By now all Golden Bears fans have heard about the terrible week our football program is having. After a groundbreaking day of recruiting just a week ago, it has all been unravelled by the selfish actions of a once loyal Golden Bear.

Tosh Lupoi's departure to Washington is painful on several levels, but until reading this California Golden Blogs report I didn't know how damaging it was. If the facts of this report are true, Tosh Lupoi reneged on all his talk of honor, dedication, and honesty he passed on to recruits. Jordan Payton is reconsidering his verbal commitment, Shaq Thompson is now 50/50 between Cal or UW, Arik Armstead (and his USC transfer brother) has pretty much ruled out Cal, and Ellis McCarthy de-committed from the Bears and pledged to UCLA. Our top 10 class is now potentially in shambles unless Tedford works some kind of magic to keep these 18 year-olds committed to the Bears.

The entire recruiting scene is damaged by this because if reports are true, Lupoi has basically burned all the credibility he built up as one of the nation's best recruiters. Too many athletes are committing to the coach that is recruiting them, rather than the institution they are representing. These young men should be choosing where they want to spend the next 4 years of their lives based on other factors than their connection to the recruiter. If they play PS3 well together that's all well and good, but if that coach leaves for the NFL, another school, or gets fired what's to entice the athlete to stay? I'm aware that most of these guys are going to college just to play sports, that's fine, that's the nature of the beast. But at least pick a school because you like the social life, girls, sports program, or student population as a whole. Don't pick it because you're buddy-buddy with a coach.

Lupoi really stabbed Berkeley in the back and it's all the more frustrating because he was born and bred as a Bear. He played for Tedford. He was a good D line coach and recruiter for us, but now he leaves us in this fashion not for the NFL or an SEC school, but for our Pac-12 North foe, Washington.

The Cal Golden Bears had a monumental recruiting day on Saturday as they received verbal commitments from Grant's Shaquille Thompson (5 star S), Oaks Christian's Jordan Payton (4 star WR), and former USC commit Ellis McCarthy (5 star DT)! Rumor has it that we'll land another 4 star DE from Sacramento, Pleasant Grove's Arik Armstead, but we're still waiting on the final word. Thompson is the little brother of former Golden Bear standout Syd'Quan Thompson and another big recruit from Grant (Vei Moala, Syd'Quan, Worrell Williams, Puka Lopa)

This is exactly how the Bears needed to be represented at a venue like the Army All-America game, and hopefully these commitments will push other guys to put on the Blue and Gold as well. With Memorial Stadium on schedule to open up its renovated doors in a few months, and the new Student-Athlete High Performance Center up and running, this hopefully will be a sign of things to come in the future rather than a one-off outlier for 2012.

Several other blogs have already written it, but talent hasn't seemed to be the issue in Berkeley over the past few years. Cal has produced 20 NFL draft picks over the past 5 years, ahead of Stanfurd and Oregon. While I agree with this to some degree, none of us Cal fans will say we've had a QB over the past few seasons. Yes, Aaron Rodgers is one of those 20 NFL picks but he only started one year in Berkeley and since then we've been up and down. Nate Longshore had a good season, but followed it up with some mediocre play, then Kevin Reilly came in and continued the mediocrity, and in addition to those two we saw Joe Ayoob, Steve Levy, Brock Mansion, and now Zach Maynard. Allen Bridgford was a highly recruited QB (4 star) but was unable to beat out Maynard for the top spot in 2011, so hopefully he continues his progression during this off-season and he'll be ready to take over for Maynard (or Maynard improves...but I'm not betting on that).

Point being, we need a QB. Of all of Tedford's coaching skills, he hangs his hat on being a QB molder but he's been unable to do that at Cal. For us to be in the top tier of the Pac-12 and get on the national scene again, we need a QB worthy of that attention. Perhaps this QB is on the roster already (Maynard or Bridgford), or perhaps it is 4 star commit Zach Kline. Whoever it is, the real Bears QB needs to stand up for 2012 to be a season of success.

Now that 2011 is officially over we can focus on what matters...2012! The Golden Bears will open the fully renovated Memorial Stadium with a great schedule, starting off with the Nevada Wolfpack on 9/1. Here is the full schedule:

Nevada - Berkeley, CA - 9/1

Southern Utah - Berkeley, CA - 9/8

Ohio State - Columbus, OH - 9/15

USC - Los Angeles, CA - 9/22

Arizona State - Berkeley, CA - 9/29

UCLA - Berkeley, CA - 10/6

Washington State - Pullman, WA - 10/13

Stanfurd - Berkeley, CA - 10/20

Utah - Salt Lake City, UT - 10/27

Washington - Berkeley, CA - 11/2

Oregon - Berkeley, CA - 11/10

Oregon State - Corvallis, OR - 11/17

For all of you observant readers out there, yes, the Bears are playing a full season without a single week off! In addition to not having a bye, the 115th Big Game will not be played at the end of November as it has been scheduled every other year. I'm not happy about either of these caveats, but other than that it's a solid schedule

This is one of the most challenging schedules we've had recently, as our 3 non-conference games will be against a good Nevada program and on the road against the Urban Meyer led Ohio State Buckeyes. I'll be going to Columbus for sure, but with an opening of Nevada, Southern Utah, Ohio State, and USC the Bears will have their hands full.

