I am thankful for always-inappropriate, yet hilarious sense of humor, Twist. And also bacon-wrapped turduckens.

A history of seasons where our final opponent is not Stanford:

It seems odd to have the Bears wrap up the regular season against an opponent not named Stanford. But that’s what Cal will do Dec. 6 when Washington visits Memorial Stadium

The game originally was scheduled for Oct. 11, but the teams agreed to move it to the end of the season because each would have had nine consecutive contests without a bye week.

It was a decision made in the name of practicality, not history.

“I think it’s fitting to end your season (against your rival), but unfortunately in this particular case, we couldn’t do that,” Huskies coach Tyrone Willingham said.

Since 1946, Cal has ended the regular season against an opponent other than Stanford only five times, and the past two weren’t originally scheduled that way. In 2004, the Bears had to reschedule a visit to Southern Mississippi after a hurricane wiped out the original date. In 2001, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 forced Cal and Rutgers to move their game back to the end of the season.

Happy thanksgiving!

If you stop mocking the shit out of the Maharg, the terrorists will have won.

JShufelt
TwistNHook
dvieria
butthol
The Maharg
carp
TwistNHook’s anti-semitism
(lawyers)
Stegosauras
Jacquizz Rodgers
Mike Riley
Mike Riley’s son, Kevin
Nick Saban, Mike Stoops, Bobby Petrino, RRod —without them, there would be no hate
and last but not least
Stegosauras

Since the pandering was directed at Erin Andrews, I’m not too angry.

video here of his TD

… My parents and my brother
My friends
This blog for keeping me sane (and laughing) when needed
Recent positive developments in my life
Getting awesome deals on amazon.com for games/blu-ray today
Just about everything

This is weird. Williams left the UC Office for a higher ranking position at Cal and she still gets a severance package. Also, if they made the payout $201 dollars lower they wouldn’t have had to make it publicly. I hope new President Yudof straightens out the bull. I believe they have to replace Chanceller Vanderhoef at UCD and Chancellor Bishop at UCSF, the latter of which will be very tough as Bishop helped turn UCSF into a mega research center AND one of the nations best hospitals. Oh, and he also won a Nobel Prize.

The University of California’s governing Board of Regents, struggling last week to avert drastic state budget cuts and forestall tuition increases, approved a $100,202 severance package for Linda Williams, a close aide to former UC President Robert Dynes and a figure in the university’s 2005 salary scandal.

Her payout was granted last Thursday – one day after the regents spent hours discussing and decrying Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal for $65.5 million in midyear UC budget cuts.

“This is an outrage,” said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, a frequent critic of the university’s executive pay practices. "I will call on the UC regents to return that money. This is the public’s money.

I am not thankful that I’m at work right now.

I am, however, thankful that I have a job.

One of my friends writes an incredibly long recap of her ordeal stuck in the Taj Hotel over night.

It’s very interesting. Here’s an interesting excerpt:

It was probably about 3am when we gathered at the service door and were asked to be silent. It was a crush as everyone wanted to be the first to get out, but it was orderly and people didn’t panic. People were talking in whispers and there was much shushing for anyone who raised their voice. Two of my friends and I were probably in the fourth or fifth bunch of people to be evacuated. About 10 of us were led into a narrow corridor. A large group of people still waiting inside were pressed close to the door. An armed guard was present, as well as some other cops. But as soon as we went into the corridor, they moved away to clear another part of the hotel.

That was when it got chaotic. In the narrow, snaking corridor, where two people couldn’t walk comfortably side by side, we were fired at. We couldn’t tell where exactly the shots were from, but they were alarmingly close. We turned and ran back inside, keeping our heads down. There was almost a stampede-like situation, before the group pressed to the door behind us realized what was happening and moved back. People tripped and fell, but were pulled up and we ran back inside. We had no idea what happened to the rest who had been evacuated earlier. We ran to the larger room at the Chambers and sunk into chairs. After about half an hour, without any word from outside, we heard volleys of gunfire back and forth, from the corridor outside. Everyone flattened themselves on the ground, with their hands over their heads. We were snaked around the furniture and the floor was a tangle of bodies and limbs, each trying to make space for themselves, while doing the same for their companions on the ground. The lights were soon switched off and everyone was silent. We stayed that way till morning, with gunfire going back and forth, and even what sounded like grenade blasts coming from the corridor, probably just 30 feet from us. Soon those crisp sheets were being torn up to stanch wounds—a man had been shot in the arm and a woman had injured her leg. The dawn broke through the stained glass windows that led to the terrace. But still no word from anyone. We heard via cellphones, that the rest of the building had been evacuated.

