Where I Came From: My All-Time Favorite Cal Team
by norcalnick on Jul 6, 2010 12:00 PM PDT
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We Cal fans are blessed to have so many choices for 'All-Time Favorite Team.' I remember that undefeat . . . wait, that hasn't happened in my lifetime. There's that team that won the confer . . . hold on, that doesn't work. What about the year that Cal earned their first ever BCS appear...OK, that doesn't work either. Let's face it - in my 25 years of life, Cal has only had 11 winning seasons - 8 of which have come in the last 8 years under Tedford.
So I'm guessing we'll be getting lots of comments in support of 2004 and 2006. Two teams filled with great players who were competing for the Pac-10 and BCS bids from September to November. Both reasonable, excellent choices. CGB may have even ran multi-part series comparing, contrasting, and arguing the merits of each campaign, before reaching a verdict (apparently I'm a member of the CGB Supreme Court?) But I'm going to talk about a different year. A year with few expectations. A year that began with many questions and ended with pleasant answers. That year was 2003.
"What's that?" you say. "2003? The year that saw Cal lose 6 games? A year with horrible, painful losses to Colorado St., UCLA, and Oregon? How could that possibly be anybody's favorite team?" Well, the fact that I was a freshman that year may add some bias to my opinion. I had been a Cal fan for many years prior, but this was the first time I was able to attend a full home slate of games, and my first exposure to the passion of the student section. But 2003 had so many more things going for it. Consider:
-Cal was expected to regress from their 2002 7-5 campaign. Jeff Tedford, hallowed by his name, had revived a struggling group, but the core of the 2002 team had graduated. Names like Kyle Boller, Joe Igber, Nnamdi Asomugha, Jemeel Powell and Tully Banta-Cain were all gone, amongst other important contributors. Cal's 1-3 start, in view of that kind of roster turnover, isn't surprising. And not that you needed reminding, but Cal was just two years removed from going 1-10. Cal dropped early heart breakers against Colorado St. and Utah - two games in which the Bears lost 4th quarter leads. But that experience would prove invaluable later down the line.
-2003 was thrilling because you could see the core of a powerhouse football team coming together. J.J. Arrington flashed his potential in a backup role and posted and impressive 5.7 yards per carry. Ryan Gutierrez, Wendell Hunter and Matt Giordano grew into their roles as linebackers and gave Cal fans a preview of what would be a dominating defense. Daymeion/Dante Hughes and Tim Mixon combined for perhaps the best cornerback pairing of the Tedford era. And some dude from Chico named Aaron Rodgers gradually grew into an elite QB.
All of these players had to mesh into a unit, and their were growing pains. Cal dropped tough, tough losses to solid teams. An Alamar special vs. UCLA. The infamous black-out game vs. Oregon. But this Cal team didn't give in, didn't let the season spiral away. Their goal - to play in Cal's first bowl game in over a decade - would not be denied.
-Cal's stretch run was a sight to behold. After the loss to UCLA, Cal was sitting with a 3-5 record and could only lose once more to earn a bowl bid. Cal proceeded to completely destroy Arizona, Arizona St., Washington and Stanford to earn that bid. Aaron Rodgers and Adimchinobe Echemandu took control and Cal scored 42, 51, 54, and 28 points in those four wins while the Bear defense didn't allow more than 23 points to any opponent.
-2003 contained two of the most important wins of the Tedford era. The 34-31, 3OT win over USC and 52-49 Insight Bowl victory over Virginia Tech launch Cal from a feel-good recovery story into a legit national player. Beating USC meant that Cal could conceivably beat any team in the country. Beating the Hokies confirmed that idea, and also launched Cal's 2004 campaign. Of course, both games were thrilling, entertaining games in their own right. But their importance to the program really push them over the top.
I'm guessing he'll be pretty good next year via graphics.fansonly.com
And that's why I love 2003. There are few things I enjoy more as a fan than seeing talent gradually turning into production - into wins. 2003 had that in spades. There are probably other reasons - the gumption of Vinny Strang, the yeoman work of Reggie Robertson, and the leadership and intensity of James Bethea, to name just a few. 2003 left Cal fans with the sense that anything could be possible in the future. 2002 wasn't a fluke. Cal was oozing talent from every position, and the future was bright.
So what was your favorite team, Cal fans? Bonus points for non-Tedford era answers!
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2008
This was also an under the radar year, but it was my first year with season tickets, and we won every home game( as usual on an even year.) We had Jahvids most explosive year with the unstoppable Will T. at fullback. Alex Mack owning every D-lineman and Zack “pain train” Follet leading one of the most impressive defenses in the nation. We regained the axe and had thrillers against Michigan state and Oregon. At the end of the year we closed it out with a 8th home game win against an up and coming Miami team, where Jahvid and Zack shined on the national stage, something they hope to repeat in Detroit.
