Golden Nuggets: Cal Falls to Texas as Offense Cannot Capitalize on Strong Defense

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The Bears had not played a game in over a month and it certainly looked like it out there. The offense was sloppy and riddled with poor play. One unit which could not get anything done was the offensive line. From run-blocking to pass protection, the offensive line was dominated by the Texas front seven. In their post-game comments, Tedford and Maynard talk about the struggles on offense.

Q. Aside from turning the ball over was there anything else that you saw that contributed to you guys' loss today?

JEFF TEDFORD: I think turn overs are the key, you know, but not being able to establish any run game today I thought Texas -- you know, Texas is one of the top defenses in the country against the run, and they showed why today. They run to the ball, they're athletic, we couldn't get in the space very often today, couldn't get to the second level. I don't know what our longest run was today, I don't think it was over probably 8 yards. I'm not sure that we had a run over that today. So they limited the big play and we did a couple of things, you know, with some poor snaps, we got caught especially in the first half in a lot of long yard situations. When you get caught in those situations it's hard to get out of that against a team like that.

Q. Zach, how difficult was it for you to operate passing the ball today with the kind of pressure that Texas put on you?

ZACH MAYNARD: It's hard in certain you know -- situations, you know, like Coach said, we kept getting caught second and long, third and long and it's hard to develop a decent pass game with that and the run game wasn't as strong as it has been throughout the season but Texas did a great job today. I commend them on their job today and the defense came to the ball fast today.

Tedford and Maynard were also asked to look ahead to next season.

Q. Coach, looking forward to next year does this loss help you get ready for the season next year?

JEFF TEDFORD: Yeah, like I told the team in the locker room, no matter what would have happened today, you take experiences and you learn from them, you know, if it would have went our way today we would have used it as motivation going into next season. Didn't go our way today but it just kind of reemphasizes the things you need to do to win. We will be motivated to come back and get started with our winter conditioning program and we have a lot of great young guys, I love our team, I love our guys. I wouldn't trade our guys for anybody.

There is a lot of character on this football team, and, you know, going through the season, we had some ups and downs and they continued to stay together and believe and trust one another and really came together as a team. I think some of the lessons that the young guys learned this year from that is going to help us and give us momentum going into next season. So there is a lot to learn from.

Q. Zach, fresh after this game can you talk about what you see in this team for next year?

ZACH MAYNARD: I see a bright future for us and a lot of young guys played this year. I see one of the best freshman classes I've seen since I've been playing college football. We had to work hard and in the off-season, get with the Coaches in the weight room, get ready for spring ball and we'll see the potential we have for next season.

After the jump we forget about the loss by remembering that basketball's conference slate begins today!

Football

• CalBears.com has photos from the game.
• Video of Tedford, Trevor Guyton, Marvin Jones, and Zach Maynard from the post-game press conference.
• Faraudo has a recap and a large photo gallery.
• Faraudo gives the game his live thread treatment.
• SFGate recaps the game.
• BearTerritory.net recaps the game.