Q & A with CGB And More Fun With Letters

Basically, in the Pac-10 blogosphere, when CGB comes calling, you go running.

Earlier this week, in preparation for this Saturday’s homecoming match-up with the Bears, me and Twist ‘N Hook and the rest of the gang over there in Berkeley have exchanged some questions and had some good old fashioned tomfoolery.

Does anyone even use that word anymore, by the way. I’m going to bring it back. Tomfoolery, I say!

Anyway, my interview with CGB is below. Enjoy his answers and check out my answers to his pithy queries right here. Be forewarned: I may have claimed that Vontaze Burfict saved a bus load of schoolchildren.

Greatest quarterback in Cal history….at overthrowing the 2 yard out pattern.

The book on Riley hasn’t really been written yet. Right now he’s got a great cannon that can unleash the deep ball and someone who can hit the sidelines and the flats, but every other part of the field he’s wildly inconsistent. Although he’s improved since the bye week, I’ll have to see the same results the rest of the season to be fully confident that he can develop into a good quarterback.

What does interest me is how much Tedford will allow Riley to run or roll out of the pocket, and he also does have a McNabbesque ability to scramble and get the 1st down when people drop into coverage, so if he can keep defenses honest with his scrambling ability, that could open up the middle as linebackers try to key in on him. Can Kevin nail those passes on the run? It could be crucial to our success the rest of the season.

You slow down Javhid, the way you slow down really any running back.  By stacking the box against him and focusing solely on him.  How do you do that?  By knowing that the passing game is a crock.

And, unfortunately, in the USC and Oregon games, the passing game did not work.  There’s no sugar coating it.  Whether it is Kevin Riley being inaccurate or Receivers making drops or the O-Line missing blocks, it just wasn’t there.  So, then, the D can key in on the run and it is all over.

So, the key for ASU is to get to Riley early.  If they can shake Riley’s confidence and cause him to continuously mis-fire, then the running game will similarly suffer.

Because he is, technically, the back up running back.  And when you have a player with the skill level of a Jahvid Best, the back up is going to get lost in the shuffle.  Kinda like how only TwistNHook is really adored by the masses while the rest of the CGB Marshawnthusiasts are little known and, let’s be frank, unimportant.

Vereen is averaging nearly 5.5 yards a carry:

http://www.cfbstats.com/2009/team/107/rushing/index.html

He also leads the team in All-Purpose Yards and is 4th in the Pac10:

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/vereen_shane00.html

He returns kicks, which certainly helps add up those All-Purpose yards.  He also is very good with receiving the ball out of the backfield.  He has 12 receptions on the year for 153 yards.

http://www.cfbstats.com/2009/team/107/receiving/index.html

These numbers show a versatile athlete who can run, catch, and return.  He can do it all.  Many fans say he is more consistent than Jahvid Best.  He might not get the 80 yard highlight runs like Best does, but he’s better at getting those key 4 yards.  Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I agree with that, but it is a common comment heard about the Calosphere.  Vereen would start on many other college teams and is a great asset to have in the backfield.

Well, yes, yes there is.  It’s unclear who is more upset.  The youngins who know only success and are chafing at the continual BCSlessness.  Or the oldies who have been around for 40 years of brutal disastrousosity and are salivating at the shot to lose to Iowa in the Rose Bowl!

Honestly, I believe Tedford is incredibly unlucky.  Most other teams would have gone to the Rose Bowl in 2004 and 2006.  Those were Rose Bowl caliber teams and certainly better than most of the Big10 teams we’ve seen go to the Rose Bowl this decade.  But, unfortunately, Coach Tedford has coincided with Coach Carroll, whose has had historic levels of success.  But that’s Cal for ya.  When we FINALLY get good, USC gets better. :(!

That’s because you attempted to drive to Berkeley on a gameday.  The fault lies completely with you.

Honestly, I know that people lambaste Berkeley for not being really football friendly.  In a while I like it better.  Perhaps it is because I grew up as a fan knowing solely that, but it seems like football to me.

If I wanted to tailgate in a golf course, I woulda gone to UCLA.

If I wanted to tailgate in a Rodin Sculpture Garden next to an Asian Art Museum, I woulda gone to Stanford.

To me, college football means parking at least a mile or two away from the Stadium at least 4 hours before hand to get a free all-day spot.  To me, college football means wandering the streets of a major urban area aimlessly for hours while thousands of others do the exact same thing.  To me, college football means unbelievably large amounts of walking to stand around for hours in a parking lot to do more walking to then stand around for hours in the stadium.  With walking back to the car after that.

Maybe that’s unbelievably ridiculous to other fans, but that’s Berkeley football.  Always has been.  Always will be.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

My enduring Oski memory is way back from my freshman year, and the last year of the Holmoecaust, in 2001.  I was one of the twelve people left in the stands in the fourth quarter of what would be yet another dismal loss, and Oski came to realize that there was no point to standing on the sidelines prancing about in front of a nonexistent crowd, so he took the cheer to us and walked up to our little group in the student section.  He came up to give me a hug, and because I had been looking in the other direction (at another Boller-to-Ward incompletion) I didn’t see him coming.  He freaked me out and I tripped and hurt my ankle.

That’s about as dangerous as he gets.

Umm…not so good. I mean they’re okay players; on the tackle side Mitchell Schwartz is pretty good on the edge and probably our best guy. Mike Tepper has lost his step on several occasions this season and been beaten several times off the edge. But the middle that Mack anchored is where we’re suffering. They’re very inexperienced (Cheadle, Guarnero, Summers-Gavin are in their first true year of starting, although the first two were shuffled around as starters last season) and it’s shown all season. Our inside zone runs have been stuffed a lot, although they’ve been capable of unleashing Best and Vereen a few times a game except Oregon and USC. So obviously we need them to improve for the rest of our opponents.

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