DBD 8.10.09 Is Cal Ranked Properly by the Coaches?

Day 1—Friday
Day 2—Saturday
Day 3—Sunday

Berkelium already put together a fine weekend DBD and gathered the best links.

Day 1

• First day reports from Okanes
• Bears giddy about first day.
• Chronicle reports on Best & Riley.
• John Doss from Cal Sports Digest
• The Daily Cal

Day 2

• Less enthusiastic Day 2, according to Okanes
• Defensive notes from Okanes
• Daily Cal report

Okanes reports on Day 3

Safety Marcus Ezeff, typically soft-spoken and reserved publicly, ripped into his team at the end of practice following an undisclosed incident in which a player or players exhibited "immaturity" off the field. Ezeff would only say that it was "just guys trying to have some fun. Camp can be a grind. It’s just guys being guys. Sometimes you just want to find ways to be a kid. It was nothing bad."

Nonetheless, during post-practice stretching, coach Jeff Tedford talked sternly and generally about showing maturity and behaving properly. When he was done, Ezeff passionately implored his teammates to do the right thing, telling them "we’re trying to win a Pac-10 championship. it’s time to grow up and step up."

"I felt like Coach Tedford was talking to me," Ezeff said. "He was talking to the seniors. He’s still looking for leaders."

Ezeff said he talked a lot this summer with Follett, a close friend who now is in the Detroit Lions camp. Follett shared some wisdom on leadership.

"You have to follow before you lead," Ezeff said. "I’ve followed some great leaders here."

Tedford wouldn’t comment on the situation, saying only that it was a "team thing."

Verran Tucker has fallen behind due to only doing conditioning work this spring. The five guys ahead of him: Jones, Boateng, Lagemann, Calvin, Jeremy Ross.

LINK

Running back Jahvid Best spent a sizable portion of Sunday’s practice stretching on the sideline. Best sustained a mild sprain of his left ankle Saturday, prompting him to miss the last stretch of that practice and then part of Sunday’s session. He also was nursing blisters on his foot.

Best returned to the field for 11-on-11 drills and seemed to move well.

“Everything’s fine,” he said afterward. “I didn’t feel it at all.”

According to the Daily Cal

Senior cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, who returned the majority of punts for the Bears last season, will take on that duty again. Thompson averaged 12.3 yards over 28 returns in 2008 and ran one back 73 yards for a touchdown against Colorado State.

“That’s my thing right there,” he said at Bay Area media day. “Now that I got the opportunity to return punts last year, it just felt good being able to get back there and control the ball again.”

Marvin Jones and tailback Shane Vereen will likely back up Thompson as receiver Sean Young did last year.

Again on the Ezeff thing from the Chronicle.

“We’re kind of a quiet group – we don’t have vocal leaders like we had last year,” Ezeff said. “Every team needs a vocal leader. We need one person who can hit that spot.”

I voted for the first option.

Our meeting next year will be very interesting.

Kiesau spent five years coaching at the University of California under head coach and quarterbacks coach Jeff Tedford. When he was named offensive coordinator at CU in the spring, Kiesau said he sought advice from Tedford, who was eager to help, despite the fact the Bears and Buffs will meet in 2010. Kiesau said he had already learned a lot about coaching and evaluating quarterbacks during his time at Cal as wide receivers coach.

“For five years, I was with the best quarterback coach in the country in Jeff Tedford,” Kiesau said. “I have all his drill tapes and we would analyze quarterbacks together. The technique, the mechanics, even the drops and the reads I learned from him. It’s like learning from Michael Jordan if you’re a basketball player. That guy is the best.”

Kiesau said he is a big believer in one of the core principles of Tedford’s program at Cal. Tedford always encouraged his offensive coaches not to get caught up in beating the defense in practice every day, but focusing instead on perfecting the system they run. Kiesau said that will be his approach running the offense at CU.

Discussion of the Memorial Stadium upgrade (with photos!).

The stadium upgrades illustrated here are all of a piece. The girders help prevent or mitigate stadium collapse in the event of an earthquake. The blowers evacuate smoke in the event of a fire. The Fence will help direct Cal fans to their best course to safety in the event of either. And tunnel reinforcement will improve safety on exit.

