OK, this is one of those defining moments for a reporter: the first time your name shows up on a major sports website. In my case it is Yahoo!Sports. Here’s the link:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/teams/ttj
Run, don’t walk!, and go check it out. In case you missed it, here’s a link to a screen capture of it.
Well, the Pac-10 started off REALLY slowly this year in the bowl games. Both Oregon and Arizona St. were downright embarassed by 2nd-tier teams before Christmas. On the one hand, both of those teams were in shambled and it was somewhat to be expected. (As a short aside, Cal’s one touchdown victory over BYU in 2005 at the Vegas Bowl looks a little more impressive considering how well BYU did in 2006 and their completely embarassing of Oregon in this year’s Vegas Bowl.)
Unfortunately things didn’t get any better when UCLA, a team that definitely had the skills and were coming off a their biggest win since… well, since they beat Cal in 2005, couldn’t get the job done against a weak Florida State team. So the Pac-10 was 0-3 in their early bowls and all the prognosticators were talking about how weak the Pac-10 was.
Boy did that change. Cal destroyed A&M, Oregon State beat Missouri (although the final score was close and it required a last minute comeback by OSU, OSU dominated most of the game) and USC destroyed Michigan. In the end, the best teams in the Pac-10 beat the better teams in the Big-12 and the Big-10. I think it is safe to say that the Pac-10 is the best conference west of the Mississippi.
As for the other conferences:
The Big-12 is a joke going 3-5 which of it’s own right isn’t horrific but look at the 3 wins: Alabama, Minnesota and Iowa. Not exactly teams to be proud of beating as a conference. The Oklahoma loss to Boise St. is the difinitive example of where the Big-12 is at.
The Big-10 is 2-4 going into the championship game. While two of the victories, Penn St. victory over Tennessee and Wisconson over Arkansas, spoke surprisingly well for the conference, the Michigan loss and the the overall record reinforce my though that the Big-10 is a weak conference. If Ohio State loses to Florida, it will hard to avoid that impression.
The surprise conference is the Big East, they’re 4-0 and no one can speak poorly of that. However, I think one still have to temper that record with who they’ve beat: East Carolina, Kansas St., Geogia Tech. and Wake Forest. Not exactly a great lineup.
The ACC, which I thought was the most under-appreciated conference (I’m not saying the best, just not as bad as most people thought) didn’t do all that well, 3-5. Their lineup was a bit tougher than most, but still, overall they didn’t live up to my expectations.
That leaves the SEC who still have two games left. They’re 3-4 so far but if they win their remaining two games, it’ll be hard to debate them as having the most impressive bowl record of the BCS conferences when “strength of schedule” is included.
The other big winner this year is the non-BCS teams. BYU and Boise St. did a lot for their reputation.
But overall, when one looks at the big picture, I think the Pac-10 did well when one considers how the other conferences did and their bowl schedule.
Next post: a end of season look forward to the Pac-10 next year.
It was my original intent to write a blog entry every day for the trip and I started off well with my 12/26 report. But since I was combining a Holiday Bowl trip with spending some time with my uncle Rick, I found myself with less time to write than I had hoped. So, I guess it’ll have to be a single wrap-up at this point.
On the 27th I went to the press conference for both head coaches. Since most know my opinion of Tedford (a class act) I’ll keep my comments to A&M head coach Dennis Franchione and the press who was there.
Franchione was a class act himself. He seemed more comfortable with the media than Tedford who has always been a little media shy. But he was humble about the opportunity to play in the Holiday Bowl and very respectful of his competition. You could tell he loved the game and had respect for all those who felt the same way independent of their success. He had particular respect for Tedford (the feeling appears to be mutual).
The A&M press was not so humble. There were three type of press people there. Press who cover the Bears (like me), press who cover A&M and local San Diego press. I knew most of the Cal press from having covered the Bears this season but this was my first exposure to the others. The local press was mostly fairly naive and was easy to distinguish from the A&M press. The A&M press was suprisingly arrogant. They threw lots of questions at Tedford about how they were going to be able to slow down the A&M offense and in particular Jevorskie Lane. It was interesting because the Cal press, which tends to run fairly critical, combined with the A&M press, which ran arrogant, gave the impression that it was Cal who was the underdog and was going to killed.
Obviously we know what the result was.
After that I went to the Kickoff Luncheon. I was given the impression up front that the press would be getting to sit down at the luncheon and even get lunch. At the press conference we were told that it wouldn’t be the case, that there instead be chairs at the back of the room and that they would see about box lunches.
