No, this is not a time warp taking us back to 2007. Of course Kevin Gemmell (Stanford's blogger) picks Utah and Oregon State (really?), but Ted is willing to take another ride on the Cal Express. We're Doooooomed!!

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/36549/take-2-who-might-be-the-pac-12s-surprise-team#comment

April fools.

Just hope one of these years he picks us to do better than expected he is actually correct. This year would be nice.

I love Ted and I really love how he loves us. Would like to not disappoint him this time around.

"Now we have four words: California Freaking Golden Bears! You're back."

FingeroftheBear;731408 said:

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Freakin' stoners, lay off the hippie lettuce for the love of god.

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:rollinglaugh::rollinglaugh::rollinglaugh:

Sebastabear;731404 said:

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No, this is not a time warp taking us back to 2007. Of course Kevin Gemmell (Stanford's blogger) picks Utah and Oregon State (really?), but Ted is willing to take another ride on the Cal Express. We're Doooooomed!!

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/36549/take-2-who-might-be-the-pac-12s-surprise-team#comment

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With ZM at QB?
Or AB?
Or ZK?
Or someone else?

Could be a dark horse = could be a could be contender. Now that is out on a limb.

First Stoning at Cal:


First X trip or "A" grade at Cal:


First Shrooms at Cal:


First acid trip at Cal:



First Ted Miller blog about how the Bears were going to win it all:





What? You guys didn't experience any of this? Me neither!

82gradDLSdad;731484 said:

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Could be a dark horse = could be a could be contender. Now that is out on a limb.

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in my opinion, Cal is a dark horse for the PAC 12 this year. Along with Utah, Colorado, ASU, AZ, OSU, Wazzu, UW, Furd, UCLA, USC and oregon

"Yes....more Ted...more....and Liverflukes ....great post....
see what smorting..er..snorting gas has done for you!....yes...more.....more
gas....why not...it's a long way from the start of football season..
AHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAAAAAA...."

I have to say I laughed very hard at this but it is nice to believe. Face it, we are Bears fans. Hope ALWAYS springs eternal.

but he could be right

If ZM can play all the games as well as he played some of them, big upside

If the OL can be configured to open up both the passing and running games, then big upside..

He is looking for an underdog that might suprise..

CAL could be that underdog;

However, after so many years of frustration, I am not holding my breath on this one

Sebastabear;731404 said:

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No, this is not a time warp taking us back to 2007. Of course Kevin Gemmell (Stanford's blogger) picks Utah and Oregon State (really?), but Ted is willing to take another ride on the Cal Express. We're Doooooomed!!

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/36549/take-2-who-might-be-the-pac-12s-surprise-team#comment

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socaltownie;731522 said:

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I have to say I laughed very hard at this but it is nice to believe. Face it, we are Bears fans. Hope ALWAYS springs eternal.

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I agree with Miller's analysis. There is enough talent and the schedule, with our toughest divisional games at home, could be favorable. Just like people would have laughed about the Niners being a playoff team before last season.

I am really interested in who is going to call the plays and how our offense will differ from last year's. That was the big change for the Niners. It is a HUGE factor going into the season and I have not heard anything about it yet.

It's just like the Chicago Cubs...on opening day, they are tied for first place and are just as close to the World Series as anybody else.

liverflukes;731486 said:

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First Stoning at Cal:


First X trip or "A" grade at Cal:


First Shrooms at Cal:


First acid trip at Cal:



First Ted Miller blog about how the Bears were going to win it all:





What? You guys didn't experience any of this? Me neither!

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Running out of beer at the end of a another dismal season.....

liverflukes;731486 said:

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First Ted Miller blog about how the Bears were going to win it all:





What? You guys didn't experience any of this? Me neither!

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Well done liverflukes, well done. Although I have to ask if this particular picture is (a) Ted Miller trying to unlock the puzzle that is the Cal Bears , (b) Ted Miller trying to find something worthwhile in a pile of garbage, (c) Ted Miller having the munchies shortly after one too many bong hits and shortly before writing his column, or (d) all of the above?:p

Oakbear;731533 said:

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but he could be right

If ZM can play all the games as well as he played some of them, big upsideIf the OL can be configured to open up both the passing and running games, then big upside..

He is looking for an underdog that might suprise..

CAL could be that underdog;

However, after so many years of frustration, I am not holding my breath on this one

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Pass me what you are smokin'

Cal has a defense that should keep us in most games
a senior QB
a favorable schedule
a new facility
good talent level relative to the conference

Its not like he says Cal will win. In fact both writers seem to think SC and UofO are light years ahead of everyone. Other than maybe Furd, pick another dark horse and why? I think most posters would pick Cal and Utah. And Furd really isn't a dark horse after two straight BCS appearances. Maybe Udub? I just don't see UCLA, UofA, ASU, WSU Colorado, etc. for some very major glaring weaknesses, that Cal, Utah and to a lesser degree OSU don't have.

if you can't grasp what I wrote?

68great;731561 said:

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Pass me what you are smokin'

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Utah was an up and down team last year, and I can't help but think part of that was due to it's premier season in the PAC-12. Now that the Utes shakedown cruise is over, I anticipate them smoothing things out. Consider that they have USC at home, and their other in-division opponents are Colorado, the two Arizonas and UCLA.

Oakbear;731604 said:

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if you can't grasp what I wrote?

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My comment was aimed at your statement:

"If ZM can play all the games as well as he played some of them, big upside".

ZM's better games were against the bottom half of the PAC12.
His worse games were against the top half of the PAC12.

In such a situation it is difficult to expect him to play as well against the top half as he did against the bottom half.

Also ZM's best games were those where JT relied more on the running game and put fewer expectations on ZM pulling a great passing game out of a hat.
Against the better D's in the PAC12, our running game struggled (as one would expect if the game plan becomes one-dimensional).

