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Football: Cal 30, Washington State 7
By Joe Stiglich
Saturday, November 5th, 2011 at 6:38 pm in Uncategorized.
It’s final: Cal beat Washington State 30-7, a dominant and much-needed victory to move to 5-4 (2-4 in Pac-12).
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November 5th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Classify this as “a win is a win is a win”.
Unimpressive victory.
November 5th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
A good win for Cal…tedford stayed with maynard which is a loyal sign for the coach to back his qb…tedford kept it very simple and conservative for maynard…nothing fancy and reined it in so the qb can gain some confidence against the cellar dweller cougars…a good game for the defense …remains to be seen if this team can actually beat a decent team this year…they know how to beat up the bad teams at home–thats for sure.
November 5th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Maynard played well, it was a good win. Best way to make people stop talking bad about you is to play well as he did. Do it against Stanford.
November 5th, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Gee, Jim. Do you also go out of your way to avoid complimenting your kids?
November 5th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Jim, you’ve had nothing but negative things to say recently, which, given how the team has played, is understandable.
But if you can’t even enjoy a dominant 30-7 win, where we call off the dogs midway through the 3rd quarter, and even hard-working and underappreciated guys like Will Kapp get a chance to score, then maybe you might want to find something better to do with your Saturdays. I’m serious – write off the season and get yourself some fresh air, because at this point you’re so soured on the team that I don’t think it’s worth your time.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Ucla just beat asu. They made asu D look
as bad as we did against qb keeper.
Big victory. Go Bears.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Good win today. This team needed it.
November 5th, 2011 at 8:55 pm
To everyone crying about Maynard, one question. Does Bridgeford look like the answer? We need to stick with him the rest of the way and pray that Zach Kline is the answer.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Good win. Tired of winning the bottom feeder games and getting blown out in big games. Cal team does well on quizzes but still fails midterms and finals.
Glad we won. Glad d looked hood. Glad maynard looked better.
But lets not kid ourselves. Problem with our program has been winning the easy games and getting smashed against the big dogs.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Back from the game and have only one thing to say: Where were the students? Stop the excuses. Take away the band, and there were many more students at every Friday night high school game in the 707 than were there today.
Given the size of our undergraduate class, we have the worst student section of any BCS school.
Why they get the 50-yard line at Memorial is beyond me.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
@707: Midterms + Trek to SF + Rain.
I think the students will be back in full force when we return to CMS next year.
Not sure we saw much of Bridgford to really give a fair evaluation. All 1st and 2nd down plays were runs. There were a number of botched plays but it wasn’t clear (yet) who was at fault.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
ucla beat asu because they were inspired after kicking our As, and have their 6 guys back.
bridgford looked sloppy because he has no experience (thanks to JT) and it was pouring rain. isi looked sloppy, too.
people weren’t there because the team has stunk, the weather was bad, and the tickets are overpriced.
i may agree that bridgford isn’t the answer, but there are other qbs, too.
notice how good the young freshman on D were, now that they FINALLY got some PT?
loading up on defense is the new “moneyball” for college football. look at the SEC. another 9-6 special, as usual. that’s the key. load up on D. they stick around for 4 years. look at what an inspired D can do?
WSU played horribly, as well. gotta consider that.
maynard was very good rolling out again, but on the deep ball, with 3 wide open receivers, we missed out on 3 TDs.
notice how CDJ wasn’t playing. i’d bet dollars to donuts he was benched for calling out the politics in the locker room via twitter. good for JT on that decision.
despite the rain, bridgford is way too timid. i’d like to see someone else.
hand it to tedford here. 8 games into the season, but he finally got them to play with heart.
go bears!
win next week. i’ll be there.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
PC
No excuses. UCLA kids have a longer treck from Westwood to the Rose Bowl.
Over 20,000 undergrads and we couldn’t get 300 non-band students to show.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:14 pm
also, maynard’s recovery on the fumble was ballsy. gotta hand it to him.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I loved the effort. That’s what a good team does, they play hard, smart and have fun. Our Bears were ready to play today. Sat in the rain and loved every second of it.
Love Keenan Allen. The guy is a baller that leaves it all on the field. Every game that kid gives it everything he has. Saw the same effort and intensity from the rest of the team today too, nice to see them follow our best player.
We have good talent. And very good young talent.
Can’t write off Bridgford yet but it’s clear Maynard is the better QB today, especially at home. Kline is an exciting prospect but can’t write off Hinder and Boehm yet. Expect those two guys to push for PT next year. It will be a battle to get on the field at QB next, lot of hungry guys and much shorter leash for whoever the starter is.
