Absolutely. I predict big things lie ahead for Nando.
In the new age of college football with NIL, the transfer portal, and realignment, where some people see CFB fans as just "rooting for laundry", Nando is kinda making himself a poster child of THE student athlete. And it's a story being written right before our eyes. Can't wait to see what happens next!
Let's focus. Cal has often played to the level of its opponent. What I would like to see is the same effort we watched at Auburn. This game needs to be a prep for future performances. Focus, the euphoria of last Saturday was great, but in the end, it was one game in a long season. Go Bears!
Excellent, enjoyable article. We’re so glad we attended the Auburn game. It was reminiscent of the Ole Miss game in 2019, but the Auburn fans were simultaneously over-confident and gracious in their welcome. I could hear the “Bless Your Heart” smirk in their voices until the 3rd quarter. Now, they’re pearl clutching, aghast at losing to a team they couldn’t find on a map before last season when they came to California.
Agree with all the comments to fans: get to Cal on Saturday to support this team!
Hey, did anyone mention the new road uniforms? Finally, a new set of uniforms that I think look really good. It looks like a combo of the present and past, they look clean!
I am only daring to think that the "sleeping giant" might be starting to wake up. But it's not awake yet. There's plenty of risk in hitting that SDSnUuuzzz button. I think your article highlights there are many leaders on this team with too much at stake (Ott, Reese, Nando, etc.) to let that happen this year. They know they'll need to wake the giant one game at a time.
Great read. Thank you! Now, Cal fans need to pack Memorial this Saturday night for the San Diego State game. Give this team some love. I don't want to hear excuses about game time or the weather. They are what they are. Plan accordingly. We need to show the ACC that we care about Cal Football!! See you Saturday! GO Bears!!
Super piece of writing. I really contemplated taking the trip to Auburn but felt it to be too expensive and tiring for an older Bear like myself. Now I wish I'd done it anyway. Now we have to be careful of a trap game vs San Diego St. and then beat the hell out of Florida St. When we a 4 - 0 after that, Look out ACC. The Cal Bears are for real!
Great point about Ott's leadership despite being unable to contribute as much physically. I remember seeing him stepping forward and communicating to the o-line pre-snap on a couple plays and was really impressed by that
I think Nando is spot on about talking about the team culture. The Bears for now are overachieving. For the most part many of the players are playing to the top of their level. This is critical when you don't have 4 and 5 star recruits. But it starts with the culture and this win gives them more reason to believe. This makes us dangerous. Long Live Nando AKA The Minister of Culture!!!!
If each player is playing at their full potential, then that's a lot of praise for the coaching staff. Cal has been doing less with more talent so that's a huge improvement.
Not having our starting center showed. Nando was having to guess where those snaps might go. And fortunately he managed to catch them all. My biggest worry when Rodgers had to sub in was him having to field those errant snaps.
Through two weeks of football I can't help but think how favorable our schedule is. FSU is reeling and we get our toughest games at home, plus we dodge what looks like many of the better teams in the ACC (Louisville, Clemson, BC, UNC). I think we'd be favored in seven of our remaining ten games right now.
TD, great piece. BTW, starting up a daily YouTube Cal coverage and punditry presence would mean more eyes on the Golden Bears program, from a fanbase’s perspective and more broadly, i.e. national exposure to learn about Cal’s development towards relevancy. For example have you thought about Cal’s lack of a dedicated LockedOn daily podcast? The LockedOn YouTube videos produced daily across the Power Five schools (Locked On Canes, Locked On Wolfpack, Locked On Auburn, Locked On College Football, etc.) are a fun place to consume punditry and debrief in a live podcast format during both the season and offseason, for example. Many others exist outside the LockedOn ones (Auburn has like five or six of them, @ least). There is a glaring absence of these fan-centric YouTube places for Cal fans to get their daily dose of Cal football talk. WFC is great, but have you and/or any of your colleagues thought about starting something daily through LockedOn or elsewhere via YouTube? It would mean more eyes and ears on Cal
Yeah I’ve had discussions in the past about starting something like that with locked on, but at the moment their business model needs to see the payoff consistently
In the future there will definitely be more attempts to get something going but the weekly California golden bearcast is the bar
Someone with a sense of humor would be great, in addition to knowledgeable. Also, it would be good to use Lawrence Ross (Cal Superfan) as a frequent guest. He was on Locked on ACC the other day and said he’d be willing to help out in that way.
If it truly means as much for the powers that be in Berkeley or fans/supporters of the program, you’d think people could come up with an easy to monetize model that could take off. Getting sponsors, advertisers, etc. - I’m sure some smart people with degrees from Haas could figure this out. We need some more Golden Bears on the YouTube airwaves.
I am all in on Fernando — players like him are why I still cheer my heart out for Cal
Absolutely. I predict big things lie ahead for Nando.
In the new age of college football with NIL, the transfer portal, and realignment, where some people see CFB fans as just "rooting for laundry", Nando is kinda making himself a poster child of THE student athlete. And it's a story being written right before our eyes. Can't wait to see what happens next!
Let's focus. Cal has often played to the level of its opponent. What I would like to see is the same effort we watched at Auburn. This game needs to be a prep for future performances. Focus, the euphoria of last Saturday was great, but in the end, it was one game in a long season. Go Bears!