The California Golden Bears had an up and down season again this year, and it was capped off with a great summary of our ineptitude in the Holiday Bowl against Texas. Every Cal fan hates Texas (especially Mack Brown) for the 2004 campaign Brown led to push Texas ahead of Cal in the final BCS rankings that left us out of the Rose Bowl yet again. If an Aaron Rodgers led Cal team cannot make it to the promised land, how can we expect Zach Maynard...ah, I'm digressing already. 

Anyway, this was the year where we could at least have a chance to beat a down Texas squad whose only strengths were running the football and defense. They do not have any Colt McCoy's or Vince Young's, nor is Ricky Williams running over people. Yes, this Texas squad is more talented than the Bears but not as much as they usually are. I felt pretty confident that if we could force David Ash to pass against our strong defense, protected the ball, and threw it to Keenan Allen we'd be sitting pretty. Well, unfortunately that didn't work out.

Our Pac-12 leading pass defense was uncharacteristically out of sync, and our offense treated the football like a hot potato. The final score was 21-10 and we turned it over 5 times (4 fumbles and 1 INT) so one can only imagine what could have been. It's getting tough to root for Maynard (the O-Line didn't help) with all of these turnovers, and Tedford needs to return to his "roots" and find us a true Pac-12 QB. 

It has been 10 years since Jeff Tedford brought the Bears back from extinction and I could never be more grateful for that work of art. But we still have not gone to the Rose Bowl since 1959 and we have not seriously contended for a Pac-12 title for several years. He is under contract through 2015 and while he has earned a ton of respect and admiration with his 79-47 record, the Cal faithful wants more than just a return from obscurity. We want to be like Oregon and USC, heck even Stanfurd, programs that are competing annually for the Pac-12 title and BCS bowl games. The Holiday Bowl is fun and all but, c'mon, if Stanfurd has been to back to back BCS bowl games and has had 3 consecutive Heisman runner-ups (Gerhart & Luck) we're not doing enough. With the plethora of NFL talent we've had in Berkeley (Rodgers, DeSean Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, Jahvid Best, Tyson Alualu, Desmond Bishop, Thomas DeCoud) it is a bit depressing that we're not competing at a higher level season in and season out. 

After years of having the worst facilities in the Pac-12, the Bears will now boast a fully renovated Memorial Stadium, new Student Athlete High Performance Center, and plenty of open spots to entice 5 star recruits. Tedford's clock might not be close to expiring, but it is at the very least ticking...a solid 2012 season is more of a need than a want at this point. 

Talk about uncoordinated...I thought the Niners worked on this stuff?! In the second video of Yardbarker's Ryan vs. Niners TE Vernon Davis the two stellar athletes go head to head in a step aerobics exercise. Again, I think the short shorts and high socks give Ryan the edge in this tenacious match-up.

Does this remind anyone of Olivia Newton John?

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Check out Yardbarker's Ryan Smrekar competing against the Niners' TE Vernon Davis.

If you ask me, it looks like Ryan got the best of a pro athlete. That's just a blogger's view though ;).

The Cal basketball team got some bad news on Tuesday, as coach Montgomery was informed that one of his prized recruits from last year has decided to leave.

Freshman point guard Gary Franklin, from Mater Dei High School, has decided to leave the Golden Bears effective immediately. Franklin was part of an impressive class along with Allen Crabbe, Alex Rossi and Richard Solomon. Franklin was recently coming off the bench for Brandon Smith, as Jorge Gutierrez had been moved to the 2 guard.

It's a definite loss for the Golden Bears as they are now left with only 9 scholarship players. Plus, he was a highly sought after recruit and was part of Monty's rebuilding process.

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Hunting season began on Saturday November 13th, as the Oregon Ducks visited Berkeley to take on the California Golden Bears in a Pac-10 showdown. Cal entered this game with no expectations, other than to keep it close to avoid embarrassment. Oregon however, arrived as the #1 team in the nation but had not won in Berkeley in their past 3 tries. Either #1 was going down and I was rushing the field, or the 3 game home winning streak against the Ducks was coming to an end.