Another friend of mine has blogged about his experience being stuck in a local cafe overnight. He was slightly luckier than the friend above, insomuch as he was never shot at. It’s long, too. Here is an interesting excerpt:

It very well could have been as those words were coming out of our mouths, that about 100 yards away from where we sat, terrorists were landing their boats at the Gateway of India monument and fanning out to storm the Taj Hotel, directly around the corner from where we sat, Leopold’s cafe, also less than a block away, and where I had stood as prominent as could be only maybe half-an-hour previous. At the same time terrorists were fanning out to CST station to spray and kill members of the always crowded station with AK-47s and hand grenades. Later my heart would sink, as I would see pictures on the internet of pools of blood on the platform where I had crossed to catch a train only a week before. Other terrorists were storming the Oberoi-Trident hotel where two nights before I had attended a panel discussion on the current state of the Indian art market. And there we sat oblivious, eating our cheese and drinking our wine, spreading delicious butter on delicious morsels of bread.



Then the first reports started coming through. As luck would have it, while Indigo was usually relied on for its easy Wi-Fi access, and was known as a good place to come and surf and sip coffee, tonight it’s internet happened to be down. All our news would come from text messgaes and cell phone calls.

The first thing we heard was that there was gunfire in the street. Close by, near the Taj. Somebody said it was some kind of gang warfare dispute. People weren’t concerned. I wasn’t concerned. No one was concerned. Sure it was bad to have shooting in the street, but crazy shit happened sometimes. Especially in Colaba. Mumbai had seen much worse. It would pass soon. We continued snacking, lighthearded comments without too much concern, “jeez, I hope its not serious.” I imagined some idiots shooting at each other, maybe some isolated thugs that had beef with each other, nothing that was going to get out of hand.

People were coming and going to the restaurant without much concern. We were about ready to head back across the street to Henry Tham’s but thought we’d just hang for a minute to see if any other details of these shootings unfolded. Maybe it wasn’t so wise to step out yet with bullets whizzing by. Then reports slowly but steadily started to ratchet up. First it was a report about a blast at CST station. A blast at CST station? What the hell was going on? That is strange. Apparently not that serious though. Some small group of nuts with hand grenades.



People continued to leave the restaurant as they pleased.



At some point talk started coming in about terrorists, about shootings at Leopold’s, a police car hijacked, opening fire on the streets, hostages taken at the Oberoi and the Taj, people gunned down indiscriminately at the metro theatre, targeting of UK and US passport holders. Bombs at Santa Cruz, bombs at Ville Parle. It was funny how it leaked in bit by bit, sometimes over-exagerated, sometimes under, and bit by bit the realization of how serious things were getting started to unfold. And bit by bit the restaurant started not letting people out so easily. Around midnight it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere. When I looked up at the huge window next to the booth I was in and saw that it was suddenly blocked by a huge steel curtain along with every other window and door in the restaurant my body got a little cold. But I’ll admit, I was a little excited, its kind of embarrasing now, to have that feeling, to realize what was happening right outside, lives being ended, families devastated, but at the moment I was excited by the prospect of having to deal with some serious shit.

Then they cut the lights, somebody realized that if they were targeting affluent places full of foreigners we might want to lay low, seem like nobodies home. They bolted all the doors, front, back, side, whatever, and most of us retreated to the upper level of the restaurant, away from windows and doors that could be fired at with bombs or guns. From the top level we could actually see over the steel curtains through the small windows at the top of the front wall of the restaurant. Huge firetrucks went by, police went by, those news cars with the huge sattelite things on top went by, I got just a little excited, thinking about what I would do if someone tried to storm the place, or what I would do if a bomb went off in front of the place. But for some reason I knew we were safe. I knew that there wouldn’t be a full scale attack, I knew that the attacks were spread out to maximize fear but the efforts of storming places had already been decided and contained. Sure the place contained was right next-door, but it was contained

I’ve heard from some sources that a few NorCal recruits are longshots to qualify academically. This is unfortunate because Nathan Mayfield, Jabari Carr, and Bernard Bolden were all high on Cal but may not be able to come in… You can look them up on Rivals

Cal is dominating UNLV in Vegas. Only 8 of 30 shooting by the Rebs.