Excellent, enjoyable article. We’re so glad we attended the Auburn game. It was reminiscent of the Ole Miss game in 2019, but the Auburn fans were simultaneously over-confident and gracious in their welcome. I could hear the “Bless Your Heart” smirk in their voices until the 3rd quarter. Now, they’re pearl clutching, aghast at losing to a team they couldn’t find on a map before last season when they came to California.
Agree with all the comments to fans: get to Cal on Saturday to support this team!
Hey, did anyone mention the new road uniforms? Finally, a new set of uniforms that I think look really good. It looks like a combo of the present and past, they look clean!
Yes, they looked sharp!
Great read for a Tuesday morning!
I am only daring to think that the "sleeping giant" might be starting to wake up. But it's not awake yet. There's plenty of risk in hitting that SDSnUuuzzz button. I think your article highlights there are many leaders on this team with too much at stake (Ott, Reese, Nando, etc.) to let that happen this year. They know they'll need to wake the giant one game at a time.
Great read. Thank you! Now, Cal fans need to pack Memorial this Saturday night for the San Diego State game. Give this team some love. I don't want to hear excuses about game time or the weather. They are what they are. Plan accordingly. We need to show the ACC that we care about Cal Football!! See you Saturday! GO Bears!!
Super piece of writing. I really contemplated taking the trip to Auburn but felt it to be too expensive and tiring for an older Bear like myself. Now I wish I'd done it anyway. Now we have to be careful of a trap game vs San Diego St. and then beat the hell out of Florida St. When we a 4 - 0 after that, Look out ACC. The Cal Bears are for real!
Great point about Ott's leadership despite being unable to contribute as much physically. I remember seeing him stepping forward and communicating to the o-line pre-snap on a couple plays and was really impressed by that
I think Nando is spot on about talking about the team culture. The Bears for now are overachieving. For the most part many of the players are playing to the top of their level. This is critical when you don't have 4 and 5 star recruits. But it starts with the culture and this win gives them more reason to believe. This makes us dangerous. Long Live Nando AKA The Minister of Culture!!!!
If each player is playing at their full potential, then that's a lot of praise for the coaching staff. Cal has been doing less with more talent so that's a huge improvement.
Not having our starting center showed. Nando was having to guess where those snaps might go. And fortunately he managed to catch them all. My biggest worry when Rodgers had to sub in was him having to field those errant snaps.
I think Nando should have had some official receiving stats credit for some of those snaps, especially the ones he didn’t know were coming!
Rogers looked good, calm, and reassuring.
Because we were more trying to run out the clock than score, we did not get to see any real QB action.
Nando looked like a middle infielder back there with the soft hands.
Beat San Diego State Aztecs
Through two weeks of football I can't help but think how favorable our schedule is. FSU is reeling and we get our toughest games at home, plus we dodge what looks like many of the better teams in the ACC (Louisville, Clemson, BC, UNC). I think we'd be favored in seven of our remaining ten games right now.
Oh, I think DJU will have FSU dialed in by the time of our game. They'll be playing tough, like Oregon State, too, will.
I think our schedule is tougher than we think. NC State, Syracuse, BC are gonna' be tough.
Looking forward to the first night game this Saturday with renewed enthusiasm. Go Bears!
I think I injured myself rolling my eyes so hard when Hugh Freeze complained about his RT being "pretty banged up."
WAR OSKI!
TD, great piece. BTW, starting up a daily YouTube Cal coverage and punditry presence would mean more eyes on the Golden Bears program, from a fanbase’s perspective and more broadly, i.e. national exposure to learn about Cal’s development towards relevancy. For example have you thought about Cal’s lack of a dedicated LockedOn daily podcast? The LockedOn YouTube videos produced daily across the Power Five schools (Locked On Canes, Locked On Wolfpack, Locked On Auburn, Locked On College Football, etc.) are a fun place to consume punditry and debrief in a live podcast format during both the season and offseason, for example. Many others exist outside the LockedOn ones (Auburn has like five or six of them, @ least). There is a glaring absence of these fan-centric YouTube places for Cal fans to get their daily dose of Cal football talk. WFC is great, but have you and/or any of your colleagues thought about starting something daily through LockedOn or elsewhere via YouTube? It would mean more eyes and ears on Cal
Yeah I’ve had discussions in the past about starting something like that with locked on, but at the moment their business model needs to see the payoff consistently
In the future there will definitely be more attempts to get something going but the weekly California golden bearcast is the bar
I have thought about this.
Pawlaski and Justin would be great for Locked On. They have the radio voices and knowledge for it.
Someone with a sense of humor would be great, in addition to knowledgeable. Also, it would be good to use Lawrence Ross (Cal Superfan) as a frequent guest. He was on Locked on ACC the other day and said he’d be willing to help out in that way.
I listened and had the same thought.
If it truly means as much for the powers that be in Berkeley or fans/supporters of the program, you’d think people could come up with an easy to monetize model that could take off. Getting sponsors, advertisers, etc. - I’m sure some smart people with degrees from Haas could figure this out. We need some more Golden Bears on the YouTube airwaves.