Thursday, October 6, 2011

Cal-Oregon: Will the Ducks be Bears Food or will the Bears be Duck Food?

A player that will go unnamed tweeted a picture of the white helmets.
Thursday night notes: Since 1990, Cal is 1-1 in regular season Thursday night games. In 1992, the Bears beat Kansas 27-23. In 2003, the Bears fell to Utah 31-24 in a game that pitted Aaron Rodgers against Alex Smith.

Polar Bear uniform notes: Everyone might be wondering, "why didn't the media guys report on the possibility of white helmets and uniforms this week?"

Guys think the white helmets look good,
girls think everything else looks good.
Well, we tried too.

We asked and asked and asked and just got a bunch of coy smiles. Personally, I'm 99 percent sure their breaking out the Polar Bear uniforms for Thursday's game, but since no one in the program would verify that fact, it didn't make sense to actually report it.

But as you can see in the picture to the right, unless this player went home and painted his helmet white himself, they're wearing white helmets tonight. 

Vegas notes: The Bears are currently 24-point underdogs. If that sounds like a lot, that's because it is.

Its the second biggest point spread that Jeff Tedford has faced in his nine plus seasons at the school. Below are the four biggest spreads in the Tedford era with the outcome of each game noted.

4. USC (-18.5) at Cal (2005): Trojans cover the spread with a 35-10 win.

3. Oregon (-19) at Cal (2010): Bears almost pull off the upset of the No. 1 ranked Ducks, but they fall 15-13. Everyone remembers this game. Not only did Cal cover the spread, but they could have won.... so says everyone except for Chip Kelly.

2. Cal at USC (-21.5) (2008): This game was on national television and Cal's defense came to play. Unfortunately their offense didn't. The Bears did cover the spread though in a 17-3 loss.

1. Cal vs. Kansas State (-28) in Kansas City (2003): In the 2003 opener, the Bears were supposed to get blown out of the water, but they kept it close and more than covered the spread in a 42-28 loss.

One more note, the biggest spread Cal has ever faced under Tedford and still won the game is 13.5 points. The Bears were 13.5 dogs to Michigan State in 2002 and laid the smackdown on the Spartans with a 46-22 win. Cal was also a 13.5 dog to USC in their 34-31 triple OT win of 2003.

Three Quick Keys to Winning

1. Don't shoot yourself with shotgun: Anyone who has watched Cal's offense this season knows that its been a struggle for Dominic Galas to accurately get the ball back to Zach Maynard consistently.

Galas cost the team a touchdown against Fresno State (Isi Sofele's fumble in the end zone happened after he picked up Galas' errant snap). He also cost the team 14 yards against Washington. Fortunately, for Galas, not many fans remember that because two plays later, Maynard hit Keenan Allen for the longest passing touchdown in school history.

Autzen Stadium is a death trap for opposing teams.
Autzen Stadium is a difficult place to play. Its so difficult to play there that Tedford actually admitted that it was difficult to play there and Tedford never admits anything.

Galas needs to be on point against Oregon. Maynard will have enough to worry about Thursday, he doesn't need to be worrying the snap making it to his hands.

2. Limit Oregon's Possessions: This could say "win the time of possession battle," but it doesn't because Oregon doesn't give a flying [d]uck about time of possession. On average, the Ducks only have the ball 23:35 a game, which is not only dead last in the Pac-12, it's dead last (120th) in the country.

This means, you have to limit their possessions.

Of the Ducks 27 touchdown drives this year, only three of them have been over four minutes long.

How do you limit possessions? By being on the field the entire game.

Cal is 23rd nationally in time of possession (32:27). If the Bears can limit Oregon's offense to eight possessions Thursday, that means the MOST points Oregon could score is 56. If you figure the Bear defense can make two or three stops, now Oregon can only score 35 or 42 points. If Oregon scores 35 or 42 points (or less), Cal can win the game.

3. Don't let Darron Thomas beat you: This seems to be a counter intuitive key to winning (i.e. its the opposite of "don't let LaMichael James beat you"), but it's not.

