Here are a couple more thoughts about Cal's big win over Tennessee and college football in general.
- Jahvid Best looks like the real deal. But let's not forget James Montgomery. I think Montgomery will get some more PT against CSU and gets some big yards.
- I retract my earlier statement about DeSean Jackson and kickoffs. Since no one will punt to him anymore (though the CSU head coach has said that he will punt to Jackson), let's get him back there on kickoffs so he can get more touches.
- On another note, DeSean will get his catches. Even with the bracket coverage by Tennessee there were a couple opportunities where Jackson was open but Nate just checked down. There was one particular play in the 3rd quarter where Jackson had both the DB and safety completely turned around and was running up the middle of the field. But just as he was making his move, Nate has already tossed the ball to Morrah, who in Nate's defense, was wide open and ran for another 8 yards before a Volunteer touched him.
- I am a big, big Craig Stevens fan. The guy is an All American tight end for sure. But, seeing Cameron Morrah make some big catches (and 1 big drop) makes me feel better about the tight end position. Expect Stevens and Morrah to get plenty of big plays up the middle of the seams as the wide receivers force DB's to cover out wide.
- Marcus Ezzef??? I looked back on my posts and did not see his name mentioned once. But I saw him making plays on the field and he looks good. I saw 2 great open field tackles on Tennessee tailbacks on swing passes and a great pass defense.
- DeCoud and Hicks are monster hitters. But guys, look up sometimes rather than go for the big hit. There were at least 2 Ainge floaters that should have been intercepted by a ball hawking safety.
- Michigan is a 6 point favorite over Oregon. Really?? Man, does that make App St. 8 points favroites over Oregon?
- Cal moved up 2 spots in both polls. We are now in the top 10. Michigan received no votes. Ohio State apparently did not win by enough to stay in front of Cal. USC apparently did not embarrass Idaho enough as some voters moved their first place vote to Florida, who I assume did embarrass Western Kentucky enough to show that they are the top team. Did you see Tebow throw for 300 yards against Western Kentucky? Man, that truly shows that he does have an arm. I mean Western Kentucky is the App St of the south. (Most of this note was sarcastic, I hope you noticed).
- So there are Cal viewing parties in NYC. Check out Cal vs CSU at MJ Armstrong on 1st Ave and 19th St. I will be there, look for the guy in the Cal shirt.
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5 comments:
I agree most with the Power 16 poll, we should be up there at number 6 or higher with our win and ferocious play by Jackson on the national stage.
Something for 5:58 p.m. anonymous to consider...while I love the thought of Cal being the number 1 team in the country, 12 was a good place to start and 10 is a fair progression (okay, maybe eight or nine, seeing how we were the only team to play--AND BEAT--another ranked team).
It's a marathon, not a sprint. If we go too high, too early, there is no place to go but down. Starting off a little lower--as long as we're are at least in the top 14--gives us breathing room.
The key is winning the Pac 10 outright...short of that, we have to play so that our only loss is to a USC team that runs the table. But that is way premature!
Off topic...
I know UCLA played a good game and put up over 600 yards of offense, but, honestly, it was against Stanford!! Hardly an idicator of UCLA's true talents or vulnerabilities (although the kicking game was expectedly mediocre).
I hate to see the Pac-10 falter out-of-conference, but I'm rooting for BYU to knock the momentum and confidence out of UCLA's head. Of course, part of this derision toward the Bruins comes from all the crap they piled on us after last year's Tennessee's game (much like I'm seeing Ohio State fans heap on Michigan sites)...
--TH
Good point on Montgomery; this quote from Tedford's press conference suggests he still sees Montgomery as the primary backup ....
On Jahvid Best's playing time/performance:
He will continue to contribute in certain ways, and James Montgomery, as well, to get him involved in what's going on. We're playing Jahvid this year, so he's not just going to play on special teams; he needs to contribute on offense so there are things that he will do on offense as well to give Justin a break. The three-back rotation, it's a little bit difficult to get all three backs in there but Jahvid will definitely make a contribution on offense as well as special teams. I still think that James would be the every-down-back; I don't know that Jahvid's ready to be the every-down-back and that would be the big difference right now.
One small correction: Michigan received some votes, but not enough to make it into the top 25. Particularly at the beginning of the season, up to 45 different teams get votes but only the top-25 are generally listed.
TH - I would have to disagree with you about getting ranked too high too fast. The benefits of being ranked high early in the season are that if you lose you have plenty of time to work your way back up, and you aren’t going to be as far down in the rankings after the loss because you were ranked higher to begin with. Just look at Michigan for example, even though they’re not in the Top25 any more they have plenty of time to work their way back up and make a BCS bowl. If they had just been ranked #5 going into the last or the second to last week of the season and lost to Appalachian State, then they wouldn’t have as much time (if any) to work their way back up. Also, if you're worried about making the Rose Bowl, then being ranked as high as possible is best because if we should lose then we have a greater chance of still dropping down within the Top14 or whatever it is to remain BCS bowl eligible. If we barely cracked the top14 the week before we played U$C and then lost to them, we’d only have 3-4 weeks left in the season to work our way back up. Whereas if we were ranked at #6 or so and then lost, we’d have an 8 spot buffer to fall but still be BCS bowl eligible. In my opinion, it's always better to be ranked as high as possible no matter what week of the year. Plus we get more publicity too which is always great to establish ourselves as a national powerhouse and “program.”
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