Cal Bay Area Media Day

Yesterday, the bay area media gathered to glean what they could from coaches and players representing Cal and Stanford. Oh, and San Jose State, forgot about them. Sorry.

Nothing real big came out of the remarks or Q and As other than the big news from CBS Sports' John Breech that outside linebacker Cecil Whiteside had been reinstated. I'll have more on that in my other post assuming the possible news story that Penn State linebacker Khairi Fortt will be joining the Bears in the wake of the Penn State scandal. Stay tuned for that one.

In the meanwhile, check out a few videos from Cal Athletics featuring behind the scenes footage of Cal safety Josh Hill and star wide receiver Keenan Allen.



After the jump, another video of Tedford addressing the media and some highlights from yesterday.

Below, Tedford speaks.


Other than the Whiteside news, there wasn't anything too big. With guard Dominic Galas likely lost for the year due to a torn pectoral injury, the Bears are looking at Chris Adcock filling in at the right guard spot. Bigman Geoffrey Gibson may also get a look there, or at right tackle, and the Bears are excited to see what incoming freshmen Matt Cochran, Freddie Tagaloa and Matt Cochran can do.

The emphasis in spring ball offensively will be to get the wide receivers up to speed. Tedford stated that at the very least, three, if not all five incoming freshman wide receivers will be expected to contribute. The Bears currently have just one scholarship wide receiver other than Keenan Allen, cousin Maurice Harris.

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Cal's 3-4: Coverage and the Run Game

[Editor's Note: We continue on in our series of posts from Berk 18 on Cal's 3-4 Defense. If you haven't already checked out his first post with a general overview of Cal's 3-4 defense, do so now. It's seriously something every Cal football fan should read.

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In my last post, we talked about fronts and how they work. In terms of the run game, the front is only half the story, though. The coverage that's called has a lot to do with stopping the run, so when you see a specific coverage you have to ask: What's the defensive coordinator trying to take away? Is he trying to stop a specific run or a specific pass? Is he looking for balance? There are a lot of factors that go into choosing a coverage.

To stick with the theme of run defense for now, let's talk about what has to be present on every run play. The front will account for all the gaps on a run between the tackles, but you also have to be able to defend outside runs. To do that, you want three people assigned to do three different jobs.

First, you need your primary support man. This player is aggressively engaging the lead blocker, and forcing a decision both by that blocker and by the back. The main goal is to get the ball-carrier cutting back toward the rest of your defense, or to string him out to the sidelines so that your guys have more time to react and swarm to the ball. You don't want him getting the edge or heading straight up field into a lot of space.

Inside the primary support man is the cut-back man. He's controlling the guy blocking him, staying on his feet, and 2-gapping (see previous post).

Finally, there's going to be a secondary support man, who's supposed to make the tackle when no one else does. You don't want your secondary support man making lots of tackles. Players at different positions can fulfill each of these roles, and who can do what is dictated by the front and the coverage.

Let's look at Cover-2 man to see this at work. In Cover-2 man your cornerback's lined up outside with their WR, and so they're in the best position to be the primary support man. We'll say that we're in “Corner Support.” In this support pattern, your strongside linebacker will be the cutback man. Your strong safety will be the secondary support man, playing the pass first but coming up in support if the WR on his side blocks. We can see this developing on a toss play on Colorado's first drive.

In this coverage, Anthony (bottom of the picture) has different responsibilities depending on whether the play is a run or a pass. If it's a pass, he's covering his WR man to man. If it's a run, this coverage calls for corner support, so he's the primary support man. He's going to be reading his WR, the TE, and the strongside back (the fullback in this case) to determine whether this is a run or a pass. Also, once other people diagnose what the play is they'll yell it out to the rest of the defense. Camporeale is going to be the cutback man, and Cattouse will be the secondary support.

Here's the picture as the toss is happening. Anthony's WR motions in closer to the line right before the snap. When this happens, Cal's going to drop their CB's off the line of scrimmage and a little outside the WR, so Anthony is the shadow in the lower righthand corner. His WR, #2, is cracking back on Camporeale, who's double teamed. Now that Anthony knows that it's a run, he's going to move into his role as primary support man.

Anthony (on the 34 yard line) engages the TE, who was coming out to block him. The RB has to cut back because of Anthony's position. The rest of the defense is in pursuit, and Kendricks makes the tackle. You can see that Cattouse is also up there in his role as secondary support man (a little above and to the right of Anthony in the picture, on the 36 yard line).

