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By Jonathan Okanes
Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 9:47 pm in off-season stuff.
Last season’s second-half slide apparently hasn’t turned off Cal’s student body.
Cal sold out its student section season tickets last Wednesday. Those tickets didn’t sell out last year until Aug. 1, and Aug. 6 the year before that.
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July 29th, 2008 at 12:17 am
How are season ticket sales overall? Is the Michigan state game expected
to sell out? Last years opener against Tennessee sold out, but that was largely because of the huge number of Vols fans (seemed like at least 10,000) who traveled here. Without all the hype the Tenn. “revenge” game had, I kind of doubt a sellout. Cal’s recent openers against lightweight competition (Sac State, Minnesota) were not well attended. Actually, Michigan State should be a good test to start the season with. I predict about 63,000 unless Spartan fans travel really well or Tedford announces Riley as the starting QB. That would put some additional butts in the stands.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Steve, How many people in Concord are not from the bay area? I know a lot, so there’s bound to be a few thousand MSU alumni in the area. That was also the case of the Vols fans. I met several on Bart on the way to the game.
Season ticket sales are slower than last year. That doesn’t mean that people won’t buy tickets in the weeks heading into the games. It isn’t like people are excited about the A’s or Giants this year.
Then, there’s the reality that the Vol fans bought up tickets, when they were first available to the general public. There might be some casual Cal fans who will buy tickets in August for this game, and the Stadium will be packed.
If Cal alumni and/or fans do not come, because Riley isn’t behind center, then this is one fan who doesn’t want to see their fair-weather butts in the stands. They need to get their facts right by looking at all the numbers for Longshore. Check out Danzig’s “Nate Longshore, Getting the record straight” at CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com. It might be a little to heavy for the faint of heart, but Nate ain’t that bad.
I’ve got enough man-love for Kevin and Nate. Go Bears!
Gold out, Memorial!
July 29th, 2008 at 10:23 am
JanKOski
Saw your comments about Longshore and Riley. I completely agree with you on this one. There was unfortunately a contingent of fans that were unwilling to look at the fact that there were more reasons than Longshore for why Cal collapsed last year. While I think Riley is a real player, I would be more than comfortable if a healthy Longshore was in there. Some ignore that he was the QB for a 10 win season the year before, and a 5-0 start before his injury. I’m not privey to whether he manipulated himself into later starts when he was injured, or Tedford was willing to risk it based on his greater experience. Riley, though a very good Quarterback, did have the unfortunate lapse at the end of the OSU game. But Cal’s problems in my mind had as much to do with a porous defense, and an unusually bad special team, with poor kicking and punt return coverage. With even mediocre play Cal should have been a 10 win team last year. The other thing that some seem to have forgotten is that Tedford has a good record of filling holes that have seemed large, from Igber to Echemandu, from him to Arrington, from Arrington to Lynch and so forth. Cal seems solid at line and TE, probably set at QB one way or the other, and odds are decent that they’ll have good receivers, if not the level of last year’s group, perhaps. The 3-4 scheme on defense is at least worth trying, as the 4-3 was a disaster, but I have questions about the DB situation. Also, I haven’t heard much about significant improvements in special teams, although the new punter is supposed to be good, and I’d heard that there was a kicker walk on that could put it out of the end zone, which was a problem getting done last year. But, it’s nearly football season, there is hope for the training facility, or at least movement in that direction, I can almost hear the Band marching up through the campus, so all is right in this Bear fan’s world.
Best wishes, and I enjoy your posts.
Regards,
July 29th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Hey JO, this is off topic, but do you know anything about late ’07 commit OT Donovan Edwards from DVC? It is nice to see a local making the team. Go Bears!
July 29th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Jan K.–
I certainly hope your are correct and the Mich. State game is a sell out. The game will be nationally televised and Memorial Stadium looks a lot nicer when the stands are full and those end zone tarps are gone. It’s just that most of Cal’s non-conference games have not been well-attended and Michigan State is not the draw that Tennessee was last year. I also met some Vols fans on BART last year, but they had all come from Tennessee. In fact, I bought a 50 yard line seat on E-Bay from three students from Tennessee who had bought up four donor tickets and needed to sell off the extra one. We met up at the Bear’s Lair for the ticket exchange and sat together at the game. They were a bit stunned and depressed at the outcome. I’m not saying you are wrong, and there is no way to know for sure, but my guess is that 90% of the people in the designated visitors sections were either from Tennessee or outside the Bay Area. If there were other Vols fans mixed in among us (as were my 3 student seat-mates) that only means there were less Cal fans in the house. I hope I am wrong and the game is a sold-out gold-out, with only a smattering of green algae among the golden sea of Cal fans. P.S. I made out like a bandit on the ticket as it was a last-minute pickup only purchase. I sold off my Gold Zone season ticket just before game time and the up-grade only cost me about $50. I saw that they had paid about $350 apiece for them. I guess they had wealthy parents.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I just want to add to my previous post that I am looking forward to the time when we don’t need significant numbers of opponenents fans, wherever they may come from, to achieve sell-outs on a regular basis. Unfortunately we haven’t achieved that status yet.
Regarding Riley’s fan appeal, sometimes I wonder where the enthusiasm level would be had Tedford left Longshore in the Air Force game, leading to a loss. Fan moral was pretty low at the end of the regular season, with many questioning if we should even accept the bowl bid. It was Riley’s performance in the bowl game, more than the win itself, that re-energized the fan base. My guess is that Tedford’s statement about both QB’s getting playing time in the opening games, is a prelude to easing Riley into the starting job later in the season.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
SIC,
I think Tedford is assuring that both QBs will be there at CAL for the 2008 season. If you hand the starting job to Longshore for his senior season, Riley may transfer and in 2009 Tedford has to start from scratch at QB. If Riley is declared the starter in spring or beginning of fall camp, Longshore may transfer to a D-1AA school for his senior year. If you tell them both they may start the first game, they both stay.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Big D, If Riley is a RS Sophomore, doesn’t he have 3 years to play? If so, Riley still would have 2 years to play, if he were to lose the competition after the departure of Nate. Am I wrong? I’m using Scout.com eligibility graph, and it has been wrong before, so I’m looking for clarity. This RS stuff has always been confusing to me. Go Bears!
July 30th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Jan-
I had the same thoughts myself. Riley does still have another two years of eligibility left after this season so I doubt he would transfer even if he wasn’t made the starter. He also knows that Longshore is an injury waiting to happen and that the starting job is probably his next year. I think Tedford just wants to take his time and make the right decision. Giving both QB’s a lot of reps and some game experince is a good idea given Longshores injury history and Riley’s inexperience.