If the sensors in Nick Saban's hands detect the presence of the national championship trophy, it launches the subroutine to hoist trophy, and directs the servos that control his facial muscles to turn the corners of his mouth upwards slightly.

Dark Reverie;842631784 said:

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I learned that Alabama is scum. What did you all learn?

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That top-10 recruiting classes are a must if you want titles.

Tedhead94;842631987 said:

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That top-10 recruiting classes are a must if you want titles.

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at what price, and not just money?

Tedhead94;842631987 said:

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That top-10 recruiting classes are a must if you want titles.

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to expound on that if I may,

having great classes is necessary, but not sufficient to win titles

(having great coaches is sufficient, but not necessary to win titles)

that's why having a staff with many strong recruiters should be the first priority

SonOfCalVa;842631993 said:

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at what price, and not just money?

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how many times do you have to bring this up? other schools with good academics crack the top 10, too.

Cal can't compete with either school and I'm fine with that. We may never beat a team like Alabama and that's just the way it is. I'd rather Cal drop to FCS and play non scholarship football than lower ourselves to the depths of the SEC. When Cal has a bad season at least I can hold my head high that we are working towards a goal of graduating players with a real education not some worthless degree to keep them eligible until the NFL draft. When Alabama has a bad season fans become suicidal. Good for them. I'm proud to have graduated from Cal, played football at Cal, and I wear my Cal gear with pride. Not because we are football factory but because we are Cal. If you don't understand then you haven't been here.
Last night I learned we will never be Alabama and I'm perfectly fine with it.

beeasyed;842631998 said:

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how many times do you have to bring this up? other schools with good academics crack the top 10, too.

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Worse, it's not just other schools. It is STANFURD which does this. If we cannot compete with FURD, let's admit it.

BearPD;842632001 said:

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Cal can't compete with either school and I'm fine with that. We may never beat a team like Alabama and that's just the way it is. I'd rather Cal drop to FCS and play non scholarship football than lower ourselves to the depths of the SEC. When Cal has a bad season at least I can hold my head high that we are working towards a goal of graduating players with a real education not some worthless degree to keep them eligible until the NFL draft. When Alabama has a bad season fans become suicidal. Good for them. I'm proud to have graduated from Cal, played football at Cal, and I wear my Cal gear with pride. Not because we are football factory but because we are Cal. If you don't understand then you haven't been here.
Last night I learned we will never be Alabama and I'm perfectly fine with it.

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I'd like to have our team, our school, but some of Alabama's fans' passion. I want Memorial to be rocking. I want it to be a tough ticket, every week. I want every kid in the Bay Area to have to pick their allegiance at birth, between Cal and Stanford (instead of Niners vs Raiders).

SonOfCalVa;842631839 said:

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Just curious, ...

How many Bama players could survive the first midterms as freshmen at UC Berkeley? first finals?
What grades would they receive on research papers (written by themselves)?
[SIZE=4][COLOR="#000080"]
Cal is UC Berkeley[/COLOR][/SIZE].

:gobears:

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Does it matter? Stanford's players could survive at Cal and they own us.

Sorry g4r, I think you're great but this is a bad take. Very few people here are still defending JT and where he took the program. Just because people criticize Sonny doesn't mean that they are in the "JT can do no wrong" camp. The debate around Sonny is quite lively because it's not very clear cut. There is room for praise and criticism. Heck, most of us have vacillated between faint praise and mild criticism because his results have put us in that position. I don't know why anyone feels the need to vilify other Cal fans who take reasonable positions on either side of the fence. That said, the main point of my response is that I'm really tired of people claiming that there is a sizable group of posters still defending Tedford. There may be a handful but they are a very small minority and I can't think of a single prominent poster who thinks Tedford was doing a good job at the end.

going4roses;842631876 said:

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It's two groups here
one that still thinks Jt is God and had no doings with 2013 results and subsequent hole we are still digging out of

Two are the people that see sonny has/is cleaning up the mess left to him on the cheap and winning


