Let's start with Cal was not supposed to be just any Pac 12 team. They were picked by the experts and fellow coaches to finish third behind Washington and Oregon in the North Division. And they were named 3.5 point favorites by Vegas. And then you add in a returning 4-year quarterback in Garbers who had the rep - last year notwithstandin…
Let's start with Cal was not supposed to be just any Pac 12 team. They were picked by the experts and fellow coaches to finish third behind Washington and Oregon in the North Division. And they were named 3.5 point favorites by Vegas. And then you add in a returning 4-year quarterback in Garbers who had the rep - last year notwithstanding - of winning games he started and finished. Lots of experience behind him, too. Then you add in the size advantage in the trenches. Cal proved it by running the ball down Nevada's throat and going up by 14 points before you could blink.
So yes, Cal should have won on paper. But what was not calculated was player development during the off season and game planning by the coaches. It was pretty clear from watching the game that Nevada wanted it more and had coaches that made better adjustments. I will just go right out and say it now...they have better coaches with better schemes that fit the talent they have. For that program to have four or five NFL ready guys on their offense when probably none of them received much attention from Pac 12 programs is pretty remarkable.
I don't know if any of you read my prediction of the game outcome: I said we would either win big going away (like the 1st quarter) or we would lose close in the final minutes. Lastly, I understand everything you are saying, but go back to what I said about UNR having a potential TOP 3 DRAFT PICK at QB, two WR's and a tight end that will play on Sundays, they ARE a good team, probably better than TCU. As to adjustments, we made them, but we DID NOT EXECUTE. And we did not have any explosive plays, unlike UNR. Lastly, in 2010 UNR had Colin Kaepernick at QB and they ended the season ranked 15th in the December 5th BCS poll. This year's UNR team could be better than the pundits realize.
We can't make explosive plays when our fastest receivers are on the bench. Honestly, our best receivers all transferred and now we're sitting here relying on who would have been their backups while the freshmen sit. I don't get it. I know playbooks can be hard to pick up in your first year, but we're instead deciding to just rely on a roster that hasn't worked for 3 years.
We will find out how good of a team Nevada is when they go on the road to play Kansas State, the team that just knocked off Stanford. I predict they lose that game. I agree with you they are a very good Mountain West team, but they do not play particularly well on the road (until Saturday night, that is). They got beat in Hawaii last year. They will have a nice little 10-2 regular season and beat Tulane in the Captain Crunch Bowl. And I am thinking that record would be 6-6 if they played Cal's schedule.
I think the comparison to the 2010 Nevada team is a much different animal. Kaepernick was a player that college football had never seen before. He was also perfectly suited for Chris Ault's pistol offense. He remains the only college quarterback in history who had over 9,000 passing yards and 3,000 yards rushing. No wait a minute....I'm wrong there. There was another quarterback who did that. His name was Cody Fajardo. He also played for Nevada and was the guy who ruined Cal's new stadium opening in 2012.
We had a few explosive running plays but we had no explosive passing plays. That’s a big part of the problem and why Nevada had a much better passing game than us despite similar passing attempts and completions.
Lastly, I agree that on offense they have talent but that defense is not talented enough to hold a decent Pac 12 team to only 17 points.
Our defense played well enough to win the game and held a talented and explosive offense in check. Our offense couldn’t exploit an average MWC defense. Which isn’t a good sign when we will be facing teams with more talent on defense.
I agree with your first premise and would hope to agree with your second one, but if you watch the film, it's pretty clear where we got beat...and for a PAC12 team, it should not have happened.
Let's start with Cal was not supposed to be just any Pac 12 team. They were picked by the experts and fellow coaches to finish third behind Washington and Oregon in the North Division. And they were named 3.5 point favorites by Vegas. And then you add in a returning 4-year quarterback in Garbers who had the rep - last year notwithstanding - of winning games he started and finished. Lots of experience behind him, too. Then you add in the size advantage in the trenches. Cal proved it by running the ball down Nevada's throat and going up by 14 points before you could blink.
So yes, Cal should have won on paper. But what was not calculated was player development during the off season and game planning by the coaches. It was pretty clear from watching the game that Nevada wanted it more and had coaches that made better adjustments. I will just go right out and say it now...they have better coaches with better schemes that fit the talent they have. For that program to have four or five NFL ready guys on their offense when probably none of them received much attention from Pac 12 programs is pretty remarkable.
I don't know if any of you read my prediction of the game outcome: I said we would either win big going away (like the 1st quarter) or we would lose close in the final minutes. Lastly, I understand everything you are saying, but go back to what I said about UNR having a potential TOP 3 DRAFT PICK at QB, two WR's and a tight end that will play on Sundays, they ARE a good team, probably better than TCU. As to adjustments, we made them, but we DID NOT EXECUTE. And we did not have any explosive plays, unlike UNR. Lastly, in 2010 UNR had Colin Kaepernick at QB and they ended the season ranked 15th in the December 5th BCS poll. This year's UNR team could be better than the pundits realize.
We can't make explosive plays when our fastest receivers are on the bench. Honestly, our best receivers all transferred and now we're sitting here relying on who would have been their backups while the freshmen sit. I don't get it. I know playbooks can be hard to pick up in your first year, but we're instead deciding to just rely on a roster that hasn't worked for 3 years.
We will find out how good of a team Nevada is when they go on the road to play Kansas State, the team that just knocked off Stanford. I predict they lose that game. I agree with you they are a very good Mountain West team, but they do not play particularly well on the road (until Saturday night, that is). They got beat in Hawaii last year. They will have a nice little 10-2 regular season and beat Tulane in the Captain Crunch Bowl. And I am thinking that record would be 6-6 if they played Cal's schedule.
I think the comparison to the 2010 Nevada team is a much different animal. Kaepernick was a player that college football had never seen before. He was also perfectly suited for Chris Ault's pistol offense. He remains the only college quarterback in history who had over 9,000 passing yards and 3,000 yards rushing. No wait a minute....I'm wrong there. There was another quarterback who did that. His name was Cody Fajardo. He also played for Nevada and was the guy who ruined Cal's new stadium opening in 2012.
We had a few explosive running plays but we had no explosive passing plays. That’s a big part of the problem and why Nevada had a much better passing game than us despite similar passing attempts and completions.
Lastly, I agree that on offense they have talent but that defense is not talented enough to hold a decent Pac 12 team to only 17 points.
Our defense played well enough to win the game and held a talented and explosive offense in check. Our offense couldn’t exploit an average MWC defense. Which isn’t a good sign when we will be facing teams with more talent on defense.
I agree with your first premise and would hope to agree with your second one, but if you watch the film, it's pretty clear where we got beat...and for a PAC12 team, it should not have happened.