Today, we have very intriguing matchup. Running backs Coach Ron Gould versus former Cal Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien.
You can view the entire bracket here.
The voting ends this Friday at noon. Full write ups after the jump. GO BEARS!
Coach Ron Gould (1)
Entering his 15th year at Cal, Coach Gould has proven himself repeatedly to be one of the best in the business. Cal's ground attack has been one of the consistent strengths of the team for the past decade. When combined with solid line play and competent quarterbacking, the results have been a dominant running game. He's done it with blue chip talent and with little-known prospects that no one else wanted. Here are the running backs that he's sent to the NFL:
Tarik Smith - 7th Round, (Dallas) 1998
Adimchinobe Echemandu - 7th Round, No. 208(Cleveland) 2004
J.J. Arrington - 2nd Round, No. 44(Arizona) 2005
Marshawn Lynch - 1st Round, No. 12(Buffalo) 2007
Justin Forsett - 7th Round, No. 233(Seattle) 2008
Jahvid Best - 1st Round, No.30(Detroit) 2010
Shane Vereen - Projected 3rd round 2011
And let's not forget Big Game hero Joe Igber, or all the walk-on fullbacks that he developed into solid players: Chris Manderino, (also played 3 years in the NFL), Will Ta'ufo'ou, Byron Storer, and Brian Holley. As good as he is as a position coach in teaching balance, ball security, and fundamentals, he might do his best work and building character.
The hallmark of a Ron Gould-coached back is a complete player who can block as well as run and receive. Players are taught that details matter and learn to maximize their talents instead of solely relying on raw physical gifts. He's been deservedly promoted to Associate Head Coach and this year also carries the title of Running Game Coordinator.
Chancellor Tien (9)
Known for his "Go Bears!" spirit, Tien was very popular with students, often showing up at student rallies and sporting events wearing his "Cal" baseball cap. He was not uncommonly sighted picking up trash in Sproul Plaza, appearing in the library in the middle of the night during finals week, or checking up on students in the residence halls and classrooms.He was the eighth Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley (1990-1997), the first Asian to head a major university in the United States.
Tien was an expert in thermal science and researched on thermal radiation, thermal insulation, microscale thermal phenomena, fluid flow, phase-change energy transfer, heat pipes, reactor safety, cryogenics, and fire phenomena, authoring more than 300 research journal and monograph articles, 16 edited volumes, and one book.
From LeonPowe: I think more than any other post-FSM Chancellor, Chancellor Tien was the embodiment of the campus spirit. He not only fought vigoriously to protect the academic strength of the University, while being the first Chancellor since the FSM to support the idea of top flight athletics co-existing harmoniously with Cal's reputation as one of the top universities in the world. I first met Chancellor Tien at the Chancellor's reception my freshman year in the Fall of 1992. He was actually talking to about 30 freshmen about his time at Louisville - he said the reason he earned his BS, MS and then PhD in such fast time (Louisville, then Princeton) is because he was so poor as an international student, he only had one bowl of plain rice to eat a day, and he wanted to get into the work force so that he could afford to eat! Once Tien got to Cal, he didn't waste any time. Starting as an associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering in 1959 at the age of 23, three years later he became the youngest professor in Cal history to win the Distinguished Teaching Award. From there he moved on to becoming a full professor, Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Vice Chancellor of Research - two years at UC Irvine as executive Vice Chancellor, before returning to Cal as Chancellor in 1990.
While he was a unversity administrator for much of his career, at his heart he remained a professor and a mechanical engineer. He continued to teach classes while he was the Cal Chancellor, while his expertise on heat transfer technology was significant in solving some of the Space Shuttle cereamic tile issues.
During his time as Chancellor, Cal was undergoing a lot of changes - the two biggest the regents of the University of California banning affirmative action and the other being an 18% budget cut. In order to preserve Cal's diversity - Tien began the ambitious program "The Berkeley Pledge" aimed at pushing students from economically disadvantaged areas towards a college (and Cal) education, while to combat the budget cuts and retain the young professors who would usher Cal into the next century, he began a program called "The Promise of Berkeley - Campaign for the New Century" which raised a then-unheard of 1.44 billion dollars for the University (including my $100/year!)
But more than that, the man loved Cal. I'm not alone in having seen him pick up trash while walking around campus. I'm not the only student to have eaten his fresh baked cookies while he walked around Moffitt during Finals with a big box, exhorting us "STUDENTS! STUDY HARD! GO BEARS!" As a big basketball fan (he used to claim that if he had grown taller than his 5'4", he would've gone on to play professionally in Taiwan), he would occasionally get into the layup line with the Cal team. In fact, if you watch the end of the Cal-Duke game, while Coach K is walking off the court, Chancellor Tien comes over to shake his hand, and Coach K is VERY confused as to why this random Chinese guy with a Cal hat is on the court. Stories like him changing his flight returning from a University Presidents and Chancellors Conference to catch Cal vs. Kansas football. Him leading the 1-2-3 Go Bears! cheers at rallies, on the sidelines, the man's spirit was infectious. Unfortunately for Cal and the world at large, Chancellor Tien was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2000, three years after he retired as Cal's chancellor. He passed away at the age of 67 in 2002.
If anyone could truly truly be a Golden Bear, Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien was that guy. Go Bears!