All in all I was more pleased than most with this team, with out a doubt my favorite group of players since Ive been a Cal fan(’03). Oh and it was the season that I found CGB, so that helps as well.
In communist Russia, Sanchez declares YOU!
by HOUSE66 on Jul 6, 2010 12:12 PM PDT via mobile reply actions
Ditto on '08
It was my last year in school, so I was really absorbing the atmosphere in Memorial Stadium and everything that was Cal football. Winning every home game made those game days even more special. There were so many great memories, like Rudy Carpenter getting “pain trained” or the emergence of Shane Vereen during the MSU game. It featured my favorite player, Jahvid, torching furd, UW, and Miami as a nice send off present at the end of the season.
Also
Reclaiming the Axe taught me, and I’m sure many of the younger fans from the Tedford era, never to take any Big Game victory for granted.
Some (many? most? all?) of us Cal alumni who came of age during the late 1980s/1990s don’t know what it means to take the Axe “for granted.” Since we almost never saw it back then, we cherish every moment we have it now.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
2004
For me, the choice is clear, for the reasons I stated as one of the attorneys of record in the 2004 vs. 2006 case.
The unfortunate ending to the season notwithstanding, the 2004 team remains the best Cal team I have ever seen. And up until the mother of all BCS screw jobs, I enjoyed that season like no other before or since.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
1991
Mike Pawalwski at QB, Russell White at RB; Todd Steussie, Eric Mahlum, and Troy Auzenne on the OL; Brian Treggs, Mike Caldwell, and Sean Dawkins at WR. A simply scintillating group not matched until the 2004 team.
There’s also the 1975 team led by Joe Roth at QB, Chuck Muncie at RB, and Wesley Walker and Steve Rivera at WR, but that’s another group for another poster, or another day.
The 1991 team was special even though they did not win the Pac-10 title, they did not earn a major bowl berth (unless you count the Citrus Bowl as a major bowl berth), and they lost the Big Game.
What did they do? Started off by pulverizing UoP, 86-24. Then kicking Purdue’s tail. Followed by heart-stopping last-minute wins against Arizona and UCLA on the road, and returning home to eviscerate Oregon, 45-7.
The next game was against UW, in a nearly sold-out Memorial Stadium in front of a national TV audience on ABC. UW went on to become co-national champions with Miami that year. But they had to survive the game against Cal, a 24-17 game that Washington sealed only after Pawlawski’s pass to Treggs fell incomplete at the goal line on the last play of the game. It was an electric atmosphere and the only time in recent (?) memory when the entire stadium rose up as one and gave a standing ovation to both teams as they exited the field.
Only Cal came as close as 7 points to tying Washington in 1991; no other school came any closer than 11 (USC succumbed 14-3 to the Huskies in LA) and most of UW’s opponents lost by at least 35 points.
The butt-kickings resumed the following week with a 41-20 whipping of San Jose State, followed by a 52-30 drubbing of USC that wasn’t even that close (it was 52-16 early in the 4th quarter).
Cal won a closer-than-it-should-have-been game against OSU, 27-14 in Corvallis, then stymied ASU 25-6 in Berkeley.
The Big Game was deeply disappointing. Stanf*rd’s Tommy Vardell ran all over Cal and the ‘Furddies posted a 38-21 win. This loss epitomized the arrogance of this particular Cal team, in that Cal accumulated 15 personal foul penalties (that’s not a typo) for 225 yards in penalties. It was, to say the least, deeply upsetting to so many Old Blues who expected Cal to simply pound Stanf*rd. And Cal should have done just that, except the team couldn’t maintain their composure at critical points. Ugh.
The 1992 Citrus Bowl win over Clemson, though, was the salve for the Big Game burn. Brian Treggs returned a punt something like 75 yards for a TD, and Russell White ran over and through the Tiger defense for big yards while Mike Pawlawski carved up the Clemson secondary for a 37-13 win. It was the next best thing to playing in the Rose Bowl and would have to do since the Golden Bears endured two Pac-10 losses.
There should have been bigger things in store for Cal, but Bob Bockrath essentially ran off Bruce Snyder to ASU and hired Keith “I never met a donut I didn’t like” Gilbertson. Thank Gawd for Robert Berdahl and Steve Gladstone. Without them, there would probably not have been Jeff Tedford at Cal.
by FiatSlug on Jul 6, 2010 1:07 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
I was a senior at Cal for that 1991 team
That was a glorious season. The buzz around campus was amazing. In my previous three years at Cal, I had not seen the campus get so excited about the football team. And since I was doing so much work for KALX that year, I got to cover the team quite a bit on the road and in the weekly media lunches. Two road games I covered stand out — the back to back games early in the season when won at Arizona (23-21) and at Ucla (27-24) on game winning FGs by Doug Brien. I had a blast that season.
