Bye Week

The biggest thing that happened this bye week was the Bears are now in first place in the Pac 10. Also, my cousin got married, so I was away for a bit. I appreciate that he did it on a bye weekend, but I did miss a bunch of good college football. What is it with people getting married on a Saturday in the Fall.

These guys live in New Jersey. For all the east coast bias, there is not a lot of college football love in the NY / NJ / CT area. They are mostly pro-sports towns. You go to the airport in LA, and you get a bunch of USC and UCLA crap. Same at Oakland, and even SF - Stanfurd and Cal stuff. Anyplace in Tennessee is UT wear. But no Rutgers gear in Newark. It is really just a vast wasteland of NFL loving idiots. Oh well.

Three of the top 5 lost. That is pretty cool. This season is shaping up just like last year in terms of the number 1 and 2 losing. In fact, there are more teams with one loss than at the same time last year.

If the Bears currently were undefeated, we would be in the top 10, and probably the top 7. Setting us up for a nice fall in the Arizona desert. Fortunately for us, we already know we are fallible, so we will go into this seeking revenge for our loss two years ago. I think that there are enough on the team who remember that game.

There is a lot of talk about the Bears losing on grass surfaces. I do have to say that we did look slow two years ago, playing these guys down there (except for DeSean, who actually I think had the best game of his Cal career, and tried to single handedly carry the Cal team on his shoulders).

i think the biggest issue is when Cal plays on grass in a non-evening event, we are not so good. So we need to try to get our games scheduled later in the day - just like we are this weekend. Let's face it - everyone runs faster at night. I think the Bears play better at night. Just something I believe. Can't quantify it. But I do think it is true (look at all those ABC 5 PM games we keep winning).

The good news is also that we are finally in all the polls, and are ranked right now about 24th in the BCS. WE are a bit lower in the computer polls because we do not have as many games won as a bunch of other teams - we have had two byes. So as we increase our wins, our computer ranking will drop, and we will be dropping down. So right now, we are about 24 in the computers, and 22 and 24 in the other polls that make up the BCS.

We also made a big jump in the AP poll to number 25. We jumped over four teams to make the top 25 for the first time in four weeks.

Our OOC opponents have a slate of games this weekend that could help the Bears quite a bit. First of all, Colorado State plays Utah. Utah needs to be taken out. I think Colorado State could do it. They held TCU to 13 points. They need to score a bit more than 7 to win, but I think their team is getting better. Utah should have lost to OSU, and I do not think they are so good they will go through the Mountain West undefeated.

Michigan State needs to take out Ohio State. I am hoping for Michigan State to win out, and take the Big 10 title. That would be a tough road for them, but they have a shot. But to just put another loss on Ohio State would be nice to get them out of the title picture.

Then, Maryland plays Wake Forrest. If Maryland could take them out, the Bears will move up one or two spots.

What we need to hope for to get any sort of possibility of moving up to the top 2 slots (yes, I am still talking National Championship - why not?) we need the other BCS conferences to beat up on one another. I think that USC looks weak this year - weaker than they have. This could be a year where the Bears get though a conference that is not strong and make it to the championship game.

Frankly, I think we will be undefeated at home this year. I am most concerned about this weeks game at Arizona, and the USC game. Both of these games are winnable. If we do win this weekend, and come back and win out to USC, I think we beat those guys down there, and get us over the hump with them. Just a feeling.

If that does happen, I have grave concerns about the last three games. At Oregon State, and then Stanfurd and Washington at home. I have to believe that would have the biggest crowds ever at those home games, but playing Oregon State late up there could be tough.

In any event, it is still a ways to go but I the only game where we will not be favored is the USC game, if we continue to win.

GO BEARS!!