Want to watch the UCLA-Arizona pillowfight? Use this as your open thread!
Will Cal ever be clearly favored again? We certainly are not this week.
- Ted Miller picked Utah to win. That's it! Game over, man! Game over!
Utah 24, California 21: This pick is based in large part in the belief that the Bears will be missing two starting linebackers, most painfully leading tackler Mychal Kendricks (shoulder). That will help the Utes establish the run, which in turn will make life easier for QB Jon Hays.
UTAH (plus-1) at CAL: Critical game for the Bears and matchup of two QBs trying to find their footing. Cal’s defense stops Utah more often than Utah’s defense stops Keenan Allen. Pick: Cal.
- Two out of three of Yahoo's experts (as well as a majority of their readers) pick Cal to win.
- WhatIfSports.com simulated the game Utah averaged 23.9 points while Cal managed 22.1. The Utes won 59.4% of the matchup. The box score indicates that each team turns in a near-identical performance.
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Cal fans give us a 50.3% chance of winning while 56% of the Pac-12 community thinks Utah will win.
After the jump Kendricks and others return to practice and Isi Sofele prepares to play against many of his friends on the Utah team. Plus, use this thread to discuss all the UCLA-Arizona action!
Football
- ESPN ranked the coaches in the nation with the hottest seats. Of interest to Cal fans, Mike Riley is no. 6 and the game that could save/cost him his job is none other than the visit to Cal on November 12th. Tedford is an "honorable" mention on the list.
- JO reports from Tuesday's practice. There is still no word on when Marc Anthony will return to practice. The offense, meanwhile, are preparing to contend with one of the conference's best rushing defenses.
- JO reports from Wednesay's practice. Tedford, unaware of who was playing in the World Series, recognizes Utah's defensive front as one of the better units the Bears will see this season.
- BearTerritory has some injury updates: Brendan Bigelow practiced without his knee brace on Wednesday. Mychal Kendricks, Chris McCain, and Dave Wilkerson were all sporting yellow jerseys instead of red ones. Marc Anthony graduated from being in a sling on the sidelines to wearing a red jersey.
- The Utes have also been struggling in the red zone, though our struggles pale in comparison to theirs. They are 118th in the nation in red zone efficiency.
- The Utes are also experiencing issues at quarterback. With some of these articles, you could remove all team and player names and they could apply to either team!
- What to watch this week? Maynard vs Hays: the winner will likely go home with a victory.
- JO brings up our favorite, tired, old armchair coaching question: is the offense too complex?
- Salt Lake City native Isi Sofele has plenty of friends on the Utah team. Instead of talking trash, they've been complimenting one another to try to build some overconfidence heading into Saturday's game.
- The winner will have a good shot at making a bowl game; the loser is going to be extremely disappointed to open conference play at 0-4.
- Wilner ranks the easiest Pac-12 conference schedules with Cal being at 12th thanks to road trips to Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State, and Washington. The Bears fall to 8th in Wilner's conference power rankings.
- Marvin Jones reflects on his early days at Cal and some of the challenges he had to overcome.
- C.J. Anderson dedicates his play (and his number 9) to his late high school friend, Mike Pennerman.
- LB commit Hardy Nickerson Jr was selected to play for the US Under-19 National Team.
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