<b>I am tired of watching everybody lose their collective SHITTU about Wednesday. We cannot control what goes on in the mind of a teenager, or how much they want to be here. So, relax on that front. Here's something that might make you feel better.</b><br />I plan on posting a longer version of this post somewhere else later, but for now...<br /><br />Here are TEN reasons we could win the Pac-12 [and a Rose Bowl] next year. <br /><br />1) Stanford and Oregon both are down. Surely everybody knows this, since Stanford lost Luck, Martin, and Decastro, and Oregon is down one James and Darron Thomas. Some HUGE question marks at QB for both teams. <br /><br />2) Our QB play SHOULD improve drastically, whether that's Maynard, Bridgford, or godforbiditcometostartingatruefreshman Kline. Maynard played about as bad as a QB can possibly play against Oregon, Texas, USC, and UCLA. I am willing to bet that next year, after a long offseason of improvement, either the right QB will be named to start, or that Maynard will straighten out a little bit.<br /><br />3) An easier schedule, sort of. We have Nevada, and Southern Utah. Stanford and Oregon and Washington at home - the chief P12 North contenders. UCLA [a game we lost on the road, unexpectedly] back at home. Don't anticipate that kind of sleepy, half-assed effort once again against them, which, by the way, leads into...<br /><br />4) HAVING FRIGGIN MEMORIAL STADIUM BACK<br />That one speaks for itself. Let's move on.<br /><br />5) Winnable, puncher's chance sort of road games. Everyone's made a big deal of Urban/Braxton Miller, but from what I've seen, Braxton Miller sucks. Yes, the Horseshoe will be rocking. Yes, our team does not play well traditionally in the house of big name opponents [See: Rocky Top]. But we have a great defense [hang on, more on that in a second]. And like the Niners proved this year, when you play great defense...who knows?<br /><br />As far as defending the USC game...well, we suck in LA. But we did hold down Barkley last year, and I thought the defense played well enough to win, considering the 5 TOs. <br /><br />6) Said defense, which was near the top of the P12 last year should get better, seeing as we're like, 9 deep on the line, and both Anthony/Williams are returning, and Whiteside/McCain should continue to develop nicely. <br /><br />6b) Bigger contributions from a [hopefully] fully healthy Stefan McClure and Brendan Bigelow [if fully healthy, I think he'll make us all forget about losing DJ Foster. And watching the Holiday Bowl, it seemed like there was a burst that was starting to return.] I haven't even begun to mention the other redshirts/underclassmen who didn't get to play much, like Moala. Shout out to Sebastian.<br /><br />7) The SAHPC will begin to pay off very soon. We'll probably see the results of better S&C [and Blasquez] beginning this year. I actually ran into Joel Willis and when I mentioned the facilities, his face lit up and he couldn't reign in how excited he was about them. Sick, was the word.<br /><br />8) The introduction of another talented freshman class. This is probably the most controversial point on here. As I write this, all the momentum and dominoes that we've been stacking up for the last year is threatening to be unraveled. But the kids who ARE coming, at least a few, you could point toward being immediate contributors [Treggs - god help me if he makes me look stupid and decommits on Wednesday - Powe, Barton...]. I am as disappointed as anyone, but they all have the potential to have a great positive impact on our program.<br /><br />I've said very little about Kline, because I do not expect or want him to start, but we can throw him on this list too. <br /><br />9) Keenan Allen. Isi Sofele. CJ Anderson. Key talent at offensive positions that we'll lean on heavily, I'm sure. The line was starting to come together toward the end of the year, when we won 3 of 4. I don't think we'll have so many bad snaps and things like that next year, either. I mean, for god's sake, I hope not.<br /><br />10) Most importantly..<br /><br /><b>Everybody is zero and zero again.</b> And nobody will know anything for sure, regardless. Even me. But did anyone see Kansas State making a BCS bowl? Or Clemson [who we've been compared to so, so many times]? <br /><br />So I ask you, like I wrote the night before we played Stanford this year [that was the day Oklahoma State was upset, I believe]...why NOT us? <br /><br />Remember who we are, people. We are the greatest university on Earth. I know I grew up believing that, and when I actually grew old enough to come here, nothing - NOTHING - has made me change that opinion. We are Cal. And we are Rose Bowl bound.

Tedford is still our coach <br /><br />/thread

<blockquote><div class="name-said">WarTime Consigliere;696482 said:</div><hr>Tedford is still our coach <br /><br />/thread<hr></blockquote><br /><br />Damn, really? We couldn't even get one post through without this?

<blockquote><div class="name-said">WarTime Consigliere;696482 said:</div><hr>Tedford is still our coach <br /><br />/thread<hr></blockquote><br /><br />Massive fail.

Nice job. Ya we sure are the Clemson of the P-12. I wish we were in the ACC we would have been in the BCS like 4-5 time by now LOL. <br /><br />Don't forget guys like Gabe King and another year of Whiteside and McCain. Oh, how about the de facto President of the #calgang, Avery Sebastian. The D is in good hands with Pendy and we've got plenty of talent. It's just the O -- can we move the ball against good teams and not turn the ball over?

The unfortunate problem is that while I also believe we will be a fair bit better next year I think you should pencil in USC for the national championship game. That means we have to back in as the number 2 from the Pac12 and you KNOW how much the voters LOVE CAL and the Pac-12. I fear another snub. Who knows, maybe mack brown for the trifecta.