The Bears have a strong run defense and they definitely should key in on James, however they can't do it at the expense of letting Thomas pick them apart. The secondary has struggled this year and Chip Kelly is a smart guy, so he'll probably adjust his game plan accordingly.

As an example of what can happen if you direct all your attention to James, look at the Nevada game. The Wolfpack held the nation's leading rusher to 67 yards. Unfortunately for Nevada, Darron Thomas responded with six touchdown passes and Oregon rolled 69-20.

If Cal doesn't want to get embarrassed on national television, they better be aware of Thomas' talents.

Would it be embarrassing to lose to a team
wearing these jersey's?
The Pick

Can Cal pull off the upset? Of course, I see fat ugly guys dating hot women all the time, so anything's possible.

Oregon's uniforms almost always make my eyes bleed, which is why I really want to pick against them. I've picked Cal to win every game they've played this season, but I'm going to have to pass on this one. I think the Bears keep it close, lets just hope it doesn't come down to a field goal. Oregon 42-31. 

Forgetting about the pick for a second, I think Cal will acquit themselves well in primetime and possibly become a team that casual fans 'want' to watch. 

One more thing: if it rains tonight, Cal hasn't practiced in the rain once this season. The last two days in Berkeley were wet, but the Bears had a sunny Monday morning practice followed by a overcast (but not raining) Tuesday practice. Wet balls will affect everyone from the quarterback to the wide receivers to the holder to the kicker. So keep an eye on the weather.

Want More Holy Cal?

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Head to CBSSports.com to read my daily nuggets.  
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Feel free to ask questions on Twitter, I promise to answer them, as long as they're not about knitting because I don't really know anything about knitting.

(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)

Monday, September 26, 2011

What happened in Washington?

Cal couldn't find the end zone against Washington.
There were a lot of questions following Cal's 31-23 loss to Washington.

Well actually, there weren't a lot of questions, it was mostly one question asked a lot of ways: why was the team's 5'9" running back in at the goal line when there were two bigger options on the bench --  one of which had already scored in a goal line situation in the first half.

Coach Jeff Tedford kind of answered the question in his postgame interview Saturday when someone asked if CJ Anderson would have been the better option, "Would C.J. have scored. I don't know. Its a thought."

So the next question becomes, is Isi Sofele Cal's goal line back going foward.

Tedford (kind of) answers that and a few other questions below.

Media: Might you guys think about putting a bigger back in down in goal line situations or is Isi someone you're going to stick with?

Tedford: With that run, it was an outside zone play, it wasn't so much a downhill play, it had cutback potential, as you saw when we ran blast right up the middle, we put C.J. in on the blast play [in the first half] and C.J. did what he was supposed to do, he plowed over somebody.

On the outside zone play that we ran down there, we just missed the block, a guy came off the blocker or Isi squirts right in there. Isi broke the first tackle, the nose guard, Dom overreached the nose and the nose came behind him and tried to get his legs and he broke that tackle and then the next guy on the edge came off of a block and got back inside and that's the guy he ran into.

Is Tedford to conservative?
There was a big hole there, we just have to sustain our blocks, so that wasn't so much Isi. The plays that we run, we're going to put certain guys in. The blast is downhill and C.J. went in for that. But the outside play that could go in or bounce out, Isi has had the most experience with that play and has a little bit better speed to be able to execute that play, so that's why he was in there.

Media: Does having the bye week make it easier or harder to leave the loss behind?

Tedford: I think both. I don't know which one more. I think the bye week is good for us now to get a little healthy. You can let some of the other things go when you jump right back into an opponent, but we're going to start prepping for Oregon right away, so that's going to force us to get our mind there.

Some years we've gone where we've taken a week and just had the young guys scrimmage and that kind of thing, we're not going to do that.

We're going to take Tuesday and we're going to have a generic practice, fundamental type practice and then Wednesday and Thursday, we're going to start preparing for Oregon. And then Friday and Saturday they're going to have off and then we're going to come back Sunday and resume our week.

Media: Was the Washington loss tough?

