Action: Cal announces a two-year contract extension for Coach Jeff Tedford (through the 2015 season).
Wilner foreshadows on 2009

Reaction I: The Bears must not have thought it was that big a deal, since they released the news at 8 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Reaction II: The most interesting item, to me, was that the $$$ are coming from the athletic department’s self-generated revenue, not from Cal’s general fund. The Bears were smart to place that nugget prominently in their news release.
Reaction III: The whole thing is pretty much meaningless, in my mind, because if the Bears have the kind of ‘09 season that I expect, either: 1) Tedford will be off to the NFL, or 2) they’ll have to rip up the existing deal and give him a new one.

[emphasis mine]

I find this newsworthy because Wilner doesn’t hesitate to be overly negative towards Cal. And he is an A-1 jackass.

I also like Cal’s chances next year and I like that they’ll probably have a ranked opponent on the road that I think they can beat (minny) and USC at home early. USC’s 2009 schedule pre-Cal:

Sept. 5 San Jose State
Sept. 12 @ Ohio State
Sept. 19 @ Washington
Sept. 26 Washington State
Oct. 3 @ California

I’m hoping Sanchez, Mays, et al leave early giving us relatively inexperienced players at these positions. I think I’m hoping they easily route tOSU and take the crowd out early making that big OOC game not so educational for the inexperienced players. They also have 3 cupcakes so I’m sure they’ll be overcondfident and not ready for zOMG Best.

Recruiting Needs (JO)

This is a bit old but good nonetheless.

1. Wide receiver. The current group could end up being good, but you can never be too sure.

2. Defensive line. The Bears are strong at the top with Tyson Alualu, Cameron Jordan and Derrick Hill. Depth is questionable, however.

3. Kicker. Giorgio Tavecchio was serviceable during the second half of the season, but the Bears would be well-served to bring someone else in to compete with him and David Seawright.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/recruiting-football/cal/amp-adam-hall-talks-schools-43070

sounds like he likes Cal…

The 22-year-old man killed by a BART police officer early New Year’s Day was lying face-down on the train platform, his hands behind him waiting to be cuffed, when he was shot in the back, a lawyer newly hired by the man’s family said Saturday.

That’s why fake cops shouldn’t have guns

can it be funny & harrassment? Let’s be honest…she’d tap that.

Interesting comment over at EMFMV

# 4 Rick Crawford Says:
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
There is an important issue to the conference vs. conference debate. It has to do with getting in the national championship game. Conferences with a championship game have an advantage.

The conference winner always has an extra win vs. a highly ranked opponent. This really helps in the computer rankings and usually helps in the polls.

Futhermore, because the Pac 10 plays a complete round robin, it’s harder for any team to go undefeated. The third strike against the PAC 10 is the lack of respect from the eastern press.

I suggest the PAC 10 become the PAC 12 by adding Utah and BYU and splitting into North and South divisions. The North would be the Washington, Oregon and Utah schools. The South would have the California and Arizona schools.

This could put the PAC 12 on a level conference playing field with the ACC, SEC and Big 12. Then we would not have futile arguments about the strongest conferences.

It this were in place this year, Utah would not be undefeated, and USC would be in the national championship game.

No, I don’t know this guy nor have I talked to him about the Pac-12.

Man, can Wilner ever be positive about Cal? Even when he’s saying something positive he has to slip in something negative. I wonder if Wilner and Ratto get together for drinks and Bears bitch sessions.

What do the Bears have to to get this idiots’ respect? How about being the only major sports team (save the Sharks) with a winning record in the Bay Area? Would that be enough for these tools?

JO…good stuff here:

Hall had an interesting moment when he was asked to make his decision during the live broadcast of the game. While a handful of other players made their college choices during the telecast, Hall simply narrowed his down. He began with five hats — Cal, USC, Alabama, Arizona and Oregon — on the table in front of him. He then removed the USC hat and Alabama hat, indicating he will no longer consider those schools. So it’s down to Cal, Oregon and Arizona.

Hall, who is from Tucson, Arizona, is considered a blue-chip recruit who could play either wide receiver or defensive back in college. Who knows? Maybe he could do both.

is that the cameraman (or someone next to him) is holding a Chucky doll.

Link.

She is of course Erin Andrews and that’s Ray Maualuga, one of the poster childs of Pom Pom’s out of control Southern Cal program. Now if this was a UCLA player doing it to Erin Andrews, all the blowhards in both traditional and new media would be all over Rick Neuheisel and opine about how UCLA players are already losing their “moral compass” under “Slick Rick.” [See Molly Yanity in the Seattle Press-Intelligencer opining, “what Neuheisel didn’t have during his Washington tenure (1999-2002) was a moral compass”.]