The support pattern is different for Cover-3, pictured above. In this coverage, the two corners and one safety are playing deep 1/3's. The other safety is responsible for defending the weakside flat (the short outside zone). In the picture above, Hill and Anthony are dropped off the line to defend their deep zones, and Campbell (the shadow toward the top of the screen) is playing the middle 1/3.

In this coverage Anthony is obviously not in position to be the primary support man, because he's worried about his deep responsibility first and foremost. This coverage calls for “safety support.” If this were an outside run, Cattouse (lined up to the ILBs' left, about 5 yards off the line of scrimmage)would be the primary support man, Camporeale would be the cutback man, and Anthony would be the secondary support.

One more thing to keep in mind is that your coverage determines how many players you have in the box to defend runs up the middle. If you're in Cover-2 or Quarters (a four-high coverage), it's harder to get a safety down into the box to defend the run since they both have deep responsibilities. If you're in Man Free (man coverage with a free safety deep) or Cover-3 you can bring your second safety into the box, giving you 8 men to defend runs up the middle as seen below.

This strategy isn't fool-proof, though. If the offensive formation is spread out in some way, the safety has to move out of the box to effectively cover his zone (or his man). This explains why Cattouse is out of the box in Image 4.

That's some of the most important information about coverage and the run game. In my next post we'll look at how different coverages defend the pass and take away certain plays.

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Memorial Stadium Update: Turf Goes Down!

Just a quick hitter with some updates to the ongoing construction at Memorial Stadium.

It looks like the turf has been laid down about a week ahead of schedule, and we're midway through the 10-day process that should see all the yard markers and logos thrown on as well.

Coach Tedford tweeted a picture of its progress (using Instagram!) and I must say, I'm a little misty eyed right now.

I'm very much digging the new, darker colored endzones. After the jump, see more photos and videos.

Stefan McClure also posted a picture from his Instagram account, this one might better encapsulate just how gorgeous a setting Memorial Stadium will be this fall.

UC Berkeley Campus Life has a nice video that even features the sped up process of the turf being laid. And yes, that is the actual speed at which the construction crew works. Kudos.

The article reminds us just how ridiculously awesome this stadium is going to be. It states:

This past spring, the field was dug up and excavated an additional four feet. The lowering of the field was done to improve sightlines for fans in the lower seating areas and to make room for installation of an extensive infrastructure for game operations — including a network of water pipes (for drinking water and turf irrigation), broadcast cable, coaching and replay communications and storm-drain pipes.

The lowering of the field will not only improve sightlines, but hopefully also increase the feeling that the fans will really be hovering over the field. Not quite Autzen Stadium esque, but hopefully a similar feeling of being elevated over the field.

And the network of water pipes is quite ridiculous. Bob Milano Jr., UC Berkeley’s assistant athletic director for capital planning and management explains, "large overhead sprinkers on the perimeter of the field, fed by the irrigation system underground, will provide short-term, evaporative cooling to keep the turf cool on hot days and during heavy training sessions; it will also serve to help routinely clean the turf." Cool.

Here are some more videos from Cal Athletics of the crew laying down turf. My favorite part are the chants of "Whooooo!" in the background.

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Meet the Cal Defense

[Editor's Note: Those who have followed this blog for the past four plus years know that every post that has been published on this site is my own work. Unlike some other Cal sites, BWF doesn't have a dedicated team of writers or contributors.

So it's with some unexpected but certain pleasure that I get to have a guest contribution to the site and what a contribution it is.

Berk18 from the Bear Insider Forums has been awesome enough to do a series of writeups detailing Cal's defense. His first post provides a fantastic overview of Cal's 3-4 defensive scheme under Clancy Pendergast, and quite honestly, I think it's one of the most important posts that have been published on this site.

Like Berk18, I'm hoping this will start a nice conversation not just on this site, but in the general Cal fandom about really understanding more deeply what we're watching on the field. I know I've already gotten a lot out.]

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To me, football's easily the most interesting sport. The gap in knowledge between the average fan and coaches/players is bigger than in any other major American sport, and serious study is always rewarded. I've been trying to learn more about the X's and O's for a while now, and what's frustrated me the most is that there aren't a lot of thorough and consolidated resources for the average fan. As a result, you have to skip around from blog to blog and search through long indexes of articles to learn about any specific concept, and even then you often don't know what you need to be looking for in the first place. With that in mind, I'm hoping to put together here the kind of resource I would've wanted. I'm also still learning and what I say is by no means authoritative, so I welcome corrections and other ideas. That's part of the reason I'm interested in putting this stuff out there, so if you know more than me feel free to step in and make corrections.