Fond memories notwithstanding, 2004 > 1991 in my view. As enjoyable as 1991 was, the 2004 team is my favorite. Both teams gave me swagger to love and remember — but the 2004 team gave me swagger without excessive penalties. The 2004 team also gave me a glorious Big Game beatdown to remember fondly. And even though it was yanked out from under us on December 5, 2004, the 2004 team brought us closer to the coveted Rose Bowl berth than the 1991 team did.
One not so fond memory I have of the aftermath of the 1991 season — I happened to be working the KALX sports desk when Cal called the presser to introduce the new coach. Things were a little different back then in terms of news breaking: I went to the presser not knowing who that coach would be. But I had an inkling it would be Steve Mariucci. Then I walked into the Hall of Fame room at Memorial and saw….Gilby. He talked a good game that afternoon at his presser, but I had an uneasy feeling about the hire. And when he took what should have been a good 1992 team and turned it into a 4-7 team, I was convinced we’d made a mistake.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
That was my favorite team, too. I’ll admit that ‘04 has a certain edge over ’91…but I’ll go with nostalgia in this case. Mike Pawalwski remains my favorite Cal QB of all time – probably because I loved the attitude he showed in playing on the kick-off coverage team. (And it doesn’t hurt that he’s one heck of a fisherman.)
Irate Toothmonger - Will get all up in your business for food
I was at the UoP Game in 1991
And remember chanting, “We want a hundred!!! We want a hundred!!!” which was entirely possible, but Snyder appeared to shut down the offense after getting to 86 points.
Our 3rd string running back was even scoring touchdowns. Brandon ‘The Bullet’ Willis, I think?
Irate Toothmonger - Will get all up in your business for food
Wrong and wrong
It was Max Fancher, a rarely (if ever) used 4th string walkon running back.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
Has anyone told you that you’re kind of spooky? (in a good way)
I swear there’s a chip in your head that has all the Cal games of the last 2+ decades recorded.
Irate Toothmonger - Will get all up in your business for food
1991 Defense
My memory of the 1991 team was that the defense was something special, with guys like Chidi Ahanotu (DE), Jerrott Willard (LB), Mick Barsala (LB) and Eric Zomalt (DB). These guys were constantly getting penetration in the backfield and to my memory, were close to leading the conference in tackles for loss.
Somehow, some way, you just felt that these guys could stop anyone. I remember watching the Citrus Bowl and Cal routinely had 8 guys “in the box” and just dared teams to throw on them. This team also recorded 22 INTs, a number that was only surpassed in 2008 (24) with 2 fewer games. Zach Follett was Jerrott Willard 2.0. Check the video — this guy was a beast; fast, strong, instincts for the ball, always took good angles and an exceptional tackler.
The only stain on this season, in my opinion, was the Big Game on the farm. After the travesty of 1990, this was the 5th consecutive year of not having the axe (1988 ended in a 19-19 tie resulting in the team who owned the axe to keep it). It would take until the 1993 season for Cal to finally take the axe back after 6 years of frustration.
The 1991 defense was an interesting unit
In 1990, the Cal defense was, shall we say, suspect. We gave up A LOT of points. And yards. (Yet, we managed to go 7-4-1 and win a bowl game.)
Coming into 1991, the defense was a huge question mark. Not only did we lose several starters (the number 7 comes to mind) off the 1990 team, but Coach Snyder was determined to implement an attacking defense for the 1991 season: lots of guys in the box, and lots of blitzing. So we were putting in a new scheme with a bunch of guys who didn’t have experience. And who among us who were there didn’t think, “Hmmm…here we go again” on the VERY FIRST PLAY of the 1991 season — an 80 yard (or so) touchdown pass by Pacific on a deep ball to put us down 7-0.
The D ended up being fine that year. Jerrott Willard was the key; he was a highly touted true freshman who did not disappoint.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
This was my favorite team. The UW game was the loudest I think I’ve ever heard Memorial. If I remember, we stood the whole game in the student section. Wasn’t it also the game before the big fire?
The Stanfurd game was a disappointment, but going to the Citrus Bowl was a major bowl back then because it was on New Years Day. Being at that game, having the band play Superman when Russell White ran past 100 yds, and Snyder leading the band afterwards was the best. Unfortunately, Bockrath blew it all when he ran Snyder off (sort of like when Al Davis ran off Gruden).
Wasn’t this also the year with the USC “Is that the only song we know…”?
