Jordan, Tennessee, Best

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman put up a piece on Cal and Robert Jordan with some interesting bits of information. Jordan, a cousin of Marshawn Lynch, is apparently also related to #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell from LSU to the Raiders. (If you weren’t aware: earlier this month, a certain SEC coach, bashed the Pac-10 and the Bears in an often-repeated but ill-founded claim:

“I would like nothing better than to play USC for the [national] title,” Miles reportedly said in a speech to a heavily pro-LSU gathering in New Orleans. “I can tell you this, that they have a much easier road to travel. They’re going to play real knockdown drag-outs with UCLA and Washington, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford — some real juggernauts — and they’re going to end up, it would be my guess, in some position so if they win a game or two, that they’ll end up in the title [game].

This coach was LSU’s Les Miles.) So,

Russell was actually with Jordan when they learned about Miles’ comments… “[Jordan] said ‘J, what’s up with your coach?’ And he was like ‘Ah man, he’s a hothead don’t listen to him,'” Jordan recalled.

Predictably, Feldman talks about Cal-Tennessee next:

Jordan and a few of his Cal teammates though say they don’t feel any additional pressure to uphold the Pac-10’s honor in their big rematch against Tennessee in the season opener…

“I think about that game everyday, at every workout about how their crowd and their players were able to talk to us and all that,” Jordan says. “We do represent the conference, but really we’re playing for us. Last year we let ourselves down.

“We really weren’t focused on football. We let the media hype it up… Now we’ve got a veteran team. It’s not going to be like that. We’re going to keep fighting regardless. I’d be real shocked to have another outcome like that again. I don’t see how that could happen again.”

Said DeSean Jackson, Cal’s star WR-KR: “It is a little bit of extra pressure on us as far as how people think of the Pac-10, but all we can do is just play hard.”

Cal QB Nate Longshore, admits he watches the UT game, start to finish, all the time. “Everytime I watch it, I see something different,” he says. “It’s interesting to see the whole flow of the game and how turnovers affect teams and things like that in retrospect. Like instead of just going down and losing a yard, we try and make a play and they get to gang-tackle us and that builds momentum for them.

“There’s so much that you wanna do over, but at the same time you have to treat it like another game.”

The article ends with this about incoming freshman Jahvid Best:

A little debate about who is the fastest Golden Bear: Jackson or incoming freshman TB Jahvid Best, the player Longshore touted as the guy who is going to really surprise some people this fall.

“He is ridiculous quick,” Longshore said of the 5-foot-11, 182-pounder, who once won a Gold Medal in the 200m at the 2005 USTAF Junior Olympics. “He could beat DeSean in a race, no doubt in my mind. No doubt. He’s the fastest I’ve ever seen.

WA d-lineman commits

Trevor Guyton, a highly rated defensive lineman out of Redmond (WA), has committed to the Bears’ 2008 class. He is a 4 star prospect according to Scout and a 3 star on Rivals.Guyton turned down offers from Nebraska, Oregon, and the Pac-10 schools in Washington and Arizona when picking Cal. He has a very positive attitude and appears to be an excellent fit for the Bears. With the departure of NFL talent Brandon Mebane and no DT’s taken in last years’ class, this fills a great need on Cal’s roster.

Blue Ribbon Preview on ESPN

DeSean Jackson is on the front page of ESPN‘s College Football site, as ESPN has put up Blue Ribbon’s team preview for Cal. The preview has some decent analysis and insight about the Bears this upcoming season. Take a look, as it’s currently available as a “free preview” without ESPN Insider.

Blue Ribbon gives Cal the following grades:

Offense: A
Special teams: A+
Defense: B
Intangibles: A-

They also sum up their article with the following mixed praise:

That said, this offense is every bit the equal of USC’s, and at least on paper, Cal should score more points than the Trojans. And the special teams units of the Bears might be ranked tops in the nation. So why aren’t the Bears favored over USC, which is expected to be a near-unanimous preseason No. 1?

Defense, defense and yes, more defense.

USC placed six players on Blue Ribbon’s preseason All-Pac-10 first team, while Cal had none.