This series of entries is about Clancy Pendergast's Cal defense, but it will also be an introduction to defense as a whole. Everyone knows what offense we'll be facing when we play Stanford, Oregon, and WSU next year, but most fans couldn't tell you whether those teams run a 4-3 or a 3-4 on defense, much less what kinds of things they like to do. Nonetheless, defensive game-planning is just as involved as offensive game-planning. A good defensive coordinator has a philosophy and tries to manipulate and attack the offense. A good defense also has balance and keeps things unpredictable. I'm going to bring this out by a study last season's games against Colorado and USC. This blog will talk about Pendergast's philosophy and tendencies. Later entries will look at interesting strategies and adjustments from those two games, bringing out things that worked well and things that didn't.

To get started, I should introduce some basic terminology for talking about plays and formations. One concept that's really important on defense is “gap control.” A gap is the space between two offensive linemen. The gap between the center and guard is called the “A” gap, the space between the guard and tackle is the “B” gap, and so on moving out from the center. Gaps with the same letter can be differentiated from each other with the terms “strongside” and “weakside.”

Generally, the tight end side of the formation will be the strongside (more blockers, and so more favorable numbers in the run game) and the other side will be the weakside. There are lots of more detailed ways to determine strongside vs. weakside (e.g. Which side is strong in a set with a TE on each side of the line?), but those can be specific to the team, the position on the field, and the gameplan.

So, if the offense is in a set with one tight end, that means there are seven gaps that need to be covered (strongside A, B, C, and D gaps, with the D gap being the space outside the TE, weakside A and B gaps plus the space outside the offensive tackle). If a defense can fill all the gaps, the runningback has nowhere to go. If a player blows his gap responsibility either by getting beat, making a mental mistake, or trying to do too much, the runningback will have a clear lane to picking up yards.

With that out of the way, let's talk about Cal. Everyone knows that Cal has been a 3-4 team since Bob Gregory's successful switch going into the 2008 season. There's a little bit of mis-information about what that means, though. As an example, early in the season some fans were blasting Aaron Tipoti for being too small to be a 3-4 nose guard. As the season wore on, Tipoti became less and less of a scapegoat, hopefully because people realized that he's actually pretty good. Tipoti isn't 340 pounds though, and he's not a monster. Why were people worried about him, and how was he able to be successful?

(Click for larger image)

In the stereotypical 3-4, defensive linemen and inside linebackers are bigger than their 4-3 counterparts, and the main pass rush comes from the outside linebackers. Because there is one less defensive lineman to defend against the run, linemen must be responsible for 2-gaps each. A generic 3-4 set will place the nose-guard heads-up over the center, with the ends heads-up over the tackles, as pictured above. The NG will be responsible for both A gaps, and the DE's will be responsible for the B and C gaps on their side. To successfully fulfill two-gap responsibilities, the linemen need to be bigger. Instead of firing through the gaps and attacking the offense, they're trying to control the blocker across from them and are often dealing with double-teams while they wait for the RB to commit to a gap. Once the RB commits, they move into the gap and make the play when they can. In reality, they're mostly there to occupy as many blockers as possible so that the linebackers are free to make plays.

(Click for larger image)

Cal doesn't run that kind of 3-4, though. Pendergast's front of choice (the “front” is the combination of the defensive linemen and linebackers and the alignment they're in) is the 3-4 under, pictured above. On the first drive against Colorado, Cal was in an under front on every play except obvious passing downs, and this is the default front generally. It can be hard to tell exactly where the linemen are lined up on TV, but there are some clues. In the picture below you can look at where the lineman's feet are relative to the hash and relative to the offensive players around them. A better way to tell what the gap responsibilities are, though, is to look at where the inside linebackers are lined up. Kendricks is clearly in between Payne and Guyton, suggesting that he is in fact responsible for the A-gap. Holt is similarly aligned to defend the strongside B-gap. For this play Colorado is in a balanced formation without an obvious strongside, so Cal has designated the side of the field with more space as the strongside.

An under front puts the three linemen over the weakside guard, center, and strongside tackle. Instead of being heads-up over those blockers, however, they shade to a specific side of them. The weakside end lines up shaded outside of the guard, the noseguard lines up on the center's strongside shoulder, and the strongside end is shaded outside of the strongside tackle. They are all responsible for one gap (the weakside end has the weakside B-gap, the nose guard has the strongside A-gap, and the strongside end has the strongside C-gap). The remaining gaps are filled by the linebackers, with the strongside ILB taking the strongside B-gap and the weakside ILB taking the weakside A-gap. The outside linebackers are responsible for anything off-tackle.

