2010 Cal Football Fan Day-4 (via ja_williams)
Kaboom! Greeted by the metallic reminder of all that is right with Cal football, Fan Appreciation Day started in earnest on August 28, 2010. It was a fun late morning/early afternoon interacting with the Cal football team. Fortunately, it was much cooler than last year, which was incredibly hot. The only problem this year? Dodging tents!
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-11 (via ja_williams)
Ya, it was windy! Some more tens nearly took out some of the kickers.
AAALLLLLAAAAMMMMAAAAAAAAAAARR!
Alamar's Final Revenge! But I'll take that over a massive Best/Thompson line that took half the time just to get through it like last year. Join me after the jump to take a closer look at these photos, including some from our good friend turkey. GO BEARS!
When we got in there, some of the QBs were throwing the ball around and just having a fun time:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-9 (via ja_williams)
We have this remarkably stable of QBs. It will be interesting to see who steps up with the impending graduation of Kevin Riley.
The players were coming down from the East side now, as compared to the West side in year's past as they've moved the offices over there. So, we wandered over to the entrance to the field near section QQ and many players were just milling about there. Keenan Allen came out. I'm not sure how many people know his name now, but I figure they will soon enough. I wished him luck in the season. He seemed like a nice guy.
Then, Mark Brazinski and David Seawright came out. Brazinski had cut off his amazingly dyed hair! :( He said that the conditioning regiment was too difficult to manage during fall camp. A pain I can easily understand! I told Seawright that I really enjoyed his writing and he said that it kept the Media Relations on their toes!
Some of the WR/TEs were hanging out there, such as Tevin Carter:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-18 (via ja_williams)
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-17 (via ja_williams)
Spencer Ladner and Anthony Miller, Tight End extraordinaires were also nearby:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-16 (via ja_williams)
Despite his clear resemblance to Erik from True Blood, Spencer Ladner had never actually seen True Blood. Although he had heard of Alex Skarsgard from his role as Meekus in Zoolander. So, there is that.
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-20 (via ja_williams)
More players started coming down the stairs:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-21 (via ja_williams)
Looking forward to big things from Jeremy Ross this year!
I always liked Calvin with the longer hair. Anyway, Riley was quickly mobbed by various fans. It was not quite as crazy as 2008 when he barely made it out of the gate before being stopped and the Cal attendants had to bring a chair and a tent to him (that kinda happened with Mike Mohamed this year!):
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-22 (via ja_williams)
I asked him if he thought we had a shot against UC Davis. He felt with some hard work, dedication, and gumtoitsness we could pull it off! I have to agree. I would ask various players if Cal had a "shot" against UC Davis, mostly for laughs, but some referenced the UC Davis-Stanford game from a few years ago when UC Davis actually beat Stanford. I don't think anybody is looking past UC Davis.
Will Kapp was joking around with fans just a few feet away from Riley:
Austin Hinder, another member of the stable of QBs:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-23 (via ja_williams)
By this point, the line for Coach Tedford was finally set up. So, we headed over there. He always seems so stern and focused when you see him dealing with the media. However, when you see him with the fans, he is always very warm. Joking around. I told him how thankful I was for his stability at Cal. He has the longest tenure of any coach in the Pac10 and I told him that with all the turnover at other Pac10 jobs, it was great to have that stability. He said that he was here to carry it through. I presume he is referring to finishing off the SAHPC, getting a Rose Bowl victory or eight.
Remember when everybody assumed Tedford would bolt Cal for some other greener pasture. It was the Florida job or it was the Chicago Bears job. Coach Tedford is a loyal man and when he starts a job, he sticks with it. I think he wants to be like a Paterno or a Bowden. I hope he does!
I got a photo of Coach Tedford, my wife, and myself, which was great. My three favorite people in the world!
Clearly, Coach Tedford is not adverse to taking photos with large groups of people:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-26 (via ja_williams)
That's a GO BEARS! moment if I ever saw one. Then, we went over to the Seniors Offense line wherein we immediately cut in front of a bunch of kids. Man do we suck. We also bumped into CaliforniaEternal, who is a cool guy. He and turkey had been at the Luncheon in SF last week.
Shane Vereen and Jeremy Ross had their own table outside of the Seniors Offense tent. I wasn't entirely sure why, but I guess they wanted to be in the sun. Jeremy Ross was sorta stuck in no man's land there, because many people were in line to see Vereen and only Vereen. He had been sitting in Vereen's chair and then got booted over one. Just sort of an odd set up:
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-27 (via ja_williams)
Riley was there at the Seniors Offense table. But we had already chatted with him briefly before. Are you allowed to chat briefly with somebody a second time? That was awkward! He was probably thinking "Didn't I see this guy already? What is he doing talking to me again????"
Next to Riley were OLineman and former DVC Viking Donovan Edwards and TE Garry Graffort. Edwards is a friend of the site, insomuch as he has retweeted posts of ours on his very active Twitter. Great guy! And Graffort has that great beard action going on there! I think he should dye his beard to look like Brazinski's hair:
Richard Fisher and Chris Tompek-Guarnero (who is still listed as Chris Guarnero on the roster) were super far away on a separate table. None of this tabling made any sense to me.
2010 Cal Football Fan Day-28 (via ja_williams)
I think everybody found the distance amusing:
Evidence of the name change:
The odd thing about this table configuration was that Vereen and Ross came out after the line formed in front of the Seniors Offense tent. So, a second, separate line formed for Vereen and Ross. That was different than in years past and required waiting in two lines where it was just one line in year's past. Oh well.
Fun time had by all! That is good for now. Keep it locked here for more photos and stories coming soon! GO BEARS!