Update: Shane Vereen will appear on "Game Day" on CBS 5 tonight at 11:35. If any of you watch this, the rest of us would really appreciate it if you could let us know how it went, what he said, etc.
Today we look at the return of Dasarte Yarnway, heir apparent to Marshawn Lynch.
Yarnway, who was rated the third-best running back in California by scout.com coming out of Sacred Heart Cathedral High in San Francisco, had high expectations for the 2009 season before he suffered a torn ligament in his right big toe in mid-August. Instead of risking further damage, he elected to have surgery and was redshirted.
Tedford said Yarnway looked fine in Wednesday's scrimmage with other scout team players, carrying the ball five or six times. Yarnway also practiced in noncontact drills Tuesday.
"It was a good reminder of how it feels," Yarnway said. "After you go through a struggle, it's kind of hard to foresee the future. But at the same time, when you do things like this — get back in the groove with your teammates on the field and in the weight room — it reminds you that you can get up off the ground, have perseverance and make it through."
Yarnway began to work out roughly three weeks ago and felt some discomfort. But he said the most difficult part of the process was staying patient, going through rehabilitation and watching his teammates playwithout being able to contribute.
Yarnway already has next year's season-opener against UC Davis on Sept. 4 circled on the calendar, and he hopes to be stronger — mentally and physically — than before.
"Now it's all about confidence and continuing to master the playbook," Yarnway said. "I think the future is going to be very bright."
After the jump we have football tidbits (rankings, bowl projections, Cal favored by 6 over Washington), 20 questions with Jamal Boykin, recaps/analysis of the weekend's games for men's and women's basketball, recaps of the weekend for women's volleyball and men's water polo, and more.
Cal Football
- Cal jumped to 19 in both the BCS the AP rankings and re-emerged at 22 in the coaches' poll.
- Cal is a 6-point favorite over Washington.
- Curtis Pashelka fills in for JO in his coverage of Wednesday night's practice. There is still no timetable for Best's return. Syd sat out practice, but he is expected to return in this week's practices. Pashelka was impressed by a 25-yard TD pass from Ryan Wertenberger to TE Garry Graffort. I thought I knew this team pretty well, but I had no idea Wertenberger was a QB. I thought we just had Riley, Mansion, Sweeney, and Bridgford.
- Ted Miller predicts a Sun Bowl for Cal. Schlabach and Feldman also predict a Sun Bowl, with each anticipating Oklahoma as Cal's opponent.
Cal Basketball
- ESPN polled 88 players to determine who they think would win the NCAA tournament (they couldn't vote for their own teams). Surprisingly, Cal came in seventh in the voting.
- Farudo has twenty unusual questions for Jamal Boykin. He talks about his dream team, when he first could dunk, an interstellar vacation he'd like to take, and why he and Bak Bak aren't going out for zebra steaks anytime soon.
- Despite illness limiting Jorge and keeping MSF out of the game, men's basketball cruised to an 81-60 victory over Princeton. As always, Farudo's game thread is a great look at how the game played out.
- After a sloppy first half, the women's team came out strong in the second half and pulled away to a 78-47 victory over Southern. CALumbus Bear has a great recap of the game. They followed that game up with a 71-83 loss to no. 3 Ohio St in the Ohio Classic title game. Cal led for only fifteen seconds (early in the second half) and spent much of the game trying to catch up. Lexi led the team with 25 points, but it came on 9/24 shooting.
- Farudo writes about how PC's performance is generally a barometer for how well Cal plays in any given game.
- Monty and crew will head to Orlando next Thanksgiving to participate in the 2010 Old Spice Classic, featuring teams such as Boston College, Georgia, Manhattan, Notre Dame, Temple, Texas A&M and Wisconsin.
- After coming back from a 3-1 halftime deficit, no. 3 men's water polo defeated no. 6 UCI 6-5 in the first round of the MPSF Tournament. They followed that match by repaying no. 2 Stanford for last week's loss in a 12-11 OT victory. They lost 7-10 to no. 4 UCLA in the tournament finale. They'll have to wait until Monday to see if they receive an at-large berth to the NCAA championships.
- No. 11 women's volleyball won the first two sets against no. 6 Stanford and had a 20-15 lead in the third set, but Stanford rallied back to win not only the third set, but the fourth and fifth sets too. Today Cal received its NCAA bid as a ninth seed. They open in the Gainesville Regional against Lipscomb on Friday. Should they win, they will go on to face Cincinatti or Ohio State.