I hope you're all ready for the Poinsettia Bowl in gorgeous San Diego featuring our beloved California Golden Bears taking on the Utah Utes and their 8-game bowl winning streak! Oh I'm sorry, that was 2009. Those were simpler times for all involved. Flash forward to 2010 and Cal is home for bowl season while Utah never recovered from Jordan Wynn's injury against TCU--they lost 3 of their last five (barely notching those two wins) and snapped a nine-game bowl winning streak. And sunny San Diego? It was under a few feet of water yesterday. Sections of Qualcomm's parking lot are unusable and the field was flooded yesterday. The last few months of 2010 have not been kind to last year's Poinsettia Bowl participants. Let's hope similar fates don't strike this year's participants!
Who is playing? 9-3 Navy against 8-4 San Diego State. They both have solid records and these two teams were very close to winning a couple more games. Navy lost its three games by a combined total of 14 points and SDSU lost its four by a combined score of 15 points. The Aztecs nearly upset Missouri, TCU, and Utah.
Why should you care? Admit it, you love the triple option. You wish Cal would work all spring on a triple option with Keenan Allen, Isi Sofele, and Dasarte Yarnway.
This could be the thrilling game we've all been waiting for (except for the two of you who watched the Beef O'Brady's bowl). Navy is 5th in the nation in rushing yards while San Diego State is 11th in passing yards.
Who's going to win? Cal! ESPN's AccuScore has SDSU by less than a point and Scout predicts SDSU by 7.
After the jump we have the usual Golden Nuggets: Kansas takes down Cal in a physical matchup, Bill Self calls his team's behavior ridiculous, and MatlabGeeks calculate Cal as the 6th most overrated football team from 2000 to 2009.
Football
- MatlabGeeks calculate the most underrated and overrated teams from 2000 through 2009. Cal is in 6th behind (in order) Florida State, Tennessee, Michigan, Florida, and Clemson. Boise State, Utah, TCU, Iowa, and Oregon are the top-five (with Washington State in 6th!). They even provide their data and code for others to replicate their results or do other analyses.
- The Miracle in the Meadowlands has a sequel (don't remind Giants fans, though) and a somewhat familiar cast: another Golden Bear as the star. Both Herman Edwards and DeSean Jackson are Cal alumni and both scored miraculous, game-winning TDs over the Giants.
- Over at SBN Bay Area, Avi takes a look at what happened to trigger the scuffle between Jorge Gutierrez and Thomas Robinson.
- Kansas coach Bill Self said his team's behavior was "ridiculous" and promised a stiff punishment for Marcus Morris.
- At the post-game press conference Monty talks about the game's physicality, Cal's shooting woes, and the positives to take away from the loss.
- Faraudo follows along with his usual game thread.