Craft goes down WELL inside the end zone, refs spot it on the 6 inch line. RIDICULOUS!

is fucking ugly… these teams are just shitty

on that fumble….to a deaf player. Wowie wow wow

It’d be fun if UCLA won its final two games. It’d also be fun if ASU won its final two games. Each of them are imminently winnable.

Two TDs on pick sixes. Sounds about right for these awful teams.

I miss last year, when every day was guaranteed a fairly entertaining game.

The most entertaining games this season have been in the MAC. The freaking MAC.

It looks like the Mumbai incident has reached its end. The last two gunmen in the Taj hotel were killed.

A little tangent:

Although getting Kennard would be HUGE this year… we MUST get Chris Martin of Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland. He’ll be a 5-star OLB for 2010 who makes me think that when Gregory insisted the change to 3-4 would stay for recruiting, he was talking directly to this dude. He’s an absolute monster in Cal’s backyard! AND perfect for the current system,,,

Yep, that pretty much sums up Craft’s year.

There have been three touchdowns, and they’ve all been on turnovers. A battle to the bottom!

Craft is making ASU’s defense look good!

This is absolutely ridiculous.

UCLA offense 0, ASU offense 0
UCLA special teams 9, ASU special teams 6
UCLA defense 0, ASU defense 28

Woooooo Baby Bears!

Arizona is going to crush ASU nxt week. Its going to be bad. And only 5 Pac10 teams wll make the bowls. Oh well. Lets just focus on whats important, Oooooooooooooo Esssssssssssss Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Go Beavs!

cal football academics

On Cal’s defense

Lets get some more links in here.

Article on loss to FSU:

LAS VEGAS — Cal’s basketball team won the final 2 minutes against Florida State on Saturday night in the championship game of the Global Sports Classic.

By then, it didn’t matter.

The Golden Bears scored 20 points in the final 1:39, slashing a 13-point deficit down to two before the Seminoles escaped with an 80-77 victory.

First-year Cal coach Mike Montgomery, whose squad lost for the first time after five victories, said the furious finish can’t disguise what happened over the first 38-plus minutes.

“They really physically handled us,” he said. “They got us back on our heels, and we just didn’t respond very well. Early on, we just didn’t have much cookin’.”

The night after Cal overcame a Thomas and Mack Center crowd of 13,380 fans to thump Nevada-Las Vegas 73-55, there was no big crowd on hand for the title game. Only a big opponent.

Florida State (7-0) was by far the biggest team Cal has faced this season. With five players ranging from 6-foot-9 to 7-1 rotating in and out, the Seminoles cooled the Bears’ red-hot shooting.

Womens b-ball continues to chug along:

Ashley Walker scored 20 of her 32 points in the first half to help No. 3 California rout Iowa 76-43 on Saturday night and win the Reef Division at the Paradise Jam tournament at St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Alexis Gray-Lawson added 10 points, including the 1,000th of her career on a layup just before the half.

“I am excited,” Gray-Lawson said of her milestone. “Ashley and Dev (Hampton) both got to score theirs at home, so it’s weird to be doing it here. I was hoping to do it at home, but I’m really excited. It’s great.”

Cal (6-0) is off to its best start; the 1981-82 team won its first five games.

Trailing 8-2, Cal went on a 24-2 run to take a commanding 26-10 lead.

After the fourth 30-point game of career and matching her career high, Walker was named tournament MVP.

Article on men’s team win over UNLV:

LAS VEGAS — It wasn’t a comfortable stretch for the Cal basketball team, but first-year coach Mike Montgomery almost welcomed the chance to see how his Golden Bears would react.

The Bears had scored just one field goal in more than 91/2 minutes, their 20-point lead over Nevada-Las Vegas reduced to nine. The Thomas & Mack Center faithful were getting crazy as the game entered its final 5 minutes.

“It got a little dicey,” Montgomery said. “The crowd got into it and they got it down to nine, and we made a couple plays. That was something I was looking to see if we would be able to do. And we did.”

The Bears scored on their next eight possessions, rebuilt the lead and cruised home with an impressive 73-55 victory over the Runnin’ Rebels to remain undefeated in five games.

