The Facts of Life

There are five indisputable truths in college football:

1. USC cheats. Reggie Bush is a prime example. The phantom face mask call this weekend against Arizona is another.
   
2. Notre Dame is overrated. Maybe not this season, but pretty much every other season. When was the last time they won a bowl game?
   
3. SEC fans are insane. A couple of weeks back some LSU fans got a hold of Tim Teabow's cell phone number and left him death threats. Death threats!?! Here I thought this was just for fun.
4. Oregon has ugly uniforms. So does Oregon State for that matter. There must be something in the water.
   
5. The Cal Bears will falter in the face of success.
   

Yes, and a prime example of that last point occurred this weekend. Hey, we're the number two team in the nation. Number one just lost. We have hapless Oregon State at home. We're going to be the #1 team in the country for the first time since color television was invented!

Opps.

Sure it was their 2nd string quarterback, it is the year of the upset, and Oregon State is making Strawberry Canyon their home away from home... but common! What bugs me even more is that we were supposed to be the team to shock Cal this weekend. I thought, even before their defeat to the Beavers, that Cal was due for a mistep. It's in their nature. Just when success comes knocking on their door, the Bears decide to go hibernate for a weekend. But no... the Beavers stole our thunder. Now I have to wonder if all week if Cal will show up motivated and ready for redemption or deflated and flat?

The other big question for this week is who's playing at quarterback for both teams? Longshore was supposed to be back this last weekend but he didn't see a snap. Their 2nd string guy, Riley, actually did a decent job for about 59 minutes and 48 seconds. Then came the "oops" play of the season. Guess you have to expect that from a freshman. Of course our freshman quarterback turned the ball over 5 times in his debut, so what the hell. Riley deserves the Heisman by comparison.

If we get back Cowan (likely at less than 100%) and the Bears start a gimpy Longshore (likely less than 100%) then the game could be interesting. If we don't have Cowan then it is hard to imagine us winning. Of course, stranger things have happened this year so I'm not going to entirely write off this game as a loss. Our defense has been playing very well the last two weeks and if we can just find a pulse on offense then we could be competitive. The extra week to prepare helps as well.