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Surprise, surprise, puppy surprise!
The Bears are actually close to again breaking the Top 25. After getting bumped out of the rankings following their loss to Oregon State, the Bears are again on the verge of breaking back in after upsetting 18th ranked Arizona yesterday at Memorial Stadium.
The Bears are ranked 28th in the AP Poll, and 29th the USA Today/Coaches Poll. It's a pretty different picture considering the Bears didn't receive a single vote last week.
Of course, all of this really isn't too relevant until after Cal's big matchup with Stanford next week, which could determine if the Bears again crack right back into the polls, or likely sit it out of the rankings for the remainder of the regular season.
A win over the Cardinal, and the Bears would likely see themselves and their 8-3 record carry them into their season finale with a spot in the Top 25. A loss would likely end any such discussion of being ranked until after the bowl game.
Sounds a lot like last year no?
As for the rest of the Pac-10, USC is ranked the lowest it's been in years after being throttled by Stanford, sitting at 21st and 22nd in both aforementioned polls.
Oregon is still the top ranked Pac-10 team, coming in at 11th in both polls.
Stanford has soared in both polls, recognized as the nation's best 3 loss team, ranked 14th and 17th in the AP/Coaches Polls respectively.
Finally, Oregon State has entrenched itself at the 20th spot in both polls have rolling Washington yesterday, and appears to be headed to another 9 win season. Incredible.
5 comments:
Cal's 25 in the BCS rankings.
But what about next year?
This was our year. We have the talent and the depth, SC and Oregon has had major coaching changes and talent drains - yet again, we failed to win the big games so far.
While I have stuck behind coach Tedford for years now, something has got to change because this is a coaching problem - not a talent or depth problem. The TCUs, Boise States and other smaller schools have done far better with a lot less that what Cal has to offer.
Frankly, I've lost so much this season, probably more than ever before because there were no excuses this time.
Coach T has got to make some changes - if Reilly continues to throw passes 5 ft over an open receiver, bench him for a set of downs. And Coach Gregory has got to start putting together more attacking styles of defense than his wait and react style.
We have WAY too much talent to play this poorly and I'm tired of being patient - there is no excuse for this anymore.
To the above poster:
It's clear everyone overestimated the talent on this particular team. Kevin Riley is simply not a good (or at least not a consistently good) QB. The lack of an experienced LB corps (and especially the lack of a reliable rush LB) is killing us... what did any of us expect with the attrition we had? And for all the game experience our o-line got last year, the fact remains that our starting o-linemen are three underclassmen, a junior center who should probably be a guard trying to replace Alex Mack, and a mediocre sixth-year senior (to say nothing of having lost Willie T and having a couple of former and current walk-ons in the rotation at LG).
If you want to place that on Tedford's head, I'd lean more towards recruiting than game day planning. But in terms of what's on our roster, it's just not there. We got sucked into a kool-aid storm mostly on account of the fact that SC was expected to be down this year and got conned into overlooking a number of major deficiencies. Purely in terms of talent and record, we're about where we ought to be (although I will admit the NATURE of the losses is disconcerting).
And yes the likes of TCU and BSU do "more" with less, but they have the luxury of putting it all on the line for one or two games (if that) against quality teams and then coasting against second-rate competition. You could have said the same about Hawaii 3 years ago. Granted, it's not their fault that they're not in BCS conferences, but that's the situation.
I'd agree a bit more with the latter comment. "Too much talent?" Eh...I don't know. How many players on our defense do you see playing in the NFL? Syd and Tyson are likely 3rd to 5th round picks, but beyond that, it gets a little sketchy.
I would say it's clear we overestimated the talent. That's not to say though there weren't a number of questionable coaching decisions to go around though.
The most questionable coaching decision has been the passive scheme on defense. Even in the Maryland game it was obvious that there wasn't a dependable pass rush unless pressure was brought with a blitz. A more aggressive plan in the Arizona game essentially proves the point.
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