It's Thursday so we have another round of predictions.  Unfortunately, not too many people care about Cal-Washington State, so we only have Ted Miller's prediction.  Uncle Ted cares.

Ted is confident that even Bad Cal can hang with the Cougs.

California 41, Washington State 28: Honestly, I thought about picking the upset. Cal is on the road, after all, and the Bears are turning to backup quarterback Brock Mansion. But the Cougars have a long injury list. And there's the little matter of the effort last week at Arizona State. 

After the jump Cal could play Boise St this bowl season (seriously), Ernie Owusu earns academic recognition, and Mansion looks forward to his first career start.

Football

• If Cal is eligible for a bowl game, it's not inconceivable that the opponent could be 12-0 Boise State.  Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman details a potential horror story for Californians and Idahoans.
• The Cal-Washington State matchup features two bits in Ted Miller's "What to Watch": Mansion's first start and Washington State's potential upset.
• Washington State is the only BCS team this season to play eleven consecutive weeks.  Approaching the tail of that streak, the Cougs are in need of a week off.
• After Brock saw a limited playbook to get him acclimated to playing in a game environment, he'll see the entire playbook this week.
• Mansion and his coaches are looking forward to his first start of his career this Saturday.
• Ted Miller says Mansion has to get off to a hot start to avoid letting Washington State earn its first conference victory in its past sixteen games.
• Mansion said the OSU game started to slow down after a while and he felt more comfortable in the pocket.  He'll need to continue playing with a level head as Cal heads into its most important stretch of the season.
• Ernest Owusu has been selected to join the Academic All-District 8, which makes him elegible to be an ESPN Academic All-American.
• Cal fan and Counting Crows member Adam Duritz is LostLetterman.com's #1 die-hard celebrity fan.
• Jon Wilner says that Mansion has the opportunity to come out swinging like Riley did in his first career start (OSU '07).  If Mansion performs well, Cal might be able to salvage this season.
• Shane Vereen's stock is falling in Ted Miller's most recent Pac-10 stock report.
• Cal stays at 6th in the Daily Cal's Pac-10 power rankings.