Because everyone is only responsible for one gap, they don't have to line up directly over their blocker. By shading everyone toward the gap that they're attacking, the front creates favorable angles for the DL and an advantage for the defense. Smaller noseguards can succeed in this defense because they're asked to attack one and only one gap, so agility and quickness off the ball are valuable assets. They also don't have to deal with double-teams any more than they would in a 4-3 defense. The main place Cal's front gives up size to, say, USC's 4-3 under is on the weakside, where we'll have a DE and an OLB instead of a DT and a DE. Cal has no use for a 340 pound NG who can't run, then. The reason Moala is such an intriguing prospect for us at NG is not just his strength and size, but his quick first step. To block him, a center will have to be quick enough to get in front of him (remember, Moala will already be shaded into the A-gap) while also being strong enough to anchor and stop him, whereas in a stereotypical 3-4 the center could just focus on anchoring.

OK, so Cal's main front is a 3-4 under. Why? This gets to the heart of Pendergast's defensive philosophy, which isn't much different from any other defensive coordinator: Stop the run on first and second down and force the offense to become one-dimensional. The under is good for stopping the run because of the numbers it puts to the strongside. If you draw a line through the middle of the offensive center, you'll notice that the under puts four defenders to the strongside of the formation with three to the weakside. Since the strongside is where the offense has more blockers, this is a good run-stopping front, especially when combined with certain coverages (more on that later). This is contrasted with other fronts, which can be balanced (the stereotypical 3-4) or shifted to the weakside (such as the “over” front). The main place Cal messes with the front drastically is on obvious passing downs, where strict gap-control is less important due to the lack of a run threat. In these cases, they'll line up in several different fronts that are designed to create favorable match-ups for the pass-rushers/blitzers. Any of these fronts can be used to stop specific plays, so it's all about what you're trying to take away.

The under is also a good front from a coverage perspective. It puts a linebacker over the TE, which makes it easier to bump and reroute him and cover him man-to-man when the coverage calls for it. The alignment itself also puts pressure on the tight end as a pass-blocker, because the strongside end's alignment means that the strongside offensive tackle can't help the TE block the OLB without some kind of adjustment to the protection. The tight end is a good player to attack in pass protection, because he will be the weakest blocker on the line. The under also puts a lineman over the center, who has to worry about the snap and so is generally a weaker blocker.

That's the under and its responsibilities against the run. The next entry will look at some of the coverages Cal uses. As I suggested in the previous paragraph, fronts and coverages are intimately linked and the coverage you're in has a major impact on what runs you can stop, so we'll look at how fronts and coverages interact in addition to the different things that Cal runs.

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Jared Goff Makes Elite 11

After a series of strong performances over the course of 5 competitive days, Cal Commit Jared Goff was selected as being a part of the final Elite 11. The field of the 25 best high school quarterbacks were narrowed to down to 11, and the Bears were represented again with their future quarterback emerging as part of the cream of the crop.

The MVP Honors went to USF commit Asiantii Woulard (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park) who was actually a late add-on to the competition in the first place.

The other Elite chosen were:

-USC Commit Max Browne (Sammamish, Wash./Skyline)
-PSU Commit (we'll see) Christian Hackenberg (Fork Union, Va./Fork Union Military Academy)
-Miami commit Kevin Olsen (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills)
-ASU commit Joshua Dobbs (Alpharetta, Ga./Alpharetta)
-Nebraska commit Johnny Stanton (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif./Santa Margarita)
-Notre Dame commit Malik Zaire (Kettering, Ohio/Archbishop Alter)
-Maryland commit Shane Cockerille (Baltimore/Gilman School)
-Oklahoma State commit Luke Del Rio (Highlands Ranch, Calif./Valor Christian)
-Zack Greenlee (Stockton, Calif./Lincoln)

[Edit: Just worth throwing out, it appears Goff was right in the running for the MVP Award according to Ryan Gorcey over at BearTerritory.com.

Browne and Goff came into Sunday ranked second and third, respectively, out of the 25 quarterbacks in attendance, and while Browne helped his cause during the Pressure Cooker competition, Goff sputtered just a bit down the stretch."

