like Hollywood did in January and February, I need good writers to get this site moving in the right direction.
You can be interested in writing on any of the following things, and it doesn’t have to be just one topic.
Cal football
General college football
Cal basketball
General college basketball
Cal baseball
Cal rugby
The other sports that I’d never pay attention to unless you bribed me.
If you like to write with no analysis and all humor (like TwistNHook), or all analysis and no humor (like Hydrotech) or just write (historical posts, interesting nuances, lively debate), I’m totally up for it. Just contact me either via my form or through Gmail (bearsnecessity2008 at gmail dot com) and let me know what you’re interested in writing about, how often you’re interested in writing, and basic info about your writing experience (this last part isn’t that big a deal). We’ll get the ball rolling as soon as I hear from you guys.
Also, for those with smaller-scale Cal blogs, the opportunity to guest post is wide open (Dank Down, Oski Talk, Bears with Fangs, Blue and Gold Sports, I’m looking at you guys). You can maintain your old blogs and reach a bigger audience this way via guest posts. Again, just contact me or leave a note in the comments.
Remember, at the bare minimum, all you have to do is write. You don’t have to do anything with website maintenance, WordPress upgrades, or site design. Keep Bears Necessity going!
Cal Sports Weekend Links
As much as I’d like to, I can’t report on everything…and for some reason, my auto del.icio.us weekly responder didn’t report the links I compiled last week. So here are spring links on Cal from a week ago.
- Mad Dog Blog – Mike Montgomery to Cal Berkeley!
Mark Madsen has some preliminary thoughts. - Sports – Montgomery chooses Washington State – sacbee.com
James Montgomery is heading to Pullman.
to jamesmontgomery washingtonstatecougars californiagoldenbears - The Cal Football Fan Blog » Gameday shirt, open practice and sale
Gameday T-shirts are now available, and will be available during open practice.
- The California Golden Blogs :: The Mad Dog Gets Politically Correct
Yellow Fever responds to Mark Madsen
- Too much Rod Benson: Bus rides, hecklers and accolades – Ball Don’t Lie – NBA – Yahoo! Sports
How to stay comfortable on an 11 hour bus ride.
- JS Online: McCarthy believes in Rodgers
Clap clap clap clap clap! Looking good for Aaron Rodgers up in Green Bay. - A Stanford Hall of Famer Turns Blue and Gold
Mike Montgomery skepticism from the master of skepticism.
- It looks like a bear market for Cal – Los Angeles Times
The LA Times has produced a penetrating and powerful piece on Cal football, and by penetrating I mean myopic, and by powerful I mean putrid.
- Justin Forsett’s Draft Diary
You can follow Forsett’s workout to the NFL draft here. He’s working on his degree at the same time too. Awesome. - Northern Star Online: Rant: Favre just painted a green and gold target on Rodgers’ back
Just so stupid.
to aaronrodgers brettfavre greenbaypackers
Worst Officiating Calls in College Football, 2007
Unfortunately for us, not all college referees possess the awesomeness of Ron Cherry. Most of the best have graduated to the NFL; the rejects get piled on in the college and high school level. So in the college ranks (as we’ve been reminded recently in the hoops game), we’re prone to a plethora of bad calls affecting the outcome of many a college football game. In the end, just like any sport the calls seem to even out, but there have been several instances of egregious mistakes costing a team big-time.
So are there any mistakes we can find that might have cost California a game or two? Nope–you can actually say the refs favored the Golden Bears in a few of our losses–i.e. the DeSean TD catch at ASU where he was probably out of bounds, or his subsquent fumble in the same game that was ruled down when he wasn’t. In fact, Cal’s only significant hosing on this list did not affect the outcome–the Golden Bears triumphed.
Thus, sadly, we cannot point to officiating having any impact on our season collapse. So much for small favors. Let’s get to it.
Cal at Oregon: Field Goal Is Through the Uprights and No Good!
Cal down 10-3, drives much of the field but cannot punch it in the end zone to tie the game. So Jordan Kay attempts a field goal that soars over the upright….but…
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Impact: In the end, there was no tangible impact; Cal won by a TD and the final finish was that much more exciting. So this call did not distort the outcome of the game. But this is the easiest call in the book to review. Nope.
USC at ASU: Unsportsmanlike Form Tackle?
Sedrick Ellis gets tagged for, you know, doing his job–finding a QB trying to pass and introducing him face-first to the turf he stands on.
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Impact: I’m pretty sure the refs could have called unsportsmanlike conduct on every Rudy Carpenter sack and Arizona State would still have lost by double digits. USC flat-out owned them. Impact here is minimal–it’s just to point how out much Pac-10 refs SUCK.
After the jump, calls that will make your eyes bleed.
Seven Years Ago…the ‘Furd Forfeit
Seven years ago (well, on April 7th, but information travels slow), the Stanford rugby team decided to renounce all claims to their manhood. They forfeited a game against Cal because, as the Cardinal coach so eloquently put it, “they feared for their safety”. I do not jest. These emails are for real.
“Stanford has no fear of losing versus Cal, as they have done so every year but one for the last 20 years. They are, however, very afraid to get injured, and indeed, fear for their safety.
“When a featherweight is to fight a heavyweight,” his e-mail continued, “there is no rivalry, it is a farce, just like if a VW Bug was to race against a Formula 1 car. Stanford playing Cal in rugby has reached this farcical stage,
and Stanford rugby wants to be no part of a farce.”
Absolutely right. This would be the equivalent of Division I-AA schools boycotting their slapfights with Divsion I schools. Well, except that Stanford is in the same division and the same conference as their so-called heavyweight. And that they’re rivals who are supposed to play every year until the End Days. There is a word for this. (Hint: Bond’s babe).
Learn more about ScrumAxe 2001 by clicking here; be sure to pay attention to Steve Whyte’s MP3 ode to the nonrugged ruggers from across the Bay.
(All thanks to the Bear Insider for the heads up)
