Maryland Roundtable

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As it is late July early August, we start the long, inexorable march to greatness, to the Cal football season.  Hopes are high that this year could be a special year.  And this year, we start the season with a revenge game.  Revenge against Maryland crushing us last year.  Revenge against Maryland beating us in the March Madness, too!  They've already won the best of 3 series, but let's just make sure it's not a clean sweep!


TwistNHook:  If we lose to them this time, it'll suck a lot.  Just 51 weeks earlier, they would have been a random ACC team nobody cared much about.  And now, they would have beaten us 3 times in that span!  Ai!

So, please, let's ensure that every Cal player gets a good night's rest and that the weather, it ain't too bad. 

Avinash: We're going to destroy them.

Next roundtable.

Yellow Fever:  Now that Darrius Heyward-Bey is gone, I can't name anyone on the Terps.  Unless that Chris Turner guy is still around.

Avinash:  Yeah he's a senior this year. I think surfer dude is still going to be trying to throw his patented 20 yard crossing patterns on 3rd and 17. Hopefully this time we're able to, you know, stop them from being completed.

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Anyone figure out who he looks like? He's like Biff Tannen meets Bill Walton.

Yellow Fever:  He looks like a Mr. Potato Head gone awry.

TwistNHook:  He looks like the most street Bratz doll ever.

Look, our #1 concern here is their running back, Da'Rel Scott.  He was all-ACC last year and I remember him slicing through our D last year.  They might have lost Bey, but they still have this powerful weapon at their disposal.  So, hopefully our run D will be up to speed by the first game, because they might focus more heavily upon the run with a weakened passing attack.  Note they didn't just lose Bey, but also another great WR Danny Oquendo.  So, they will lean on their running attack.

Of course, we lost the heart of our run D to the NFL last year, so this could be an interesting matchup.  Can the new LBs gel together to stop this all-ACC running back.  That's one of the first questions of the year right there.  What do you guys think about it?

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Yellow Fever:  ACC offenses suck.  Of course our LBs can do it.

TwistNHook:  I love your optimism! 

Avinash:  Honestly, we lost to Maryland for two reasons: humidity and (less so) time adjustment. No one was really right for the first two hours of that game. Our Circadian rhythms might have been all off.

From Wikipedia:

When traveling across a number of time zones, the body clock will be out of synchronisation with the destination time, as it experiences daylight and darkness contrary to the rhythms to which it has grown accustomed: the body's natural pattern is upset, as the rhythms that dictate times for eating, sleeping, hormone regulation and body temperature variations no longer correspond to the environment nor to each other in some cases. To the degree that the body cannot immediately realign these rhythms, it is jet lagged.

The speed at which the body adjusts to the new schedule depends on the individual; some people may require several days to adjust to a new time zone, while others experience little disruption. Crossing one or two time zones does not typically cause jet lag.

The condition is not linked to the length of flight, but to the transmeridian (east-west) distance traveled. A ten-hour flight from Europe to southern Africa does not cause jet lag, as travel is primarily north-south. A five hour flight from the west to the east coast of the United States may well result in jet lag.

On a neutral field with probably an extra night to prepare (Thursday afternoon/night flights usually work better since you still only have to be in the hotel one day), we win that game 65-70% all the time (and we came back to within a touchdown with 2 minutes left when we did regain our bearings). A rare Tedford mistake to not schedule the flight better.

Maryland is less talented this year, and we're at home, and they'll be adjusting to the jet lag (less prominent as going east, but still bad), so we shouldn't fret too much.

TwistNHook:  That is an unacceptable excuse to me.  Cal lost, because it failed to execute in a variety of different facets on the field.  No amount of blaming time zones or weather will explain the lack of execution, plain and simple.

HydroTech:  Frankly, I know nothing about Maryland.  Time to go pick up my copy of Phil Steele's magazine! 

Yellow Fever:  Or your copy of Football Outsiders Almanac 2009!

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HydroTech:  How could I forget?!  Declare me Sanchez!  I owe you two kegs now!

Sorry, I had too much sugar this morning.  Will try to tone it down now.

TwistNHook:  I, for one, welcome our new HydroTech overlords. 

Avinash:  So Maryland will have to travel west and play a game at about 10 PM EST. Will this have the same effect as travelling east and playing at 9 AM PST? I somehow doubt it. This East/West Coast thing always favors the team travelling to the right side of the country.

Do you guys think we should schedule games like this only if the times are favorable to us when travelling east?

TwistNHook:  Interestingly, I just read that they've named a coach in waiting at Maryland.  That seems to be the chic thing these days.  Coach in waiting.  It seems to create some complications in my mind.  Creates conflict between the current coach and the next coach.  I guess Oregon tried to sidestep that by basically making Chip Kelly coach right now. But with Maryland, they are apparently gonna do it in 2012. 

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I get the positives, which is keeping a key assistant (make Tosh Lupoi coach in waiting for 2025 RIGHT NOW!), but 2012 is SO far away that it sort of defeats that purpose.  That is a LONG committment for Maryland to make.  And it's a long period of time where the coach in waiting could be thinking "if I sink Freidgen, I can scoot in earlier."  I mean maybe that's extreme, but it's basically like saying to the asst "You will be coach in 2012 or earlier if we wanna get rid of Freidgen."  That gives an odd power to the asst over Freidgen.  I dunno.  What are your guys thoughts??????????

Regarding the score, I think we can handle this one.  I say we win 28-17. 

HydroTech:  I say we mess them up bad.  Real bad Michael Jackson.  Like 41-17.  We're going to lull them into a trance by showing them the beautiful Bay Area, and the nice fall East Bay weather.  Then we're going to punch them in the mouth like we're mad.  Real mad Joe Jackson.