A few weeks ago, we focused on the Debbie Downer side of Cal football. Would the sky fall on our team's chances from the opening kickoff? Would quarterback, quarterback, quarterback continue to torment us? Would one of those doomsday scenarios that chowder was thinking of here unfold? 

Yeah, enough of that. Let's move toward the brighter side of life. Let's figure out what we'll all be looking forward to the most in 2009. I'll talk about three particular units that have me excited this season, and the first one has something to do with some mystical trophy that everyone obsesses over for whatever reason.

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In this second part of a twelve post analysis, we're going to look at Cal's early problems with execution. In case you missed the previous installment, here is Part I.

Most football fans love to criticize the complex parts of football when something goes wrong.  The typically criticism when something goes wrong is "the playcalling sucks," or "they need to throw the ball deep more," or "they need to change cleats to get better traction."  Cal fans are no different.  Many times when something goes wrong, everything from global warming to the depression is cited as a reason for Cal's failure.  But there is always a simpler answer: EXECUTION. 

Like the Nike slogan: just do it.

Win the individual battles.  If the players on the field all win their individual battles, the play's likelihood of success will go up exponentially.

Here is the pre-snap look below:

Cal is faced with a 3rd and 14.  Cal has 11 personnel on the field (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB).  Cal will most likely pass the ball.

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But preferably, student section.

See, Webster's Dictionary defines "Ken Crawford" as a well-respect Cal blogger, who runs the site "Excuse Me For My Voice."  He also hunts people for sport and fashion.

He recently wrote an interesting piece about potentially moving the student section.  Go and read it, it's good stuff.  Because we're about to  conga-line onto his bandwagon of concepts and theories and new-fangled beliefs in something called a "Justin Forsett It And Forget It."

"I'm actually in this photo.  Look for the guy wearing blue and also some gold."  via upload.wikimedia.org

Avinash:  Well, let me play devil's advocate. Take away all this 'purity of college' crap; college sports, in general, lose money for the university and divert resources away from academia. What is even more surprising is that football generally breaks even and doesn't come close to making up the difference. 

The Pac-10 has also begun to feel the pinch and the situation isn't expected to get better anytime soon. 

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Brief Intro Note from HydroTech:

First of all, I would like to apologize for the tardiness of these posts.  I had hoped to begin these in at the start of June, just like I did with the Armed Forces Bowl Review series last year.  Unfortunately, I have had much less time this summer than I expected. 

When I did start working on this series, I noticed a disappointing trend in my drafts.  The plays I wanted to write about were not good plays, but bad plays.  Plays where Cal's offensive players made mistakes, and the team paid for those individual mistakes.  While football is a team game, it's a team game made up of small individual battles all over the field.  These individual battles make up the team.  A team can only be as strong as it's weakest link.  If all the players aren't weak, and execute to perfection, then the team should prevail over the other team.  But if merely one player loses his individual battle, the entire team can fail.  Unfortunately, I saw a lot of that during this game.  The more I watched the game, more lucky I felt that the Cal offense was so lucky to have such a great defense to help them keep the game manageable.  Similarly, I felt like the entire team was incredibly lucky for having a 1st Round NFL talent at runningback who could take the rock to the house when everything did go right on the field.  I think that without the defense holding down Miami's offense throughout most of the game, I don't think Cal's offense could have scored enough to match Miami.  Likewise, if it wasn't for Best's home run ability, the Cal offense would have been forced to sustain methodical drives which isn't desirable (in most situations), and something the Cal offense might not have been able to do.

Anyways, the purpose of this series is to just show the casual fans some things which they might have missed when they watched the Emerald Bowl on TV, or from the stands, or even after the 528th viewing.  I think this series will be a little less technical than last year's series, but I hope you still find it worth reading.

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In this first part of a twelve post analysis, we're going to look at Miami's defensive strategy on passing downs. 

Here is the pre-snap look below:

This is the second play of the game.  Cal is facing a 2nd and 10.  Cal has 11 personnel on the field (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB).  The QB is in shotgun.  Cal appears to be showing that they are going to pass on this down because the QB is in shotgun, and Cal has 3 WRs on the field (Cal has a very heavy tendency to pass when 3 WRs are on the field).

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Tedford twittered this photo today of work progressing outside his office with the caption:  "Awesome to see the amount of work going on outside my office - bulldozers, dump trucks, massive amounts of dirt being moved! HUGE PROGRESS!!"  Another one after the fold.

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via farm4.static.flickr.com

Concern. That's the state of mind a Cal football fan can find his or herself in during the interminable offseason. There's some giddy anticipation at the potential of great stars breaking out and showing new moves--Darian Hagan this past season, Jahvid Best the year before that, Desean the year before that. Some of us even dream of the great upsets, of going undefeated, of cheering the Cal band on down Colorado Blvd. Boredom and a lot of free time can do that to you.

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#10 - UCLA Goal line stand

#9 - Bryan Anger 72 yard punt

#8 - Shane Vereen TD Run against MSU

#7 - Best Bush Run against Washington.

#6 - Stanford Hook And Ladder

#5 - Oregon Fumbled Punt

#4 - Rudy Carpenter takes a ride on the Pain Train.

#3 - Stanford Goal Line Stand

#2- Rushing The Field After Big Game

Here it is!  The shining moment.  It's taken months.  You've all been holding your breath in wild anticipation.  But we are here.  Finally.  The #1 moment.  What is it?  What could it be?  Is it a touchdown?  Is it a big sack?  Is it a huge run? 

Well you got got!  Because it's not really an on-the-field moment at all.  And this moment kind of lasted several months, if not several years.  Yes, this is perhaps the most important thing to happen to Cal football during the 2008 football season:

1.  THE TREES COME DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Dan Mogulof Must Be Stopped By Any Means Necessary!"

TwistNHook:  This is what I was singing on that fateful September day:

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

For Bak Bak omnipotent reigneth

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

For Bak Bak omnipotent reigneth

Hallelujah

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