California Golden Bears Football Blog - Bears with Fangs

NFL Draft Predictions

2013-04-25T08:40:00.002-07:00

I'm a self-confessed NFL draftnik. And not in the Mike Mayock, ability to either scout or predict order kind of way. More in the "hopelessly in love with both college and NFL football so that I sit down and watch the entire draft" kind of way. Pathetic, I know. But the draft always brings around a level of excitment in that I get to see who my Niners pick up, and where my Cal Bears end up.

New Cal Uniforms and Logo Are Here!

2013-04-10T17:37:00.002-07:00

(Source: CalBears.com) In the lull that is college football offseason, today is freaking Christmas come early. At least for me. In a much hyped promotion campaign, Nike and Cal unveiled the new streamlined look for Cal Athletics wear, with much of the emphasis being on the new Cal uniforms. Overall, I have to say I love the new uniforms. LOVE 'EM. I do have my share of gripes though.

Keenan Allen Runs 4.7 40 Yard Dash at Pro Day

2013-04-09T10:26:00.002-07:00

Keenan Allen injured his left posterior cruciate ligament to his left knee which caused him to not only miss the final three games of his 2012 season, but also made him unavailable for any type of combine or pro day workouts. The projected late 1st round pick has left scouts waiting anxiously for his personal pro day workout which took place today back in his hometown of Greensborough, North

Kate Scott Views New Cal Uniforms

2013-04-03T17:59:00.001-07:00

It looks like the Cal athletic department is continuing to preview show off sneak peaks of Cal's new streamlined uniforms to Cal alum. We saw Jason Kidd's reaction last week, and this week, they continued with former Cal mic woman and one of my pseudo-celebrity crushes, Kate Scott. Thoughts and some vague clues after the jump. Although we weren't offered any new glimpses at the blurry

Mailbag: Sonny Dykes - Savior or Failure?

2013-04-02T15:30:00.001-07:00

Every so often I get some email, which I always appreciate. Sometimes they're rants, sometimes they're questions, sometimes they're pretty strange pictures of people in Cal clothing. Those I don't like so much. Anyway, I received an email this weekend I thought I'd share. Dan writes: I am a Cal alum from the 70’s and a fan of your blog. My buddy and I attended a reception for Coach

New Cal Uniforms Unveiled on April 10, 2013

2013-03-28T11:25:00.001-07:00

Cal's planning on unveiling the football team's new uniforms on April 10th, 2013. I know most of us should probably sit and patiently wait for the actual uniforms to be shown before making any hoopla over them, but you're talking to a blogger who blogged about the last set of uniforms being leaked through EA's NCAA Football. On top of that the Cal Athletics Department unveiled this nifty

Thoughts on the Spring Game

2013-03-26T12:47:00.001-07:00

Cal’s Spring Camp officially came to an end with the their annual game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. In front of a crowd of about 5,000 an injury-battled squad resorted to playing a point-based scrimmage in which the defense eventually edged out the offense by a score of 28-24. Clearly, with the nature of the scrimmage, and the sheer number of injuries limiting both squads, it would be

Questions Heading into Spring Scrimmage

2013-03-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

So my spring practice coverage has been “skimpy” to say the least. Despite the most access to practice the media or the general public has had in years, I have yet to be able to make any practices. The reasoning is simple. With work and personal commitments, it’s been difficult to make my way over. It’s difficult to convince my better half to ditch other tasks in favor of attending a Cal

Spring Promo by Klindergoff

2013-03-19T17:10:00.002-07:00

If you've been following Cal football at all this spring, you've likely read a little something about the ongoing 3 player QB battle. If you know anything about the QB battle, then you know that it's down to Zach Kline, Austin Hinder, and Jared Goff. If you know it's down to Kline, Hinder and Goff, then you know it's a lot easier to simply type Klindergoff. With that, Klindergoff would like

Allan Bridgford Leaves Team

2013-03-06T21:46:00.001-08:00

According to Sonny Dykes, fifth year senior quarterback has asked for a break from the team after receiving news that he would receive diminished reps during practice. “Basically, he kind of got some news from us that he was going to get some reduced reps, and then decided that he wanted to take a day or two to kind of assess some things,” Dykes said. “We told him that we’d love for him to do

Spring Practice Week 1 Thoughts

2013-03-05T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well technically, the first practice of Week 2 just wrapped up Monday evening, but for all intents and purposes, let's look at it by each week. Here are a couple of quick thoughts and updates: Don't Read Much Into QB Reps...For Now True to his word, Coach Dykes has been rotating through all five scholarship quarterbacks quite a bit. Instead of always trying to give each QB the same number of

Thoughts from First Spring Practice

2013-02-26T10:31:00.001-08:00

First off, keep in mind that I wasn't at practice yesterday, so I'm going to limit any attempts at any real analysis. (KLINE = AARON RODGERS! BEAR RAID IS AMAZING! etc) With that said, after reading up on practice, I do find that there are a couple of interesting nuggets. Team is Further Ahead Than I Anticipated I had really anticipated that the team would look pretty sloppy for the majority

Spring Practice Starts!

