Early Look at the 2009 Schedule - Bye Weeks Added

It looks as if Cal has tweaked its schedule around after the initial version had the Cal Bears playing 12 consecutive games without any breaks. It would have looked a lot like a Big 10 schedule with the team finishing in mid November.

The new schedule goes as follows:
Sept. 5 - Maryland
Sept. 12 - Eastern Washington
Sept. 19 - at Minnesota
Sept. 26 - at Oregon
Oct. 3 - USC
Oct. 10 - bye
Oct. 17 - at UCLA
Oct. 24 - Washington State
Oct. 31 - at Arizona State
Nov. 7 - Oregon State
Nov. 14 - Arizona
Nov. 21 - at Stanford
Nov. 28 - bye
Dec. 5 - at Washington

My thoughts after the bump.


People appear to be pretty split as to the schedule changes. I'm all for Cal having a few byes spread throughout the season as a 12 week gauntlet would have been brutal. I'm still not a fan of having the Big Game not end the season, but again, I suppose I would rather have had it not be then to go through the aforementioned tough schedule without breaks.

The schedule is obviously very front loaded. Cal starts the season in a very unpredictable opener against Maryland who beat Cal pretty bad at College Park for most of the game.

Then they host Eastern Washington the week after.

Yeah, anyways...

...The Bears then hit a a real tough road stretch by making the long trip out to Minnesota, and then to the hostile Autzen Stadium the week after to face the Ducks, before hosting USC in early October. For the record, I would much rather face USC at home, in early October, than at the Coliseum in November where Pete Carroll and gang are essentially unbeatable.

Cal would have then traveled up to Washington the week after, in what could have potentially been a pretty big trap game for the Bears, irregardless of their outcome against the Trojans.

Instead the Bears will get to rest up and go through a very doable month of October with UCLA, WSU, and Arizona State. Remember, I say doable, not necessarily a "gimme schedule." While having two of those games on the road is certainly concern, especially considering Tedford has yet to win at the Rose Bowl, none of those teams expect to challenge for the upper tier of the Pac-10 next year. Not yet at least.

However, depending on how the first month of September goes, it's very possible the Bears could be dreaming BCS come November.

However, that's when the doodoo usually hits the fan for the Bears. November should provide a stiff challenge with the Oregon State Beavers coming to town. Riley and company have made Memorial Stadium their proverbial bitch over the last few years in some of the most heartwrenching losses Cal fans have come to experience as fans. The Bears then face an Arizona squad that typically plays its best ball of the year in November, before facing the "improved" Cardinal at Stanford. We'll know much more about both teams by then.

As for Washington in December, I expect the Huskies to be much better than last year, and the weather could potentially make for a sloppy game. But I still think the Huskies are at least another year or two from surprising too many people.

Of course, the Bears are in any viable position to challenge for a BCS bowl bid, or a conference championship, who knows what kinda funky juice might be pumping through the teams veins.

Anyway, that's the schedule for now. It could potentially change again, but it doesn't appear likely. So it'd be a safe time to start making those travel plans. As for bowl plans, well any self-respecting Bears fans would know to wait until the last minute for those.

But again, if the Bears can head into their first bye with a 5-0, or 4-1 record, and that's a big ass "if," Cal could certainly be dreaming of Pasadena.