DISQUS

I think Anger may have more pure power in his punting than Nick Harris, but Harris was much better about his directional punting. The guy was amazing at pinning a team inside their 10, or even their 5, even from a short field, and putting it in the corner to boot. Anger may get there, but right now, I'll take his 70 yard bombs and like 'em.

i really enjoyed reading this series. fun stuff to think about, especially over the football-starved summer.

now's that's a great teaser paragraph!

yeah, i've got to concur with the last two commenters: 2004 was my favorite team, although the '02 team will always have a special place in my heart for turning things around, and the '03 team for finally winning a bowl game.

I'm right with ya on the 'Roll On You Bears' chant. WE HAVE TO BE ON A ROLL FIRST!

I'm sorry, though, when Stanfurd was beating U$C, I was totally rooting for the 'Furd. In fact, I find it acceptable to root for any team if it will help the Bears (by beating someone ranked higher, or higher up in the standings). You don't have to like it, or sing the fight song or whatever, but a quiet fist pump when a conference rival takes down another top 10 team seems appropriate.

Also, portable radios are a must for ill-timed weddings -- which, by the way, I have no tolerance for. I scheduled my wedding so that I'd be back from the honeymoon in time for the Tennessee game. No one's missing football on *my* account.

Despite last year's result, Cal should continue to dominate Stanford in the near future, as its roster just isn't as talented as Cal's. UCLA looks to get better with Neuheisel and Chow, but their recent struggles in keeping QBs healthy suggests that this may not be their year.

Like most years, I think this season's chances will come down to whether we can beat USC, and this season, I don't like those odds. Could it happen? Sure. But I wouldn't bet on Cal winning more than 8 games this year.

So when's the Bears Necessity calendar coming out? ;)

and yeah, some butt-smacking from the ladies would be nice. although i have seen women's basketball players do a chest bump...which is honestly kind of confusing. doesn't that hurt?

now, this is the sort of hot cal girl we're all really lusting after...she's still sexy *after* she opens her mouth...

BTW, your YouTube link has been pulled or something.

Nice post, Tony. Interesting stuff.

I didn't know Brooke personally, but seeing as how she was actually in the marching band only a couple years before me, I knew people who did. While I don't want to disparage a nice girl's reputation with second-hand stories, I will say that, by all accounts, Playboy's airbrushing people can do wondrous things.

Still, a very lovely lady. If this site becomes nothing more than 'pictures of hot women who actually attended Cal', it'll still be pretty entertaining.

I like it. A big improvement, especially the second sidebar, which was absolutely necessary. There's just too much content otherwise.

I do love me some helmet schedules. Nice job.

In general, I think gold works better as an accent color, rather than the dominant color. Like the banner, though.

Actually, it's both. Technically, you're paying for a subscription to ESPN the Magazine, and you get the ESPN insider access as well. Two products, one low price.

I don't subscribe to many pay websites (really, who actually PAYS for porn on the internet?), but ESPN insider is totally worth the $30 a year or whatever. That's like 5 trips to I.B. Hoagies. And I don't know about you, but my belly could totally use about 5 fewer hoagies right now.

As far as I understand it, Stanford has long run a "national" recruiting program. Because of their admissions standards, there aren't that many kids nationally who have the grades to get in AND can play Division I ball (and don't mind losing a few games here and there). Fortunately for them, kids that do concentrate on academics are often very attracted to the idea of a free Stanford degree and sunny California weather. Though there aren't many kids like this out there, Stanford usually beats out Duke for most of them.

Tom Brady + Tom Holmoe still = crap. Oh, we might have won a couple more games with some decent quarterback play, but those late-90's teams were never a player or two away from taking the world by storm. More like 6 or 7. Or 12.

In fact, Brady might have helped Holmoe keep his job another year or two, by which time Tedford might have taken a job somewhere else. Who knows where this program would have been...

Heh, it's kinda neat when you can go back through the archives and go 'wow, I did all this? go me!' Much preferable to 'man, I wasted a lot of time on the internet!'

Get better, man. Sick around the holidays is no fun at all.

ASU got jobbed, but I can't blame that on Hansen. Blame the Orange Bowl for selecting an entirely undeserving Kansas team. I'm almost positive the Fiesta Bowl woulda taken Arizona State if they coulda, but alas, the choice was out of their hands.

Ugh. Being ill at a crappy football game is no way to be. And make no mistake, I do expect a fair amount of crappy football on Saturday.

All it'll take is one loss to Stanford, and your heart will fill with the same hatred as the generations of Cal fans who've come before you. In the meantime, their basketball team is pretty insufferable.

Avinash, your honesty is appreciated. We've all been beaten down by this season's epic slide, and I'm sure you're not alone among the student body in your apathy regarding our rivals across the bay.

Still, I'm disappointed in you. How can you claim to be a Bear fan and never have attended a Big Game? Know you not the pain of watching the ugliest mascot in existence dancing to "All Right Now" after a Stanford touchdown? Have you never tried to decipher the meaning behind an incomprehensible and poorly performed LSJUMB show? Do you know the joy of watching pampered rich white boys get beaten down into the turf?

Besides, the 1982 Big Game wasn't particularly meaningful. At least until the last 4 seconds, that is.

That was totally a fumble by DeSean. We got lucky because the umpire screwed up, tossed the beanbag and signaled that they play was dead before DJax was actually down.

DeSean needs to learn when to just call for the fair catch.

I'm much more worried about the ASU game at this point than the UCLA game. That said, U$C's still the toughest challenge left.

Between Stanford and USC, gosh, well, it's hard to root for either. But, having to choose, I'll always root against insufferable arrogance, and right now, that means rooting against USC.

It's not often that I find myself agreeing with the Daily Cal, but I do have to say I thought your comments were vaguely racist myself. Not terribly offensive, but perhaps on the level of the old joke about why the Mexican Olympic Team isn't ay good ("everyone who can run, jump, or swim has already crossed the border").

Still, bonus points for the General McClellan reference. I did enjoy that.