When we got over there, there were no “chairs at the back of the room” to be found. A few of us press hung around for about a half hour but it was pretty awkward and so one by one we all left. I think I was the last one to go about 15 minutes into the speaches. In retrospect I wish I had stayed to hear everything. It would have been worth it just to experience the event. See my pictures of the event here.
What I can tell you is that if you’re heading to a Cal bowl game and they have a similar event it is probably worth going to. It was only $50 a head, you got a nice lunch and each table had two players at it. Of course I’m sure the table with Marshawn Lynch or DeSean Jackson or Desmond Bishop was reserved for those people who are candidates to have new buildings that they paid for named after them. Nevertheless it seemed like a good opportunity to meet some players, be with a lot of committed fans and get a taste for the other team’s players/fans.
That was the end of the festivities for the day and of all the days leading up to the bowl game.
On game day my only plan was to go to the game and tailgate with a few family members. Well that was going swimmingly when I realized that I had left my press-pass in San Marcos, where I was staying, about 45 minutes away. It was impractical to go back for it at that point and since I didn’t have a seat in the press box (I had the pass for post-game access to the field and press conferences) and had a ticket for the game, I decided just to leave the issue alone and go to the game as a regular fan.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any Cal gear on. When you’re press, you’re supposed to be impartial. So no Cal hat, no gameday shirt, no Cal bottle openner that plays the fight song every time you open a bottle of beer. I can deal with that if I get the on-the-field access but if I don’t get that, it’s a bummer to be dressed in Khakis and a dress shirt when I could be showing my school spirit.
The pre-game and halftime shows left lots to be desired. I guess the fireworks at halftime were fine, but the combination of the fireworks with the band with the on-the-field fireworks with PA system music with occasional announcements… well let’s just leave it at “poorly choreographed”. I must admit that the American flag that covered the whole field and the Navy parachuters from the pre-game were pretty cool.
Speaking of military things, the Texas A&M band was… interesting. I’ll give them this, they were very good at what they do. I’ve never seen such precision in a band. In many ways, they’re just like their football team: they only do one thing and they do it pretty well. But all they did was march up and down the field with the occasional crossing patterns. So if the song was longer than one trip back and forth, they’d just loop back and do it again. So for their first song during the pregame, I was impressed with the precision and how different it was from your average marching band. However by the time they were done with their halftime show, the band had lost a lot of its appeal. I mean, other than some minor formation changes they did the exact same thing, including the song, at half time as during the pre-game.
On the other hand, the Cal band seemed to be a little out of sync. They just didn’t have the intensity that they usually do. Additionally I thought they really dropped the ball with their halftime music selection. While I understand why they choose to do various modern music during regular halftime shows, so they’re not always doing the same thing, why they did that for the Holiday Bowl? There are all kinds of Cal songs that aren’t included in the usual pre-game show. Sure, it would be repetitive to do those every week, but this is the bowl game. Where’s the Stanford Jonah? Hail to California? Or any of the other Cal songs. That would have been a much wiser choice for a bowl game particularly in front of a mixed crowd. It’s an opportunity to showcase everything Cal. Playing some Chicago songs doesn’t exactly do that and was a letdown.
After the game I went back to my uncle’s place in San Marcos (the press-pass was EXACTLY where I thought it was) to sleep for the night. I drove home the next morning. The trip took me about 8 hours both ways and I hit very little traffic either way. Speaking of which, since we seem doomed to go to the Holiday bowl for the forseeable future (OK, maybe not but I’m better with low expectations and exceeding them), I’ve got some sothern California freeway advice for Cal fans (yes that means you Jason). Don’t take I-5 all the way through LA. That’s just asking for trouble. Instead you want to circle around LA to the east. In addition to bypassing all LA traffic, it also naturally gets you on I-15 in San Diego (which is where Qualcomm is located next to) and it goes right by the Rose Bowl (and I figure the more we drive by it the better luck we’ll have in eventually getting to stop there because… well… we’ll know the way). So here’s the route everyone should be taking in the future:
It really is the best route and I doubt it is a sigificant number of miles longer than taking I-5. Plus you won’t have any traffic problems like you would in LA.