Elite 11 Coach Trent Dilfer, and former player coached by Coach Tedford himself had this to say about Goff and Zach Kline, two near MVP candidates at the Elite 11 two years in a row.

""Jeff's on fire," Dilfer said. "I called him a while back, and I said, 'Well, you've got your fastball back.' Zach's a special kid, a special player, and I know he's very successful right now. I actually saw him there the other day. Jared's going to be a rock star. He's got more intuitive qualities than I know how to explain. He's special, and he was in the running for the MVP. He made one bad decision, and that cost him that on the fourth down play. That's how intense this was. It came down to really a decision here, little, tiny things. He's a rock star kid."

Congrats Jared and we can't until you step on campus!

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Elite 11 Day 2 Coverage

The Elite 11 QB Camp continued and Cal quarterback commit Jared Goff continued to do well. There hasn't been too much said about Jared Goff, though the few blurbs I've read here and there have stated that Goff has thrown the ball consistently and shined during the 7-7s.

After the jump, help yourself to the few morsels of info I've been able to glean.

Erik McKinney from ESPN Insider had a short writeup on Day 2 (Subscription Required) including some notes on Jared Goff. Words on his performance were brief, but he did mention Goff sporting a high percentage with easy competions.

BamaMag.com, and affiliate of Scout.com (Subscription Required) reported that Goff has "looked good in every workout and was the top guy in his 7 on 7 pod as well."

Scott Kennedy from Scout also reiterated that Goff was the leader of his 7-7 group by a wide margin.


Scott Enyeart has a video interview with Jared that's fresh off the press in which Goff reiterates that he's "100% committed to Cal" and that he's been recruiting for the Bears as well. Also, sharing some news I wasn't sure I had heard before, Goff stated that he plans on enrolling early like Zach Kline did last year, so expect to see him in the fall.



Overall, it looks like Goff has been doing well enough to get noticed, but hasn't done enough yet to separate himself as being a shoe-in to be among the Final Elite 11. We'll see how Day 3 goes.

But just as importantly, regardless of what comes out of it, you have to think that Goff is loving the opportunity to go out there and compete with the nation's top high school signal callers and get some great coaching. It's going to be a win-win for him in any sense.
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Elite 11 Day 1 Coverage

Here we go again. Elite 11 Competitions are to Cal fans like the NBA Draft is to Warriors fans. You hear and read about all these great things regarding your team's future prospects only to be crying in a bathtub years later wondering "What if?"

Not getting the connection? Just know that the Bears have consistently recruited some of the best and brightest quarterback prospects in the country the past decade only to have the same type of QB woes that have contributed to the Bears' inability to rise to the top of the conference pecking order.

Things seem to be turning around, with Zach Kline's strong performance last year at the Elite 11 and the inclusion of current Cal commit Jared Goff at this year's Elite 11 Camp.

After the jump, there isn't much, but check out a few links and snippets of info regarding Goff's performance at the Elite 11 on Day 1.

Day One • Check out a video of ESPN's Tom Luginbill's recap of Day One. Jared Goff is singled out as one of the better taller, lankier pocket passers. Goff was compared to camp counselor and current NC State QB Mike Glennon when Glennon was a prospect at the Elite 11: possessing a lot of physical tools but not quite there in terms of a physical stature.

• Mike Farrell of Rivals.com wrote a tidy little piece for SI.com evaluating each competitor's performance. Here's what he had to say about Goff.
• Jared Goff, Kentfield (Cal.) Marin Catholic: Goff is an accurate short and intermediate passer, but his arm strength downfield can be shaky. Though he has a good throwing motion, the ball tends to float on him. But this is a plus: Goff has one of the quickest releases of all the quarterbacks in attendance."

• Finally, when hard pressed for news, resort to the lowest common denominator that is Twitter. A few choice tweets:

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Marshawn Lynch Arrested for Suspicion of DUI

In some really unfortunate news, former Cal RB and current Seattle Seahawks player Marshawn Lynch was arrested on a suspicion of a DUI over the weekend.

Lynch was pulled over in East Oakland and was cited for driving while under the influence and having a drug-alcohol level over the legal limit of 0.08.

I love Marshawn Lynch as a player and he's one of the most fun players I've had the pleasure of watching and following as a fan. But this is about as dumb as it gets in terms of immature behavior.

It'd be bad enough if this were the first time Lynch had gotten in trouble with the law, but anyone who's anyone knows of his scuffles in the past.

Back in 2008, Lynch accepted a plea deal for a hit-and-run after hitting a very intoxicated Kimberley Shpeley with his car and driving off from the scene.