I'll say again to pay any D1 p5 coach 180k living in the bay area is shameful

We have gotten way more than we have spent minus cms imo

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i learned that oregon vs ohio state was 15% more watched than SEC v ACC.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/1/12/10755074/espn-national-championship-2015-2016-college-football-playoff-tv-ratings

BearPD;842632001 said:

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Cal can't compete with either school and I'm fine with that. We may never beat a team like Alabama and that's just the way it is. I'd rather Cal drop to FCS and play non scholarship football than lower ourselves to the depths of the SEC. When Cal has a bad season at least I can hold my head high that we are working towards a goal of graduating players with a real education not some worthless degree to keep them eligible until the NFL draft. When Alabama has a bad season fans become suicidal. Good for them. I'm proud to have graduated from Cal, played football at Cal, and I wear my Cal gear with pride. Not because we are football factory but because we are Cal. If you don't understand then you haven't been here.
Last night I learned we will never be Alabama and I'm perfectly fine with it.

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I don't want to be Alabama or Clemson, and I could care less if we never beat either team. But I'd like to believe that we can compete with Stanfurd on a regular basis, and that hasn't happened in quite awhile. In the final AP poll, Stanfurd is number 3, right behind number 1 Alabama and number 2 Clemson. Why shouldn't we expect Cal to be number 3 or 4?

Time will tell ... We agree to disagree for now

ColoradoBear1;842632025 said:

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i learned that oregon vs ohio state was 15% more watched than SEC v ACC.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/1/12/10755074/espn-national-championship-2015-2016-college-football-playoff-tv-ratings

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Interesting

I learned that when a woman stands next to Tebow, her hair could make it look like he has a ponytail.

I learned that Clemson and Alabama have a **** load of seriously talented players. They play a different game than us (and others).

Not to hijack the thread, but I wonder what Jared Goff would have done to Clemson's secondary? Of course, with an offensive line to protect him and provide time to throw, I believe Goff to Treggs/Lawlor/Davis/Harris/Anderson, et al., would have made for a fun outing. Bama's front seven would have blitzed endlessly and Jared certainly isn't Watson with his speed, but Jared is a better passer with a quick release and it would be fascinating to see what he could do. We will have an opportunity to see something like it once he starts in the NFL.

Dbearson;842631796 said:

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You need gigantic violent play makers 2 deep up and down the lines

Everything else is secondary

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Pardon the pun there

Bamas front 7 would've separated Goff from his soul. Clemson's would do worse if that's possible.

6bear6;842632042 said:

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Not to hijack the thread, but I wonder what Jared Goff would have done to Clemson's secondary? Of course, with an offensive line to protect him and provide time to throw, I believe Goff to Treggs/Lawlor/Davis/Harris/Anderson, et al., would have made for a fun outing. Bama's front seven would have blitzed endlessly and Jared certainly isn't Watson with his speed, but Jared is a better passer with a quick release and it would be fascinating to see what he could do. We will have an opportunity to see something like it once he starts in the NFL.

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Unfortunately, if Goff goes as high as most people expect, the NFL team he ends up with likely won't have a much better OL than Cal does. Jared will have to continue running for his life.

1979bear;842632004 said:

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Worse, it's not just other schools. It is STANFURD which does this. If we cannot compete with FURD, let's admit it.

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Precisely. It can be done. We just complain because we have yet to do it ourselves while our biggest rivals continue to show it is very much possible.

bigger faster players > smaller slower players

6bear6;842632042 said:

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Not to hijack the thread, but I wonder what Jared Goff would have done to Clemson's secondary? Of course, with an offensive line to protect him and provide time to throw, I believe Goff to Treggs/Lawlor/Davis/Harris/Anderson, et al., would have made for a fun outing. Bama's front seven would have blitzed endlessly and Jared certainly isn't Watson with his speed, but Jared is a better passer with a quick release and it would be fascinating to see what he could do. We will have an opportunity to see something like it once he starts in the NFL.