So overall it was a good trip, 1140 miles at 32.5 MPG (I love my Jetta!) with about 16 hours of driving. Plus because I stayed with my uncle Rick, the trip costs were low (about $100) for gas and a couple meals on the road. When coupled with a wonderful butt-kicking of any team from Texas, who can complain about that?Â
I’ve said in the past that I’d create a post before I go to press conferences to give my readers an opportunity to propose questions I can ask at the press conference. Consider this that post for the coach’s press conference today. I’ll be leaving around 9:30 AM to get there so please submit the questions before then.
Sorry for the last-minute-ness of this offer…
I’ll have an article about Tuesday’s practice and post practice interviews posted on cal.rivals.com sometime today. Also, I answered some questions for the Texas A&M Rivals publisher yesterday that should be put in interview form on their site (tamu.rivals.com) today as well. I’ll add links here this evening…
I woke up on Tuesday morning at 6 AM to get ready to leave. The plan was to get out of Roseville by 7 AM for the 8-plus hour trip. That gave me lots of extra free time to stop for lunch and get lost a couple times trying to find the practice at San Diego State that started at 4:30 PM. As with all trips, last minute preparation slowed me down a bit. By the time I had filled the gas tank and got a couple of donuts (insert Homer voice here “Ummm… Donutsâ€), I wasn’t out of Roseville on the Freeway until nearly 8 AM.
I stopped to fill up the gas tank and get lunch just before the grapevine. I decided that since it was already noon and I had nearly 3 hours left on the trip that I would just grab some food and eat in the car. By the time I was through Los Angeles I realized why stopping for lunch can be a good thing… my bladder was about to explode, necessitating another stop.
By the time I arrived at San Diego State it was already 3:45 and indeed it took me a little while to find the practice field where the team was practicing. I arrived there shortly after 4:00 PM to find that the official practice had just started (it starts with stretching) and that the practice was going to be closed to both the public AND the press.
That’s pretty unusual. I’ve never been denied access to a practice before as press.
But we all know how Tedford likes to control things. So I was able to do was watch and snap a few pictures of about 10 minutes of stretching and a few minutes of warm-up ball toss before I was kicked out and told I could come back at 6:30 PM to get some interviews (although I should be fair to the very nice football SID John Sudsbury, he was very polite in the way he kicked me out).
In those few minutes I saw a team that was much more determined than I had seen in practices at Memorial Stadium. They were much more focused on doing their stretches well and their synchronization to the various activities was better than normal. Even the clapping of hands had a stronger ring to it than normal.
I’m sitting in the parking lot across from the practice field typing this up and I can hear the coaches shouting and the players yelling as they practice. Even from just the sounds I can tell it is a very focused practice.
It’s clear from both the closed practice and the sounds from it that Tedford and the team don’t want a repeat of the 2004 Holiday Bowl.  They want that 10th win.
If you’re putting together your Holiday Bowl blog list, keep me on it. I’ll be heading down on the 26th, catching the pre-game events like the booster luncheon and the various press-conferences. I’ll do a blog post after each.
This is an awesome award to win, the best defensive back in the country, named for Ronnie Lott.
Well deserved Hughes!
I’m a reasonable man and understand that my opinion is just that. I respect that others have other opinions and allow them their right to express it. What I do take exception to is liars, hypocrites, blame-shifters and those who won’t take the time to understand an issue that they’re willing to dump hundreds of hours into protesting against.
And that is exactly what those of you who are being vocal about their disagreement with this project are being. To prove my point, I will list each of the arguments you’ve made:
1. This project hates trees and trees are good
2. This project is seismically unsafe
3. This project will increase traffic on Piedmont Avenue
4. The project can be put somewhere else
Let’s go through these one by one:
#1: This project hates trees and trees are good
When I see signs like “Mommy, what did trees look like?†I know that I’m dealing with someone who is being disingenuous. I’ve never met anyone who has a desire to make trees go away entirely. People like trees. Just about everyone does. Some don’t mind cutting down trees here and there for a project, but in every building project I’ve ever seen new trees have been planted.
This isn’t because of pressure from environmentalists but because people like trees. They add shade and beauty. I’ve seen housing complexes go up where not a single tree was cut down for the project but just about every house built had 2 or 3 trees planted. Why? Because people like trees.
Similarly, this project will end up planting far more trees than it will cut down. Anyone who has seen the artistic renderings of the project know that the inclusion of planting new trees was not just a move to pacify environmentalist but a move to increase the beauty of the facilities.
I will give some quarter to those of you who believe that old trees are worth keeping around simply because they are old. I heartily disagree, particularly to the degree many of you take the argument, but I’ll accept that it can be an internally consistent perspective. However, that’s not what your protest signs say.
