Pistol Whipped Deja Vu: Cal-Nevada 9.1.12 Report Card

Well that was a lot of fun wasn't it? Actually, judging by your responses for the report card, nobody is happy about how things went down last Saturday at re-opened Memorial Stadium, but everyone did seem to agree that the new facilities are wonderful. So that's something we can all be happy about.

As you might expect, people are pretty upset about the coaching situation and even some of the most ardent Tedford backers are now wondering if his time has passed him by. Plenty of comments about the need for a coaching change.

Thanks for all who took the time to submit a response, even in the depths of their frustration and anger. We had over a hundred, which is a great count to start the season. We're Cal fans, so we'll muddle through like we always do and keep supporting our Bears, even in the tough times. You can check out all of the usual features of the report card including your comments after the jump. Also, a reminder to please leave a handle if you want your comments used. You can still vote without a handle, but if you don't have a handle your comments will not be included. GO BEARS!

Category	Average Score	Standard Deviation
Pass Offense	.433	.195
Rush Offense	.260	.171
Pass Defense	.246	.180
Rush Defense	.237	.169
Special Teams	.425	.241
Coaching	.163	.170
Overall	.245	.156
Win likelihood vs S. Utah	.743 (-23.7%)	.291

Berkelium97: Welcome back to the report card, Cal fans. I wish we could meet under better circumstances. We could have won the first couple games, pumped way too much sunshine, and then come crashing back down to earth like we always do. I miss those good times, don't you? It looks like its resigned mediocrity from here on out.

Look at those grades on the right. Those are just terrible. Straights Fs all the way through. And these aren't those "well, you tried but you just don't understand" kind of Fs. These are some "are you sure you're even in the right class?" kind of Fs.

Even our predictions for the Southern Utah game have taken a severe nosedive. If Southern Utah notches the upset next weekend, let's just cancel the rest of the season. Does that sound okay?

Editor's Choice Award:

James Dyson Award for Excellence

This goes to alpha1906, whose response in every category was "sucked." Asked how likely it is we'll beat the Thunderbirds, alpha said "sucks." I'm not sure if that means Cal sucks or SUtah sucks. Probably a little bit of both.

Now let's move onto the usual awards.

First up we have Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers, awarded to those with the highest overall scores.

Tedford's Sunshine Pumpers	Net Score, Percentage
1. hmph	4.20, 60.0%
2. Cali Goldentriton	3.70, 52.9%
3. Marshawn Rodgers	3.60, 51.4%
4. cheesinvert	3.55, 50.7%
5. dbromon	3.50, 50.0%

hmph leads the way with the only passing total grade in the entire report card! May you all continue to pump the sunshine in what could be a very up-and-down season.

Next we have the Old Blues, who provided the lowest total scores. When we first started this report card series several years ago, I used to throw away submissions that were all 0s since they were usually trolls. Now they are usually legitimate report cards. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about that.

Old Blues	Net Score, Percentage
1. BALLZ	0.00, 0.0%
1. Aaro	0.00, 0.0%
1. SoCal Oski	0.00, 0.0%
1. discountdblcheck	0.00, 0.0%
5. sacman701	0.50, 7.1%

Finally, we have the Voice of Reason, given to those whose submissions were closest to the group average.

The Voice of Reason	Total Deviation
1. 1988goldenbear	.069
2. Timmypufs	.084
3. huiecm	.094
4. Jacob s.	.095
5. chicagoz	.095

1988goldenbear picks right up where he (she?) left off last season. Will anyone prove to be more reasonable as the season wears on?

And now let's see what you had to say about the game:

Gameday Experiences

GBB4188: Drink away the sadness

gbear: terrible, what a horrible team, fan base, and stadium. please lord let us seceede from the pac 12 and join the womens indoor football league.

DancingBear: Facilities don't win games

Oski Disciple: Other than the game it was great

Torrey's Tacos: Great to be back on campus! Beats the hell out of AT&T.

rollonyoubears111: The reno looked really good. The Levi Strauss plaza was a nice place to bring our kid at half time. At least the grass was certainly greener there. I just wished that they sold booze to drown away my sorrows. The Nevada fans were not as rowdy as I wanted them to be. They were kinda nice, so the loss could've been more painful if the fans of the opponents were crappy- but they weren't.

francois dillinger: great looking stadium.

cheesinvert: nice new stadium, same old bears

Rose Bowl Oski: The beautiful new stadium was the only highlight.

oldblue83: great stadium/terrible play by talented team.

ososdeoro: The stadium is spectacular, the team renovation must be part of Phase III

Mallrat92204: The new stadium is amazing, top notch job on that by the admin. It's too bad the team wasn't also

Pass Offense

The Onion Knight: 2 TDs to true freshmen is nice. Maynard had a couple inaccurate throws, but the pass offense is not what lost us this game.