Maynard looked good today but he can be better, and to be a great team he must be better.
Hope our team goes right back to work tomorrow. We have a OSU team coming in next Saturday that we have lost to 4 times in a row. Not a single player on the team has ever beat the beavers. Hope our program is poised to do something to change that.
Senior day coming up, students and Cal fans must show up to support our seniors and team in this huge game.
Go Bears!
November 5th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
I thought the play calling in the red zone was better today. The toss-sweep should be used more often. That would have been a great play for JT to call at washington at the end of the game but…
November 6th, 2011 at 12:22 am
BEAT OREGON STATE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE! LETS GET BOWL ELIGIBLE, THEN SHOCK THE WORLD IN PALO ALTO and TEMPE THE FOLLOWING WEEKS. STANFORD WILL BE DOWN AFTER THE EMOTIONS OF OREGON THIS COMING WEEK AND ASU IS ASU. WE WILL FIND A WAY TO BEAT THEM! GO BEARS!!!!!
November 6th, 2011 at 4:43 am
Sorry … but the streaming before the game showed a good portion of the OSU-Furd game.
against the Beavers and maybe Maynard will be able to get the ball to wide open receivers.
OSU was tough until Luck got on fire, the Furd was very impressive.
But, we’ll have the “home field” advantage
Will Kapp scoring was great. But it made me flash back to the last season when Joe was coach.
The Bear will not quit; the Bear will not die.
November 6th, 2011 at 6:06 am
“They are the best-looking football team that I have seen in this conference — period,” Cougars coach Paul Wulff said. “They probably have the best talent top to bottom.”
Hm. Then I wonder what the problem is? The best talent top to bottom, but not a single win against a winning program this season, a losing record in our conference, and yet another bottom-tier finish. What could take top talent and turn it into a mediocre team?
Ah yes, coaching.
On the bright side, Jeff Genyk may be a record-setting coach. Not sure I’ve ever seen a team with five blocked PATs in a season.
November 6th, 2011 at 6:31 am
Best talent in the conference top to bottom? No we don’t.
Maynard is better than Luck? Isi is better than Price?
That’s a dumb comment for Wulff to make. Oregon & $C have way more talent top to bottom, and the ‘furd is on an unprecedented Lucky streak.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:21 am
This was a good win. Plain and simple. Yers, WSU is a bad team. Yes, it was at home. No, it does not excuse what happened last week, but UCLA used last week as a springboard for beating ASU. Maybe, just maybe, the same will happen for us against OSU.
By the way, OSU got royally screwed on that “targeting” penalty – if that call doesn’t happen (a virtually identical hit happened in LSU-Bama, and of course it wasnt’t called, nor should it have been) – then OSU has all of the momentum.
November 6th, 2011 at 7:37 am
so, arizona state was 0-3 in field goals, including the game winner as time expired. looks like they beat themselves.
next week is the defining game. if cal comes out and stays as intense as they did this week, they’ll win. we were scoreless in the second half, except for a 4th and 1 play. first half was awesome, though.
November 6th, 2011 at 9:22 am
@C98: Remember that neither WSU nor Oregon have played USC, so they can’t compare.
IMO our defensive personnel *are* more talented than Oregon’s (keeping in mind that talent != execution on the field) – but there’s no way you can look at an Oregon offense starring Barner and James and think that we’ve got a more talented offense.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:07 am
Hey 707–
PC wasn’t giving excuses, he was providing legitimate reasons why the students weren’t there.
You need to face the fact that this is a down year for Cal–on all fronts. Even before the season began we knew ticket sales were also down. Between the temporary stadium and prices–and the fact that we were coming off an abysmal 5-7 season–enthusiasm for the Bears was tempered.
This includes the students. Add in midterms, rain and the hassle of getting to AT&T, and I’m surprised there were as many students (and fans) there as there were.
These aren’t excuses. They’re facts. You need to get over your dismay and realize that is just ain’t happening this year.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Wulff was talking about our defense.
It was CJA not CDJ who made the politics tweet. CJA played. A thing to note is the bad blocking by CDJ last game.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:18 am
The decline of the Cal football program started 4 years ago on an ill advised scramble by a freshman making his first start. That freshman is no longer on the team and it is time to erase the history that has plagued us for the past few season. We finish winning 2 of the next 3 and our bowl game and this season will go down as a huge success and big expectations for next season.
Roll on you Bears, we support you even when we are frustrated with you, we promise!
November 6th, 2011 at 10:25 am
Another reason students were not there in numbers: money. College is a lot more expensive these days….