Whether these measures will be adequate to the needs of a catastrophe is impossible for a layman to know. But at least it’s clear that the University – and the Athletic Department – are attempting due diligence.

Still time to vote!
Tony Gonzalez 140, Matt Biondi 82 (polling closes tonight at midnight)
Jack Clark 154, Deltha O’Neal 46 (polling closes Tuesday night at midnight)

Polling closes Friday, midnight
Jeff Tedford 182, The Play Players 106
Leon Powe 117, JJ Arrington 108

I expect Tedford will ask Tepper to make his Facebook account private soon. But until then…he is providing comedy gold. I’m not going to link to his account directly, but I found this via BI.

Sunday usually is a day of rest…unfortunately we’re going to get our butts kicked today. God help us.

“Mark [Boskovich I’m assuming], I really don’t give a fuck about about your explanation”… “You wanna know one of my favorite sayings—S.T.F.U.” -Marshall

Yeah…this is going to be private very soon.

Discussing how being an O-lineman is tougher than you might think.

The best way to defend yourself against injury is by fast feet. Our technique as O Lineman, in short, is butt down, feet apart, hands in chest. But those feet never stop moving. They need to move rapidly because in our position the frequency of someone falling into your knees is extremely common.

Not only that but the Offensive Line is mandated to wear our knee braces. My knee braces have definitely, on more than one occasion, saved major injury. There is nothing like a Erik Robertson/ Mebane battle and either one of them tries to plant a foot for leverage not realizing its into your calf or side of the knee. Or how about a Power play where Alex Mack drives the backside D Tackle into the Tackle. Its very common.

LINK

Following its decision to increase student fees and furlough its employees, the University of California agreed last week to borrow money so it can lend the state $200 million.

The state will use the money to continue its state-funded construction projects on eight UC campuses-excluding UC Berkeley-and will repay the loan within three years with 3.2 percent interest.

The UC system decided to lend the money because of the state’s battered credit rating that has hindered its ability to borrow cash, said Tom Dresslar, spokesperson for State Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

“Given our budget difficulties and the problematic access to the bond market, creative thinking was required and these kinds of deals are the result,” Dresslar said.

Without the agreement, the state-funded projects on the UC campuses were in danger of having their permits and contracts expire, which could cost the university more money for renewal and renegotiation, said UC spokesperson Steve Montiel.

“In a lot of cases, the buildings were done,” Montiel said. “But more money was needed to equip the building so they would be usable.”

LINK

On the same July day that the UC Board of Regents cut $813 million from UC budgets – setting in motion pay cuts, layoffs and campus cutbacks – the board quietly approved pay raises, stipends and other benefits for more than two dozen executives.

University officials were quick to characterize the increased pay in a positive light.

“It’s really a story about cost savings,” said Barbara French, a UCSF spokeswoman, adding that three people on her campus who won hefty pay increases took on new duties and deserved to be compensated.

French said they are all filling in for Chief Operating Officer Tomi Ryba, who left in January and was not replaced, hence the savings. She earned $547,600.

But critics – from janitors to physicians, whose salaries have all been slashed – said that people earning between a quarter million and half a million dollars can afford to take on new duties without extra pay. After all, they said, they themselves are now paid less money for more work.

Nice job on all of this Avinash. Rev’d.

1. Note BS, TCU and Utah at 16, 17 and 18. I suspect it is minimum variance outcome (i.e., lots of people put them just inside the top 20, rather than some putting them in top 5 and some not ranking at all) reflecting some measure of respect for the programs. Each of them will have a chance to climb into BCS contention if they run the table, but an early loss could be fatal as conference wins won’t impress much.

2. I think that is good – they have the chance to play their way into a good bowl game, and after the last several years they deserve it. Also, it rewards them for scheduling quality non-conference opponents in the past and they may get a faster rise if they have a big win this year

- Boise State hosts Oregon and Miami
- Utah travels to Oregon
- TCU has the bad luck of scheduling Virginia and Clemson in a year when they are not highly regarding

jh

I ordered mine (young alumni) and it’s still not here :(

time to call up ATO

Here’s a comment posted recently on the video:

The hang-times are inaccurate. Several of them reached 5 seconds but were recorded as 4.24 seconds or whatever. Just time the first punt with a stopwatch…it’s actually 4.69 seconds, not 4.19 seconds, and so on. Just trying to do Anger justice.

