NCAA Football California Football

Fashion is all the rage in college football these days. Well, actually the changing of uniform designs for sales and marketing purposes isn't anything new at all. From the incredibly ugly Orange arm Florida and Va. Tech uniforms to the 230 million combination Oregon uniforms, schools are producing new uniforms on an almost yearly basis. Most likely for the purpose of selling more jerseys. But in some cases, like Cal, for a visual improvement.

The new Nike designs feature bear claw - eque slashes around the neckline along with the Cal Bear Claw logo on the neck. The claw slash look also appears on the side of the pants.

This could have gone so wrong if they would have made the claw slashes more like what a real slash looked like. For some reason I'm thinking Cincinnati Bengals bad here. But the design looks sharp for the most part. I'm not in love with the helmet design, but this is an improvement over the current uniforms.

This should be of particular interest to West Virginia fans, and ostensibly Michigan fans, as the Mountaineer uniforms have followed the Cal design since as far back as I can remember. Maybe it's just the similarities in the school colors that is sticking with me, but West Virginia didn't get gold jerseys until Cal did. Or maybe it's one too many times of walking in front of the TV thinking the Mountaineers were on, only to find out it was Cal. One thing is for sure, these two team should never play each other again! The chance for interceptions would quadruple for any quarterback that isn't color blind.

The momentus court decision has in Cal's Hippiegate has come and gone with both sides claiming victory. The U:

"This in no way affects our ability to build the center," said UC spokesman Dan Mogulof. "This is a great ruling for us."

The freakin' hippies:

"We are ecstatic," said Stephan Volker, attorney for the California Oak Foundation, which sued the university two years ago. "We believe this project is now dead."

Who's right? The blogosphere supplies answers where newspapers fear to tread because of law-talkin'. Over at California Golden Blogs two official law-talkin' guys break the decision down something fierce, one in the comments section and one in his own post.

Not completely college football related, but the 18 month protest against the University of California at Berkley's plans to cut down trees near the football stadium to construct a sports training facility might finally be coming to an end. On December 1, 2006 the first of the protesters took up residence in the trees surrounding the stadium in protest. Now, the university is taking steps to remove the protesters. Well, maybe not remove the protesters, but certainly remove the supplies that sustain the protesters and the means for other protesters to join them.

Arborists hired by the university cut ropes that ran from one tree to another and removed supplies that protesters had stored in the branches, Mogulof said. They also removed at least one large structure that protesters constructed high in the trees, but several others remain.

Never let it be said that these protesters aren't fighting back with everything they have, though. And when I say everything, I mean everything!

About 9 a.m., two arborists ascending an oak tree were drenched with a bucket of urine dumped by one of the tree-sitters, to the cheers of about half of a crowd of 150 people that gathered behind police barricades. Other sitters dropped excrement, but none scored a direct hit, Mogulof said.

I wouldn't say that I'm a tree hugger, but I can certainly understand the need to stand up for what you think is right. But man, did we really need to go there? No matter their historical significance, it's still just a very few trees in the middle of an urban area. It's not like they are saving a rain forest. But when all this is over with, these folk are more than welcome to come to West Virginia to protest mountain top removal and try to save something truly worth saving. Although when the blasting starts, you might not want to be at ground zero.

At least, that's what one Cal fan thought when word leaked out that college football's confused Pinocchio had committed to their school.

Too bad several coaches went on the record claiming he wasn't even a D-I talent. I don't mean to berate the kid here, I'm simply using coaches' evaluations to contrast with how excitable fans can get a commit that nobody had heard of and say things like:

*Kaboom!*

And:

Yes I have seem him play. He's pretty good. Has college size, good skills. Good addition for Cal.

And:

Sounds like a great young man with D1 size and attitude! Players from the rural areas don't get the stars from the recruiting services, but the right ones sure can play......hello Ryan O'Callahan, who'll be playing on Super Bowl Sunday.

Puuuuuuuuuuuuure fiction.

Refresher: a high school football recruit out of Nevada named Kevin Hart made a commitment to California several days ago. Problem was, Cal hadn't recruited him. Neither had any other schools. That prompted an investigation and the involvement of law enforcement.

The story soon centered around a mysterious recruiter who allegedly duped the poor high school senior.