Tedford: They're all painful. You wake up in the middle of the night, you have a knot in your stomach and then all through the day. Typically it goes for two days until you get totally submerged in the next team. I don't care if its a win or a loss, by Thursday I could probably not tell you what happened last week because you get so ingrained in what's going on next.

Media: How does Keith Price compare to a guy like Darron Thomas? 

Tedford: Different. Keith is obviously more of a pocket passer and can do things from there and still make things happen with his legs. Darron does a lot of things off play action, not a lot of drop back stuff, but their passing game is generally built on play action stuff, when you're trying to stop the run.

I was very impressed with Keith Price. He's a very accurate thrower and he seems to have a good grasp of what they're trying to get done. I think he has a really good ability to when he extends the play getting outside the pocket and keeping his eyes down the field and make big plays with his arm that way. And that's kind of what his M.O. has been for the season so far.

Media: Will you work more on red zone offense in practice?

Cal had trouble in the red zone.
Tedford: We'll do it the same as we always do, we just missed some throws down there. It was kind of a freak deal. We've got Marvin wide open and the ball slips out of [Zach's] hand. As he's getting ready to throw it, it slips backwards. We got Keenan open twice and he just under throws him, so we just have to execute better.

I've got a lot of confidence [in Zach]. Red zone wise, we've been pretty decent, its just a situation where we have to make plays. On that last one, we have to give the receiver a chance to make a play on the ball, we can't throw it five yards out of bounds because Keenan's got him beat, Keenan's running away from the guy and he'll make a play on it. But all those things are learning experiences.

I thought Zach played his tail off yesterday, I thought he really did a nice job, he played really, really well. There are some plays that are left out there we could make. I know that burns him, I know he has the drive to make those plays and I know he's capable of making those plays.

You think about three minutes and 40 seconds left to play and its fourth and 5 and we're backed up on the 30-yard line and and we decide to go for it and he throws a strike right in there on the post on fourth and 5. He continues to get better and I really believe that his consistency level's going to improve as well.

Breech's Breakdown
What did John think of the game?

I may be in the minority, but I actually thought Tedford coached a pretty good game.

The only two egregious errors I thought he made both came on the final series.

First, there is no reason Isi should have been in for the final four plays. I don't care if Isi's made of lava and eats polar bears, he's not suited to be a goal line back. Although, I will say, in non-goal line situations,  Isi played a solid game.

The other error for me was the play calling on the final four plays. If you're absolutely going to keep Isi in and no one can talk you out of it, fine, but utilize your speed if you're going to do that. Either A. run an option or B. have Maynard run a bootleg and let him decide to throw or run. 

For anyone that thought Tedford got out coached in the second half, I'll throw these stats at you.

The Huskies had 127 second half yards, 70 of which came on one play.

To me, that says, Cal made halftime adjustments and they worked. Tedford acknowledged that the 70-yard TD pass was a product of broken coverage. That TD came on third and 12, so the Bear defense came within one broken coverage of holding Washington to 57 second half yards. For the record, Cal outgained Washington by almost 100 yards in the second half.

Offensively, Cal had five possessions in the second half. On two of them, the Bears had drives of over 80 yards (one led to a field goal, one ended at the 1-yard line). On the other three drives, they punted twice and turned it over on downs.

When they turned it over on downs, they faced a fourth and 3 from the Washington 36. At this point, I felt like most fans were thinking, "Good god, super conservative Tedford is going to punt it FROM THE 36. Coach, kick a field goal or spike it or kneel it, just please don't punt it from the 36."

And he didn't. He went for it. This means Tedford went for it on fourth down twice in the fourth quarter when he absolutely didn't have too. He could have punted in both situations, but he didn't. He made the non-conservative call each time.

Finally, Tedford accepting the holding call in the second quarter was a 50/50 call. Personally, I would have declined and I said as much to the guy sitting next to me. But Tedford was playing field position and you can't knock him for that. He figured there was no way Washington was going to convert a third and 11, which meant 10 yards better field position for the offense.