Plus I have already voiced my concerns that we have seen the best that ZM has to offer. It would not be prudent to expect a major turn around from a
a fifth year Senior. (Don't go there with a Boller analogy, since there was a major coaching change his Senior year.)

chalcidbear;731611 said:

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Utah was an up and down team last year, and I can't help but think part of that was due to it's premier season in the PAC-12. Now that the Utes shakedown cruise is over, I anticipate them smoothing things out. Consider that they have USC at home, and their other in-division opponents are Colorado, the two Arizonas and UCLA.

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Will buy the Utah pick. They looked bad against us, but with Wynn back from his injury they could be very competitive - particularly given that they have what is arguably an unbelievably favorable schedule for a BCS team. The headscratcher is Oregon State. Don't get that one at all, other than people think Mike Riley is too good to stay down for long.

Here's Utah's schedule (blatantly plagarized from a poster on Miller's blog):

North Colorado
@Utah State
BYU
@ASU
BYE
USC
@UCLA
@OSU
Cal
WSU
@UW
Arizona
@Colorado

I think Ted's basic premise of us having our hard games at home, our ability to play well at home and questions around other strong teams (No LmJ @Oregon, no Luck fer 'furd, UW always close) is pretty legit.

I think a big factor will be how much grit we show. If things start getting tough, do we fold? Does Maynard get frustrated and collapse into a bunch of TOs? Do we come out flat in the 2nd half? Do the fans start yelling DOOOM after one loss?

I think the odds are small but, hey, we're living in the Mega Millions days!

68great;731618 said:

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My comment was aimed at your statement:

"If ZM can play all the games as well as he played some of them, big upside".

ZM's better games were against the bottom half of the PAC12.
His worse games were against the top half of the PAC12.

In such a situation it is difficult to expect him to play as well against the top half as he did against the bottom half.

Also ZM's best games were those where JT relied more on the running game and put fewer expectations on ZM pulling a great passing game out of a hat.
Against the better D's in the PAC12, our running game struggled (as one would expect if the game plan becomes one-dimensional).

Plus I have already voiced my concerns that we have seen the best that ZM has to offer. It would not be prudent to expect a major turn around from a
a fifth year Senior. (Don't go there with a Boller analogy, since there was a major coaching change his Senior year.)

---

Stanford was a BCS team. ZM outplayed #1 overall pick Andrew Luck. It happened, I was there.

and that I wrote I am not holding my breath?

IF he plays as well as well in all the games.. that would include the ones where he threw lots of interceptions, etc.. ..

Don't you think that would be a big upside??

I do, but as I noted, I am not holding my breath..

To help you understand "IF" remember this common phrase "if my aunt had balls she would be my uncle"

68great;731618 said:

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My comment was aimed at your statement:

"If ZM can play all the games as well as he played some of them, big upside".

ZM's better games were against the bottom half of the PAC12.
His worse games were against the top half of the PAC12.

In such a situation it is difficult to expect him to play as well against the top half as he did against the bottom half.

Also ZM's best games were those where JT relied more on the running game and put fewer expectations on ZM pulling a great passing game out of a hat.
Against the better D's in the PAC12, our running game struggled (as one would expect if the game plan becomes one-dimensional).

Plus I have already voiced my concerns that we have seen the best that ZM has to offer. It would not be prudent to expect a major turn around from a
a fifth year Senior. (Don't go there with a Boller analogy, since there was a major coaching change his Senior year.)

---

calumnus;731682 said:

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Stanford was a BCS team. ZM outplayed #1 overall pick Andrew Luck. It happened, I was there.

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Conversely, he was outplayed by Ashe(Texas). Maynard's problem is not having good games but instead not consistently having good games.

calBlitz;731719 said:

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Conversely, he was outplayed by Ashe(Texas). Maynard's problem is not having good games but instead not consistently having good games.

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I know Maynard's stats were better but I think Luck played well when they needed him to, in the third quarter, which is where they pretty much owned us. It wasn't Maynard's fault but I think we did go 3 and out the 1 or 2 drives we had in the third quarter and basically game was over. Yes, Zach valiantly tried to rally us back in the 4th, but when you have to depend on a successful onside kick (when was the last time Cal ever got one done?) as part of your comeback plan, you're not exactly in the game.

KoreAmBear;731722 said:

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I know Maynard's stats were better but I think Luck played well when they needed him to, in the third quarter, which is where they pretty much owned us. It wasn't Maynard's fault but I think we did go 3 and out the 1 or 2 drives we had in the third quarter and basically game was over. Yes, Zach valiantly tried to rally us back in the 4th, but when you have to depend on a successful onside kick (when was the last time Cal ever got one done?) as part of your comeback plan, you're not exactly in the game.

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To make matters worse, the our last drive consumed so much time (Tedford's bad time management), even had we recovered the onside kick there would have been next zero time remaining.

calBlitz;731719 said:

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Conversely, he was outplayed by Ashe(Texas). Maynard's problem is not having good games but instead not consistently having good games.

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Yes, but again, Miller's premise was IF Maynard plays as well as he did over the last four games of the regular season, we have big upside.

calumnus;731751 said:

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Yes, but again, Miller's premise was IF Maynard plays as well as he did over the last four games of the regular season, we have big upside.

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and if he plays the way he did against SUC,fUcla, and Washington than we are hosed. Better not to play someone who is a career .500 type qb and give someone else on the roster like AB or KB a shot.

The "played well in the second half of season" is Tedford drivel.

Sure he played better than the first half but that's a very low bar. He had multiple picks dropped in the Texas game. Maynard is not a good quarterback and there is a reason he was two-star out of high school. That's not a crime but there is little to warrant optimism let alone he is not practicing now. He needs to show dramatic improvement.