Today was the weekly press conference with Tedford, Riley, and the media. Here a few highlights:
Tedford on the decision to travel to Minnesota Thursday:
Our emphasis has really been, fly in there, practice, do the same thing we do at the hotel, get up and play, and that's it. That's what we've always done. There's going to be more time now. Maybe if we feel rushed because it's an early morning game or something like that, but the body clock and chemistry, as far as an early game, I don't think had anything to do with it. I still don't. But maybe it's the rush of getting there and hurrying up, and going and going and going, and not having any time to just relax for a second. We'll see. I don't want to be hard-headed about it. We'll do it, and then we'll have something to compare it to and figure out which way is the best.
For those of you who were wondering why Beau and Brock weren't throwing much over the past two weeks:
Yeah, you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. Brock [Mansion] got to throw one pass the week before and Beau [Sweeney] got to throw one pass [against Eastern Washington]. But you're up by 50 points, and if we throw the ball we're going to be deemed as trying to rub things in. I'm getting bad emails for running the ball with a 50-point lead - you know, [they suggest] we should have a taken a knee. You're kind of in a tough position there, because you would like to get them some experience dropping back in the pocket, feeling the pocket and that type of thing, but you're up by 50 points, you can't do it. So to throw a little naked pass or throw a little quick flat route or something like that is what they both threw, it wasn't something down the field or anything. But just to run the offense - manage the clock, get the signals, get to the line of scrimmage, get out of the huddle, those types of things - it's nice that they both have had that type of experience in gametime situations.
After the jump we have Minnesota's press conference, Wilner on how Cal will make it to the Rose Bowl or beyond, an apology to Nate Longshore from the Daily Cal, a special quote of the day from Jim Tressel, and much more.
- Minnesota's press conference today focused on the upcoming game against Cal.
- JO has an article on the decision to fly out Thursday as well as Sofele's reaction to converting to running back. Jon Wilner also talks about the Thursday flight in addition to looking at how the Bears will make it into a BCS bowl.
- The Minneapolis Star Tribune talks about Tedford's change in philosophy on rankings.
- SFExaminer writer James Bucci on the substantial test the Bears face over the next several weeks. Wilner discusses why he thinks Cal will pass the upcoming tests.
- The Daily Cal looks at how Mychal Kendricks' great instincts and athleticism help him fill in the gap left by Worrell Williams and Anthony Felder.
- Joseph Cannon of the Daily Cal apologizes to Nate Longshore for the way he and the fans treated him last year.
Thanks again to chicagoaubear for providing torrents of the Cal-EWU game.
And finally, today's quote of the day from Jim Tressel (from Ohio St's press conference today):
"I haven’t had a game yet where I haven’t had a significant number of decisions or thoughts that we didn’t really critique and see if we could do better."
Read it again. That's right, that's a triple negative in that sentence! Double negatives are unusual, but the triple negative? That's downright Shakespearean! Despite all the criticism for his conservatism in play calling, Tressel is anything but conservative with his syntax.