Go Read Sunday Morning QB

In regards to Notre Dame this year: "Reality is strongly advised to cease and desist any future efforts to interfere with the inevitable march of history towards these inviolable events...."

[Of course, see also Ohio State and the power of non-reality based thinking.]

I'm still getting used to this winning thing

"Ryan Torain did what few other Sun Devils could at Memorial Stadium. He made California look bad."

Of course, if one were to actually look examine the game's outcome, both statistics and score, one would realize that Coach Gregory was looking to first defend the pass — traditionally ASU's strength — and focus on All-American tight end candidate Zach Miller (2 catches for 19 yards), and second defend the run.

The over 200 yards rushing, 190 of which for first-time starter Rudy Torain, included only one rushing TD, but Carpenter threw for 177 and 4 INTs (with 2 touchdowns) on 16 completions in 36 attempts. ASU was fairly unbalanced, rushing over 45 times, and actually gained more yards per rush attempt than pass attempt (4.9 to 5.2).

This emphasis on the run didn't translate to a win, because the secondary preyed on Carpenter to a remarkable extent because the defensive front was playing to contain Carpenter and the run, not to stop the run.

Maybe our defense looked bad in giving up 400 yards of offense. But they also scored 14 points and held last year's efficiency leader to a QB rating of 80. I don't think they looked that bad.

A fascinating primer on INTs (and fan reactions)

San Francisco Chronicle: "Cal cornerback Daymeion Hughes had stuffed all the data into his head during the week, so when the situation presented itself late in the first half, he was ready."

The Arizona Republic: "There were a couple of balls that I thought were for sure completions that were picked off," Carpenter said. "I just turned the ball over too many times. That's been the story of my year so far. I don't know what I'm doing (wrong). I've tried to change something every week, I've tried to figure it out and it doesn't seem to work."

ASU Message Board: "This is how Cal so effectively dismantled us. These are correctable deficiencies. Unfortunately it may take some time. I wish our coaches were as observant and could correct these issues BEFORE the season. After reading this I can understand how we've been outcoached every time we've played Tedford."

Rehashing the same old stuff -- Thompson and Tennessee

I didn't quite process the fact that not only was Syd'Quan Thompson starting his first collegiate game as a redshirt freshman in front of 100,000 screaming Vols fans in Knoxville, but he was starting under a first-year defensive backs coach.

R. Todd Littlejohn was hired in the off season when J.D. Williams moved to Washington. In fact, Littlejohn was hired just before the last week of spring practice. This doesn't excuse the mistakes Thompson made, but I didn't realize just how new to the program everyone was.

PhantomBear has been saying for a couple of weeks now that based on the nature of the mistakes Thompson was making — going for the ball rather than the tackle in all three long Volunteer TDs that he was burned for — it was obvious he is going to be great, at least as good as Hughes (5 INTs, 2 returned for TDs) or Deltha O'Neal (10 INTs for Cincinnati last year). And Thompson had one INT yesterday, and almost had a second one that, had the receiver not made a nice defensive play, could have gone for a TD.

I think our very young secondary (3 first-time starters = Carpenter 16-36 for 177, 2 TD, 4 INT) is going to be okay.

Go Scarlet Knights!

So we didn't go anywhere in the rankings despite beating a ranked team in one of only two meetings between ranked teams this weekend. But Rutgers! Rutgers is ranked for only the second time in my life!

I've liked Rutgers ever since we gained our only victory against them in That Horrible Year (a game that was originally scheduled to take place in New Brunswick on Sept. 14, 2001. It was rescheduled). And when I found out that Rutgers won the first college football game ever, I realized my fondness was well-placed.

[Also, I have an undeniable fondness for fullbacks, and the fact that Rutgers is promoting Brian Leonard with a website and everything makes me like them even more.]

Being a Cal fan, I have a certain appreciation for what other people call "losers" and what I prefer to think of as "teams worth rooting for, because then no one will ever accuse you of being a bandwagon fan."

So, Go Scarlet Knights!

When the President makes the wrong decision

You know, Temple probably wishes it could get rid of its last two games. Just wipe them off the books, call a do-over, try again some other time when conditions are more favorable.

Of course, Temple lost its last two games 62-0. Not two games that added up to 62-0; both games had a final score of 62-0, and Temple didn’t win either of them. I bet if she could, Ann Weaver Hart would change the recorded outcome of Temple’s last two games (they lost their first game of the season to Buffalo, 9-3 in overtime. That’s not so bad in comparison).

University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren thinks that the Oklahoma loss on Saturday shouldn’t count, either. Boren sent a letter to the Pac-10 complaining about the outcome of the Oklahoma-Oregon game outlining five complains. The fourth was,

The Big 12 should request that the game should not go into the record books as a win or loss by either team in light of the level of officiating mistakes.

Of course, the Sooners lost because of two questionable calls by the officiating crew, and the Owls lost because they were completely outplayed.

I understand that Boren and Coach Bob Stoops are upset that the outcome of the game hinged on a referee’s call. This happened to them last year against Texas Tech, and they lost that game, too. I understand them wanting to see some changes in the replay system — it turns out, the guy in the booth didn’t get to see all the angles everyone else who was watching the game got to see, so clearly there are some problems.

But I haven't seen anything -— in video of the play, shown endlessly on TV stations across America on Saturday and posted on hundreds of websites, in photos of the event, or in comments by players — that provides indisputable evidence to overturn the call(s) made on the field.

