Golden Nuggets: Aaron Rodgers Talks Trash Talking Stanford

Men's Gymnastics

Five Bears Earn Academic Honors

BERKELEY - A handful of Golden Bears from the California men's gymnastics team were recognized as All-America Scholar-Athletes by the College Gymnastics Association earlier in July, while the entire team received honorable mention on CGA's national academic team champions list.

Tanner Dowell earned first-team honors for attaining a 3.5 grade point average or higher, while Kevin Tran, Yordan Aleksandrov, Nicholas Del Junco and Kyle Zemeir were named to the second team with GPAs of 3.2 or better.

"Over the three years I've been here, the team GPA has been on the rise every year," said head coach Brett McClure. "The culture has shifted tremendously because of the hard work and dedication from these individuals. These academic scholars deserve every bit of recognition for their individual efforts, as well as the team as a whole."

Women's Tennis

Manasse Falls in Stockton Doubles Final

STOCKTON, Calif. - California's Maegan Manasse has stayed busy during summer break, with the Golden Bear star reaching Saturday's final of the Stockton Challenger at the University of Pacific's Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center. The rising senior teamed up with former UCLA Bruin Robin Anderson to win three matches before falling in the championship match to the fourth-seeded Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Alison van Uytvanck of Belgium, 6-2, 6-3.

Manasse and Anderson advanced to the final when they had a walkover in the Friday semifinal, in which they were supposed to play the top-seeded pair of Americans Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend. In Thursday's quarterfinal, Manasse and Anderson edged Belgium's Greet Minnen and Japan's Riko Sawayanagi, 6-4, 7-6(6). On Wednesday, the round of 16 match was an All-Pac-12 affair, as Manasse and Anderson knocked off former USC Trojans Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria, 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.

Football

Aaron Rodgers talks about trash talking Stanford players.

Muhammad and Watson Doak Walker Candidates

DALLAS - Cal running backs senior Khalfani Muhammad and junior Tre Watson were announced Thursday by the PwC SMU Athletic Forum as preseason candidates for the 2016 Doak Walker Award. The honor is presented annually to the nation's top college running back.

Muhammad has played in 34 games with seven starts over his first three seasons at Cal from 2013-15 and leads all of the team's active players in nearly every offensive and kick return career category including rushing yards (1,246), rushing attempts (207), rushing yards per carry (6.0), receptions (38), yards receiving (439), touchdown receptions (3), total touchdowns (12), points (72), total offense (1,246), all-purpose yards (3,032), kickoff returns (63) and kickoff return yards (1,347). Muhammad also leads all active Cal players with a total of seven plays of 50 or more yards including six from the line of scrimmage. He is coming off the top rushing season of his career as a 2015 junior when he posted career highs of 586 yards, 87 carries and a 6.7 yards per rush average. Muhammad ranks second on Cal's all-time list in both kickoff returns and kickoff return yards. He set single-season school records of 46 kick returns and 1,006 kick return yards as a 2013 freshman.

Watson has played in 23 games with one start over his first two seasons at Cal in 2014 and 2015, and has rushed for 598 career yards on 114 carries (5.7 ypg) with four rushing touchdowns. Watson did most of his damage over the last four games of his 2015 sophomore season when he was Cal's leader in rushing yards in each contest and totaled 359 yards and one touchdown on the ground on 52 carries (6.9 yards per rush) during the stretch. He would finish his sophomore campaign with 504 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the ground on 89 carries (5.7 ypr).