JABear: Where to begin. Bridgford was a huge disappointment, and Maynard played like Maynard. Also, Keenan Allen needs new shoes, he was slipping all over the place.

puresilence: Passable, but Maynard still has some holes in reads and passing to the right. Guess now we know why Bridgford doesn't start

Nuts: Nevada's quarterback was so much better than Maynard

Taf42: @#$!ing awful. Is it wrong to say that Maynard is a lost cause?

SoCal Oski: Sigh. Maynard is who we feared he was, and that seems to be all he ever will be. When a kid making his sixth start (I think) outplays a senior, that is just sad. And it is just sad to have to resort to praising a few good plays from a QB with experience, and whom everyone from the coach to the waterboy was praising to heaven during the camps. Faith in QB = 0

fuzzywuzzy: Hit and miss; On the bright side, Tedford shows he can pick the best QB we have to be the starter. On the dark side, the best QB we have isn't all that good. Looked like decent pass protection, for the most part. Too many dropped passes, too.

boomtho: Bridgeford was... frustrating. Not only did we start with AB, but Tedford seemed fine to go pass happy, though that didn't work. Maynard was better, though it's incredible to me as a senior that he can't be more accurate. We also fell into the "hell just throw it to KA" trap a few times. Developing a solid #2 receiver will be key this year. Treggs/CJA had some drops that were unfortunate.

Run Offense

mrjpar: Dismal.

Grumpybear: Meh we need a better oLine

hmph: Did Sofele also miss tutoring? Should've been used more.

texashaterforlife: Remeber how Cal started winning last season when we ran the ball more, specifically power running, cuz I guess the coaches forgot.

Vincent S: We had one? It was fine when we ran. We didn't run very often.

VandyImport: We just don't have it to run inside. Marshawn and JJ and Justin and Jahvid and Shane aren't running out of that tunnel.

Darkwind19: It didn't "feel" great at the game, as the OL didn't seem to be opening any holes, ever, but wasn't there some stat last year that the team was significantly more successful when running the ball more than they passed? It seemed like the play calling gave up on the run really quickly, as evidenced by 38 pass attempts vs. 20 rush attempts by the RBs. Despite the lack of holes, the RBs still managed to average 4+ YPC.

1988goldenbear: O-line needs to make holes. And the pass offense has to be more effective so we don't face 9 in the box all season.

Now let's take a quick break and look back at the game, from the players' entrance to the stadium, all the way to the bitter end.

Cal Football: Nevada Recap - 9/1/12 (via calathletics)

Pass Defense

crystallogrobear: Terrible. Every pass was caught. Every third and long converted. Must our defenders only hit their receivers after they've come down with the ball?

chicagoz: too many Nevada 3rd down conversion

MJB: We should try to have one next time

bluehenbear: While filling out this survey, Fajardo just completed another 3rd and long. arch.

TedfordIsGoneNow: we couldn't cover anything underneath. Was pretty bad. But, they had a lot of size and their guys made a lot of good grabs. WE NEED TO BLITZ MORE AND ATTACK QBs

oskisunbear: Hard to judge, the corners weren't playing very tight because they were too worried about containing the pistol, Fajardo nailed nearly every target.

Oski4Heisman: Our defense looked absolutely LOST. Way too many mistakes and penalties. Reminded me of a Holmoe-coached team.

Run Defense

hardtobecalfan: how do we still not learn how to defend the pistol running game?! this is insanity.

Unhappy Blue: No penetration on the DL. They just sit and react. What happened to the aggressive run defense? Poor reads on the run option allowed the QB to run wild.

dbromon: they got burned on the pistol, like I thought they would. It did seem like they figured it out in the 2nd half.

Timmypufs: Pistol offense still runs it a bunch guys - did they not cover that in the prep?

huiecm: running QB = doom

CareBear: Could stop a JV high school team.

Darkwind19: Not great, but better than Nevada 2010 and UCLA 2011. Actually held them under their season average from last year. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of covering the passing game.

The Onion Knight: The d-line was awful bar Barr. Tiopti and Coleman especially were disappointing.