November 6th, 2011 at 10:27 am
I didn’t know Cal had to impress Jim. Jim must be important. (insert extreme sarcasm anywhere)
November 6th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Students and fans need to show up to pay tribute to our senior class next Saturday, ceremonies start a little early so try to get in by 3pm.
This class came to Cal in hopes of getting new facilities, they never got to enjoy them. They have a chance to win and clinch a bowl berth on senior day and beat osu for first time.
Lots of good stories possible. Hope Cal will do whatever it takes to get students to come out for this very big game and show love to our seniors.
Put together some kind of promotion, do something Cal AD, don’t just sit on your hands and cross your fingers and hope people will come. Final game in AT&T, go out with a bang.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Good win for Cal, Maynard and Tedford. Cal is now 2-1 against the bottom feeders of the league. Maybe Cal can reach the “middle part” of the conference.
Cal’s loss to UCLA does not seem as bad (on paper), since UCLA just defeated ASU.
One coaching point…there were a signficant increase in rollout passing plays for Maynard. All I can say is Hallejulah! Hopefully Tedford has realized that by doing this, he gives Maynard a much better chance of being successful.
Another positive for Tedford, was his willingness to abandon his rigid approach of have a 50/50 balance to run/passing, and stick with a running game if its working.
Overall, a very positive win for the team! Go Bears.
November 6th, 2011 at 10:40 am
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: The Bay Area doesn’t have enough true college fans to support one program, let alone 2 1/2 (sorry SJSU).
We say we want Cal football to be challenging for Pac 12 titles and maybe a national championship. PLEASE!
AT@T was one third full. Imagine that Michigan had to play in Detroit for a year. Ford Field would be full!
How do you think recruits felt at that game yesterday?
Cal fans (students and adults) will only show up for a winning team. Given this, how can we build a top-tier program?
November 6th, 2011 at 10:52 am
Bigdruid … Yes, you’re right. I realized it after I wrote it. WSU hasn’t played (and won’t play this year) USC. And I agree, defensively you could say we have the best top to bottom talent, but no way you can say that about the offense.
November 6th, 2011 at 11:56 am
I just watched again the last few seconds of the Oregon St. game in 2007. We need to win this game next week. Let’s win it big so we can move past that haunting memory and move forward. Let’s go Bears. Destroy the Beavers.
November 6th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Cal football is best experienced by students after a late night out on Friday and rolling out of bed 30 mins before game time and walking up to Memorial. After 80+ years of this, paying 2x for tickets and $6.xx for a BART ticket isn’t going to cut it. At least not in the rain.
Good win by Cal. Running game came up big. O-line got off well and protected Maynard. Sofele did his job. He’s the deserving successor to the recent Cal RB tradition. Next season with CJA, Manuel, Bigs and Sofele, Cal will be stacked and I think the running game will lead to a very good season.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
C98 – As you noted WSU doesn’t play SC this year. Wulff was talking defense, as his team scored 14, 21 & 28 in consecutive games against Stanford, Oregon State, and Oregon before being limited to a lucky 7 against us.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
707 Bear – You can’t compare Southern Branch which has been commuting to the Rose Bowl (with transportation provided) for decades. Furthermore, giving such horrible seats to the students at AT&T is most like a contributing factor to low attendance, particularly when they are used to having the best seats in the house since 1923. If they are given their rightful rooting section seats in the refurbished Memorial, they will be back.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
WOW ALREADY WRITING OFF BRIDGFORD AFTER A GRAND TOTAL OF THREE PASS ATTEMPTS…SAYING ZM IS BETTER..LOL
JUST WAIT…DID YOU GUYS ALREADY FORGET ABOUT ZM’S 3 INT PERFORMANCE AGAINST $C OR HIS 4 PICK JOB AGAINST FUCLA. HOW BOUT HIS FIRST CAL PASS..AN INTERCEPTION. THE GUY THROUGH A PICK 6 AGAINST PRESPY.
ZM IS AND NEVER WILL BE OUR GUY. LETS GIVE BRIDGE A BIGGER SAMPLE SIZE BEFORE INSISTING THAT ZM IS BETTER.
LOL 3 ATTEMPTS AND SOME FANS THINK HE SUCKS HAHAHA..GIVE ME A BREAK.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
threw…my bad
November 6th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Milo
You made my point: Cal students don’t REALLY care about Cal football. If it’s convenient and they’re winning, they’ll go.
Is that true of Oregon students? UW?
Imagine you’re a 17-year-old recruit. Where would you want to play?
