I would have made the line 7.5 but will gladly pull for the upset!

I'm in an Uber to the airport. I'll have wifi on the flight and will get it to you as soon as I'm settled.

And then a three-hour layover in Vegas to get caught up on work. I got so bad behind being freaked out and panicked about the situation with my eye the last day and a half, trying to get an appointment before my flight today (no luck). I WILL get caught up today/tonight.

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Was able to catch up with Cal edge rusher commit Ryan McCulloch last night after his team's game. McCulloch injured his shoulder early in the night but not before he was able to score a touchdown on a long run. The opposing team was triple teaming him at times, so it was difficult for him to get anything going defensively, but the talent is clear with him. You can watch my full interview with him above as he breaks down his senior season, his thoughts on the Bears and tells me why he's locked in with his commitment and not even entertaining other schools right now.

I also tossed in a few game clips for you to see him in action.

After Ott's breakout game, I found myself thinking back to history of Cal running backs and pondering over who he reminds me of. I find myself thinking of Khalfani Muhammad because he has that smaller stature with speedy breakout speed and you can tell he runs track -- but slightly bigger and better ability to make players miss tackles. But obviously every player is his own. I think Ott's got pretty good hands, has some pretty good skills running between tackles, and can make players miss better than most cal running backs I can remember.

Someone made a comment about Jahvid, one of the most stories running backs in Cal history. While I don't quite see that yet -- Jahvid just had this 5th gear where he'd confidently pull away from everyone -- that moment when he run down the middle of the field, made the opposing defense look like he parted the seas and got the TD triggered memories of Jahvid.

Furthermore, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, where did this OL come from? Should Musgrave lean into building an identity around our run game? Many have been calling for more of the run but the production of the running game against Arizona far surpasses anything we've seen thus far.

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Cal running back Jaydn Ott has been named this week's Pac-12 Player of the Week and Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. He has now earned three of the first four Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards this season. Ott also received a grade of 99.1 overall from PFF, which is the second-highest grade ever for an FBS running back in the PFF era (2014). He also received a 99.9 for his rushing grade, which is the first time that has happened since Kareem Hunt received that grade in 2016.

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Offensive lineman Ben Coleman also received a weekly conference award as he was named this week's Pac-12 Offensive Lineman of the Week.

Is it too early to talk Heisman?? Jk but not really 😁

Late, but I put a lot of time into this to make it as thorough as possible.

Nobody seemed “worthless” today. Give some credit. Angus made good adjustments.

Also Vatikani was a good get for us. Looked bigger than our other offensive linemen BUT AS A TRUE FRESHMAN.

Lets keep it going.

5-4 last week for 15-14 for the year. 0-1 for my lock of the week for 0-3 for the year. https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-pac-12-games-week-3.31372/

[home team in italics]

UCLA by 21.5 over Colorado - UCLA covers. Colorado might be the worst power 5 team in the country.

Oregon by 6.5 over WSU - I think Oregon is way better than WSU though I could see a 17-14 style game. Oregon covers.

Cal by 3 over Arizona - Yeah Arizona is improved, but I'm not quite buying they are improved enough to beat us at home. Cal covers.

USC by 6.5 over Oregon State - Don't get this line. Is this acting like it's still Pete Carroll vs Mike Riley? USC rolls.

UW by 12.5 over the Furd - UW comes down to earth. Furd covers.

Utah by 15 over ASU - You never know how a team responds to their coach getting fired. ASU covers?



Non conference lock of the week: Air Force by 25 over Nevada - Nevada is bad, but 25 points for a service academy team is ridiculous. Nevada covers.

I am so forgetful, I keep forgetting to put these up!

You know the drill, any and all questions go down below, this will come out early next week!

Wrote about Jaydn Ott's big day for the Bears and how it felt like we should have seen it coming. Plus, the potential that it could kickstart the offense for Cal moving forward.

It wasn't a clean start for Cal QB Jack Plummer on Saturday, but a big second half allowed him to settle into a comfort zone and finish the win with three touchdown passes and just three incompletions in the second half. I wrote about his role in the Bears' 49-31 win yesterday.

