Golden Nuggets: Cal's Isi Sofele Looks for Redemption Against Texas

While Isi Sofele and the rest of the Bears were excited to have the opportunity to play a big-name school like Texas, a brief look at the history books got them even more excited to play the Longhorns.

"[Time off] helps a lot," Sofele said. "It gives us a chance to get in there and get treatment. It's time to heal our bodies. It gives us time to come out here and work on little things that we messed up with, during the season, and try to fix that up for this big bowl game."
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"I feel like our offense is hitting its peak," Sofele said. "I don't feel like we're going to lose much ? We all got excited once we heard that it was Texas that we were going to be playing against. Everyone's juiced up. We're ready to go, and we can't wait to play them.

"I've watched a couple of their games, just towards the end of the season. I've seen a couple of their games, and they look pretty big and physical, and we're just going to have to come out here and play physical just like they are. We're all ou there just trying to get a better feel of how it's going to be, so we're going ones-on-ones, and trying to get us ready for a bigger team."

While Sofele was unaware of the drama that unfolded surrounding the Rose Bowl in 2004, he now has some more motivation with that knowledge under his belt.

"It makes me hate them even more," Sofele smiled. "I just want to go out there and get them even more."

After the jump Tedford hosts Cal's biggest recruiting weekend of the year and McCain, Wilkerson, and Calvin get clearance to play in the Holiday Bowl.

Football

• Chris McCain, David Wilkerson, and Michael Calvin have been cleared to play in the Holiday Bowl.
• Tedford was not at Friday's practice due to the big recruiting weekend. Zach Maynard and Keenan Allen comment on how Texas will be a stiff challenge for the Bears.
• Fourteen recruits visited this weekend, including eight 4- or 5-star players.
• Freddie Tagaloa has officially committed to the Bears.
• CalBears.com has a full set of quotes from Mack Brown and Jeff Tedford at the Holiday Bowl press conference. Both address the 2004 issue and where their teams are at this point in the season.