1) Did an Oregon player touch the ball before it had gone 10 yards? The footage shown repeatedly on ESPN was from approximately the 40-42 yard line, and so required a viewer to rotate the image in their head to see whether the ball had reached the 45-yard line. It probably had not, when I rotate the image in my head, but the video is not indisputable precisely because it requires this interpretation.

2) Did Oregon actually recover the ball? When the official blew the whistle, the ball was being held by an Oregon player who was under an Oklahoma player. Whether the Oregon player had possession or not, the whistle had blown, and so the ball was dead when #23 for Oklahoma recovered. This play is not reviewable. My opinion is that the whistle was blown too soon, but that’s just an opinion.

And regardless of whether the call(s) were blown, Boren doesn’t seem to understand a fundamental point about sports: there is a winner and there is a loser, and the participants agree beforehand that this is how it will be. You don’t get to have a do-over if the game doesn’t happen the way you wanted it to. (Let’s erase the Cal-Tennessee game from the books, because Squid — what PhantomBear calls SydQuan Thompson — wasn’t quite ready for DI play, so the plays he gave up shouldn’t really count.)

Stanford is still upset about the 1982 Big Game, Georgia claims Georgia Tech used ringers in their 1943 and 1944 games and those wins should be forfeit, and depending on who’s counting, the Florida-Georgia, LSU-Tulane, Clemson-South Carolina, Cornell-Pennsylvania, and Washington-Washington State rivalries are also disputed.

Of course, the NCAA doesn’t believe Georgia, and gives Georgia Tech those wins, and the disputed games for the other series’ are also officially wins or losses for someone. This isn’t the first time a game has had an outcome that isn’t acceptable to the loser. It won’t be the last.

But what message does it send to the players — and fans — of a team when the University president demands that a game, which he had previously agreed to have on record as played by his team, shouldn’t be counted just because his team lost? If Oklahoma had won despite those controversial calls, Boren probably wouldn’t have minded.

And he almost certainly wouldn’t have done what Cornell did, according to Jake Curtis.

The same sort of thing happened in 1940, when Dartmouth won its 18th straight game by scoring on the game's final play for a 7-3 win over Cornell. Cornell scored what appeared to be the winning touchdown on the final play for a 7-3 victory. But films the next day revealed that the winning play had occurred on fifth down because of an officiating error, and Cornell subsequently forfeited the game to Dartmouth.

We can all agree that Cornell made the right decision. And if Oregon wanted to, they could make that decision as well — although unlike the Cornell-Dartmouth case (or the 1991 Colorado-Missouri case), the call is not indisputable. But it isn’t Boren’s decision, and he’s sending the wrong message by even suggesting it.

Bush should have known better (not that one, the other one)

Most of me thinks this won't have any appreciable effect on anything whatsoever. They've been doing it for a long time, and while this is pretty egregious, they're still USC. The same rules don't apply to them. (I suppose in this, they are exactly like the other Bush.)

But the power of the media these days might (and I emphasize the might) change that.

We can hope.

[And for those of you keeping track at home, please compare Reggie Bush to Ray Ray McElrathbey. Sometimes, there are legitimate reasons to allow "extra benefits." Getting to stay in a hotel room in Las Vegas on your agent's dime is probably not covered under any of them.]

Real fans are going to have some problems this weekend

All over the country on Saturday, football fans will be excluded from watching many of the amazing games that are scheduled.

If you're at one game, you can't watch any of the others. It's only if you are a fan without a team (not a real fan), or a fan without tickets (not a real fan), or a fan whose team is playing an away game (and why aren't you traveling with the team? Not a real fan!) that you might be able to take in any of the following, at least one of which should be a decent game:

Michigan at Notre Dame AND
LSU at Auburn AND
Nebraska at USC AND
Miami at Louisville AND
Texas Tech at TCU (Go Horned Frogs!) AND
Oklahoma at Oregon (Go Ducks!) AND
Florida at Tennessee (Go Vols!).

I'm in Berkeley for the (wait for it...) Cal-Portland State game! (If only it was a Cal-Portland State women's soccer game, I'd be excited. Football? Not so much. Although last year's Michigan-Notre Dame game left quite a bit to be desired, and I want both LSU and Auburn to lose, and while I don't like Miami I don't care about Louisville and I can't root for USC under any circumstances, so perhaps it's all for the best.)

Even Stewart Mandel had to beg for a tailgate or couch space to watch the Florida-Tennessee game since he's stuck in South Bend for UM/UND.

We Hate the New Clock Rules

If you haven't already, go to http://www.wehatethenewclockrules.com and sign the petition.

Because if you like college football, then you probably really hate the new clock rules.

Maybe Tedford knows what he's doing

On Saturday, PhantomBear was a little irate about our kickoff coverage. We've had some problems with this in the past and Minnesota's Davis is not Reggie Bush or Maurice Drew-Jones. Phantom Bear wondered why Schneider was directionally kicking to #2 every single time, and why he wasn't just putting it out of the endzone (especially when on two kickoffs with 15 yarders tacked on {and thus from mid-field}, he didn't send it out of the endzone).

Jay Heater, in his new Contra Costa Times Cal blog, notes,

Someone had asked about Cal's kickoff that was returned for a touchdown by Minnesota. Yes, indeed, it was supposed to go exactly where it went. Place-kicker Tom Schneider was told to kick it there and he did his job. As coach Tedford said, when you can pin a team into the corner, you don't have to cover the entire field. Tedford explained that one of his defenders got knocked off his line and Minnesota simply did a great job of moving a couple other tacklers out of the way. Tedford said the scheme was sound, and he had to tip his cap to Minnesota for a big play.

Good to know it was just crappy execution, rather than really bad gameplanning.