Here's Jesse's recap of today's big win over Arizona highlighted by a historic rushing performance for freshman running back Jaydn Ott.

Positives
Jadyn Ott - obviously. He is an incredible weapon. Beyond his two 70+ yard TDs, his 18-yard TD was fantastical, and one of his 3-yard runs for a first down that started with two guys in his face in the backfield may have been even better. He is truly special.
Playcalling - I thought it was outstanding. Loved the 4th down call that turned into a TD pass to Latu. And the setup for the long TD to Hunter was masterfully done. I’m even ok with shuttling the three backs in to not overuse Ott and actually thought Moore and Brooks played well and helped wear down the UA defense. All in all, one of Billy M’s best games.
OL - Much maligned and denigrated, they stepped up today and provided Plummer time (no sacks) and running lanes galore especially in the second half. Vatikani is just nasty.
Second Half Defense - Three turnovers and only one score. They weren’t perfect, but they really stepped it up after a bad first half and helped turn the game around. Stopping them on the initial possession of the second half was particularly important. 

Craig Woodson - Played a great game and had two important tackles for loss. 

Ryan Puskas - One of the few to supply any pass rush with a sack and QB hurry. 

Special Teams - No penalties, no turnovers, no missed kicks, great punting, good coverages, and two decent punt returns? Who are these guys??
No Turnovers - Me like.
Coaching - Nice second half adjustments (e.g., blitz packages, varied coverages, emphasizing the run game in the short side of the field, and utilizing the TEs more).


Negatives
Pass Rush - Still basically non-existent even when they did lots of blitzing in the second half. This may be our biggest weakness right now. 

First Half Defense - Too much bend-and-not-breaking concepts except they forgot the not breaking part. Without a pass rush, pass coverage was exposed a bit especially with their big WRs against our smaller DBs. 
Jermaine Terry - Hate to single him out, but he did have 3 penalties and still has caught only one pass this year even after they tried to throw him a bone with a trick play at the end.
Trick Play at the End - Pretty dumb and unnecessary and it almost cost us our season as it gave them another shot at Plummer. Funny time to get cute for a team that never likes being cute.
Not Getting the Ball to Mavin Anderson - I think he is a weapon that we need to utilize more but he rarely is the first option. They need to find a way.
Penalties - 80 yards of penalties is just too much.
Announcers - Just awful UA homers.

Multiple stories coming as well ...

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I am going to make my first more strident pick of the season, based as much on hope as anything else, and predict Cal figures some stuff out:

Cal 35-UA 17

Jesse's detailed preview of the matchup with Arizona:

We had another spot-on guess last week! Congrats to @drfunk4316 for correctly guessing 24-17 Notre Dame and winning a $50 Amazon gift card (DM me your email address) and two free months added to subscription. @ilyn came very close with a 24-16 guess.

As I noted originally, after Week 4, I will start dropping off your two worst scores. I've already dropped off the Xs for people as there is no other way to calculate the average. But ultimately, everyone can either miss two weeks (Xs) or remove their two worst scores, or a combination of the two. So the standings get real next week once those high scores come off. I will start bolding the two scores that don't count toward the average, and I will adjust it as needed moving forward. For instance, if your two worst scores are still to come, those will ultimately be the ones that drop off. Any questions, let me know. We have quite a competition going.

Also, let me get ahead of this one ... I never posted my score in the thread last week. I put it straight on my personal ledger. You could call into question the validity of it, but ultimately my place in the standings is irrelevant. I don't win anything, nor do I keep anyone else from winning anything. I'm certain I will not finish first, but even if I did, the next person would get the first-place prize, the third person would get second and so on. So, I did legitimately guess 24-20 Notre Dame last week. I'll remember to put mine in the thread this week.

