The media needs to form some kind of common sense panel to review the rankings each week. I am convinced this is necessary because all of the articles I've read about Cal seem to boil down to "They have all the talent to win the Pac-10 or make a BCS title run... if Kevin Riley plays well." If Cal's receivers were made up of 12" high and 7'-0" tall players Kevin Riley would be the best QB in all of football, but sadly they are unable to catch balls at their feet or 3' over their heads. The "BCS Buster" era has also encouraged wild rankings swings based on pre-season rankings (see; Houston, Boise St.), I'll delve into that later especially if we are in for a repeat of the Alabama-Utah debacle.
Each week has exposed all of the issues people managed to gloss over in the pre-season; Average-at-best QB, average WR corp prone to dropped passes with no deep threat, and a young (confused, poor tackling, and poor pass coverage) LB unit in a system that relies on their "depth" to make plays on defense. In the past two weeks Cal has been torched by skilled TE's, quick hitch routes, and off tackle runs that are surprisingly effective when you rely on tackling by the ankles.
I am not looking forward to being proven right over the rest of the season. I may actually throw up on the poor people sitting in front of me if we go from #6 to losing to stanfurd, making me 0-3 this year against insufferable fans (stay classy Eugene) and 0-3 against horrible bands if/when we lose to fUCLA. I have a bad feeling the above image (ill-advised pass to a offensive lineman resulting in a penalty and wild cheering) will sum up the Cal season, and be its most memorable moment.
Mea culpa. Both of us were at the Cal-Oregon game, and on opposite sides. I strongly suspect that when my co-conspirator writes, "stay classy Eugene," he could just as easily be writing, "stay classy Richard (name changed to protect the guilty)." When Oregon went up 32-3 I obnoxiously screamed in my friend's ear, even though he was already despondent. What made my gloating even more unforgivably insufferable is that he had been talking Riley's suckitude up during the entire 9 hour car ride up to Eugene; he even went so far as to predict an Oregon victory. Don't question this man's college football insights, folks. Anyway, I'm surprised he didn't punch me in the throat after I rubbed it in. I guess Cal is getting some sort of karmic revenge on Oregon and me by proving that they weren't very good after all, thereby diminishing the formerly momentous upset by the Ducks.
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