We took BART from SF but were amazed by how many Oregon fans permeated the scene. Oregon fans love to rock their obnoxious yellow jerseys and I almost felt like we were playing in Eugene as we made our way through campus to Henry's. The tailgate at Henry's is always a lot of fun, and Saturday was no exception. With fans fully decked out in Cal blue and gold and Oregon green and yellow, it made for a great atmosphere of pre-game trash talk. While the Bears don't have much to talk about this season, it's amazing how important Oregon fans feel! From talking to them, you'd think they were part of the nation's elite for the past century...rather than the past year. While enjoying the ambiance, we scarffed down on some famous Top Dogs and started to ramp up for the 72,000 we'd see at Memorial.

Once inside Memorial, the atmosphere was electric. The Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a Shane Vereen TD and believe me, we used that time to get our trash talking in because we weren't sure how long it would be before Oregon was putting up double digits against us. Oregon countered with a 64 yard punt return but to our surprise and joy, the Bears defense had the Oregon offense (scoring 50+ per game) on lock. The game turned when reliable Shane Vereen fumbled on the Cal 29 yard line and the very next play Darron Thomas threw a strike to Jeff Maehl for the first and only Oregon offensive score. The defense came up huge again though with a fumble recovery in the end zone to give the Bears a shot at the tie. A failed two point conversion left us down 15-13 with time to go in the 4th. LaMichael James couldn't find a hole to run through all day, and if Brock Mansion and the Bears' offense could have been a little more active, the #1 team in the nation would have been sent back to Eugene with their title hopes dashed.

But of course, this is Cal we're talking about. With the score at 15-13 our offense did just enough on a nice drive deep into Oregon territory to setup a 24 yard field goal attempt. Let me remind you this this game is being played in Berkeley, and Oregon fans were relegated to two sections of the stadium; hardly a hostile environment. Placekicker Giorgio Tavecchio took the field to attempt the 24 yarder, but decided to get a head start before the snap, resulting in an illegal motion penalty. Great, back it up 5 yards and try it again. Now a 29 yard attempt is hardly at any college kicker's limits and should be a simple task. Tavecchio, who has already cost Cal the Arizona game (10-9 loss on a last second FG miss) that changed the season, out-does himself buy pushing the ball wide right. On a 29 yard field goal attempt. At home. His response...."it was pretty loud". Really?! Take a seat, you're done.

Needless to say that was the Bears' best shot at defeating the Ducks, as they took over and in very un-Oregon like fashion, muscle-milked the final 8 minutes of the game away by churning out first downs and controversial catches. I'm not bitter here, I'm just disappointed that the Bears' awesome defensive effort was squandered on poor special teams coverage and a missed 29 yard field goal. With this season pretty much down the drain, I really wanted an opportunity to rush the field and tear down some goalposts.

I guess I'll have to wait till Saturday the 20th when Cal hosts Stanfurd for the Big Game.

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It's been an up and down season for the California Golden Bears, as they are 4-0 at home in Memorial Stadium but 0-3 on the road. The trek to Corvallis to see the Golden Bears take on Oregon State at Reser Stadium on Saturday would either continue the trend of bad road performances or jump-start a positive second half of this season.

Tailgating in Berkeley is comprised of bouncing between The Bears Lair, Henry's, and grabbing some grub at a fraternity BBQ on your way up to the stadium. Being in Corvallis for the first time, I was ready to get a taste of the Beavers' pre-game festivities. Despite the weather (cold and gray), I saw plenty of OSU orange and black that made me feel out of place in my Blue and Gold. Undeterred, my friend and I started walking around the stadium and passing by several tailgaters with great RV setups.

These Beaver fans know how to grill up some pre-game food. The 12:30 PM PST kickoff doesn't give the crowd a ton of time, but we enjoyed some excellent burgers and hot links while debating whether or not Kevin Riley was going to play like a 5th year senior or like a freshman and fall apart on the road. Riley is originally from Oregon so Beaver fans are well aware of his past (and infamous first start against OSU) so it made for good conversation. With a capacity of 45,000, Reser Stadium isn't the largest or loudest college venue, but it was filled with orange and black. Golden Bears fans were comforted by the presence of Oski and the Cal Band as we looked for our first victory on the road this season.

Well, all that pre-game talk about Kevin Riley really was for naught as he exited the game after the second series. Riley was hit near his knees after a 32 yard completion to #1 Marvin Jones and lay in agony for about 5 minutes while the training team worked on his knee. After he was carted off the field, all expectations about this game were thrown out the window (it was later reported that he had a torn MCL, effectively ending his Cal career). Riley was replaced by #10 Brock Mansion, which by the way, is an awesome name for a QB. I mean seriously, what's more manly than being named Brock and being a QB?! Anyway, Riley was a 3 year starter and never missed a game, so having a new guy under center looked weird.