SEASON STANDINGS Through Week 3
(The number in parantheses is your season average; the number after the dash reflects each week's score)

Ryan Young (3.5) -- 4-X-3
drfunk4316 (4) -- 7-5-0
sandmanj (4) -- 4-X-X
spbdoug (6) -- 2-8-8
ColoradoBear (7) -- 7-X-X
ilyn (8.3) -- 8-17-1
Harky 4 (8.3) -- 14-X-11
MC415 (8.7) -- 7-11-8
bluebeargold (8.7) -- 7-13-6
Btmatsu (8.7) -- X-12-14
GoBears96 (9) -- 8-16-11
GoBears93 (9) -- 6-18-3
marklog (9.3) -- 7-17-4
calderon11 (9.7) -- 5-12-12
richmondisnotghetto (10) -- 1-15-14
dannyroe (10) -- 4-20-6
mike79 (10.7) -- 3-21-8
fjbards (10.7) -- 4-20-8
bear949 (10.7) -- 4-25-3
YellAtRefsALot (11) X-11-X
Colonial Bear (11) -- 10-13-10
Ptown Mac11 (11) -- 0-24-9
horesemon (11) --X-X-11
1calfan (11) -- 4-11-18
elindsey (11.3) -- 7-14-13
rathokan (11.3) -- 12-14-8
joni.a (11.3) -- 4-24-6
tluv123 (11.3) -- 4-25-5
TomBalk (11.3) -- 2-28-4
sppbears (11.7) -- 4-20-11
pwbecker (11.7) -- 6-18-11
petalumabear (11.7) -- 7-18-10
beeasyed (11.7) -- 8-20-7
Cal1982 (12) -- 0-24-X
uplandbear (12) -- 4-24-8
UrsosArctosCalifornicus (12.3) -- 9-18-10
gocalbears1994 (12.3) -- 7-20-10
droski (12.3) -- 14-15-8
90Bear (12.7) -- 4-22-12
hessebear (12.7) -- 6-21-11
Wookids (12.7) -- 7-21-10
bearborn11 (12.7) -- 4-25-9
kotaconduct (13) -- 7-22-10
OskiBear1941 (13) -- 4-25-10
Rollonyoumatt (13.7) -- 6-24-11
DenMaf (14.7) -- 15-22-7
hilgardbear (15) -- 4-27-14
tanaka7 (15) -- 14-20-11
Bearington (15.7) -- 7-27-13
billyosier (16) -- X-16-X
BLbearfan (16) -- 17-21-10
moonpod (16.3) -- 13-17-19
Bubba_Bear84 (16.3) -- 11-24-14
lonestarbear (16.3) -- 17-21-11
SlugLyfe57 (16.3) -- 15-26-8
Eugene Choo (16.7) -- 10-23-17
sflye13 (16.7) --11-25-14
bayareabear (17) -- 7-27-17
vjrousseu (17) -- X-18-16
ayetee11 (17) -- 17-X-X
dlit (17) -- 12-25-14
Jcharocv (17.3) -- 12-26-14
golden oso (17.3) -- 13-27-12
UCB4LIFE (17.7) -- 18-16-19
kairbear (18) -- 12-22-20
mvpcalbears (18) -- 35-11-8
tommikani95 (18) -- X-X-18
Fire Starkey (18.3) -- 10-27-18
febfeb (18.3) -- 15-28-12
WaterBear (18.5) -- 10-27-X
icbear (21.7) -- 22-24-19
Ptownbear1 (22) -- 22-X-X
CaliDrank (22.3) -- 24-32-11
Bear Derriere (23) -- 18-28-X
bjorn91 (24) -- X-X-24
yelee (25) -- X-25-X
dhemy (25) -- 30-28-17
gbforever (25) -- X-35-15
JoJoSungy (25.7) -- 22-32-13
trainx (27) -- X-27-X

It truly is amazing how Sonny continues to successfully reinvent himself after 2 miserable years at Cal

total is 33.5. BET THE UNDER


This line killed me "Last week, Iowa exploded for 27 points against Nevada, a team that allowed 41 points to Incarnate Word the week prior."

lulz

The commissioner has been radio silent since the football media day in June but just did an interview with Wilner and Canzano on their podcast. Worth a listen.