It's time for another set of match-ups in the second round of the CGB Hall of Fame. Today we have two recent football players going up against each other. Jahvid Best came here by beating Cameron Jordan quite easily with 85% of the vote, while Bryan Anger held on to best Harper Kamp by only 3 votes.
These two guys ought to be very familiar to everyone around these parts, but just in case, Jahvid was probably the most electric back that Cal has ever had and turned in some epic performances thanks to his blazing speed and shifty moves. Meanwhile Anger developed into a premiere punter and special teams weapon that not only got him noticed by the NFL, but also drafted by the Jaguars in the 3rd round.
I think that Jahvid will advance here, but Anger took out Kamp so maybe he has another upset in him. Whoever the winner is here will move on to face the winner of the Mychal Kendricks/ Kirk Everist match-up here in the Pete Newell Region. You can look at the full bracket here. The full write-ups are after the jump and the voting ends on Friday. GO BEARS
(3) Jahvid Best
Jahvid Best - Cal Football - Jim Rome Is Burning 11/4/2009 (via calbearsgobig)
Here are some thoughts from the CGB Remembering the Seniors post:
Best seems to always have one mode: Fast. He ran fast. He cut fast. He caught fast. He leapt fast. He even interviewed fast. He's the prototypical Internet-generation athlete!
He was a one man instrument of warfare, like that sniper in Saving Private Ryan. In a blink of an eye, he took teams out of games. We can count the games, the names, the teams he left burning on the turf in his wake. CSU '08. Wazzu '08. Furd '08. Washington '08. Miami '08. Maryland '09. Minnesota '09. UCLA '09. Opposing fans probably felt a little helpless once the Jet found the seams and broke loose--it was hardly a fair fight once Xs and Os crumbled into the 100 m dash.
I don't think I've ever seen a football player take over a football game by himself the way Jahvid did with the liabilities he had to nurse from everyone. He was hampered with a generally weak offensive line (especially in the interior) and a terribly hamstrung quarterback situation. Even Desean had a fairly accurate Longshore throwing to him much of his career. Best had to win many games on his own (and when I say on his own, he generated around 70 to 80% of their meaningful offense, sometimes even more). The only Bear who had to burden that much of the load in modern times was probably Deltha, and those teams still stunk. One player can't make a team great; it's to Jahvid's credit that he kept the offense running alright with minimal help (Ta'ufo'ou, Mack and Malele in '08, and mmmaybe Summers-Gavin in '09).
Jahvid Best 2009 Season Highlights (via HANDSOMElifeOFswing)
(11) Bryan Anger
Cal Football: Bryan Anger Highlights - P#19 (via calathletics)
iVinishe: The first football game I had ever watched was 2008 Michigan State @ Cal. I had absolutely no idea how football worked; in fact, I remember wondering why we kept giving the ball to that Best guy when he clearly wasn't scoring. This game was also Cal's introduction to Bryan Anger, punter extraordinaire. To my naive mind, Anger was clearly the best guy on our team.
Over the next 4 years, Anger went on to become the most outstanding punter in the nation. Other punters occasionally averaged a yard more for a season here and there, but only Anger had the ability to make an entire stadium go "WOW." From 2009-2011, Anger garnered First Team All-Pac-10/12 honors for three straight seasons, and set the all-time Cal single season punting record with an average of 43.5 yards/punt.
This spring, he goes into the NFL Draft as one of the top punters of his class.
Before that fall day, I had no idea people could kick balls that high, or that far. To this day, I'm still not sure people can. I've watched quite a bit of football at all levels since that day, and I still haven't seen anyone who can match a well-placed Anger bomb. He is, quite literally, a game-changer, and there has been some element of truth to jokes of our punter being the best (or at least, most outstanding), player on our team for the past 4 years
NFL Draft Preview: Bryan Anger (via FoxSports)