In this case if somehow this clip made it to ABC broadcast, Brett Musberger would be gushing about “Ray Ray’s good humor” and Herbie would waxing poetic about how “Pete Carroll’s Trojans just love to have fun”

Am I missing anything else?

GO BRUINS.

Nice punt return.

Minny’s punt coverage is turrrible.

McNabb didn’t do much with it though.

He’s done well in his playoff debut.

Go Eagles! Take out the last Manning brother next week.

at the Under Armour Game. Just announced a few min. ago. Top center, Jersey guy, solid academically. Very big pickup with the loss of Mack.

Former Sacramento Kings head coach Eric Musselman has a blog.

In it, he analyzed the Cal-Arizona game on Thursday

I hope that we get to see tons of BCS controversy this year. There’s already enough with USC’s demolition of Penn State and Undefeated Utah’s perfect season capped off by dominating Alabama.

Evidently after denying that he was considering or interested in the job for weeks, a reporter caught him in the same hotel where Sarkisian is living right now.

Arizona State only fell two spots, too.

Peter King is soooo inane…

b. Thomas DeCoud … Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. You’ve been a standout special-teamer all season, and now, on a huge punt-cover play in the third quarter of a tight game in the biggest game of the year, you smash into the return man a full second before the ball gets to him. Talk about handing a free 10 yards to your foe.

…

f. Peter King Word Of The Week: Supercilious. Like DeSean Jackson was on his final punt return in Minnesota Sunday. Did you see that? He ran out of bounds like the thing wasn’t important, like he didn’t care. Weird.

Yeah Peter, or maybe the Eagles had a 9 point lead with 3 minutes left and he didn’t want to do anything stupid like fumble the ball.

Cal’s class is now ranked 28th in the Rivals recruiting class rankings… and we can only go up, really:

http://rivals100.rivals.com/teamrank.asp?Year=2009&Page=2&PosType=0&Sort=0

LINK.

As far as BCS games go, only ABC’s airing of the Rose Bowl (12.6) has gained over last year, but the 2008 “Grandaddy of Them All” clocked in as third worst game since the Rose Bowl joined in the BCS. The Sugar Bowl only received an 8.5, and the Orange Bowl had it’s worst ratings ever with a pathetic 6.1, passing 2007’s matchup between Wake Forest and Louisville that came in just under 7.0.

With all of these ratings coming in lower and each year, you have to think about how many people would have watched the Orange Bowl if it was in fact a Playoff Game, and not just a crappy BCS matchup. The answer is obviously more, but for some reason, College Football and the BCS still have the wool pulled over their eyes when it comes to this topic.

To be fair, ESPN’s ratings have never been higher for its bowl showcases. But it’s clear that when it comes to the premiere games between the top teams in the land, the BCS has been a dud. Texas-Ohio State and Florida-Oklahoma will have good ratings, but they’d probably be much higher in a playoff format.

here:

"All day. Welcome to the Party Baby!!"
– Email Sunday from Warren Sapp, noting the big-time performances of his fellow Miami alums (Lewis, Reed, McGahee) at Dolphin Stadium

"Bitach Pls!!"
– Follow-up email from Sapp after I reminded him of whose school has post-Emerald Bowl bragging rights

Though the press conference was delayed to a not-yet-determined time/date, USC DC Holt is officially going to U-Dub.

JO begins his year-end reviews by looking at Cal’s quarterback play.

Where that leaves Cal is — well — where it started. The Bears enter the offseason without a No. 1 quarterback — just like last season. Riley will battle Brock Mansion for the controls of the offense. Of course, Riley will have an edge in experience, but with experience also comes a bigger sample size. For all the excitement Riley generated with his performance in last year’s Armed Forces Bowl, perhaps some lost sight of the fact that it was just the second game he had ever played extensively in.

Mansion is talented. He came to Cal with some major accolades — just like Longshore and Riley. How he has developed during his two years in the program is hard to say. He spent the first year on scout team, where he looked excellent. As the third-stringer last season, he rarely got reps in practice, so it’s more difficult to get an accurate measuring stick.

Let’s not complete this analysis without mentioning that of course some of the inconsistency at quarterback wasn’t wholly the fault of the player. The Bears had an incredibly green group of receivers and their offensive line was beat up (never was that more apparent in the Oregon State game, where it’s hard to remember a single pass play in which Riley wasn’t under pressure).

Spring practice will be compelling. We will get to see much more of Mansion and see how he stacks up against Riley. And Riley will have had a few months to digest the past season, figure out what happened during the down times, and start fresh. Riley’s confidence could use a boost, too. By the end of the season, he certainly didn’t seem to be the confident — almost brash — quarterback he was when he had his chances last year.

2008 QUARTERBACK GRADE: C-