Thank you for sharing. Excellent insights for sure.
I thought that KJ Simpson should’ve been the Pac-12 POY.
It’s going to take awhile but I like the idea of having a Power conference that has schools grouped by geographic proximity. I think this was the idea that Chip Kelly mentioned, right? This makes the most sense from many different perspectives. We can only dream until then.
Final note: my son who was in a Pac-12 school marching until he graduated last year shared with me a question his freshman year. He said, “The bands are on a chat site where we banter and trade commentary, except for one band that is not included.” Any guesses on which school was excluded?
Yes, it was U$C. He was shocked as a newbie band member and freshman that one band would be shunned, but he grew to understand why. He had never really been a sports fan so the sports rivalry part was something he learned. He was a band geek and got sucked into sports by playing at sporting events starting in high school and later in college.
The Cal loss was perplexing from a coaching standpoint. I'm not sure why Coach Madden chose to slow down the offense. It played into Stanford's hands by giving their defense a chance to play half court. Water under the bridge. Losing players who played for only one year, and now two who are leaving through the transfer portal, makes it hard to feel a deep connection to them. I appreciate what our transfer portal players did for the team, the program and the school, but as the saying goes, "we hardly knew you..." I will be fascinated to see how Madden replenishes his roster, and whether recruiting players who stay for more than one or two years.
What a lovely post and reflection on things. Thank you for taking the time to record this. It's a combo of post mortem and insight into fan bases and the sport. I wish I was able to do what you did, having the time off and money to travel to see Cal teams play. Retirement can't come soon enough!
Thank you for sharing. Excellent insights for sure.
I thought that KJ Simpson should’ve been the Pac-12 POY.
It’s going to take awhile but I like the idea of having a Power conference that has schools grouped by geographic proximity. I think this was the idea that Chip Kelly mentioned, right? This makes the most sense from many different perspectives. We can only dream until then.
Final note: my son who was in a Pac-12 school marching until he graduated last year shared with me a question his freshman year. He said, “The bands are on a chat site where we banter and trade commentary, except for one band that is not included.” Any guesses on which school was excluded?
And wholly agree on Simpson being POY over Love.
I'm a Cal Band Alum, and can guess that is is USC. My experience in the 90's was that all other bands hated them equally.
Yes, it was U$C. He was shocked as a newbie band member and freshman that one band would be shunned, but he grew to understand why. He had never really been a sports fan so the sports rivalry part was something he learned. He was a band geek and got sucked into sports by playing at sporting events starting in high school and later in college.
USC’s jerkitude stems from their former band director and not really anything to do with sports hate.
The Cal loss was perplexing from a coaching standpoint. I'm not sure why Coach Madden chose to slow down the offense. It played into Stanford's hands by giving their defense a chance to play half court. Water under the bridge. Losing players who played for only one year, and now two who are leaving through the transfer portal, makes it hard to feel a deep connection to them. I appreciate what our transfer portal players did for the team, the program and the school, but as the saying goes, "we hardly knew you..." I will be fascinated to see how Madden replenishes his roster, and whether recruiting players who stay for more than one or two years.
What a lovely post and reflection on things. Thank you for taking the time to record this. It's a combo of post mortem and insight into fan bases and the sport. I wish I was able to do what you did, having the time off and money to travel to see Cal teams play. Retirement can't come soon enough!
Appreciate the anecdotal interactions with other P12 fans.
Curious: what "change" was the St Mary's mom referring to? Conference realignment? National or state politics?
State and national politics. She was from Placerville and was going on about the "dirty Bay Area."
I was going to infer stereotypes about Moraga, but Placerville makes a lot more sense. :D
She's not wrong about the bay area being dirty though.