2013-02-25T22:20:00.002-08:00

Woo hoo! Spring Practice finally kicked off yesterday and I for one am stoked. Normally fans would be starving for any news, but for the first time in what seems like forever, practices are wide open to the public. That means at around 4 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, fans are welcome to grab their top dog, and make their way over to Memorial Stadium and get their first glimpse of the

Sonny Dykes Signing Day Press Conference

2013-02-06T21:02:00.002-08:00

[Edit: After the jump, check out some sights and sounds from Cal Athletics regardings signing day.]

National Signing Day!

2013-02-06T07:43:00.002-08:00

[Update: 4:24 - Thoughts on Linebacker and Defensive Line Recruits] Ok. I'm back. Don't ask where I was. Seriously. But what better day to get back into blogging than National Signing Day? As of now, the Bears are slated to bring in a pretty full class this year with 26 recruits (barring any surprises). [Update: It looks like some of the surprises I had hoped for aren't happening. Class

Sonny Dykes is Saying All the Right Things

2012-12-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, hiring a new coach is kind of like getting back into the dating scene after getting out of a longtime relationship. In this case, Sonny Dykes is like that date who’s saying all the right things in the first week. You know, things like, “I hate the ballet! Let’s go watch football!” or “Would you like another beer, sweetie?” Seriously, if what Dykes (and his staff for that matter) have

Thoughts on Assistant Coach Hires: Defensive Coordinator

2012-12-19T09:56:00.001-08:00

New head coach Sonny Dykes has begun assembling his new team in what everyone hopes will be the staff to lead the Bears to the Rose Bowl in the near future. A couple of hires have become public, while a few are agreed to in principle, and a few remaining coaching positions are still being decided. I wanted to share just a few thoughts on each hire, but let me start off by saying this: it's a

Remaining Cal Assistant Coaches Are Out

2012-12-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

("But, but, who will do the pushups now?") After Jeff Tedford was relieved of his duties as head coach back in Novemeber, four of Cal's assistant coaches were released (defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, linebackers coach Kenwick Thompson, special teams coach Jeff Genyk and defensive line coach Todd Howard) while five remained to deal with the head coach transition and with recruiting

Sign of Things to Come?

2012-12-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

("This shit's about to get live, son.")

Welcome Sonny Dykes!

2012-12-06T10:55:00.003-08:00

So I've had a chance to digest the news that Sonny Dykes will be the new head coach for our sturdy Golden Bears. Like I said before, I can't say that I began doing backflips upon hearing the news, but this was far from the worst possible hire. Again, I'm cautiously optimistic here. There's a whole lot to like, and there's plenty of reason to think this could end up being a home-run hire.

Sonny Dykes to Be Next Cal Head Coach

2012-12-05T17:11:00.001-08:00

(Are you ready for some Bear Raid action?) Nothing has been announced officially, but multiple sources are reporting that Louisiana Tech's Sonny Dykes will be the next head coach for Cal. I can't go into my full thoughts at this very instant, but I'll hopefully have a post up within the next few hours going to some more detail. For now, I'm cautiously optimistic. It doesn't jump off the

Thoughts on Coaching Candidates

2012-12-03T22:57:00.002-08:00

Back from my mini-break. It was a draining season for various reasons, and it's been an emotional last couple of weeks with the dismissal of long time head coach Jeff Tedford and the prospect of having a new leader for the Cal program for the first time in over a decade. In the world of college football fandom, this is unfamiliar territory for a lot of folks. There's been a lot of names for

The Day After Tedford: Reactions

2012-11-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

(Photo: Joe Parks) Yesterday was obviously an emotional day for everyone involved. You had current players having to cope with the loss of their coach and the prospect of having someone brand new on the sidelines next season. There was an outpouring of support from both current former players in appreciation for what Tedford has done for both the university and themselves. On top of that

Goodbye Jeff Tedford

2012-11-20T11:22:00.001-08:00

The Athletic Department has announced that Jeff Tedford will not return as the coach of the California Golden Bears next year. You can read the official press conference here. I've had a lot of different thoughts this impending move, and have refrained from throwing them out on this blog until I knew for certain whether Tedford would be here next year. Now that it's certain that Cal will

Oregon State Recap

2012-11-17T23:29:00.002-08:00

This was seriously the best moment of the game. Seriously. In Cal's season finale, the Bears were completely throttled by the Beavers 62-14. Gawd, what a freaking embarrassment of a game. It was a fitting end to this debacle of a season and a likely sobering end to Jeff Tedford's tenure at Cal. At this point, even the most diehard Tedford supporters are left with little to say to the