Still reveling, two days later.  Before I wax sentimental about Mack and Follet and Felder and all the rest, let's start with the hilarious.  Ordinarily I don't pay much attention to the video board announcements at halftime, but the first one caught my eye:

"Watch the Fake, Alamar!" -- Your friends in QQ

I was so stunned by the simple brilliance of the message that I froze, paralyzed with laughter for 30 seconds before I thought to snap a picture. By the time I recovered it was too late and the message was gone forever.  If anyone was quick enough to grab a shot, or if anyone knows the identities of the brave young alums who paid for it, please post it here.  I only wish that they had paid for an extra dozen words or so, in order to clarify that you can defend fakes with more than 10 players on the field.  Hopefully Alamar learned his lesson after the Maurice Jones-Drew game in 2005, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Ahh memories.

Happier times, for my sake:

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Every Yard?  Yes!  They count!  Every Hit?  OH HECK YUP!  They totes count.

I didn't think at the start of the year that every game would count.  I figured they might take a few and throw em out.  Like the way Rishi is with Jahvid Best's stats when comparing them to Quizz's stats.  "Hey, Best ran really well against UW, let's hold that against him!"

But, stunningly, every game did count.  Just as this prophetic video foretold.

So, now that the regular season is over, let's take a look at some of the games this year.  The dizzying highs.  The crushing lows.  The creamy middles.

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Not too much to say about this one.  The 2008 Washington State Cougars gave up 58 points or more six times in their thirteen games...and still managed to beat the Huskies.  This Husky team, in other words, is really, really bad.  In fact, a lot of the Pac-10 is really bad this year.  Cal finished the year 6-3 in conference which was only good for 4th place; that's because the bottom four teams (UW, WSU, UCLA, and ASU) were a combined 0-16 against the top 4 teams (the next two teams, Arizona and Stanford, are only 2-6 against the top, so the bottom 6 teams have only 2 wins in 24 games against the top 4).  Aside from USC, none of the other top 4 teams (OSU, Oregon, and Cal) are particularly great; the bottom of the conference is just that bad.  I had only seen the Huskies against UCLA and in the last 5 minutes of the Apple Cup, so while they looked bad, they weren't awful in comparison because they were playing teams almost equally hapless.  I went into today's game with a sort of morbid curiosity, like someone investigating a car crash, wondering what the Huskies would look like against a decent team.

Can't...look...away

via d.yimg.com

The result was four first half turnovers by the Huskies and 311 rushing yards (yes, that is a three, you are reading this correctly) by Jahvid Best.  The betting line started at Cal -33, which seemed, um, high.  I couldn't believe when the line actually went up during the week, ending at -35 or -36.  Cal won the game by 41.  How do you beat a 36 point spread?  Grab four turnovers and take a 31-0 lead at half.

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via imgs.sfgate.com

CBKWit did his post game thoughts.  And Twist started his usual photo essay.  Here are my post-UCLA game thoughts written the night of the game:

(1) Riley

If only Riley had played this well all season.  Then we wouldn't have had this QB controversy.  Fans wouldn't be at each other's throats.  CaliSeth wouldn't be on his self-imposed ban from the blog.  Olsonist and I wouldn't be arguing left and right (instead, we might even be friends! Imagine that!).  We'd all be happy, and the team would possibly be 7-0 (and ranked! oh noes!!!)

Today, in my opinion, Riley played pretty well.

[HydroTech addendum: A few days after the game I see that not all Cal sports bloggers are in agreement on how well Riley performed.  (See The Bear Will Not Quit explaining that "there is no reason why Riley shouldn't remain the starter if he practices and plays like this the rest of the way."); (Cf. Oski Talk explaining that "the killer part of the game was once again the poor play of the offense, including the QB, Kevin Riley."); (Cf. Bears With Fangs explaining that "Riley didn't set the field on fire ... and continued to misfire on a number of facets.").]

He had his mojo back.  He had a swagger.  I saw more energy, life, and confidence in his whole demeanor against today than I've ever seen from him before.  Perhaps this whole "QB controversy" was the push he needed - sort of a wake-up call.  The roles of Riley and Longshore are switched this year.  Last year Longshore was the starter whose job was at risk.  This year it's Riley who is the starter and job is at risk.  Riley appears to be responding well to the possibility of him not starting. 

Riley was "only" 11/22 today.  But there were definitely some catchable balls which were dropped no matter whether they were dead on target or slightly off target.  I think I can remember at least 3 which should have been caught regardless of the throw.  Add 3 to 11 and you get 14.  A completion percentage of 14/22 is just under two thirds and is good. Riley also had a solid 7.0 yards per attempt today.

In previous weeks we've talked about how Longshore changed a lot of plays at the LOS (such as against ASU).  Today, we saw Riley change tons of plays at the LOS.  When I saw Longshore's changes at the LOS against ASU, I said he had the requisite knowledge.  I think the same conclusion applies here to Riley now that we've seen Riley do extensive play selection at the LOS.  

After the ASU game, I was beginning to think that perhaps Riley hadn't been given the green light to do as many changes at the LOS as Longshore.  But after seeing today's game, that notion appears incorrect.

