tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post1237450290456799037..comments2023-04-24T08:44:03.243-07:00Comments on The Bear Will Not Quit: The Art of SchedulingSDGoldenBearhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03352571088979418057noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-50322868737648885532010-09-20T10:20:55.631-07:002010-09-20T10:20:55.631-07:00Your comments regarding what would be an optimum o...Your comments regarding what would be an optimum out-of-conference schedule make perfect sense. I'll be bold enough to challenge your thoughts on the perceived lack of talent this Fall. In addition to the insane depth at RB, we have finally got 3 credible WRs (Jones, Allen, Ross). While I'll unhappily agree that Pendergast's defense was caught flat-footed by a remarkably mobile QB, at the start of the second half our defense shut Nevada down.<br /><br />That brings us to our one big liability: our quarterback. As the momentum of the game is changing, Riley throws a pick 6.<br /><br />Comparing the two quarterbacks leaves us with a clear picture of one great quarterback vs. a wannabe. Tempting as it is to use the comparison to show that Riley lacks ability, I will refrain to do so. What he lacks is a measure of his own abilities, and a wish to make that one great play that turns the momentum of the game. Instead of relying on the meat and potatoes of short accurate passes and quick hand offs to aforementioned great running backs, Riley desperately wants to make that one stellar td pass. He'll spend agonizingly long seconds in the pocket focusing blindly on one receiver going deep. At best he signals his attentions and makes sure the receiver is well covered. At worst we get to enjoy the statue of a quarterback getting sacked again by an opponent that appears to be running right into his line of sight.<br /><br />What we saw at Nevada was the difference a quarterback makes: Kaepernick made up for the deficiencies of his offense with great runs, great fakes and moving quickly away from a collapsing pocket. Riley made poor use of the time afforded him in the pocket, threw inaccurately and ruined any element of surprise by his single minded focus on his intended target.<br /><br />My hope for the remaining season is a QB that turns pragmatic and focuses on plays that help move the chains rather than on a moment of glory.Jacobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-3939324746444965692010-09-20T09:43:07.571-07:002010-09-20T09:43:07.571-07:00Our mistake was scheduling Maryland to start the g...Our mistake was scheduling Maryland to start the gamevat noon instead of late afternoon or evening. The same with Minnesota. Unless you have played in 90 degree weather with 90% humitity you don't know what to expect. Top teams from the conferences you listed don't want to come out to California. Just try and get Florida to go out of state to play an OOC game. Our Citadel game was UC Davis. With only three OOC games two of them won't be with FCS schools. You article was so full of wishful thinking!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-17214859453061602432010-09-19T17:39:49.228-07:002010-09-19T17:39:49.228-07:00All we need is a good QB. Forget the OL, forget th...All we need is a good QB. Forget the OL, forget the schedule, forget the LBs. The lousy, inconsistent, unconfident play of the QB brings the whole team down and makes them play in the same tentative manner. I know this argument is beating a dead horse, but let's not lose sight of the fact that all our hopes rose when Rodgers was QB. It's been nothing but disappointment since then even though we've gotten better players overall because for some reason Tedford is bad at evaluating QBs and we end up with ones from the second tier. I hope Hindler will be the exception.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-69828473169936257152010-09-19T15:44:07.776-07:002010-09-19T15:44:07.776-07:00Exactly as Pompus mentioned above, it's diffic...Exactly as Pompus mentioned above, it's difficult for a team like Cal to schedule top programs because they actually apply the logic suggested. I distinctly remember during the 2006/2007 series with Tennessee hearing multiple Vols fans comment that Cal wasn't supposed to any good and they scheduled the game just so they could tap the California recruiting market. <br /><br />The other thing is that the top programs really don't like home and home agreements. They like to beat up on FCS opponents at home b/c their fans like it, it produces money for the program (ticket sales, etc.) and they know that if they win out they're going to a BCS bowl, regardless of how weak their non-conference is. <br /><br />Now you could say that if the big programs won't play us, that's fine and we should just play cupcakes. But I'm always a bit worried about this approach because of the last point in the above paragraph. The top programs have enough name recognition that if they have a good record, they know they'll get the votes - no matter who they beat out of conference. For various reasons people feel more comfortable voting for those teams. <br /><br />That was one of my big takeaways from 2004, the Aaron Rodgers glory year... In that season, Cal had only one loss, on the road to what was the hands-down the best team in the country. That was the SC team that destroyed Oklahoma 55-19 in the national championship. What's more, Cal lost by only one score and that was the only home game that SC won by less than 5 TDs. Yet even that amazing season didn't get Cal to a BCS bowl. <br /><br />One of my takeaways from that season was that that playing against cupcake teams undermines the BCS hopes of your everyday program, but it doesn't seem to for the perennial powerhouses. A 10-2 second place team in the Pac-10 will not go to a BCS bowl. If the ’04 Bears didn’t go, no team will. There will definitely be an asshole like Mack Brown on a marketing road show to lobby for votes and a weak non-conference may just give him more ammunition.<br /><br />I guess ultimately, these games are scheduled far enough in advance that you don't really know what opponent will show up when you schedule the game. And there are relatively few teams like Washington State, which are consistently and reliably at the bottom. Nobody could confuse Maryland '08 or Minnesota '09 for conference powerhouses and yet we had problems with both. Both of those teams were basically 0.500 teams. I think the one thing games like that may buy you with national coverage is this – if you win big and in exciting fashion, you own the espn highlight reel and people start talking about your program. If you win 14-7, it gets you nothing, but if you win while putting up 50 points and have an exciting playmaker like Jahvid, you get air time.