NIce write up B&G. When they run out on the new field next year, Sh#t is gonna be real<br />P.S. I want Kline to be out there, A true Freshman starter like Barkley was. Stranger things have happened. Go Bears!!!!!!

<img src="<img src="<img src="<img src="<img src="" />" />" />" />" /><br /><br /><br />GO BEARS!

<blockquote><div class="name-said">BlueAndGold;696484 said:</div><hr>Damn, really? We couldn't even get one post through without this?<hr></blockquote><br /><br />Miserable a-holes thrive on message boards.

I will be too happy if that will actually happen. Dinner is on me.<br /><br /><blockquote><div class="name-said">davetdds;696506 said:</div><hr>NIce write up B&G. When they run out on the new field next year, Sh#t is gonna be real<br />P.S. I want Kline to be out there, A true Freshman starter like Barkley was. Stranger things have happened. Go Bears!!!!!!<hr></blockquote>

Major coaching improvement on the D line and receivers...<br /><br />Coaches and players will be preparing and playing "with a chip," because of the UW cluster f**k...<br /><br />Avery's # we all we got. we all we need and #calgang will rock the league.

<blockquote><div class="name-said">BlueAndGold;696477 said:</div><hr><br />2) Our QB play SHOULD improve drastically, whether that's Maynard, Bridgford, or godforbiditcometostartingatruefreshman Kline. Maynard played about as bad as a QB can possibly play against Oregon, Texas, USC, and UCLA. I am willing to bet that next year, after a long offseason of improvement, either the right QB will be named to start, or that Maynard will straighten out a little bit.<br /><hr></blockquote><br /><br />I hope you're right. As I recall Boller started as a true freshman, largely due to the terrible play of Justin Vedder. So why not true frosh Kline coming in to start next season in place of Zach "Roll Left" Maynard? At least Kline will be here for a few years and it would get him some experience for his sophomore year, whereas Maynard is really a lame duck with no virtually no upside (kid is not leading Cal to a BCS bowl next year).

I'm loving the positivity! #CalGang

good post. i think we have some great safety recruits so i'm not too worried about it.<br /><br /><br />:tedford:gobears::bluecarrot::bluecarrot::bluecarrot::beer::beer::beer::bravo:bravo:bravo:bravo:bravo:newnana::newnana::newnana::newnana::newnana::cheer:cheer:cheer:wave:wave:band

#CGOE - Cal Gang over everything.

<blockquote><div class="name-said">WarTime Consigliere;696482 said:</div><hr>Tedford is still our coach <br /><br />/thread<hr></blockquote><br /><br />Loser mentality.<br /><br />Personally I really liked BlueandGold's comments.

Everything hurts after Shaq's decommit.<br /><br />Damn. Let's hope I'm a prophet...

<blockquote><div class="name-said">liverflukes;696509 said:</div><hr><img src="<img src="<img src="<img src="<img src="" />" />" />" />" /><br /><br /><br />GO BEARS!<hr></blockquote><br /><br />at least we definitely have the hottest collection of female collegiate athletes in the country.

<blockquote><div class="name-said">WarTime Consigliere;696482 said:</div><hr>Tedford is still our coach <br /><br />/thread<hr></blockquote><br /><br />Seriously??? The class will still be loaded on talent and the D next year has the potential to be amazing. I agree with everything the OP said and Cal fans should realize we aren't Bama and that we should be rather happy with the incoming class. Also remember Cal is still in it for Hamilton, Eligwe and Diggs.

I am bumping this thread.

I like the sunshine, but if Oregon is down, we're asleep. Let's be real. And the furd will be average to decent. It's not like their qb could do any worse than ours. As excited as I am for next season, Im accepting that it won't be our year. <br />That being said, I love this class, GO BEARS!

<blockquote><div class="name-said">GivemTheAxe;696702 said:</div><hr>Loser mentality.<br /> <br />Personally I really liked BlueandGold's comments.<hr></blockquote><br /> <br />+1 - Nicely done, B&G! :woohoo

+1. Bump.<br /><br />Losers can go suck a fat one.

Let me go on the record as saying that I do not believe that we will win a Rose Bowl next year. These are only a list of reasons why we could <i>conceivably</i> win said bowl. Personally I would be thrilled with 9 wins, 10 with the bowl game.

<blockquote><div class="name-said">freshfunk;697252 said:</div><hr>+1. Bump.<br /><br />Losers can go suck a fat one.<hr></blockquote><br />+1<br />I'm sick of the nerdy loser Cal image. I want people to be SCARED to compete with a Bear wearing a Cal hat or holding a Cal degree...

With my first post, I'm in. Although the last month or so has between a rude awakening on several fronts, our future is still exciting. Good post, OP.<br /><br />Go Bears!

<blockquote><div class="name-said">chazzed;697343 said:</div><hr>With my first post, I'm in. Although the last month or so has between a rude awakening on several fronts, our future is still exciting. Good post, OP.<br /><br />Go Bears!<hr></blockquote><br /><br />And let's keep the momentum going through tomorrow--a great class is coming and we're going to be flying around on the new Memorial Stadium field next year--especially when Washington comes to town. You think out team doesn't want to show the whole Pac 12 how they feel!<br /><br />An angry animal is coming out of its cave--<br /><br />Go Bears!