A year later, Lynch pled guilty to a misdemeanor after his car was searched and the the police came up with a loaded handgun.

Although Lynch barely avoided getting arrested within his three-year probation time, his arrest is not going to make NFL Commissioner Goodell very happy. Goodell has told Lynch there was no margin for any error following his second run in with the law, and you'd have to think his upcoming punishment is going to be a bit more severe than the three-game suspension he served for his hit-and-run.

Not good Marshawn. Not good at all. Here's hoping that if anything positive can be gleaned from this, it's Lynch committing to keeping himself out of these positions completely.

On that note, I still don't know how celebrities or rich athletes get DUIs. You make millions! Call a town car! Call a limo! Call me! I'll do it for $20. Seriously.

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Cal Football Season Tickets Purchased Baby

This is more of a personal update, than anything of any real relevant Cal news.

For those of you not in the know (I'm thinking most), I had been out on the East Coast for the past few years, so I was unable to renew my Cal season tickets during that time. Moreover, being on the East Coast made it a bit difficult for me to follow the Bears during that time with as much convenience as living on the West Coast: no Cal football on cable tv, the time zone change, being unable to make it to spring scrimmages, etc. Thank goodness for PRD74 and his streams. The Lord bless that dude.

So it was with great joy that I was able to get back and finally get my season ticket action going.

I must say, I was a bit surprised at how quickly most of the good seats were sold. By the time I finally got around to calling, I found that they were completely sold out from sections E all the way through II on the west side of the Stadium.

(Click for the larger image)

Now, there were still seats remaining in H, and I'm positive there are still plenty of seats remaining in the ESP section, but that's a tad bit out of my price range. Well it's more like, I'd have a much more difficult time justifying the purchase to my wife.

Needless to say, the stadium is filling out quickly.

My options were the corner sections of the stadium, but once I realized I wasn't going to get premium seats on the west side, and after some much needed guidance from other Cal fans, I decided to go back to my comfort zone on the East Side.

"As explained by my friend, It will be sunnier, but I prefer the east side atmosphere due to the proximity to the students and young alums. Also, it is on the Cal sideline."

Well said. So I ended up in Section U. I could have ended up with a better angle by opting for section TT, but would have compromised distance to the field, as the only seats available were way back in Row 70 or so. I must say I'm pretty pleased with the view level, nabbing seats around Row 30.

And thanks to Cal's nifty Virtual Stadium Tour page, I'm able to get a decent sense of what my view will look like. Check out the view.

When asked how ticket sales were doing, the sales rep I spoke with told me that the office is pretty pleased with the overall sales, citing that they were ahead of their goals so far with more than 20,000 tickets sold. I'd expect that number to jump up significantly as Fall camp gets underway. Overall, there seems to be a bit of excitement from everyone involved about returning to a renovated Memorial Stadium.

Anyway, long story short, get your tickets if you haven't already done so. I'm already regretting my delay in jumping on it, though I am happy with my seats with all things considered.

And if you already have your tix, then I look forward to seeing you there. Go Bears. Read the rest of the post and comments here >>

Former Cal Commit Shaq Thompson Makes the Front Page of Yahoo!

It's a pretty big deal when you make the front page of Yahoo! Not that anyone ever considers anything posted on the front page of Yahoo! of any importance (see side story of Kate Middleton's face airbrushed over a model's body on a "Marie Claire" cover), but it usually means some people are paying attention to you.

And former Cal commit Shaq Thompson who infamously decommitted to the Bears twice before signing with Washington is making headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.

The ridiculously gifted athlete was drafted by the Red Sox in the 18th round of the MLB Draft and is posting a staggering 0.00 through 26 at bats.

He's struck out 25 times in the last 26 at bats. That's a mindblowingly bad number. His biggest accomplishment thus far has been grounding out to first base.

All in all, you have to think that Huskies fans are entertaining a mix of bored shrugs and delight. They won't have to worry about their 5 star prospect giving up football any time soon, and all will be forgotten when he destroys receivers going over the middle.

The guy will likely be a high NFL draft pick anyway, so this is more of a "Wait, Shaq did what?" kind of moment for those who remember one of the more hotly contested recruiting battles in Bears history.

Read the rest of the post and comments here >>

Cal in EA's NCAA Football 13

Anyone's who's had the misfortune of stumbling onto my blog during the summer in year's past knows I usually throw in a post here or there about EA's NCAA Football series in relation to Cal.