<br /><br />Now, I agree Nevada doesn’t fall into this description of a weak team and was risky scheduling for various reasons (quirky offense, senior QB, short week to prepare the D, etc.), but we did get the two home games out of it. The thing I would love to see from our schedule is a bit more thought about things we can control. For example, flying out to Maryland one day before a noon kickoff was a killer for a west-coast team. Playing at Washington in December is a bad idea for a California team used to moderate weather (I believe last year’s game was rescheduled to facilitate a bye week, right?).<br /><br />This may all be academic since everything will change with the impending move to the Pac-12. How will the larger conference with potential playoff change scheduling strategy?Dan Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-47684383731990786332010-09-19T14:04:37.195-07:002010-09-19T14:04:37.195-07:00Major college programs do not play non conference ...Major college programs do not play non conference road games at smaller schools like New Mexico State, Colorado State or Nevada. Cal did. They got away with the first two because those were really weak teams, but Nevada is a strong program. There is nothing to gain and a lot to lose by playing small NC teams on the road. NC road games should be at places like Tennessee, Ohio State, Texas. Smaller schools either come to your yard or you don't play them at all.<br />The bigger question I have is this, when did Nevada or Utah or Oregon State (all schools that beat us up in the past 12 months) have a recruiting class to match ours in the past eight years? When you lose to U$C you can always say: "whattaya expect with all the talent they bring in?" But there's no such excuse when going against a school like Nevada. Does this mean we're just getting out-coached?<br />The most discouraging aspect of Friday night the discovery that once again our O-Line is not up to snuff. Unless something dramatic changes there, Cal is looking at a long season.Richard Hourulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-77051165684822788402010-09-19T10:34:24.875-07:002010-09-19T10:34:24.875-07:00Did Sandy schedule this game as a favor to Nevada ...Did Sandy schedule this game as a favor to Nevada Athletic Director who is a female?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-82128469253810648222010-09-19T09:51:13.869-07:002010-09-19T09:51:13.869-07:00My Oh My, the excuses are rampant here! Good luck ...My Oh My, the excuses are rampant here! Good luck creating that *perfect* schedule you seem to need in order to protect your program and notch 10+ wins a year.<br /><br />"Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-85059975366802276022010-09-19T08:09:21.024-07:002010-09-19T08:09:21.024-07:00Agree. Problem is, using your same logic, top pro...Agree. Problem is, using your same logic, top programs shouldn't schedule Cal.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09359346687743163648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-50246026294544513492010-09-19T01:01:39.433-07:002010-09-19T01:01:39.433-07:00Avinash,
You know that makes me feel both good a...Avinash,<br /><br /> You know that makes me feel both good and bad at the same time. On the one hand it makes me feel better to know that our HD is not behind such a poor decision that puts our program in a no win situation. On the other hand the fact that our AD, who after all is in charge of all operations, is the one responsible for this action makes me feel hopeless because after all, as SD himself suggested above, she is suppose to be the solution if Tedford was behind this. Maybe we need to create a special directorial position in charge of football operation only, kind of like USC just did to deal with their 'lack of institutional control' issues...oh yeah I forgot we got, no money.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16212727864120921421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-42968442283556672742010-09-18T22:06:54.811-07:002010-09-18T22:06:54.811-07:00SD Golden Bear,
Interesting points. I want to poi...SD Golden Bear,<br /><br />Interesting points. I want to point out one thing. Sandy scheduled this game, partly to get the two-for-one home deal. Tedford indicated he had no part in scheduling the Cal-Nevada game in the local Reno radio pregame show and was very concerned about playing this game there. So some of the blame for this must be pointed at Sandy if you are annoyed by the fact the Bears were in Reno to begin with.Avinashhttp://californiagoldenblogs.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-61560113752144499332010-09-18T19:44:47.110-07:002010-09-18T19:44:47.110-07:00Abe,
I'll get to Browner (and the rest of the...Abe,<br /><br />I'll get to Browner (and the rest of the LBs), trust me. As for Conte, I just haven't seen enough. It's hard to watch the secondary as the play unfolds because the camera cuts off the backfield. Let's see how he does vs. UofA, which is a real passing offense.SDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2604819636163701857.post-66771634777821589872010-09-18T19:30:24.054-07:002010-09-18T19:30:24.054-07:00Cant agree with you anymore my friend. Funny this ...Cant agree with you anymore my friend. Funny this reminds me of a conversation i had in coffee shop a couple of years ago. i said " i hate Utah and Boise State". My friends asked "Why?" to which I replied "because they are very good". They laughed. Point I was trying to make, albeit badly, was that there is nothing to be gained from playing teams like that by a BCS conference team, win or lose. These are team that are perceived to be weak and often underrated but good enough to beat you if you dont take care of business. So yeah totally with you Scott. On a more technical note would you explain to me why Browner kept diving into the back field time and time again, drive after drive, with not sign of adjustment from or DC? What did you think of Conte at safety?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16212727864120921421noreply@blogger.com