The ability for the QB to change plays at the LOS gives the Cal offense diversity - diversity which was slightly lost in the Dunbar year.  The QBs in the Dunbar offense had the ability to change the play at the LOS, but it didn't appear to be so built-in into the offense as it did with Tedford's offense last year, and what we seem to be seeing in Cignetti's offense this year.

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"If you multiply Tha1 by any integer, you get that integer."  via www.fearthebeard.org

Well, we've taken a look at many teams' stats over the past few weeks.  With the bye week, it seemed prudent to take a moment and actually LOOK at Cal's numbers.  There's been a lot of perception of stats, so let's see what the stats actually are. 

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This is second (hopefully) in a 13 part series, this is my not so quicky summary of a few keys to the game.

via imgs.sfgate.com

So my day started off great.  Before the game even started, as I was walking up the metal stairs in the student section, my shoes (with no traction) slipped on the metal seats and my right shin smashed against the metal seat of the higher row as I slipped forward.  Within minutes, the whole shin was a bloody mess from a puncture and three inch laceration but the game was about to start so I figured I'd wait until I got home 6 hours later to clean myself up.  Like any good Cal fan, my health is secondary to being at Memorial and supporting the team. 

Anyways, here are my thoughts from the game.  But be sure to check out the wonderful thoughts of CBKWit and Danzig.  (Note, these are my thoughts post-game without rewatching the game on my tivo).

(1)  First play of the game.  Remember the last time Tedford tried a play like the first play of the game?  That last time was against Baylor in 2002 for Tedford's first play as a head coach.  By calling a halfback pass today, I think Tedford wanted to start the 2008 season with a similar bang and let Cal fans know that this was a new team compared to last year's team.  Unfortunately, the pass was wobbly and underthrown and led to an incompletion when it possibly could have been a touchdown or at least a big gain. 

(2) Javon Ringer is dead Ringer.  I think CBKWit said that he doubted Ringer broke 100 yards.  Well, he didn't.  Ringer ran for only 81 yards.  Of course, the yards per attempt is a much better indicator of a runningback's performance than total yardage.  So what was Ringer's average?  3.0 yards per carry which is pretty sad by college football standards.  I mean, that's talking like triple bogey in golf terminology.  It's pretty ugly for a player of his caliber let alone any player in college football. 

(3) No sacks on Hoyer.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we didn't sack Hoyer once.  I guess some credit is due to MSU's OL but it also makes me wonder if we're ever going to see some sacks from anyone on defense.

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"Praise Be To Tedford!"  -  Image via www.bcemba06.org

HydroTech:  Before we start on the actual discussion, let's look at the depth chart.

QB: Riley; Longshore; Mansion
RB: Best; Vereen or Slocum
FB: Tau'ufo'ou
SE: Calvin, Cunningham,
WR: Young (it's unknown if Young is SE or FL so I'll list him as WR, he's probably FL though)
TE: Morrah; (who else? Tad Smith or Anthony Miller? or the other TE?)
LT: Teofilo; Tepper
LG: Guarnero; (who else?)
C: Mack; Guarnero
RG: Malele; (who else?)
RT: Schwartz(who else?)

TwistNHook:  Didn't Okanes do a depth chart?  Is that where you are getting this from?

HydroTech:  Yes, but he only lists the starters.  We could talk a lot about who will be key reserves if we know the two-deep.

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Part I

After meeting the white Joe Montana himself, Kevin Riley, star of Jesus In Cleats II:  The Cleatening, we headed over to the defense table.  They had two big tables next to each other, defense and offense.  We went with defense first.  And you know, for being raging sons of bitches out there on the field, they are incredibly nice in person.

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We thought it might be a good idea to dip into Ted Miller's mailbag, since he reads us now and everything.  Or at least, he likes to read danzig's posts professing his love for Longshore.  And away we go...

Dan from Portland writes: Fever, I am sure you have by now received countless emails from my fellow Oregonians stating that the greatest college football rivalry of all time in any conference is the Oregon State / [expletive] ducks civil war....this is the hardest fought game of the year regardless of national rankings....it sells out every year and gives millions... okay, thousands of Oregonians something to look forward to besides nine months of rain. Even the kids in this state classify themselves as Beavers or *ucks. Please do a little more research next time.

Ray from Lake Oswego, Ore. writes: Dude, you blatently left out the Civil War on your "most bitter rivalries" list???!!!??? C'mon now, I know you spent a lot of time up in Seattle, but you really think the Apple Cup and fuskies vs. the 'ucks is a better rivalry? As a proud member of Beaver Nation, I am hear to tell you that our hatred for all things green and yellow far outweighs that of those other rivalries...heck our rivalry game with the fuskies has a better rating on the "hate-o-meter" than most of your top 5. I was really beginning to like your blog and then you had to go and do this...we expect better from you Fever.

Yellow Fever:  Let's get one thing clear; every rivalry is bitter.  But let's do a little research and take a look at some of the highlights.

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On Tuesday night I went to Gordon Biersch in San Francisco to attend the Coaches Tour event.  There was a much smaller turnout than Monday's event in Pleasant Hill.  Only about 150 people were probably in attendance despite the 250 or so who had registered. 

Here are my notes from the night:

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