Quote:

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Based on the emails to your Mailbag over the years, one thing that's pretty clear is that college football fans tend to be very optimistic, and defensive, about the quality of their teams. Are there any self-defeated fanbases that are perennially pessimistic about their team's prospects? Put another way: Who are the Cleveland Browns fans of college football?
--TT, San Jose, Calif.

I've been in the Bay Area long enough to know that Cal fans possess this type of mindset. I do sense some cautious optimism about Sonny Dykes, but the combination of the lack of a Rose Bowl berth since 1959 and the shaky play of the last four quarterbacks of Jeff Tedford's tenure seems to have them pretty beaten down.

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130417/spring-games-scandals-mailbag/?sct=hp_wr_a3&eref=sihp#all

:headbang

true story haha

Not nice to hear but not far off the mark.

tht1dkmi;842115005 said:

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130417/spring-games-scandals-mailbag/?sct=hp_wr_a3&eref=sihp#all

:headbang

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No Rose Bowl since 1959 and several years (e.g. 2004) where we were close but got screwed over. It's a curse. Like the Cubs.

I'm no baseball fan but I prefer to think of it like the Red Sox - a curse they defeated (right?).

tht1dkmi;842115005 said:

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130417/spring-games-scandals-mailbag/?sct=hp_wr_a3&eref=sihp#all

:headbang

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A reminder: Mandel attended the USC game last year as a fan at AT&T Park. Just for the hell of it. He was surrounded by it.

hanky1;842115016 said:

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No Rose Bowl since 1959 and several years (e.g. 2004) where we were close but got screwed over. It's a curse. Like the Cubs.

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2006 was pretty bad too, esp. the Arizona game (we win that game, even with the loss to $C the next week, I think we go to the RB because $C lost to UCLA).

One 17-0 halftime lead away.
One Desean 1/2 shoe size away.
One ridiculous PI call on Dante Hughes away.
One incredulous trip over blades of grass by Lavelle Hawkins away.
One throw across his body to the other side of the field pick six away.

*UGH!!!*

lol

Good summary of Cal fans.

I would also put the Bruins into this type of fan base when talking football - always thinking they would lose when they shouldn't. But last year changed some mindsets, notwithstanding the favorite schedule (contra: they played a great Pac 12 championship game against a very good, and far better, Furd team). They may be for a fall next year, but right now their fans are down right bullish. Also WSU football fans and their famous "Cougin -it" possess a when will the wheels fall off" mentality.

This is totally true. I fully identify with the tortured fanbases.

I guess I do not get that. I know that there are negabears that make a living about how lousy Cal is, etc. But I am always optimistic about our chances.

I think there are clearly two kinds of Bear fans. The "sunshine Pumpers", who have a generally optimistic view of the program year over year, and believe that this year is the year, year in and year out. They are the kind that play the lotto, they over-emphasize their stock winnings and disregard their losses. They have a strong sense of the good in people. In other words, the L&S graduates.

And then there are the NegaBears - the engineers who look for the slight imperfection, always trying to tinker, never satisfied.

Eventually, the Sunshine pumpers will win. Eventually.

Oski87;842115147 said:

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I guess I do not get that. I know that there are negabears that make a living about how lousy Cal is, etc. But I am always optimistic about our chances.

I think there are clearly two kinds of Bear fans. The "sunshine Pumpers", who have a generally optimistic view of the program year over year, and believe that this year is the year, year in and year out. They are the kind that play the lotto, they over-emphasize their stock winnings and disregard their losses. They have a strong sense of the good in people. In other words, the L&S graduates.

And then there are the NegaBears - the engineers who look for the slight imperfection, always trying to tinker, never satisfied.

Eventually, the Sunshine pumpers will win. Eventually.

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Well this is a sunshine pumpers point of view so of course it is clouded with a positive view of ones self and a negative view of those that are not.

Oski87;842115147 said:

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I guess I do not get that. I know that there are negabears that make a living about how lousy Cal is, etc. But I am always optimistic about our chances.

I think there are clearly two kinds of Bear fans. The "sunshine Pumpers", who have a generally optimistic view of the program year over year, and believe that this year is the year, year in and year out. They are the kind that play the lotto, they over-emphasize their stock winnings and disregard their losses. They have a strong sense of the good in people. In other words, the L&S graduates.

And then there are the NegaBears - the engineers who look for the slight imperfection, always trying to tinker, never satisfied.

Eventually, the Sunshine pumpers will win. Eventually.

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Uh, I was an engineer and am proudly a sunshine pumper!

In my circle of Cal alum acquaintances, the negaBears predominantly came from the 'L' in L&S graduates - the ones who read, discussed, and focused their debates on politics, social theories, philosophy, arguements over what long dead authors or bitter living authors really meant, etc.

You know - the ones who look for the slight imperfection, always trying to tinker, never satisfied...

:p

If there was a way to vote on the Top 25 biggest Sunshine Pumpers and 25 biggest NegaBears in the BI family and reveal each of their majors, and then... nah - too much work...

:beer:

tht1dkmi;842115005 said:

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130417/spring-games-scandals-mailbag/?sct=hp_wr_a3&eref=sihp#all

:headbang

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So true, so true.

I really think of Cal fans more as connisoeurs of delayed gratification. We're not looking for the sugar high of an Oregon or a USC. There's lots of football junk food out there, but we're willing to drive 100 miles out of our way for a great meal rather than loading up on slurpees and jerky at the nearest 7-11. We just know that when we reach the promised land it will be so much sweeter because of the deprivations we had to suffer to get there.

Either that or we're a bunch of massochists and it's too hard to consistently catch the Cubs on TV here on the West Coast.