The big one was my discussion of whether there was such a thing as an NCAA Football Cover Curse similar to Madden.

Though over the years, my posts on the game series have gotten shorter and have emphasized more of EA's lazy approach to covering teams not named Florida or Notre Dame with the increasing number of inaccuracies in the game.

There were small things here and there, like portraying former Cal LB Mike Mohammed as being black.

Or having former Cal RB Tracy Slocum as the starting running back over Jahvid Best AND Shane Vereen in the 2010 version.

It was capped off with last year's version featuring QB Kevin Riley who had GRADUATED THE YEAR PRIOR.

Look, I get it. The EA team has 120 programs to cover and chances are that they're not going to get everything correct. But when your franchise has stagnated to a point that you're really not doing anything new, what else is keeping your development team busy for a full year?

Here's a look at some of EA's coverage of the Bears in this year's game.

First off, for the record, I didn't buy this game. I'm not about to put down $65 for a game which features the worst rated version of the Bears I've seen in the last 10 years.

If you're bored, you can watch the following video which features a game between the Golden Bears and the Baylor Bears in Memorial Stadium to get a sense of the action.



First off, the Bears are rated as 85 overall, with an 89 offense rating, and a staggeringly low defense rating of 76. (Source: CornNation) Apparently, our defense is worse than Duke's, Louisiana Tech's and Wyoming's. I'm not about to be super nitpicky here but I'm pretty sure our defense has led the conference two of the past three years. Though I will say that I'm surprised our offense was rated so high.

Here are some player ratings with the top player obviously being Keenan Allen. Still for someone who could be a Bitletnikoff Winner by the end of the year, this is still pretty low.

It's also worth noting that the Bears feature just two players who are rated above 90, though that's some what fair.

I will say that visually, the teams looks to have kicked it up a notch. The game looks beautiful, and though Memorial Stadium hasn't been updated just yet, they've continued to add detail to the Berkeley Hills each year. Very nice indeed.

Some random observations.

-Josh Hill and Avery Sebastian both have full sets of Predator dreadlocks.
-The starting defensive lineup seems to be about where most would expect, with the only mild surprises being Robert Mullins as one of your starting inside linebackers.

-Zach Maynard is apparently right handed now.

-Jackson Bouza is your other starting WR opposite Keenan Allen. This is understandable if you based it off the spring rosters, but they had to think one of the incoming wide receivers might make a push, no?

-Fortunately, EA does not offer a Shield of Death (SOD) punting formation. Hurray!

At the end of the day, I'm just being snarky in posting my minor squabbles. The 76 defense rating is the only major gripe I have in terms of the game's relation to Cal.

Oh and the fact that the game has remained a stagnant money sucking mess for the past several years. Having former Heisman winners play on current teams? Le Sigh.

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ESPN Pac-12 Blog Hopes and Concerns for Cal Video

Kevin Gemmell from ESPN's Pac-12 Blog has posted a video where he discusses the hopes and concerns for Cal.

You can check out the video here since it looks like you can't embed it directly on sites.

Among hopes, he states that Cal's offensive line might be among the conference's best.

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Cameron Hunt Commits to the Bears

At the Opening on Saturday, Cal picked up a nice pickup when Corona Centennial High offensive lineman Cameron Hunt chose the Cal hat on national television.

I’m thrilled about this pickup. Even after a solid offensive line recruiting class this year, the Bears are likely looking to pick up three to four offensive linemen this class, and Hunt is a fantastic start. Hunt is rated 4 stars by ESPN, a high 3 stars by Rivals, and 3 stars by both Scout and 247Sports and has both the frame, skills and smarts to project as a very solid offensive lineman at the next level.

Cal beat out ASU, Washington, Boise St., among a host of other schools for Hunt.

At 6’5, 270 pounds, Hunt has a solid frame with very little “bad” weight on him. While he lacks the bulk currently to be dominate elite defensive linemen at this level, he’s got the type of footwork and technique to rarely get beat in return.

It’ll be interesting to see where Hunt will fit on the line at the collegiate level. He’s got really quick feet to handle speedy pass rushers off the edge, but may lack the range necessary to be an elite tackle. Most probably like him more at the guard position, where he may have the chance to be flat out dominant once he puts on an additional 30 pounds from now until the end of his redshirt freshman year.

Here are his junior highlights. Some plays may be difficult to follow, but just hone in on #78 anchoring the left side of the line, and you won’t be bored.



See what I mean? It’s hard not to like what you see. Hunt plays with nice pad level, and is an active aggressive blocker playing whistle to whistle.