Turns out we were all duped. SportsByBrooks is reporting (via the Reno Gazette-Journal) that Kevin Hart has admitted making it all up.

"I wanted to play D-I ball more than anything. When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story."

Now the school district "continues to conduct its internal investigation into how so many people were duped by the high school senior."

I betcha that'll look good on his transcripts.

Previously at FanHouse
Football Recruit Commits to Cal, Law Enforcement Gets Involved

We're confused

You really need to read the entire article, but the story boils down to as follows:

An offensive lineman from Nevada named Kevin Hart committed to California Friday, staging a big announcing ceremony in front of his entire high school. Problem is, Cal apparently hasn't offered the kid or even contacted him.

"The Cal staff has had no contact whatsoever with Coach Hodges or Hart, and that they have not visited him; nor has Hart been on a recruiting trip to any school," recruiting Web site rivals.com reported.

Now, law enforcement is involved (fraud, we presume?) in investigating what happened. Further muddying the waters, Hart claims to have visited Oklahoma State, even though Rivals.com says he has yet to make an official visit anywhere. Hart also claims to have spoken extensively with Cal's coach Jeff Tedford, another of his handful of claims in dispute.

Looks like either the kid's got an active imagination or someone took him for a ride.

The Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association is looking into the matter as well, and executive director Eddie Bonine told the Gazette-Journal, "It could be that someone was impersonating those schools."

Unfortunately things remain unclear because law enforcement isn't talking, the NCAA prohibits schools from speaking about recruits and his coach can only elaborate so much on what happened.

(H/T: EDSBS)

Picture the scene... you're sitting around your house on a Saturday morning and your girlfriend calls you and asks if you want to have brunch with her family. Normally, you'd be fairly amenable to free silver dollar pancakes, even if it means enduring some awkward conversation, but today is not a normal day. It's the high-school all-star game. Sorry, tootsie, but home boy has a date with Tom Lemming today, and no amount of waffles or eggs Benedict can interrupt.

If any of this made sense to you, congratulations, you're a junkie.

Just to remind you all, this game is sponsored by the U.S. army, so the over/under on lame Army commercials is like a million.

A lot of these blue-chippers will be announcing their college choices. When that happens, I'll put the contents in bold face, so you can skip over my pithy commentary and get right to the commitments, if that's your thing.

Remember Nate Longshore? The junior Cal quarterback. He beat Tennessee earlier this year. Started all last year. Rumor has it he's a pretty good football player.

Well . . . He's done.

This is nothing official, mind you, but I think it's over for him. Cal melted down late in the year and was staring at a 21-0 second quarter deficit against Air Force earlier today. Longshore then went to the bench and in a little over two quarters of work his backup Kevin Riley rallied the team to a 28-27 lead.

This is the same backup who was scintillating against Oregon State in another start earlier in the year (nevermind that boneheaded last play, if possible). Cal just seems to play better behind him and he's rescued them from a colossal embarrassment in a big way.

Final score today: Cal 42 - Air Force 36

Riley's line: 16/19 (.842), 269 yards, 3 TD/ 0 INT

That's twice now California's offense has played well behind Riley following shaky Longshore performances. Longshore's got a nice bond going with his head coach, but his backup makes it happen better on the field.

Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.

Oregon infamously refused to disclose the status of Dennis Dixon's knee during the bye week between games against Arizona State and Arizona, only to have their national championship hopes dislocated against the Wildcats.

But hiding a quarterback injury wasn't exclusive to the Ducks. California quarterback Nate Longshore played the nearly the whole season with a chipped bone in his ankle--hobbling him ever since the Bears beat the Ducks. Bears coach Jeff Tedford admitted yesterday, "There's a little chip in the back part of it there. I didn't get that it was a broken ankle. But Nate had talked to me about a little chip that was in the back there."

scha·den·freu·de /???dn?fr??d?/

–noun

satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.

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[Origin: 1890–95; < G, equiv. to Schaden harm + Freude joy]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.

Ohio State, for blowing a national championship shot, you are the Tears of Unfathomable Sadness victor this week. Tressel remains a god to Buckeye fans, but some issues crop up when you yield an eight-minute game-killing drive:


More of the week in spleen after the jump.