But much to Tedford’s credit, Cal’s season starts in terms of the national title picture on Sept. 1 when Tennessee visits Berkeley on the back-end of a home-and-home. If the Bears win, watch out — the hype could build for more than two months before the USC game on Nov. 11. If those two teams enter kickoff undefeated, that likely becomes the game of the regular-season, not only in the Pac-10, but in the nation.

However, the Bears are going to find themselves in a few fourth-quarter shootouts, especially early as the secondary gains experience. Trips to Oregon, UCLA and Arizona State won’t be easy, but they should be entertaining. Actually, with Jackson, every Cal game should be entertaining.

We see Cal as a top-10 caliber team capable of defeating just about any opponent in the country. Just not USC. The Bears should cruise to 11 wins and a second-place Pac-10 fin-ish this season, perhaps even find themselves in a BCS game, but they’re not winning the Pac-10. At least not this year.

Thanks Jonah K for the heads-up.

DeSean for Heisman: www.the1towatch.com

Cal has put up an official site promoting DeSean Jackson for the Heisman, similar to the site for Marshawn Lynch last year. It sports some fancy Flash production and is filled with videos, photos, and other information. Take a look: the1towatch.com

I’m glad to see Cal putting together this promotional material for Jackson early on in anticipation of another amazing season from our very own WR/PR highlight reel.

EDIT 11:20 PM: According to Scout.com, Jackson has stated that this is his last year at the collegiate level. However, other sources say that this is completely untrue. I’ll make an update when the facts are known.

Honors for Jahvid Best

Jahvid Best, one of the headliners for the Bears’ 2007 recruiting class, is getting some big recognition as he graduates from high school.

He’s been honored with NorCal Athlete of the Year from CalHiSports:

Best’s numbers and awards could take up an entire book, and when the new Cal-Hi Sports Record Book was updated recently for this web site, Best’s name was there in more than a few places, both in the football and track and field categories. …

However, when we talked with [Coach Chad] Nightingale, all he could do was rave about Jahvid as an athlete, and a person. What he is most specially proud of is Best’s top times in the 100 and 200 which at 10.36 and 20.65 are fourth and second fastest in the nation this year respectively, and qualify Jahvid for status as a 2007 Track and Field All-American. “You know,” said Nightingale. “Those 100 and 200 marks are a few ticks better than Reggie Bush,” he gushed. In fact, they are. Bush’s best marks were 10.42 and 21.06. “Plus, he’s a little bigger than Reggie.” Nightingale said grinning. And that is also true.

He also received the Boys Track Athlete of the Year honor from the Contra Costa Times:

His time of 20.65 seconds would have won every California state meet in history prior to this year. But he faced Long Beach Poly’s Bryshon Nellum, who set a state meet record (20.43). Best’s time was also under the previous state meet record.

To give you an idea about the quality of those times, they would have placed Nellum and Best second and third, respectively, in this year’s NCAA 200 final.

Congratulations to Jahvid. Needless to say, we’re excited about what he will do in his next few years at Cal.

No GameDay on Sep. 1

ESPN has opted to take GameDay to Blacksburg for the East Carolina at Virginia Tech game instead of Berkeley on September 1 (reported in May). This decision was most likely prompted by the tragedy that occurred earlier this year.

Hopefully, we may have GameDay for our match-up with USC in November.

Quick bits: “players to watch” mentions

Sporting News’ Inside Dish:

Player to watch in the season openers: Cal CB Syd’Quan Thompson. The guy who was the definition of torched in the Bears’ season-opening loss to Tennessee last year will be one of the nation’s best cover corners this season. The teams open against each other again this fall. . . .

ESPN‘s “Seniors to watch in 2007”:

5. Justin Forsett, RB, California
Forsett ran for 626 yards and scored five touchdowns playing behind Marshawn Lynch last season. Lynch will be playing in the NFL this fall, and Forsett has the speed and vision to become the Pac-10 Conference’s premier running back.