Special Teams

OskiPower: Well, the returns were a bit better. No more Anger Smash, but Leninger was at least decent filling in.

Cali Goldentriton: Idk what that last kickoff was all about (was he even looking on that lateral?), but we did a pretty good job for the most part kicking, returning, and kicking. Could've used that FG.

EECS_bear: Hide your eyes!

carp: Keenan letting that ball roll to the 2 didn't help

CareBear: Except for the missed FG. They played great. Also the last trick play on the KO. Horrible execution.

SanMateoBear: Good kick offs. Crappy return blocking schemes. That lateral at the end will be good for laughs for a long time.

royrules22: Leiniger is good. FG are still weird

crazedfan: A missed field goal is always disappointing, but kick and punt returns were good, and I feel we're in a solid place with our new punter. NO MORE RUGBY KICKS.

And before we get to the two sections where people were the most worked up and had the most to say, let's all take a deep breath and remember one of the better moments from the game.

Cal vs Nevada / September 1, 2012 / 4th Quarter (via John Jacob)

Coaching

alpha1906: hella sucked

Dawgfan pulling for Cal: Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. The Cal players were undisciplined and lacked focus. There is no excuse for that. There is no brand new system being installed. The two deep was not relying entirely on untested players. The Cal roster was infinitely more talented than Nevada at every position. That piss poor play is 100% on the coaches. Maybe 75% coaches and 25% environment. Either way, they get paid way too much for those results. If I am Sandy Barbour, I am calling the talent firm to begin the coaching search.

Fire Tedford: Fire Tedford

c98: Fire Tedford. Fire Tedford. Fire Tedford. Fire Tedford. Fire Tedford.

fr: time for a new coaching staff. Years overdue. With the money we are spending why can't we get someone like the head coach at Oregon (not the junior coach)?

FiatLux: Abysmal. Tedford has lost me. One play speaks volumes. 5 minutes left in the game. 3rd and 16 from our own 6. And we call a delay draw. An absolute gutless play call. I know we joke about this, but I guess he was playing not to lose which set us up to lose. Absolutely awful play call.

dgh911t: Tedford Needs to Go

CALiforniALUM: I don't even know where to start. Taking a step back and looking at the overall significance of this game to CAL football does the coach really think this was the time to 1) punish the QB for a missed tutoring session only to back it up with a blanket lockdown on the decision 2) a new offense, really, we never mastered the first offense rolled out under these coaches.

prd74: 60,000 disappointed fans - not good. In every other sport, Sandy has not kept a coach who was not winning (i.e. Nort Thorton). Regardless of what she said, I think yesterday was the tipping point.

crazedfan: Awful. Tedford let his entire team down with his decision to sit Maynard for 3 series, not even a whole quarter. Bridgford was clearly unprepared and not ready to play, and by that point, Cal was already down 14-0. If this keeps up, Tedford will be looking for a new job in the spring.

Overall Performance

slaphancock: It's nice the stadium was full so that our team could introduce a whole new generation to the heartbreak that is Cal football. I AM glad that it wasn't a blowout, which is what I feared at first.
Bear in Chicago: Tedford got Cal from Point C to Point B. He is incapable of taking us to Point A. A nice guy, but he's got to go.

hardtobecalfan: i've been sentimentally attached to tedford, but this is it for me. you compare nevada's crisp execution to our sloppy play and i think the head coach deserves the blame. i know he tries hard, but he just doesn't have the magic anymore and we deserve better.

JABear: Historic day, textbook loss. Outplayed in every way. I hate to say the other team wanted it more, but it certainly felt that way.

Jacob s.: Invite the 49's to take over the stadium

rollonyoubears111: The young men were not prepared. When Tedford was saying stuff about the heat, I was about to throw my shoe out of a moving vehicle. Luckily, my frontal lobe (the one that brought me to med-school and make low risk/high yield decisions, took over. I think maybe we should find out how to get the same jersey's and helmets the Nevada team members wore so that our players could be a lot more comfortable. Ok, that was a joke that was influenced by 2 pints on an empty stomach.

SadTrollBear: (after having listed each other comment as "awesome" or "totes awesome") sad bear is sad - had to resort to over the top sarcasm :( we got outplayed & outcoached, nothing more to say

RadChad: If there was a game Cal needed to win, it was this one. All-in-all, the team spoiled a grand re-opening that could have been a huge milestone in the University's history.

EDHgldnBear: Lacking inspiration, polish - almost arrogant in appearance - as if they expected the opponent not to compete