34 Comments

Will we be ineligible for AP poll votes then?

Expand full comment
Nov 14, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

We were eligible for votes ever since the Pac-12 announced the season was back on and have been receiving votes in the time since.

Expand full comment

Look at it this way cal will have two wins in “week 12,” should jump us up to #1. What other team has ever done that

Expand full comment

But will the voters be able to take the UCLA game into account?

Expand full comment
author

If there's one thing I learned from the Cal-UW game last year, it's that the vast majority of voters don't watch the game, and some don't even bother to check the box score before voting either. So some voters will probably vote according to who they think will win anyway, so probably not worth worrying about if Cal will receive 3 votes instead of 5.

Expand full comment
author

Go Bears! Go, free votes!

Expand full comment
Nov 14, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

I feel like this is essentially a pickup football game.

Expand full comment
Nov 13, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

So Wilner was right. I leaked it on the ASU cancellation thread. Had some work to do for a couple of hours and so I was offline. And there was the story on Calbears.com. Kudos to Knowlton for pulling this off and also coach Wilcox and the team for being so flexible. FOOTBALL is back!

Expand full comment

So much for film, scheme and play install and practice. Should be real sloppy.

Expand full comment
author

I'm hoping for a sloppy game. UCLA had four turnovers against Colorado last week. Fingers crossed we get some turnover magic against the Bruins, too!!

Expand full comment
Nov 14, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

The short turn around is tough and Cal is likely to have a weakness at D-line due to the past two weeks, but I have to imagine the last-minute scheduling favors Cal overall.

Cal is returning a lot of talent who played and prepared for UC L.A. last year. The offense is probably pretty unchanged. The defense is still technically under DC Azzinaro, although there's the possibility that Brian Norwood--who served as co-DC at his last three stops--is taking some responsibility. UC L.A. also played last week, so there's footage on this team.

On the flip side, they have last-minute notice to prepare for a team that has no footage and is debuting a new offense.

Expand full comment
Nov 14, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

At least we have the UCLA game from last week to look at.

Expand full comment

Brown Jr. up the middle. At least the Bruins don't have Joshua Kelley. Not sure if there remaining backs will be as good as he was.

Expand full comment
author

Spoiler: they're not. And the good news is that UCLA is basically store-brand ASU, so I imagine a lot of their defensive concepts for Jayden Daniels also apply to DTR (who's actually far more error-prone). Plus, they weren't expecting to play us either, so they don't really have much of an advantage either.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Expand full comment
author

Garbers made huge strides last year, and there are a lot of new starters this year, so Garbers should be near the top. It's hard to rank everyone new after just one game though.

1. Kedon Slovis

2. Davis Mills

3. Chase Garbers

4. Jayden Daniels

5. Sam Noyer

6. Cameron Rising (?)

7. Tyler Shough

8. Grant Gunnell

9. Jayden de Laura

10. Jacob Sirmon (?)

11. Tristan Gebbia

12. Dorian Thompson-Robinson

I expect Tyler Shough to be good eventually, he has a ton of potential. Conversely, wasn't very impressed with Jayden de Laura. Jayden Daniels at #4 is too high if we're judging just QB skills, but his running ability makes up for a lot of deficiencies. I think Gunnell has room for improvement too. No idea at all who is starting for UW-- I wouldn't be too excited for Sirmon, but perhaps one of their freshman QBs has some potential.

Expand full comment

Wow, two days of prep? What an unprepared game this might be! What about our Dline?

Expand full comment
author

Fingers crossed they can get up to speed quickly. I hope there are some players able to swap into these positions to provide some relief to our men

Expand full comment
Nov 13, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

LOVING the flexibility of the Pac12. Yes, I said something nice about the conference!!!! Go Bears!!! TV? I'm assuming so given the 9am start...... Yeah!

Expand full comment

Ah! ESPN!

Expand full comment

It says FS1

Expand full comment
Nov 14, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

You're right! It's the UCLA/Oregon game on ESPN. My bad!

Expand full comment

So do we have our DL back?

Expand full comment
author

Yes, the city of Berkeley released the players from self-quarantine on Sunday. Cal will travel to UCLA on the same-day, which is crazy for a 9 a.m. kick-off!

Expand full comment
author

Yes, supposedly the guys in quarantine only had to stay in quarantine until Sunday (at midnight?).

Expand full comment

Go Bears!

...*braces for salty UW stan accounts whining about how we get a game and they didn't last week*

Expand full comment

They should have played Arizona last Sunday too

Expand full comment
author

Lord knows both of them sure as hell wanted to do so!!

Expand full comment

Good idea!

Expand full comment
Nov 13, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Friday the 13th in 2020 brings many twists!

This is a GREAT outcome! Preserves the tradition and is a level playing field as neither team expected this. Now where the hell is our equipment truck?

Expand full comment

>>> Now where the hell is our equipment truck?

Shortest route from Berkeley to Phoenix passes within half a mile of the Rose Bowl. Our truck may be closer to it than UCLA's.

Expand full comment

So let's hope we play USC in the final week and we play all California schools.

Expand full comment
author

Let's hope USC can make it to the Pac-12 Championship, then. (Those words still felt dirty to type).

Expand full comment
author

Lets f'ing go. Go Bears.

Expand full comment

Wow yay!!!!!!

Expand full comment