Even if Tedford declines it, who's to say that Marvin Jones doesn't fumble the punt return and Washington returns it for a touchdown. There's too many moving parts, the "what if" game is almost impossible to play in football, especially in the second quarter of a 14-10 game.

I'll give Tedford a B- for the game, but its one of those B minuses that's closer to a C+.

Finally, I'll end with a stat that should any Cal fans confidence going into the Oregon game: the Ducks defense is ranked 79th in the country, if the Bears get their red zone offense rolling, we might be in for a shootout.  

See you in Eugene everyone.

Want More Holy Cal?

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(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cal-Washington: Bears One Road Win Away From Beating Last Year's Road Win Total

The Bears haven't won in Seattle since 2005.
They're 3-11 in their last 14 trips to Husky Stadium.

No reasonable Cal fan will argue with you if you make any of the following statements:

1. Taco Bell sells tacos.
What does Taco Bell selling tacos have
to do with Cal football? Read on.

2. The Golden Gate Bridge is red. 

3. Cal was horrible on the road last year.

Now, I could sit here and talk tacos and bridges, but we're going to focus on that last statement because Cal really, really, really needs to win Saturday.

And here's why I think they're going to do it:

1. Washington's defense - If you name an important stat, there's a good chance Washington's D is the worst in the Pac-12 at it.

Scoring? At 36.7 points per game, the Husky defense surrenders the most in the Pac-12.

Opponents 3rd down conversions? Opposing offenses convert 57 percent of their third down attempts against Washington's D, this is a ridiculously high number.

How about opponent red zone percentage? Husky opponents have scored 14 out of 15 times that they've got to the red zone (93.3%), this puts Washington at 11th in the conference.

I could go on, but let me just put it this way, by any quantifiable measure, Washington's defense is bad.

Keith Price has to be Bear aware if Washington wants to win.
2. Keith Price - Good news for Husky fans: Price leads the country in touchdown passes. Bad news: thanks to the Nebraska game, he also leads the country in knees that barely work.

If Cal's D can get to Price early and often, this game will start going the Bears way fast. FYI: Cal is 7th in the country with 11 sacks, which means Price should be on the run most of the day.

Price has the knees of a 79-year-old man, so its actually physically impossible for him to be on the run most of the day, something will have to give.

3. Special Teams - ST coach Jeff Genyk talked this past week about how special teams won the Colorado game... and it did.

The Buffs had horrible field position all day, which is one of the reasons Tyler Hansen was able to throw for 9,000 yards, he started almost every drive inside his own 25.

Anyway, the point here is that the horrible field position was attributable to two things: almost all of Giorgio Tavecchio's kickoffs were touchbacks and Bryan Anger's punts were going 95 yards. And those two things are attributable to another thing: the thin air in Denver.

Cal will be playing in regular air Saturday, I need to see Giorgio play a good game in regular air before I can stop listing the specialists as a "key to the game."

So who do I pick?

A Cal win sets up an ESPN Thursday night showdown with Oregon. I love two things in life: cheetos and Thursday night showdowns. That being said, I'm taking the Bears 34-27.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Cal-Presbyterian: Will Blue Hose go Braveheart on Bears?

If you haven't done your homework, Blue Hose have something to do with Braveheart. Don't ask.
Cal fans are so confident about Saturday's game against Presbyterian that I've only heard four questions this week (usually I hear about 60 and 27 of them are "do you think we'll win?")

The most common Cal-Presbyterian questions this week:

1. Will Brendan Bigelow play? Yes.
2. Is Brendan Bigelow good at checkers? Probably, he's good at everything.
3. Will the No. 2's get any playing time? I'm 97 percent sure they will.
4. How much will Cal win by? A lot. My exact prediction is at the bottom of the page.

OK, so I made up one of those questions up, but still, the Bigelow hype is reaching a fever pitch and if he goes for over 100 yards against Presbyterian, the Bigelow alert level will be changed to red going into the Washington game next week.


What are Blue Hose? 

This was the question of the week at practice, here's what Zach Maynard had to say.

