Uncle Ted believes the Bears will be better prepared against the pistol in this weekend's duel.
California 30, UCLA 24: Cal is tough at home and it should have a far better understanding of the pistol offense after the hard lesson it learned at Nevada.
Four out of five CBS writers expect Cal to win.
Attendance prediction: UCLA usually brings a good turnout of fans. The models predict between 68.5k and 72k. Attendance has been quite low this season, so I'll take the lowest estimate: 68,558.43.
After the jump everyone Galas replaces Guarnero at first-team center during practice, UCLA media outlets talk about this weekend's matchup, Kevin Prince returns to practice while Nelson Rosario sits on the sidelines, and Keenan Allen says he's finally 100%.
Football
- Dominic Galas has been taking first-team snaps over Guarnero, though it's unclear if this is because Guarnero is injured. Despite being fans of the Giants and Cardinals, Tedford will be watching Nebraska-Kansas St instead of baseball playoffs this evening.
- Jon Crawford, one of Pappy Waldorf's former players, reminisces about Homecoming Week and the UCLA matchup.
- Whether the Cal and UCLA defenses decide to show up is among Ted Miller's "What to Watch" this week.
- Cal is ninth in Wilner's Pac-10 power rankings.
- Keenan Allen, now fully healthy, should have a more central role in the offense this weekend.
- BearTerritory.net interviews BruinBlitz.com about this weekend's matchup in Strawberry Canyon. Not surprisingly, it's unclear which UCLA team will show up this weekend.
- The Daily Cal talks to the Daily Bruin about the football monopoly in Los Angeles, the close game against the Cougs, the Bruin Pistol, and more. Eli of the Daily Bruin predicts a 23-20 final score, but he doesn't indicate which team wins...
- Jeff Tedford says discipline is key to defending the UCLA pistol offense.
- Johnathan Franklin has been key to the surging Bruins running game. Stopping him will be essential for the Cal defense.
- Kevin Prince has returned to practice. His knee isn't fully recovered, but Prince says it's "well enough to play on." He says he'll be 100% by Saturday. WR Nelson Rosario will miss this weekend's game with a bum ankle.
- Freshman Owamagbe Odighizuwa (heavily recruited by Cal last year) will start at DE for the Bruins to give the unit more depth.
- After letting Best and Vereen run all over them the last two years, the UCLA defense knows it has to shut down the Cal running game in order to have a chance to win.
- Marshawn Lynch has joined Justin Forsett and the Seattle Seahawks.
- Daily Cal features some of Cal's defensive standouts in this week's look at former Bears in the NFL.
- DeSean Jackson stars in ESPN's new NFL Countdown commercial:
Baseball
- Supporters of Cal baseball (and other sports recently cut) will hold a rally at 9:30 am at Evans Diamond on Saturday. Several former Cal and major league baseball players will attend to talk to fans and do interviews with the media.
- Rivals previews the seasons of several of the nation's top baseball programs, including Cal. The Bears have enough talent to make it to Omaha this season and more than enough motivation.