The lofty hopes that I have for Cal football are due to JT and in particular the first half of that era...
Next to Southern Cal, no Pac-10 team won as often as Cal. Our recruiting classes up through 2007 were about 3rd best based upon average stars. As high as 2nd and low as fourth a couple times. Good solid recruiting, not approaching elite classes. He and his staff were credited quite a bit, and often, with developing that incoming talent. Maybe JT would have achieved more in those earlier years without the CMS obstruction, tree sit BS. Maybe Southern Cal wouldn't have been quite as good without their shenanigans... What JT did last year at Fresno State is reminiscent to how he started here. I watched the Bulldogs the previous year, and they were the worst team in the conference, losing to SJSU in the finale.
Back to Cal... I like to put things in perspective. We just beat North Carolina, again. An ACC team with an established HC and staff that has been to bowl games 8 of the last 10 years. We just came-off one of the worst 4-5 year stretches in Cal football, and had been to just two bowl games in the past 7 years. The North Carolina recruiting classes the previous years that comprised their rosters last year and this season, notably higher ranked than ours. JW and staff delivered wins though...
The next two games, Cal will be playing teams that didn't out-recruit them, based upon average star classes.
I still think we go 3-0, like last season, then our wonderfully timed BYE before we get the Ducks at home. Of note, that will be their first road game, after four at home to start the season. And, they will have had Stanford the week before us. This is the crux game that I'm calling for Cal in my 6-1 to 7-0 start, that I still stand by, albeit somewhat more reluctantly after our offensive showing on Saturday. We damn near beat Arizona last year (overtime loss), and beating UCLA in Berkeley is not a stretch either. And the Beavs is a game we expect to win... Enter UW in Berkeley for game eight.
Sig test...