1993
My sophmore year, so much promise and one injury to QB Dave Barr away from a special season. It started off with an amazing away game at UCLA that was decided with 15 seconds left on an awesome interception ala Big Game 2009. From there, we go 5-0 including the most amazing game I’ve ever witnessed, the 24-0 halftime deficit to win 42-41 over Oregon. Then the 13th ranked Huskies roll into town (and they could not go to the Rose Bowl due to a bowl ban) and set up an amazing but ultimately painful game, a loss 24-23 which unfortunately included the loss of Barr to a shoulder injury. Without Barr, we threw Pat Barnes, a freshman, into the fire and promptly lost 4 games. Barr came back at the end of the year and we go on to beat 13th ranked Arizona, stomp Stanford (42-17) and wipe the field with Iowa in the Alamo Bowl (37-3).
1993 is like 2004 and 2006 for me – so close to greatness, but this being Cal football we just miss it. It had fantastic highs, it had terrible lows, it made me think the future was bright, it gave me hope that would be crushed over the next couple years.
by tmoran3020 on Jul 6, 2010 2:15 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Whoops
24-0 at the end of the first quarter, 30-7 at the half for that Oregon game.
The 1993 Big Game was actually a slightly bigger beatdown than you remember — we beat the Bill Walsh-led Cardinal 46-17 and it really wasn’t even that close. Then the following week, we TCBd at Hawaii (42-18) to clinch the Alamo Bowl berth.
Good analogy to the 2009 Big Game for the interception in the season opener at Ucla. Eric Zomalt picked off the pass to seal the win. What was really weird about it was that we were only up 27-25 and Ucla was already in field goal range at the time of the INT.
After the Washington game (as painful a loss as I ever attended at Memorial), we actually tried Kerry McGonigal at QB first. He started 3 straight losses before Gilby inexplicably decided to burn Pat Barnes’ redshirt — can’t remember if it was late in our 42-14 loss to USC or to start him the following week in a 41-0 loss at ASU — either way, it was pretty freaking stupid. Barnes ended up getting hurt in the ASU game and Barr came back the following week against Arizona anyway, leading us to our season ending 4 game winning streak.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
Thanks
I couldn’t remember all the machinations around Barnes/McGonigal, tried to do some research but failed – 1993 being all pre-web and all ;-)
For the interception at UCLA, I seem to remember it being a longish field goal. The article says we intercepted them at the 20, and my memory is that it was a pass over the middle like 2009 BG, so they were probably at best at say the 25 or 28, that’s a fairly long FG of say 42+ yards. My seats were odd (way up high in endzone), but that is consistent with my memory. I can see why they tried for an extra few yards before kicking, but it burned them thankfully.
Looks like it was, for 1993 at least, due to injury to both McGonigal and Barr according to this article. It looks like it was his sophmore season that Gilby was truly dumb in playing him rather than redshirting.
I think we’re both right. Burning Barnes’ redshirt in 1993 was dumb. Burning it in 1994 was at least equally dumb.
In some ways, burning it in 1994 was dumber. Gilby brought Barnes into the game in the second half at USC. I believe the score was 49-0 at the time. HE BURNED BARNES’ REDSHIRT IN A GAME WE WERE LOSING BY 7 TOUCHDOWNS. WTF? To add injury to the insult of a dumb coaching decision, Barnes was injured in the game and was unavailable the following week vs. WSU.
Gilby’s inexplicable decision to burn Barnes’ redshirt might have been a moot point, as it turned out: Gilby might have been forced to burn it anyway. In the WSU game the next week, McGonigal was injured in the first half — out for the season. But with Barnes unavailable due to injury, what happened was one of the most surreal games I’ve ever seen. We were forced to bring in the venerable Ziv Gottlieb, a former QB turned WR, to play emergency QB. It was the first and only time I saw a guy play QB wearing number 81. We ended up losing 26-23 on a late FG, preventing Ziv from attaining true folk hero status.
Yes, I am an Old Blue. Now get off my lawn.
Good ol’ Ziv. Master of the 15-step drop…
Irate Toothmonger - Will get all up in your business for food
Easy choice for me: 2009
Because it’s the only season I’ve followed so far. I was introduced to the ups and downs of Cal football, starting with the glorious pounding of Maryland and rising into the top 10, only to come crashing back to Earth against Oregon and USC. Then pulling out of the slump to avoid a total collapse like 2007, culminating in an epic Big Game victory. And finally… not showing up against UW and losing the Poinsettia Bowl.
There were some head scratchers, but overall it was a fun season and made me a Cal football fan for life.
2001
Because forever after we can all say “well at least we’re not that horrible 2001 team!”
Cal Football: Some things, you just accept, repress, and move on.
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