Cal v. UC Davis 9.4.10 Photo Essay II

Part I

When we left off, Cal was up big at half.  It was only 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.  But thanks to Keenan Allen and a fumble by Davis, Cal scored 28 points in the second quarter, making it 35-0 at half.  Since the result of this game was never in doubt, all 60,000 people present knew that the halftime presented the *real* battle:

BAAAAAND FIGHT!

Cal has, of course, the California Marching Band, the best damn band in the land.  UC Davis has The Band-Uh!  What is the Band-Uh?  And why is it called the Band-Uh?  Nobody cares.  If the UC Davis band members wanted to be in a band people cared about, they should have gone to Cal.

All we care about is naked van.  Despite previous promises of continual nudity, nobody in the Band-Uh got naked in the course of their halftime performance!  What the heck was that??!?!?!  I blame this guy right here:

Never once did their Drum Major call out Naked Stadium....or so I presume.  After the jump, let's take a closer look at the marching bands and some second half action.  GO BEARS!

The first thing that jumped out at me about the Band-Uh is why the heck are they called the Band-Uh????  According to the Davis Wiki, it is because of all the Shakespearean trained actors up there in Davis:

Why is it called 'Band-uh!'? — If you carefully enunciate "band" over the microphone you end up with "ban-duh!" which turns into "Band-uh!"

The second thing i noticed is that they march bari saxes.  Bari saxes!  They are one of the biggest saxes around.  Not as large as the contrabass sax:

"March Me!"  via i139.photobucket.com

So, no the bari is not quite as big as that monstrosity.  But it is still fairly large and the Cal band does not march them (except for one time I remember Ragnarok rocking one at a basketball game, but that is slightly different).  You can see how big this wrist buster is here:

The two people in the front are playing alto sax.  On the far right in the back is a tenor sax.  The person dead red in the middle of the screen is playing the bari and you can see that he is wearing a neckstrap (while the altos are not).  Notice the tenor player is wearing a neck strap.  Cal band tenors don't use neckstraps, because we don't suck like Band-Uh tenors!  OH, SNAP!  SOMEBODY GET ME THE CHART OR FAILING THAT THE VERSION ON THE CHALK BOARD!

Much respect, though, for marching the bari.  It probably takes a few years off of that dude's life, but for UC Davis athletics, really, is there any price *too* big to pay! 

The Band-Uh is kind of like the Cal band, but slower.  They seem to do a high step similar to the Cal band as compared to USC's chair step and UCLA's movement barely perceptible  to the naked eye.  A friend of mine who was in the Band-Uh told me that since UC Davis does not start until the end of september they did not have any freshman in the band at all.  She felt that this gave them a disadvantage in the hotly contested band wars.  NO EXCUSES!

After the Davis Band was done, they got a chance to check out the Cal Band's The Killers show.  What I love about the marching band is our beloved announcer.  He always has such an andante cadence with really large pauses.  So a song like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" because "Sunday....................Bloody...................Sunday."  Year in and year out, it is always the same way.  "Hit Me.....Baby........One More.........Time."  Wouldn't have it any other way.

While some things never change, other things do.  The new drum major twirls his baton and I mean that in the least double entendre way possible.    To wit:

This is not a common occurrence, but according to band history, there is a tradition of it:

[1954 Drum Major Bill] Isbel also charted himself into the half- time performance. This gave the drum major a chance to showcase his mace twirling and marching skills on the field.

 

So, if you want to bring this baton twirling back, more power to you Drum Major.  But don't drop it.  Don't drop it during halftime and definitely don't drop it during pregame (although the 2005 Drum Major is quick to tell me he was remarkably successful catching the baton that year and we all saw how that went!).

While the newest drum major was bringing sexy back, Tavecchio seemed rather non-plussed, spending a lot of time stretching and practicing in anticipation of the 3rd quarter. 

Let's look a some second half action.  It was not so long into the second half that Keenan Allen had one of the most memorable moments of the day.  He takes a short catch and rockets through traffic to the endzone many, many yards away.

IMG_0171 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0176 (via Monica's Dad)

This kick was after Keenan Allen scored his second TD.  Notice how we are kicking off from the 15 after the unsportsman-like penalty for high fiving some kids in the stands.  That seems sportsman-like to me, to help kids feel better!

The defense did not want to be left behind by the offense in dominating UC Davis:

IMG_0260 (via Monica's Dad)

Soon, the game was well out of control and Beau Sweeney  and other backups were in:

IMG_0267 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0274 (via Monica's Dad)

Sweeney was mostly handing off to back up running backs, such as Isi Sofele:

IMG_0290 (via Monica's Dad)

But he was doing some running of his own and looking fairly good:

IMG_0302 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0303 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0304 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0305 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0306 (via Monica's Dad)

Brock Mansion played, too, but sometimes had some problems:

IMG_0763 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0764 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0338 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0351 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0495 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0496 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0560 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0563 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0778 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0796 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0857 (via Monica's Dad)

IMG_0858 (via Monica's Dad)

Soon, we had this nice receipt from a fun afternoon.  These are some of the best and most fun days, because it is just a giant party.  No stress, no upset, just relaxation on a perfect Berkeley day!

After the game, RallyCommers go and clean up the stadium.  Yet another reason why I would never join RallyComm!

On the way out, I decided to take a gander at the West Side of the stadium.  The concourses have totally changed.  I felt like I was in some sort of modernist structure.

After the game, I tried to find those hats that people have with bear heads on them.  I found something at Bancroft, but they sucked.  Where can I find them???  They have plush bear heads on them and its the full head with the tongue (not the half head at Bancroft).  I saw that Davis brought a whole police force with them to combat those thugs from Yolo County (like carp!):

At the student store, I saw that they are selling NFL jerseys now of popular Cal players.  For example, here are the jerseys for Jahvid Best at Detroit and Tyson Alualu at Jacksonville:

That is awesome and they might want to consider Aaron Rodgers at Green Bay or DeSean Jackson at Philadelphia.  

But, honestly, I think they should kick it up a notch.  They should sell jerseys of arrogant, arrogant players who tormented Cal while at college and then flamed out in spectacular fashion at the NFL level.  Because, honestly, I would *so* rock a Matt Leinart Cardinals jersey right about now!  The Matt Leinart Cardinals jersey will be one of the greatest ironic jerseys of our time.  And I bet that if the student store brought them in, they'd sell.  Because the only thing better than Cal success, well, it's USC failure.  In hilariously embarrassing fashion.  Unfortunately, a quick review of the official Arizona Cardinals fanshop shows that they have already removed any trace of Matt Leinart at all.  Awkward!     

So, that was the day that was UC Davis.  Fun time had by most.  Except for Matt Leinart.  He got cut from the Cardinals so that former BYU Cougar and NFL rookie Max Hall could back up Cleveland Brown cast off Derek Anderson.  Awkward!  GO BEARS!