Golden Nuggets: Colorado Week Press Conference

It's Tuesday which means Tedford and company were talking to reporters at another media luncheon.  Cameron Jordan and Kevin Riley joined Tedford today to talk about Keenan Allen, Boise St's win, the win over UC Davis, and this weekend's matchup against Colorado.  Here's what Tedford said about the matchup against the Buffaloes.

On his memories of Eric Kiesau, the Buffaloes' offensive coordinator and former receivers coach at Cal from 2002-05, and whether he might recognize any Cal influence in Colorado's offense 

"Eric, we had good times here, Eric did a great job while he was here. Conceptually there are some things that they do - not all of it. Over the last few years it's obvious that he's grown and has some new ideas about things. But there are some concepots there that are some that he took from his time here.

On whether it could be an advantage to recognize Cal-inspired aspects of Kiesau's playbook
"Not really. Watching the game [Colorado vs. Colorado State], there wasn't anything glaring that you could say, `This is what they're doing' or anything like that. They've done a nice job of mixing things up." 

Here's what Riley had to say about this week's opponent.

On whether Colorado's future as a fellow conference opponent adds anything to this game

"Yeah, I believe so. I mean, I won't be here for it, but it definitely, you definitely want to show them what they're going to come to in the Pac-10, show them what type of conference we are, how we play football, and I feel Pac-10 gets a bad rap every single year, West Coast football in general. We've just got to show them what Cal football is all about and what the Pac-10's all about. That's all you can really do, and it's exciting because it's kind of a preview - I think this is the only Pac-10 they play in their preseason - for the whole conference as well."

On Colorado's defense
"[They] bring a lot of pressures, bring a lot of field dog and things like that, what I've seen. Like I said, I haven't seen too much film, but what I've seen, they like to bring pressure and mostly they use nickel a lot more than most teams. If you're in a base set they'll have four down linemen, two linebackers and five DBs. So they use their speed, but they bring safeties in the box and they mix it up pretty well." 

After the jump Cal opens as a 7-point favorite over Colorado, Tedford talks about what he saw in the Davis gametape, several other sports enjoy a successful weekend, and more.

Football

• No love for Cal in the polls: Cal gained four points (to 10, good enough for 37th) in the coaches' poll and has not earned a single AP vote.
• Keenan Allen, Mike Mohamed, and Jeremy Ross were nominated for Pac-10 players of the week on offense, defense, and special teams, respectively.
• Cal is favored by 7.5 over Colorado.
• Cal moves up one spot (to sixth) in Ted Miller's Pac-10 power rankings.
• On Ted Miller's Pac-10 Heisman watch, Shane Vereen is at "neutral" following his performance against UC Davis.
• Ted Miller wraps up his Week 1 thoughts and looks ahead to Week 2.  Kevin Riley and several other Pac-10 QBs earned a "smiley face" from Uncle Ted.  The big question this week is whether Pac-10 teams (Cal, USC, Washington) will take care of business against low-level BCS conference foes (Colorado, Virginia, Syracuse) at home.
• Wilner gives Cal an A in its win over UC Davis.  He says even the most skeptical Cal fans should be excited about Keenan Allen, the front seven, and Jeremy Ross.
• CalSportsDigest wraps up the game and wonders whether Allen can replicate his performance against Colorado this weekend.
• After reviewing the Davis tape, Tedford comments on the performances of nearly everyone, from Sweeney to Allen to Coleman.  He's not rushing Allen into things and denied a request from Kyle McRae to have Allen appear on "Coaches Corner."
• Allen wasn't alone in not knowing that interacting with fans is a penalty.  At yesterday's practice Tedford joined the team in a series of up-downs as punishment for not knowing about the penalty.  Jarret Sparks was the only player injured in this weekend's game.  He is day-to-day (ankle sprain) and should play this weekend.  MSG will continue to practice with the second team.