As I said, I’ve got no problem with you disagreeing with me. However, I do insist on honesty. If you really believe that old trees shouldn’t be cut down, say that. Don’t come up with bogus excuses to cover your true motives for political expediency.
But instead of being honest, since you know that nobody holds the extreme views you do, you resort to other disingenuous arguments to try to win.
That’s called being a liar.
#2: This project is seismically unsafe.
Anyone who thinks about this one for even a minute knows how stupid your argument is. Memorial stadium was built before we had a good understanding of the Hayward fault that runs through the middle of it. It was also built before building technologies existed that would withstand incredibly large scale earthquakes.
Every weekday a significant group of people go to work in Memorial stadium. In that sense, they are daily at risk of a large earthquake ending their lives. Additionally, about 10 times a year 50,000 or more people sit in memorial stadium for an event. For those hours a much larger group is put at risk including me and my children.
When the Performance Center is built, it will be built using the latest seismically safe building technologies. All of the people who work in Memorial stadium will have their offices moved to the Performance Center. They will be far safer in the new building.
Additionally, once those who work in Memorial Stadium have their offices moved, it will free up Memorial Stadium for its own seismic retrofit without having to further compromise the stadium while people are working in it.
Once the entire project is completed, everyone will be far more seismically safe than they are today. To argue that this project is seismically unsafe is in fact arguing to leave people in seismically unsafe situations.
That’s called being a hypocrite.
#3: This project will increase traffic on Piedmont Avenue
This part of your argument centers on the parking garage that will be built where Maxwell field currently is located. Of course it is true that if you add parking, it will increase traffic. However, your underlying point is not that it will increase traffic but that it will do so in a place that already has too much traffic.
I spend nearly two hours every football game day getting in and out of Berkeley. I come to the Rockridge BART station and take the bus in from there. From there I sit in stop and go traffic on College Avenue to the stadium. I get to do the same in reverse on the way home.
The issue is not the streets surrounding the stadium. The issue is the City of Berkeley. They made a conscious decision to purposefully make Berkeley a difficult city to drive in. They blocked off streets and refused to widen the few remaining thoroughfares. They refused to add turning lanes and other traffic easing measures as well.
The traffic getting to and from this new parking garage will be just as horrible as you suggest. However it has nothing to do with the project, particularly considering the project includes widening Piedmont Avenue around the stadium. It has everything to do with the surrounding City of Berkeley policies.
This is called being a blame-shifter.
#4: This project can be put somewhere else
This isn’t an argument of its own right but a justification for other arguments. That’s fine in its own right. If there is indeed a solution that meets the needs of the project that has less downside, then it is worth pursuing.
However, I balk at this proposal for two reasons.
The first is that I think you’re being disingenuous. This project has already gone through years of public meetings and design work. While there were complaints during that time, no one seriously proposed these locations at that time. Now that the project is nearly ready to start, I find it all too convenient that this is the time the alternatives start coming out of the woodwork.
Additionally, there is a long history in Berkeley of protests against any new University projects independent of where on campus they are proposed. You’ve already proven yourselves to be liars, hypocrites and blame-shifters to me. I believe that these proposals are nothing more that attempt to buy time. Any other location would be just as unacceptable to you.
However, despite the fact that I feel comfortable in dismissing these alternatives as merely distraction techniques, I for some odd reason feel compelled to respond to them.
The first proposal for a gym on the other side of campus is easy to dismiss. It’s on the other side of campus. It’s a big campus. The coaches and staff need quick access to their practice facilities that just happen to be at Memorial Stadium. It just doesn’t make sense to put it a long way from the stadium.
The second proposal is to put it where Maxwell field is. Well, that would be great if the project didn’t also include a parking garage. Other than the time lost for the design changes, I’m sure the University would be happy to cut down the oak trees for the parking garage and instead put the Performance Center where Maxwell field is.
These proposals show that you really don’t care that appropriate facilities are built for the University. At the very least it shows you won’t take the time to understand all of the requirements for this project despite the fact that you’re willing to dump hundreds of hours protesting against.
In conclusion, I find you to be liars, hypocrites and blame shifters who are unwilling to spend the time to understand the project before jumping on the protest bandwagon.
Sincerely,
Ken Crawford
Cal Bear Season Ticket Holder
Well, as expected the UC regents approved the new Performance Center next to Memorial Stadium. Here’s an article about it.
I have some choice words for those who oppose the project. Expect a post in the next day that is an open letter to them.