Our fan base is not worthy of a consistent top-tier football program. Our best hope is to get what we had in 2004 or what Stanfurd has now: get lucky with a future Hall of Fame QB and enough other parts.
Sad but true.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
707 – the other schools you mention (Oregon, UW, Stanford) all have an on-campus stadium, as we will have next year.
November 6th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
southseasbear
Next year, UW will be playing at the Seahawks stadium. Care to bet they have have more than 200 non-band kids?
November 6th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
All:
This is a nice win and we should enjoy it. But let’s not fool ourselves. Nothing significant has changed. The team I saw still is not competitive against the better teams in the Pac-12. It’s the same story as the last 5+ years. I have no realistic hope that it will change without replacing Tedford.
Our fan base is a sleeping giant as the first two years under Tedford demonstrated. Give the fans something to be realistically hopeful about and they will support the team in droves!
November 6th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I can’t help myself (typical Cal student text)
Lazy: goin game
Bored: ?
Lazy: support team
Bored: LOL
Lazy: we bart it
Bored: too far walk
Lazy: tailgate, booze, girls, football!
Bored: snore
Lazy: what doin
Bored: nutin
Lazy: same
America weeps!
November 6th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Greid
Again, you made my point.
To get the best players it helps to have fan (adult and student) support. We only have it in winning years.
Again, imagine you’re a top recruit considering Cal, UCLA, UW ( a common event). All three played at home yesterday. What would think about fan support?
November 6th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
707 – Hard to compare. At least Seahawks stadium is in the same city. Plus, I’m willing to bet the university will arrange transportation, unlike our Athletic [let the students find their own way to get there] Department. Moreover, I don’t know if the Huskies will find themselves in the same situation, losing 3 out of the previous 4 games by an average of 22 points with a coaching staff (rightly or wrongly) under fire, before going into a game during midterms in horrible weather.
Student attendance has been good at Memorial in good and bad years (and we’ve had more than our share of the latter). Moving the students from their rightful place is an overreaction to one game (in which attendance overall was as horrible as anticipated) and would result in long-term harm to the program which needs to nurture and develop future alumni donors.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
707 – I should add that both Washington and Southern Branch had better (ranked) opponents yesterday while we had the conference cellar dweller for the last several seasons. Of course their attendance was better.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
I must (and will stop).
IFC lists 35 fraternities at Cal. Way down from the mid-80s, but I assume their mission is similar.
Why were’nt there 35 tailgates yesterday?
Get the pledges out of bed, kick their butts across tha Bay, get the tailgate set up, and support the team!
Maybe it’s just me, but the youth of today…….
November 6th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
707 Bear:
Totally agree. Give fans two good years and they will support you for four years. They won’t support you for a decade when they see the same issues over and over.
It’s sad and embarrassing to see so few fans in the stands. But I’m all for it, if it drives changes from the Administration (Sandy: are you paying attention?)
November 6th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
707 – LOL. The University detests the fraternities even more than athletics. Back in the day (and not that long ago) the Athletic Dept as well as coaches would reach out to the Greeks, currying their support. Has this happened in the last few years? And what about the dorms (there being far more with all of the recent construction)? If the Department wants to be successful, they should be “recruiting” and developing fans.
Honestly, I don’t know having graduated a long time ago (more years than I care to count) and am only on campus on Game Day weekends and Homecoming, but I get the sense that relationships are no longer being developed.
I guess where you and I disagree is that I believe the onus is on the adults who are getting good money to run the program, not the kids. IFC should have been given access to a lot to use for tailgates. BART/Muni discounts should have been negotiated. Etc.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
707 Bear:
We need to do everything we can to recruit the best talent. Fans in the stands and bigger TV audiences will help. Unfortunately, I don’t believe Tedford has the skillset to recognize, recruit, and train young athletes to their best. He doesn’t do well with the talent he has and rarely do athletes improve under his tenure. Why has Tedford gone through a half dozen QBs and all exhibit the same shortfalls? What is the common factor? It’s not Assistant Coaches.
Contrast this to Jim Harbaugh: He took a perenial loser with no fans in the stands and improved Stanford every year under his tenure. Try buying a Stanford v. Oregon ticket now.
November 6th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Greid -
I’m not going to praise Tedford’s on field results for obvious reasons, but I have to disagree with your assessment that “rarely do athletes improve under his tenure.” We lag USC in recruitment of 4 & 5 star talent, yet we are close in numbers of alumni drafted, playing, and starring in the NFL. JT & Co. must be doing something right.
November 6th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
We need a win Saturday, and an upset in one of the last two, or I’ll consider this year a failure.
