That was a brilliant piece of writing, Avi. It summed the game, the series and in many ways, the experience of being a Cal football fan. I saw my first Cal-U$C game as a wee child in 1965, a 35-0 Golden Bear loss. It hasn't gotten much better since. I've witnessed seven wins over the Trojans and more losses than I care to count (okay I c…
That was a brilliant piece of writing, Avi. It summed the game, the series and in many ways, the experience of being a Cal football fan. I saw my first Cal-U$C game as a wee child in 1965, a 35-0 Golden Bear loss. It hasn't gotten much better since. I've witnessed seven wins over the Trojans and more losses than I care to count (okay I counted, 22). A win yesterday would have been glorious, a twist in the tale. As it is the narrative held and heartbreak was again our reward. As much as I love the fact that I'll never have to share a stadium with their awful band and awful fans again, I hate the fact that another college football rivalry, one-sided though it may be, is over.
I am glad we don't have to put up with their band grinding out the same nonsense every-single-minute of the game.
Since we've hardly ever won consistently in the PAC, it will be interesting to lose to some new teams. Games in the CST, EST zones will be over 2-3 hours “early” on Saturdays, another bonus. Who knows, maybe Wilcox can squeeze out an overall winning record playing some of the ACC weaker teams.
Basketball will be more entertaining, will be able to see the Bears get crushed playing the high profile ACC teams instead of the same old cast of characters.
And the Furdies come with us too, so Big Game survives.
Well written. Bottom line is that the teams (football or otherwise) with the big reputation almost always prevail over the teams with a mediocre reputation. Whether it be bad bounces on a fumble, or refs missing a hold on a receiver (e.g. the 2 point conversion play), or getting stripped on a punt return when a fair catch would have given us the opportunity to eat up clock and possibly extend a 7 point lead, or taking the panicky risk of going for 2 (scrap shoot one play) when kicking the extra point and challenging the entire team to win in the overtime format, Cal played amazing offense with many fantastic plays but, but gave this game away to the team with the bigger reputation. We have to believe we can win important football games….and we can, but it’s a big phycological barrier.
That was a brilliant piece of writing, Avi. It summed the game, the series and in many ways, the experience of being a Cal football fan. I saw my first Cal-U$C game as a wee child in 1965, a 35-0 Golden Bear loss. It hasn't gotten much better since. I've witnessed seven wins over the Trojans and more losses than I care to count (okay I counted, 22). A win yesterday would have been glorious, a twist in the tale. As it is the narrative held and heartbreak was again our reward. As much as I love the fact that I'll never have to share a stadium with their awful band and awful fans again, I hate the fact that another college football rivalry, one-sided though it may be, is over.
I am glad we don't have to put up with their band grinding out the same nonsense every-single-minute of the game.
Since we've hardly ever won consistently in the PAC, it will be interesting to lose to some new teams. Games in the CST, EST zones will be over 2-3 hours “early” on Saturdays, another bonus. Who knows, maybe Wilcox can squeeze out an overall winning record playing some of the ACC weaker teams.
Basketball will be more entertaining, will be able to see the Bears get crushed playing the high profile ACC teams instead of the same old cast of characters.
And the Furdies come with us too, so Big Game survives.
Well written. Bottom line is that the teams (football or otherwise) with the big reputation almost always prevail over the teams with a mediocre reputation. Whether it be bad bounces on a fumble, or refs missing a hold on a receiver (e.g. the 2 point conversion play), or getting stripped on a punt return when a fair catch would have given us the opportunity to eat up clock and possibly extend a 7 point lead, or taking the panicky risk of going for 2 (scrap shoot one play) when kicking the extra point and challenging the entire team to win in the overtime format, Cal played amazing offense with many fantastic plays but, but gave this game away to the team with the bigger reputation. We have to believe we can win important football games….and we can, but it’s a big phycological barrier.