Here’s my response:

Can anyone else confirm this? I certainly want to get this right. I’m trusting the timecode in my editing software… and since I don’t mess with the speed of the footage or frame-rate… timecode should equal time. But help me confirm this and let’s get this right.

I don’t have an electronic stop watch… can anyone confirm this? I’m struggling to why the internal timecode in my software would be slightly slower… but it’s starting to seem that way to me. I always felt the hang times were too low, but who was I to question what the computer was saying?

No surprise here: Ted Miller has Cal at #2 in his Pac-10 power rankings.

2. California: The Bears have 17 starters back from a team that went 9-4 in 2009, including a Heisman Trophy candidate in running back Jahvid Best. The secondary will be one of the nation’s best and the defensive line is as good as any in the Pac-10. Replacing three of four linebackers doesn’t seem to be causing much stress in Berkeley. The only issue is how much the passing game improves. If it improves significantly, this is a potential BCS bowl team.

JO talks to the receivers.

“We know the game now,” Cal receiver Jeremy Ross said. “Even Coach Daft is telling us to put a little style in our routes, a little flavor. We can now because we know the game. Out there running routes, we’re able to put our twist on things. We’re out there confident and ready to get after it.”

And just what kind of flavor is Ross adding to his route-running this season?

“You know, a little salt over here, a little pepper over here, a little Cajun seasoning,” he said. “You’ll see all the ingredients on Sept. 5.”

This is a much different group of wide receivers from the one that began training camp in 2008. When the Bears convened last summer, they had a total of 15 career catches. Virtually every receiver was preparing to play his first full season of college football.

With almost the entire receiving corps returning, the unit suddenly is an experienced bunch exhibiting a confidence that was absent most of last year.

“Being that it was our first year, we knew there were going to be some things we’d need to work on,” Ross said. “Last year was basically a year to learn so we could see how to get better this year. Last year, everybody was kind of finding themselves. Now our true swagger is coming out.”

Apparently, the tv show Trauma (whose existence I was unaware of until watching the commercials during yesterday’s preseason game) is filming in the FiDi of SF.

Cal 12, Oregon 13 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings. Who are these people voting for UCLA in the rankings? They managed to come in at 32.

Thorough Rivals review of Day 3.

After three days, a few things have stood out to me: Lagemann cementing his place in the upper-half of the WR rotation; Mansion going toe-to-toe with Riley; and Steve Williams making noise at DB.

Here are other notable lines:

Boise State -5.5 vs Oregon
USC -35 vs San Jose State
Arizona -12 vs Central Michigan
UCLA -18 vs San Diego ST
Stanford -15 vs Wazzu

Oklahoma State -6 vs Georgia
Oklahoma -22.5 vs BYU
Illinois -6.5 vs Missouri
Wake Forest -1 vs Baylor
Alabama -6 vs Virginia Tech
Colorado -10.5 vs CSU
FSU -5 vs Miami (FL)

I’m going thru my emails from the weekend and noticed that on Friday we had two new WR commits. Rather than go thru Friday’s DBD I thought I’d ask if you guys already commented on them?

Davin Dunn from San Diego: http://california.scout.com/a.z?s=166&p=8&c=1&nid=4329832

Josh Harper from Stockton: http://california.scout.com/a.z?s=166&p=8&c=1&nid=3930631

Clearly they’re low on money, since they invited a Furd cheerleader over a Duck.

Here’s Cal’s representative. My favorite among the group is the Zona girl, although UCLA’s isn’t too far behind.

Random question, any CGB’ers golf? Could be fun to start a CGB season kickoff golf outing type thing?

Wilner previewed camp:

"We feel like (Riley) has to step up right now, because his experience on game day in our offense puts him a step ahead,’’ Tedford said Monday.

He added that reps will be split 40-40-20 among Riley, Brock Mansion and Beau Sweeney, which means Sweeney’s getting more chances with the first and second units than third-stringers of the past have received.

Might mean something, might mean nothing.

The guess here is that Riley establishes himself as the clear-cut No. 1 and Tedford ends the competition midway through camp.

If Riley doesn’t pull away, that means one of two things: Either he’s struggling, or Mansion/Sweeney is flourishing.

Better chance it’s the former than the latter … I’m just sayin’.