November 6th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
After watching poor Bridgdord fumble snaps and turn the wrong way on handoffs, I will never again post that Tedford should replace Maynard and insert Bridgdord as the starter. That does not excuse the woeful job that Tedford and his staff have done with player development and getting the backups ready to play.
Cal has no chance to beat OSU next week without a healthy Maynard. And the team has no chance to beat Standord and ASU the following week with or without Maynard. Those are good teams with defenses that will rattle Maynard into making a bunch of mistakes again. I am just resigned to accepting this reality and hope to enjoy a victory next Saturday.
November 6th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Rollonubears –
I have to disagree. If we end 6-6 and go to a bowl game, it will be an improvement over last year, particularly if we win the bowl to go 7-6, and therefore neither “failure” nor “great success.” The team is young (particularly the more prized recruits) but the pressure will be rightfully on Tedford to produce a 9-10 win season in 2012.
November 6th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
7-5 would exceed what I predicted, but I would not say the season is a “success,” much less a “huge success” given who we beat to get to 7-5. 6-6 would not be a success. 5-7 would be what I predicted, and would be a huge disappointment. If we don’t beat the Beavers, we’re very likely looking at 5-7.
November 6th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Rollonubears…I also have to disagree with you about your expectation for this years Cal football program. You effectively said that Cal will need to finish the year at 7-5 or you will consider the season a failure. Say What?!? This a Cal team picked to finish 5th (out of 6) place in the Pac-12 North. This is a team that will likely have been favored in only 7 games that it will have played this season (assuming both Stanford and ASU will be favored to beat Cal).
Cal has only lost 1 game, thus far, when they were favored (see UCLA). Of course, Cal does not have any upset victories and in the UW game, Cal was a 1pt underdog, and Cal played a close competitive game.
I would argue that finishing the year at 6-6 is right in the range of pre-season expectations. Not a great year…not a bad year…but just about where we thought Cal would be.
Trust me, I am no fan of “Teflon” Tedford. In fact my primary crticism of Tedford has been that he has consistently NOT met expectations for the Cal program during his career. I wrote a few lengthly posts last week, reviewing each year since Tedford has taken over the helm at Cal. What I argue is that EACH year between 2005 through 2010, the Cal football team has UNDERACHIEVED despite winning an average 8 games per season. During these past 6 seasons, Cal was favored to win on average 11 games per year. Cal lost at least twice and as many as 4 games per season as a solid favorite. Couple that with very few upset victories (2-16 as an underdog) which is why I consider each of the past 6 seasons ending BELOW expectations.
So, while I think most of Tedford’s career at Cal has been plauged with disappointment….2011 is NOT shaping up to be one of those seasons. (one caveat: If Cal loses to OSU next week and has not upset victories I may change my tune). But as of right now…I think Cal is right where we thought they would be when the season began and thus I can not agree with any comments that this season was a “failure”.
November 6th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Southseasbear – why do you think Cal will be EXPECTED to win 9 or 10 games next year? You add Ohio St. to the schedule and now Cal is going to win 3 or 4 more games next year? What gives you confidence that the QB play will be any better next year? Do you think skill positions (RB and WRs) will be stronger next year with the loss of Marvin Jones and Anthony Miller? I’ll grant you that the Defense SHOULD be better next year (although didn’t we think that going into this year?).
Given Tedford’s play calling strategy that requires stellar play from the QB position, I don’t see a top flight QB on the roster that is prepared to shine next year. The upside to Maynard seems very limited to me. Expectations for 2012 will likely be similar to 2011…6-6 record and a 4th or 5th place finish in the Pac-12 north. Tedford has the Cal program stuck in neutral!
November 7th, 2011 at 6:21 am
ok, ok … apparently some were offended when I said the manner in which Cal beat bottom-dwelling WSU was “unimpressive” when I could have used 20 words rather than 1 to describe the mediocrity of the “victory”.
ok, ok … I AM impressed that Cal did WIN against the bottom-dwelling Cougars even though WSU had a better 2nd team qb than Cal.
Students are facing the same choices that they’ve always had: looking a multiple reading lists and the books, the papers that need research and writing vs going to the stadium.
A few years ago, the team winning and playing exciting football, many students chose the stadium over the library.
Now, facing the reading list and assignments vs traveling to SF to watch mediocrity, the library wins which isn’t a bad thing because that’s why students are at Cal.
November 7th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Cal’s failure to develop talent? Am I missing something in recent NFL drafts?
November 7th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Not in the drafts, Alaska … but in the Win column, much is missing.
Tedford’s being paid to win games, not to furnish talent to the NFL.