Don't forget to fill out a report card for the Cal-USC game! We will post the uplifting results this weekend.
Despite finally completing over 60% of his passes for most of the game, Maynard managed to turn in the worst performance of his career last night. Tedford remains hopeful that his young quarterback will turn things around.
On the team mistakes:
"Mistakes, turnovers, you can't beat a good football team like USC when you turn the ball over five times. There is no question that there were some good things, but some things need to be improved. I don't doubt their focus whatsoever. Maybe sometimes with little things like ball handling, we are focusing too much. We run the fly sweep all the time in practice and the ball is never on the ground. We just need to trust our fundamentals and get back to work. We just need to find a way to put it all together. There were flashes of good things, but we need to put that together."
On the second half:
"On certain plays the rush was pretty fierce in the first half. As the learning happens with Zach (Maynard), he plays much better in the second half. He made a lot of plays in the second half. There were some plays he got fooled in coverage. The good thing is that everybody tried to compete really hard in the second half. They came out and moved the ball up and down the field. We just turned the ball over too much."On QB Zach Maynard:
"The speed of the game inside is fast. That is as fast as it is going to happen. In my eyes, Zach was feeling better with the speed of the game. We just need to get him to eat the ball some of the time. He can't do much about his fumble, and Keenan (Allen) was fighting for extra yards. The interceptions down deep really hurt. They gave them a short field when I thought our defense was playing really well."On the speed of the game:
"Any young quarterback, which I would put Zach in that category, with the speed of the game we play in, is going to need to adjust. With a guy like him, as competitive as he is, with the composure he has, he will get it. He will get used to the speed of the game, he made a lot of plays in the second half. We are going to improve on this; that is the key. You need to learn when to eat it and when to throw it away; not every play is going to be perfect."
After the jump Monty talks about expectations for the basketball team and if Tedford is fired in the near future he could be replaced by...Mike Leach?
Football
- Should Tedford be fired in the near future, an ideal replacement would be...Mike Leach?! It's not as far-fetched as it seems.
- SFGate recaps the game. They also include a photo gallery.
- JO recaps the Bears' 8th straight loss to USC.
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Marvin Jones has been playing with torn ligaments in his hand(s). No idea if it's on both hands or one.
- CalSportsDigest.com recaps the game.
- With the nation's eyes on Cal, the Bears were blown out once again.
- Monte Poole pens a column on how the Bears are once again struggling at the QB position.
- On the eve of the first practice, Faraudo talks to Monty about the teams weaknesses and strengths as well as some injury updates.