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Jared said he was actively recruited by Alabama, so he could very well have been playing in that game if things had worked out differently. Still think he got the far better deal in the end. His draft stock coming out of Bama couldn't have been higher than it is now and it's highly unlikely he would have started as a true freshman for them, so he'd probably be a year delayed from entering the draft with the attendant risk of a career ending injury looming. Plus an (eventual) Cal degree vs. one from Alabama? Not a contest.

oskimama;842632028 said:

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I don't want to be Alabama or Clemson, and I could care less if we never beat either team. But I'd like to believe that we can compete with Stanfurd on a regular basis, and that hasn't happened in quite awhile. In the final AP poll, Stanfurd is number 3, right behind number 1 Alabama and number 2 Clemson. Why shouldn't we expect Cal to be number 3 or 4?

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+1

It's not going to happen by osmosis and it definitely won't happen on the cheap

Stop raising expectations. You have to leave room for the Sonnyshiners to keep pumping.

oskimama;842632028 said:

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I don't want to be Alabama or Clemson, and I could care less if we never beat either team. But I'd like to believe that we can compete with Stanfurd on a regular basis, and that hasn't happened in quite awhile. In the final AP poll, Stanfurd is number 3, right behind number 1 Alabama and number 2 Clemson. Why shouldn't we expect Cal to be number 3 or 4?

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Stanford cheats. It is known.

HaasBear04;842632208 said:

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Stanford cheats. It is known.

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Only to Cal posters it seems. LOL. Some guys here always sound like the jealous kid who hates the handsome, muscular guy at the beach who gets all the women.

Sebastabear;842632087 said:

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Jared said he was actively recruited by Alabama, so he could very well have been playing in that game if things had worked out differently. Still think he got the far better deal in the end. His draft stock coming out of Bama couldn't have been higher than it is now and it's highly unlikely he would have started as a true freshman for them, so he'd probably be a year delayed from entering the draft with the attendant risk of a career ending injury looming. Plus an (eventual) Cal degree vs. one from Alabama? Not a contest.

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Cal develops QBs better than Alabama.

ShareBear;842631808 said:

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This is what everyone ignores because this is where the elite programs differentiate themselves. This is where Stanford entered the elite class, when Harbaugh informed them of this 'secret.' This is why we will struggle to compete without elaborate schemes and/or once in a lifetime playmakers at skill positions. Notice QBs and RBs that operated behind these monstrous 4/5* 2-3 deep lines at Bama and Stanford are lackluster in the NFL...Richardson Lacy Bell McCarron Gerhardt Luck. Soon you can add Hogan, McCaffery, Henry to that list. Meanwhile we put out a list of Pro-Bowlers(and two future HOFers), and can't win. Why? "You need gigantic violent playmakers 2 deep up and down the lines."

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If you think McCaffrey will be lackluster, you don't know the game.

SurvivorOf1and10fkaLEA;842631890 said:

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I learned that college football is almost not at all about college and almost entirely about football. What I saw were two jokes of academic institutions from Alabama and South Carolina run by former plantation owners hiring greedy, opportunistic mercenaries to exploit roided up black men for their own selfish gain and amusement.

If that's what college football is all about, I'd rather see my alma mater opt out of the whole thing. I don't need what I saw last night. I have the NFL for that.

I much preferred watching the student athletes of the University of California competing against the noble cadets of the Air Force academy.

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Wow!

going4roses;842631894 said:

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Well Shaw has his roided up white guy across the bay

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Roses- You are better than that

I learned how much Grand and Telegraph has changed since 1953.

Ncsf;842632244 said:

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Roses- You are better than that

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That was in response to a post mentioning sabian / Sweeny and their roided black players...

I already knew that Cal isn't Bama or Clemson..really! The story for me is that we either continue to celebrate our Bears not graduating, leaving early, and going into the NFL (which we all do!), or we suggest a minor league, paid football club program that allows players the same opportunities as Bama or Clemson, but aren't called full-time students. It works for baseball and the NCAA can just wet their pants.