It’s been tossed around quite a bit that Hunt fits the prototypical o-line mold for Coach Michalczik, and I’d say that’s right. He’s tough, physical, athletic, smart, and willing to put in the time and effort to hone their technique.

You’ve made a great choice and welcome to the Bears Cameron.

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Pre-Season Preview with College Football Zealots

As we begin to tick off the days until the 2012 season kicks off, I was happy to answer some questions for College Football Zealots to help preview the Cal season.

Here's a preview to one of the questions:

CFBZ: Five of Cal's top six tacklers were seniors last season. Who needs to step up to replace that production?

The biggest "step-up" unit will be the linebacking corps, where the Bears will need to find answers to replace both starting inside linebackers, including Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and second round draft pick Mychal Kendricks and departed senior DJ Holt.

The duo combined for a hefty 187 combined tackles last year. Cal features a host of unproven but talented prospects to fill their shoes, including highly-touted, but oft-injured redshirt sophomore Nick Forbes. Sophomore Dave Wilkerson returns to his more natural position of inside linebacker, as does redshirt freshman Jason Gibson who played outside in high school but flourished in spring ball when moved inside.

Each player was a four-star prospect and certainly has the talent to start on day one. Though, the Bears may need upperclassmen JP Hurrell or Robert Mullins to direct the defense and help fill the void left by Kendricks and Holt.

You can read the full preview here.

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Cal Prospects at the Nike Opening

The Opening, Nike's High School Prospect Camp kicks off today (July 5th) in Oregon and runs until July 8th.

Last year the Bears had a number of commits participating in the festivities including Bryce Treggs and Zach Kline, who would actually have one his more mediocre camp showings before tearing it up at the Elite 11.

This year, the Bears don't have any commits participating, though they do have a number of prospective players who will be running through the gamut of drills and scrimmages.

You can check out the full roster here.

A few to look out for:

Defensive End Joel Mathis has the Bears in his mix though he's admitted they're likely in the middle of the pack. Still, the four-star prospect has ties with incoming wide receiver Kenny Lawler and will be looking at the Bears more seriously in the coming months.

DE Torrodney Prevot attended Cal's 3-day camp a few weeks ago, and has been traveling the camp circuits as one of the most coveted DEs in the nation. While Prevot has Cal in his top group of West Coast teams, the Bears will have to battle it out with some big names in the SEC and Big 12 including LSU and Oklahoma.

The Bears are eyeing a pair of Central Valley defensive backs in LJ Moore and Hatari Byrd. The talented backs having been hearing from the Bears and DB coach Ashley Ambrose quite a bit over the past few months, and the backs have responded with having the Bears in their Top 5.

Defensive Lineman Eddie Vanderdoes is about as coveted of a defensive line prospect as you'll find in the country. When national champion Alabama gets trimmed off your list to make an even Top 10, you know you're legit. The good news is that the Bears are in his Top 10, and will need to continue to battle for Vanderdoes' service for the remainder of the recruiting season. Vanderdoes appears to be leaning to Oregon at this point and time, but again, it's July, folks.

Offensive Tackle Nico Falah claims he has the Bears in the mix, but UCLA and USC may be the frontrunners at this point, with the Trojans being the most likely team winning Falah's commitment.
[Edit: Falah apparently eliminated us two weeks ago.]

Another OT, Cameron Hunt from Corona, CA actually has the Bears in his final group of contenders and actually plans on announcing his decision at the Opening. I'm not actually too sure of where Hunt is headed here, with ASU and Washington as the other candidates. We'll have to stay tuned for this one.

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Ohio State Blue Ribbon Preview

ESPN continues on with their Blue Ribbon Preview series that takes an indepth look at each football program in preparation for the football season.

Most can only be read with an ESPN Insider Access, but you can check out Ohio State's writeup for free here.

The Bears will face off against the Buckeyes who hope to rebound from an uncharacteristically bad year. New coach Urban "I'm-unhealthy,-just-kidding-I'm–not,-I-just-had-a-case-of-no-Tebow-itis" Meyer appears to be injecting a case of aggression and competitiveness from team drills to recruiting practices.

In other Buckeye news of note, senior runningback Jordan Hall sustained a "significant" foot injury and will be out for a minimum of ten weeks. While a medical redshirt is even being considered, best case scenarios have him ready for action during Week 3. And since OSU faces the Bears in Week 3, we can pretty much take that as a sign that Hall will indeed be ready to go and tear a new one.

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