A seven-point favorite, UNLV (5-1) lost at home for the first time in 20 games and just the fourth time in 46 outings on its own floor since the start of the 2006-07 season.

Not a lot of good news in post-season tourneys for Cal sports.

Soccer’s season ends:

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Sophomore Andrew Wiedeman scored for the No. 9 California men’s soccer team, but the Golden Bears fell to No. 3 Maryland, 2-1, in the third round of the NCAA College Cup on Saturday afternoon in College Park, Md. Cal’s season ends with a final record of 12-4-5.

Maryland (20-3) got on the scoreboard in the 19th minute of the contest. Omar Gonzalez found the back of the net with a header off of a corner kick. Shortly after halftime, the Terrapins notched their second goal off of a deflection.

The second Maryland score woke the Bears up, as they started putting on the offensive pressure. Wiedeman scored in the 68th minute to cut the deficit to one. Junior Jacob Wilson fed Wiedeman with a pass that he was able to flick over the goalkeeper. Wiedeman finished the 2008 season with 29 points (12G, 5A). He also ended the year recording at least a point in the final six games.

Mens water polo falls to UCLA:

The No. 3 ranked Cal men’s water polo team, the fifth seed in the MPSF Tournament, fell to 18-8 with a 12-11 loss to No. 5 UCLA, the fourth seed, in a MPSF quarterfinal match, Friday, November 28th at the Raleigh Runnels Aquatic Center in Malibu. Against UCLA, Cal was led by freshman Ivan Rackov and Luka Saponjic who led the Bears with two goals each.

UCLA struck first in the match with a goal by Scott Davidson at 5:39 in the opening period. Just over a minute later, freshman Ivan Rackov tied the match at 1-1. UCLA scored on its next two possessions to take a 3-1 lead. The Bears closed the gap to 3-2, on a goal by Charlie Steffens with 1:04 to play in the period. Ben Hohl answered on the Bruins next possession to extend the lead to 4-2. Sophomore Brian Dudley closed out the scoring for Cal in the first period with a goal with 0:04 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 4-3.

And UC Irvine:

The No. 3 ranked Cal men’s water polo team, the fifth seed in the MPSF Tournament, fell to 18-9 with a 13-12 sudden-death overtime loss to UC Irvine, the eighth seed, in a MPSF consolation semifinal match, Saturday, November 29th at the Raleigh Runnels Aquatic Center in Malibu. Against UC Irvine, Cal was led by sophomore Brian Dudley with three goals.

UC Irvine’s Brandon Johnson converted a penalty shot in sudden-death overtime to the Anteaters past the Golden Bears.

The Anteaters led 7-5 at halftime, breaking a 5-5 tie late in the second quarter on goals by James Frank (1:51) and Jesse Hatch (:49). Cal took a 9-8 lead after three quarters as Mike Sample (2:57) and Cory Nasoff (1:52) scored to overcome an 8-7 UCI lead.

Volleyball loses to Oregon:

EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 7-ranked California volleyball team (23-6, 13-5 Pac-10) absorbed its sixth loss of the season today as it fell, 3-1 (25-20, 25-27, 25-17, 26-24) to No. 8 Oregon (23-8, 11-7 Pac-10) at McArthur Court in Eugene, Ore. With a 23-6 overall record, the Golden Bears are poised to receive their school-record seventh consecutive bid to the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championships.

Junior outside hitter Hana Cutura paced Cal with 19 kills (9e, 54att, .185) while junior libero Kristen Kathan set a new career mark by posting 31 digs to lead all players. The last member of the junior class, middle hitter Mindi Wiley trailed Cutura by posting 13 kills with just one error on 21 attempts to put up a .571 attack rate. She also led all players by matching her career high in blocks with eight. Oregon was led by outside hitter Gorana Maricic, who had 20 kills and attacked at a .304 rate (6e, 46att) while adding five blocks (2 solo).

Down big in the fourth set, Cal made another gritty comeback and fought off one match point, but eventually fell 26-24. The Bears were forced into nine errors on 44 fourth-set attacks (15k) and attacked at a .136 rate. The Ducks managed just 11 kills with six errors (38att) and attacked at a .132 rate but capitalized on all of Cal’s errors to walk away with the victory.

PS Marshawn! On! My! TV!