Riley or no Riley, the Bears got steamrolled as they trailed 28-0 in the first half and went on to lose 35-7. Jacquizz Rodgers ran all over the Bears porous defense, racking up 119 yards and 3 TD's on the ground, while passing for another TD while running the wildcat. Mansion managed to lead one scoring drive but Shane Vereen shouldered the load carrying 12 times for 53 yards. Reser Stadium was filled with a lot of happy Beavers fans, but unfortunately our road-trip up north did not go exactly as planned.

Admittedly, I have been slacking a bit when it comes to the blog. I apologize. Nevertheless, I guess I haven't missed much as our California Golden Bears have proved all the pundits correct thus far this season.

Opening up the season with back to back blowout home wins against UC Davis (52-3) and future Pac-12 member Colorado (52-7) felt good, but that's exactly what we expected to do. Kevin Riley looked comfortable, Keenan Allen looked like the next DeSean Jackson, and the Bears defense was #1 in the land. Maybe we were the darkhorse for once, maybe all the pre-season talk about Cal not being able to get over the hump was finally wrong. Granted, they were two home victories over one D-1AA opponent and a struggling Colorado program, but hey, they were blowouts and we looked good.

Then we got our first real test, on a Friday night in Reno, Nevada against the Pistol offense of the Nevada Wolfpack. All week the media was using the "#1 Defense vs. #1 Offense" line as something had to give between the stout Bears D and the high scoring Wolfpack. I was worried going into this game because Nevada is a good team, with an explosive offense led by QB Colin Kaepernick, and if the defense couldn't stop them, could Riley and Vereen outscore the Wolfpack? Oh yea, and it was on the road in a nationally televised game. At this point we all know that Bears + Pressure + Road Game = Trouble. But maybe this year would be different, maybe new defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast could prepare the Bears D for the pistol. Maybe we could win on the road and prove the doubters wrong.

Then the game started just as we didn't want it to, with Nevada methodically shredding our defense for an opening drive TD. The Bears answered, but then you got the feeling that if our D couldn't stop them, would our offense be able to keep up. The game progressed, Nevada kept scoring, and the Bears started to noticeably struggle. Not only were the Bears tackling players without the ball, but Nevada WR's were wide open. Without Shane Vereen breaking two monster 50+ yard runs, the Bears would have been in dire straights. However, even as things started to slip, Riley had a chance to tie the game with a second half drive, but threw a horrible ball against the zone and the Nevada CB took it to the house for a pick 6, and giving Nevada a 14 point lead. After that, we were all pass and that never goes well. End result, Bears lose 52-31.

While it was a tough loss, it was not wholly unexpected and we did not play well enough to win the game. However, the next week provided a chance at redemption and an opportunity to start the Pac-10 off on the right foot. We were traveling to Tuscon to take on the #14 Arizona Wildcats, fresh off their victory over #9 Iowa. Everyone knew this would be a difficult road game, and with another explosive offense led by Nick Foles, the Bears defense really had to step up. One could just hope that we didn't fall flat on our face again, like we did last year against Oregon and USC in consecutive weeks. No, this Tedford team was different, and they would turn it around.

And for 3.5 quarters they did (at least the defense), as the Bears clung to a late 9-3 lead. While the Cal offense had been stuffed on their 3 red zone drives and had to settle for field goals, the Bears defense had kept the high octane Wildcats out of the end zone. Another drive deep into Wildcats territory stalled again with 2:37 remaining, and Tedford sent out the 3-4 Giorgio Tavecchhio (missed a 33 yard FG for a clinching 40 yard field goal. At this point I truly thought we were going to win this game. Hell, even if he missed it, Arizona would have to score a TD to beat us, something they had not done all day.

Well, Tavecchio missed. And Nick Foles woke up and found Criner for a 51 yard reception. After that, Arizona scored a TD and took a 10-9 lead. You all know what happened next. Riley led the Bears on a great come from behind victory...no wait, I was dreaming sorry. Riley took the field and threw a decent pass to Marvin Jones, which ricocheted off his hands and into the arms of an Arizona defender. Not a great pass by Riley, but a horrible drop from Jones.

At this point, the Bears are 2-2 (0-1 Pac-10) and searching for answers...again. We've got the bye week this Saturday, until all-of-a sudden good UCLA comes to Berkeley. Hopefully the week off and a return to the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium result in a better outcome. But hey, us Bear fans use the word "hopefully" way too much in reference to our Football team's success. I just hope it will be sunny on Saturday...