Pac-12 Media Days: California picked third in the North and a slew of players earn all-conference honors
Can the Bears exceed these whelming expectations?
The Pac-12 media have made their annual preseason predictions for the football season, calling for the Golden Bears to finish third in the Pac-12 North (with no first-place votes).
The two divisional favorites are perennial winners Oregon and USC with the former winning the championship games. The Bears were picked to finish behind two Northern foes whom we’ve beaten the last time we faced (2020 vs. Oregon and 2019 vs. Washington) and ahead of our archrivals, the villainous Stanfurd. Down in the South, embattled California alumnus Herm Edwards has Arizona State ranked third with six first-place votes; the South in general is more contentious than the North, with four teams earning first-place votes.
Mike Saffell leads the Bears in All-Pac-12 honors with his place on the second team; unfortunately, Saffell announced his medical retirement just a few days ago. In a shocker for the Wilcox era, no defensive Bears were placed on the first or second teams, but the basically-officially-returning Luc Bequette, Kuony Deng, the Bednarik-watch-listing Cam Goode, and Takers Elijah Hicks and Josh Drayden all earned honorable mention.
Edit: In an earlier draft, I overlooked two of our honorably mentioned Bears. Sorry for the oversight!
No more coasting on Sonny’s recruiting prowess on defense?
This shit cracks me up. In the game of P5 football, you don't go far without a SOLID QB. I would say Chase Garbers is the best in the North as of right now. We've beat UW the last two times we played them. We beat the Ducks last year and played them tough in 2019 with a back up QB. Neither of these teams have a stud returning QB. And, don't under estimate David Shaw and the Furd. They've had some distractions (Shaw's previously ailing brother) which are now behind them. Furd will be in the mix...as will CAL. Imagine that.