Media: Zach, do you know what Presbyterian's mascot is?
Zach Maynard: No. The Hose or something like that. Blue Hose? The Blue Hose, I don't want to go further with any ideas.

Media: What did you think when you heard "Blue Hose?"
Zach Maynard: I really didn't know what to think, there was so many things going in my head when I first heard it. I was like, Blue Hose? What? I was confused.

He may not know what Blue Hose are, but by the end of the day Saturday, Presbyterian will probably know what a Zach Maynard is. Lets just say, 600 yards and 17 touchdown passes aren't out of the question for Maynard on Saturday.

Cal All-Time Wins Record
 
Jeff Tedford and Andy Smith have three things in common:
 
1. They both coached at Memorial Stadium.
2. They both have 74 wins.
3. They both spent 10 seasons at Cal.
 
However, I'm going to give Smith the edge when it comes to dedication. After dying from complications due to pneumonia on Jan. 8 1926, Smith had his ashes spread over the field at Memorial Stadium. 

Also, I should probably point out that the only thing that came between Smith and win number 75 at Cal was... death.
 
Smith's last game with the Bears was a 27-14 big game loss to Stanford on Nov. 21, 1925. Less than two months later, Smith would pass. It would probably be in Tedford's best interest to get win 75 as soon as possible, 74 is obviously bad luck, like in a Final Destination sort of way.
 
Tedford's thoughts on the whole thing, "I haven't really thought about it that much," he said Wednesday. "But its an honor, obviously, history all-time is a long time. Its more to do with all the players who have played here over our time here, all their accomplishments, all the assistant coaches and things. I feel fortunate to be the head coach here, thankful to be the head coach here."

The Pick
 
If you're bad at math, that says 212-0.
I'm not sure how many guys Cal is going to dress on Saturday (74? 78?), but I expect all of them to score, I say 912-6. On the other hand, if Presbyterian comes to play, I say 55-3. (Yes, if they come to play, I think Presbyterian will score three less points, don't ask me the logic behind that)

Last week's prediction: Cal 38-21 over Colorado
Actual score: Cal 36-33 over Colorado

Cal Picks: 2-0

Want More Holy Cal?

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Feel free to ask questions on Twitter, I promise to answer them.

(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)

Friday, September 9, 2011

Cal-Colorado: The Pac-12 Game That's Not a Pac-12 Game, but Really is a Pac-12 Game, Even Though its Not a Pac-12 Game

Wait, so Cal-Colorado is a non-conference conference game?
Alright, its Friday, I'm at Starbucks and there's a guy with a prosthetic leg sitting next to me, which can only mean one thing: time to make my weekly Cal pick.

If you know a bookie, this is the part where you call him, tell him to hold for five minutes, read my preview and then drop you're beer money, rent money or mortgage on the team I pick. 

I won't waste your time with a position by position breakdown because I only have 19 minutes to write this before my car gets towed. 

Lets look at the three quick keys to the game: 

Who'll take more hits Saturday: Hansen or this bowl?
1. Cal's D-line: The only thing on this planet deeper than a spiritual conversation with the Dalai Lama is Cal's D-line. Yes, it's that deep. Hawaii sacked CU QB Tyler Hansen seven times last week, which is seven more times than Hansen probably thought the Hawaii D-line would sack him. If Cal controls the line of scrimmage (and I think they will), then Hansen's going to get hit more often than an unsmoked bowl in a college dorm room occupied by four hippies.

2. Dominic Galas: There was a super weird play in last weeks game against Fresno State. You know the one I'm talking about, it was the one where Galas snapped it away from Zach Maynard in Cal's end zone. Isi Sofele then picked the ball up and tried the Reggie Bush lateral, only instead of lateraling it, he fumbled it, which led to a Fresno State touchdown. Galas said the error was 100 percent his fault. Maynard said the errant snap was simply a miscommunication caused by crowd noise.

