Golden Nuggets: Cal-Nevada Predictions

It's Thursday and that means everyone and their uncles have college football predictions.  First, Uncle Ted's prediction:

California 38, Nevada 30: Warning, warning, warning, Cal Bears! Nevada is not a push-over, particularly not at home. The Wolf Pack has averaged 592 yards and 50 points in its first two games. Cal fans, if you want my advice, you should feel nervous about this one. 

Bruce Feldman predicts a 44-35 Cal win, adding that he's been very impressed by Cal this season.

Andrea Adelson, ESPN's non-AQ blogger predicts a Cal victory:

California 28, Nevada 17. The Wolf Pack haven’t had much success against AQ opponents, losing 8 straight games. Though the defense has looked much better, and defensive coordinator Andy Buh spent the last three seasons as a Stanford assistant, California simply has too much talent on offense. The Bears will find a way to slow down Colin Kaepernick enough to win. 

John Tamahana predicts a 38-27 Cal victory, citing Cal's defense as the key to victory.

If these positive predictions are causing too much hand-wringing, take solace in the fact that four out of five CBS writers predict a Nevada victory.

Attendance Prediction: Last week the models predicted 57,283, 63,342, and 63,757 while the actual attendance turned out to be 55,440, low enough to place in the top-5 lowest turnouts since 2003.  Since I'm only predicting home game attendances, we'll have to hold off on predictions until October 9th, when the Bruins visit Cal.

After the jump Tyson Alualu gives back to his hometown, Gary Peterson has an entertaining comparison of ranked Cal versus unranked Cal, Pendergast and Nevada coach Chris Ault talk about Friday's game, and Scout previews the matchup.

Football

• Tyson Alualu may be a millionaire now, but he's just as generous as he always has been.  He's giving back to the community by building a church in the rough neighborhood where he grew up.
• Ted Miller's "What to Watch" this weekend asks whether the nation's top defense will continue to impress when it takes on the nation's top offense.
• Freshman TE Jacob Wark broke his ankle last week and will miss the rest of the season.  On a positive note, he should be able to redshirt this season and will not have a wasted year of eligibility.  Jarrett Sparks will also miss this week's game with an ankle injury.  Steve Williams underwent surgery on his thumb and may play, depending on how much pain the thumb gives him.
• JO has some quotes from Pendergast as he talked about the Nevada offense after Wednesday night's practice.
• Cecil Whiteside has cleared a series of NCAA hurdles and should join the team this spring.
• Nevada has struggled against high-caliber competition in recent years.  Because of these struggles, they look at Friday's game as an opportunity to excel against stiff competition.  Chris Ault's team is 2-18 against BCS schools, Boise St, and bowl games since 2004.
• Quarterbacks (including Kevin Riley), defenses (including Pendergast's D), and the Cal pass rush are all trending upwards in Ted Miller's Pac-10 stock report.  Shane Vereen is trending downward after two mediocre performances.
• Gary Peterson examines the bizarre tale of two teams: ranked Cal and unranked Cal.  Why is it that unranked Cal is 13 games above .500 while ranked Cal is 7 games below .500?  The world may never know...
• JO takes a look at how running the second team as the scout team has changed the team's preparation for its opponents.  Mohamed and Holt praised the idea because it allows them to work against a faster, more experienced unit.
• Daily Cal looks at Golden Bears in the pros, this week featuring running backs Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, and Jahvid Best.
• Scout previews the matchup between the nation's top offense and defense.
• Bruce Feldman has Keenan Allen at 10th in his list of the top freshman and sophomore players in college football.