AD: Trial set for September 19

Athletic Director Sandy Barbour has delivered some good news about the Memorial Stadium and Student-Athlete High Performance Center plans in a letter to Cal supporters:

On Thursday, June 14, the judge presiding over the legal challenges to the project agreed to our request and signaled that she is ready to set a firm trial date for September 19. Although later than we would have preferred, the date is more expeditious than the October and November dates that the judge had been considering.

She also asserts:

With the facts firmly on our side, we are eager to have our case heard by an impartial judge and are completely confident that we will prevail. At the same time, pre-construction planning is continuing apace so that we will be ready to hit the ground running as soon as the injunction is lifted. … You should also know that we remain interested in and open to reaching settlement agreements with the plaintiffs. I firmly believe that Berkeley taxpayers and the campus can find better uses for the money that will be spent on litigation.

Barbour concludes with these additional statements:

…We will be making a concerted effort during the summer to take our case to directly to the public, civic leaders and local elected officials. The need for informed debate is ill-served by misinformation. Oak trees planted by the university in 1923 cannot be considered an “ancient grove.” A building site that is clear of active fault lines cannot be labeled as unsafe. A center that will serve the pressing needs of 13 intercollegiate teams cannot be described as benefiting a single sport.

With cautious optimism, I am beginning to believe that things should begin rolling very soon. Our AD is doing an excellent job.

Cal lands big TE

Spencer Ladner (6’7″/235) has given a verbal to Cal. He comes out of Kansas City, MO and lists Cal’s reputation as the #1 public school in the nation as a primary reason for choosing Cal. He is rated as a 3 star TE by Scout.com and a 4 star recruit by Rivals.

There’s a couple reasons that this signing means a lot. First, this guy is BIG. Just for reference, Lebron James is 6’8″/250. Craig Stevens is 6’5″/254. With a year in the weight room, Ladner can be a great endzone target or a blocker in the Tedford tradition. Second, Ladner comes from Missouri. This shows that Cal’s reach on the national recruiting front has grown even further after last year’s record number of out-of-state commits. Third, this confirms that Cal’s reputation as an academic leader will continue to land some top recruits.

EDIT BY ERIC: Also, it’s noteworthy that Ladner turned down offers from traditional powerhouse schools like Michigan and Oklahoma, showing that Cal is really on its way up in terms of nationwide recruiting.

Study: no active faults under HPC site

According to Cal’s official website, a study has confirmed that there are no active faults on the proposed site for the Student-Athlete High Performance Center:

The new explorations turned up no active fault traces in the planned construction area, confirming the company’s earlier conclusions. Geomatrix’s conclusions were also supported by the seismic consulting firm William Lettis & Associates Inc., which conducted peer reviews of the 2006 and the 2007 studies. …

Professor Gregory L. Fenves, chair of UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, reviewed both Geomatrix reports and has concluded that the design is in complete compliance with the Alquist-Priolo act. The building will be built with the most modern structural engineering technology to protect UC Berkeley athletes from the ground motion expected during a large magnitude Hayward Fault earthquake, he said.

“Seismologists and engineers know from studies of past earthquakes that the level of ground shaking is approximately the same right next to a fault as it is anywhere else within two miles of the fault,” Fenves said. “Thus, the new student-athlete center is unlikely to experience ground motion higher than any other building on campus or in downtown Berkeley should a major earthquake occur on the Hayward Fault.”

EDIT 2007-06-01: In addition, Professor Fenves has written a very nice article published in the SF Chronicle about the matter. An excerpt:

With top geologists now reaffirming that there are no active faults under the proposed center, the city’s allegation is unfounded from our perspective as earthquake engineers. In fact, the city’s lawsuit, filed last December, has the potential to jeopardize the safety of Cal athletes by delaying and possibly derailing the first step of a critical project to seismically retrofit the 83-year-old Memorial Stadium.

This is a major step forward for the stadium construction project, as it addresses the Alquist-Priolo objections completely. Still, Cal must fight the City of Berkeley’s public access claims and the bogus Save the Oaks tree issue.

However, this finding should contribute greatly to overcoming the preliminary court injunction issued early this year that is preventing the project’s progress towards stadium modernization and safety.