No one has been more committed to Cal throughout this tumultuous past month than Zach Kline. The early enrollee wonders why so many have wavered in their commitment to the Bears and has some advice for those who base their decision on a single coach.
"Those who want to be Bears, who bleed blue and gold, will stay with it," he said. "You don't play for one coach. You play for yourself, you play for coach Tedford and you play for the university. I think ... the guys who are committed understand that. They're true Bears. They want to be here."
This, from a young man who pedaled a bicycle with a blue frame, gold-trimmed wheels and gold handgrips to his interview at the Simpson High Performance Center, while wearing a Cal sweatshirt and cap.
"Zach's a very loyal, methodical kid," Lisa Kline said. "He never rushes into a decision. He's been going to Cal camps since he was in eighth grade."
Before he left for a huge pay raise at Washington, Lupoi was involved heavily in recruiting a number of top players for Cal. Kline, however, was not one of them.
"He was not a deciding factor in whether I was coming here or not," Kline said. "Coach Tedford and coach (Marcus) Arroyo are the ones who recruited me. You should go to a school for reasons other than your position coach, I believe. Committing for one coach is not the smartest thing to do."
In case you weren't already enamored with Kline, here's one more fun story: ESPN predicts he'll win the 2015 Johnny Unitas award as the nation's best senior quarterback. They expect Kline to seize the starting role in 2013.
After the jump Jorge admits Cal-Stanford isn't much of a rivalry and ESPN's latest bracketology has Cal opening the tourney against Harvard.
Football
- Jeffrey Coprich Jr committed to the Bears. A versatile athlete, Coprich will be a running back for the Bears.
- Jim McGill has more on Coprich's commitment to Cal.
Basketball
- The Bears stay steady as a 9-seed in Lunardi's latest bracketology. The opening round matchup would be against Harvard. Unfortunately, should the Bears win they will next play top-seeded Kentucky. 12th-seeded Washington is the only other pick for the tourney, though Stanford is among the first four out. Lunardi has more on the probabilities that Stanford and UW will make the tournament. Cal is pretty much a lock at this point.
- ESPN ranks Cal as the top team in the Pac-12. Washington may be more talented, but Cal is more consistent.
- The Bears used some crucial scoring down the stretch to pull away to a 69-59 victory over Stanford.
- CalBears.com's photo gallery has a great photo of the #calgang section of the student section.
- Monty, Jorge, Crabbe, and Johnny Dawkins spoke at the post-game press conference. Jorge had one particularly interesting quote about the Cal-Stanford rivalry: "Personally, I don't think it is a rivalry. Whoever is on top is our rival. We want to end up in first. Tonight was a good game for us."
- The win is Cal's 17th straight at home.
- Wilner reacts to the Bears' win.
- Oakland Tribune has a photo gallery from the win. Picture 4 illustrates some unconventional defense from Jorge.
- The Bears are up to 30th in the latest RPI rankings. The next-closest Pac-12 team is Oregon at no. 72.
- Ryan Anderson continues to make his case as the best Magic player not named Dwight Howard. He grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds on Monday.
Soccer
- Alex Morgan scored two goals and notched two assists as the US beat Canada to earn an Olympic berth.