The point here: If 20,000 Fresno State fans made enough noise to affect a snap, imagine how much noise 50,000 sloppy drunk Colorado students can make. Crowd noise will be a big factor Saturday: if Galas, Maynard and company can fight through the noise with minimal errors (delay of game, false start penalties, snaps that lead to big losses or turnovers), Colorado is going to be in more trouble than a Blood locked in Cripp's car trunk. 

3. Road Games: I'll keep this short and sweet. Cal didn't get their first road win until after Halloween last season. They were outscored 145-61 in their first four road games last season. They're 10-17 in road games since 2006. Vegas usually gives the home team 3 points when making the spread, if the home team is playing Cal, they should probably give them 90. 

That being said, I'll take the Bears this week.

Prediction: Cal 38-21 over Colorado

Last week's prediction: Cal 31-17 over Fresno State (Actual score: 36-21)



Do you want more Holy Cal? 

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Feel free to ask questions on Twitter, I promise to answer them.
(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Cal Football: Should Bears Just Go For Two Every Time?

Should Cal fans cut Giorgio Tavecchio some slack?
Photo Credit: Jared Williams
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick really, really, really wants to get rid of extra points, he thinks they're too easy.

As a bonus for reading this blog, here is a list of four things that are easy: Lindsay Lohan, opening cereal boxes, playing checkers against babies, extra points.

Most people would agree with Belichick that extra points are easy, which is why 93 percent of Cal fans were highly disappointed with Giorgio Tavecchio's 1-for-3 PAT performance Saturday against Fresno State.

Easier: Linday Lohan or making extra points?
Besides the beer prices at Candlestick, special teams play really was the only other disappointing part of the day.

So what happened on the kicking front? I hunted down placekicker Giorgio Tavecchio and asked him.

First up, I asked Tavecchio if it was the line's fault on the two blocked PAT's or if he just kicked them low.

GT: It was a little of me on both cause I didn't get great contact. The first one wasn't a bad kick, the second one was probably a little bit low... I saw the film and it didn't really tell me much.

Was it tough kicking at Candlestick, what did he think of his kickoffs (the first one landed at the 23) 

GT: I'd be lying if said it wasn't a challenge, but I really wasn't worried too much about it. In my mind, I was just trying to go out there and hit the best kickoff I could hit, regardless of the wind. I felt like I did a good job. It felt good coming off my foot. I was exploding through the ball, my contact felt good. It popped off my foot and it just died [14MPH winds], there's nothing more I could do. The coverage team did a great job. Even on the shorter kicks, they were hauling down the field, did a great job, contained the ball well and they really got after them so they really saved... me. In the future, I hope to kick the ball farther.

On if Bryan Anger had ever held for him in a game.

GT: First time in a game, yea. Brock is a great holder, as is Bryan. Bryan is kind of there, day in and day out because he is a specialist. All spring and all summer and he is a very good holder and he's very athletic and he's also my roommate so we kind of have that bond. I really feel comfortable with him out there with me and like I said, he's a great holder.

Were the laces out?
On why the switch was made from Mansion to Anger.

GT: It was more on us. Just because [Anger] was out there with us. Little by little, I don't want to say we petitioned, but you know, he would start holding and coach wouldn't see that and we just came to a general consensus among the kickers and Coach Genyk that Anger's doing a great job holding and we'd like to reward him for his work. That's not to take anything away from Brock, Brock's a great holder, he has a great attitude about it and he can step in at any time and continue to do a great job as he has in the past. Anger's done a great job.

Tavecchio's overall breakdown of the game.

GT: It's the first game, I had a couple decent [kicks], a couple ones that weren't great, but again, I move forward to the next kick.

Do you want more Holy Cal?

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Head to CBSSports.com to read my daily Cal nuggets. 
Follow me on Twitter or better yet, if you know where I live, you can follow me in real life.
Feel free to ask questions on Twitter, I promise to answer them.

(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Five Question Cal Football Preview

San Francisco is Bear Territory in 2011
People have short attention spans. This is why losing your virginity, tweeting and shotgunning beers are so fun, they only require 11 seconds of your attention.

Short attention span? Can't Read? Then shotgun a beer!



What else only requires 11 seconds of your attention? This preview.

If you're a fast reader, this five paragraph Cal football preview will take you two minutes and 19 seconds to read. If you're a slow reader, this preview will take you two hours. If you can't read at all, that kind of sucks, but you're probably real good at shotgunning beers. 

On that note, lets start the preview. 

1. Is Jeff Tedford on the hot seat?
Does Jeff Tedford look like he's hot in this seat?

Is Ron Jeremy a virgin? Does Taco Bell sell Falafels? Is Rebecca Black ever going to win a Grammy?  No, no, no and no. Jeff Tedford is not on the hot seat. Tedford's seat right now is mildly warm, kind of like when you sit on the toilet seat right after someone else just used it. I don't know Cal AD Sandy Barbour personally (although I did pet her dog once), but my gut feeling is that four is the team's magic number. If Tedford gets to four wins, he definitely keeps his job. Three wins he probably keeps his job. Two or less and he's in trouble. Based on what I've seen from this team so far, I don't think he'll have to worry about losing his job.

2. Is Zach Maynard for real? 

Lets read Keenan Allen's mind real quick. Keenan came to Cal for two basic reasons: 1. he wanted to play with his brother 2. he wants to win. If Keenan thought Zach was a horrible QB, he wouldn't have gone to the same school as him, because, brother or not, nobody wants to catch passes from a horrible QB. Keenan has faith in Zach, which is why Cal fans should too. Now if Maynard throws eight interceptions against Fresno State and Keenan Allen decides to transfer four minutes after the game, that would be the cue to start worrying.

3. Does the O-line have any depth? 

This is a penthouse at the Wynn Hotel.
Imagine if you were staying in a penthouse suite at the Wynn Hotel in Vegas. Then, on the second night of your stay, hotel staff comes to your room and says, "Yea, so, we accidentally booked this room twice, we're going to have to move you, only we're at capacity, so we're actually going to have to move to you to a different hotel, only its not even a hotel we're moving you too, its actually a makeshift refrigerator box that we set up about three miles away and you'll probably have to fight a homeless person for it."

If I lost you somewhere in the above paragraph (and I probably did), lets just say the Wynn is the starting O-line and if you're a fan, you should keep your fingers crossed that the team is in the penthouse in the Wynn all season.

4. Is Tedford putting in a super secret offense (pistol, spread, single wing, etc)? 

Sometime in late August, there were three straight days during camp practice where Tedford kept the centers behind to work on shotgun snaps. I asked him about it. He said something to the effect of, "this is normal, we always stay behind and practice shotgun snaps." So I asked a few of the longer tenured beat guys if this was normal, bottom line: it's not normal. My personal take: I think Tedford has opened up the playbook to utilize Maynard's ability. I don't think this means they "installed" a pistol or spread offense, but I do think the playbook has a few new wrinkles in it and by a few, I mean a lot.

5. How many games will this team win? 

The Stephanie Tanner effect says Cal will win 8 games.
I had a crush on Stephanie Tanner as a kid, my favorite movie is the Rock and I made a 3/14 size replica of the Golden Gate Bridge out of drinking straws in sixth grade. The point here (I know, I know, it really doesn't seem like there is a point) is that Cal is playing in San Francisco. I like San Francisco. I think the Bears will surprise a lot of people this year. I was going to predict 7-5 (that's what I've been telling random Cal fans that I've talked too), but I got so excited writing this that I'm going with 8-4 because that's what Stephanie Tanner would want.

Basically, it comes down to this: if the offense can gel during the first three games (and win all of them) and the defense plays like everyone expects them too, this team is going to be tough to beat. Also, call me crazy or even call me Tom Holmoe, but I don't see Cal losing to both Stanford and Oregon. I think they pull the upset on one of the two.

***Note: there are no defensive questions in this preview because the defense is stacked. Finding a flaw with the defense is like looking for an ugly body part on Megan Fox, it can be done, but it would take all day, which I don't have because I have a Cal-Fresno State game to get too.  

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(John Breech covers Cal football and basketball for CBSSports.com)