Category: Cal Bears

Cal Bears Mens basketball commentary: Martin enjoying Montgomery’s well kept cubboard of talent this season

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–One thing that former Cal head coach Mike Montgomery did before he left Cal was he kept the cupboard well stocked and when new head coach Cunozo Martin took over he had a great class of players to use for this season. He had a lot of high basketball I.Q.guys and he got those well trained players and he always needed high I.Q. guys becuase to work out those complicated plays that take place in Division one games in the NCAA you need the players will the quick learn and knowledge.

When Martin came in the team was certainly not in rebuilding mode and there was none of that firing of the last coach because he couldn’t figure out which end was the front door of the bus. That’s really the ideal situation to come in, Montgomery isn’t quite a quote end quote “legend” like a former UCLA head coach John Wooden or former head coach at University of North Caroliina Dean Smith.

Montgomery was the winningest head coach of the Pac 12 and during his retirement he was approaching Wooden’s total victory. He’s got a pretty solid background and when Martin comes in and follows someone like that you don’t have to do better you just have to do well enough.

One of the frustrating things about watching college basketball is that the players are only there for a few years and even though their there to graduate their there for only four years and maybe they play for three. You never see their full development but you see so much development going from a kid playing high school basketball and always the star of your team, or the leader of your school district or your area.

You get to a high level college program like the Pac 12 and suddenly you are a small fish in a big pond full of big frogs. Watching the kids adjust going from “I’m the man to I’m not even sure I know the man” and going through the whole development process with a new coach and the style of the game being so much faster. Now you have to become a complementary piece stand up component that the offense goes through.

It’s always fun watching these kids develop and Bears guard Tyrone Wallace did a whole lot of maturing and developing last season he is going to be a very steady piece for Cal this year and coach Martin. What makes this year exciting is that the players get to learn a new coach in Martin. They will be learning his style and figuring out how this team is going to play.

Montgomery’s teams played completely under his control, they played defense first and if everything went right they would have the outlet pass in front to run the wings and run the floor a little bit. It’s not clear what style Martin is going to have. You really can’t tell anything from two exhibition games what you do there is just get a look at all your players.

Cal plays the 2K Classic against Alcorn State at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley on Friday November 14th at 7:00PM. Morris Phillips will have complete game coverage.

Michael Duca does Golden Bears commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Cal ready for new season after easy win over San Marcos in pre-season wrap-up

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By Morris Phillips

Among the knowledge Cuonzo Martin’s newest group of student-athletes needed to absorb on Thursday evening was the unique acronym born in suburban San Diego 25 years ago that reads “CSUSM.” Emblazoned on the Bears’ opponent’s royal blue and white trimmed jerseys, Martin’s pre-game directives probably went something like this: “don’t try to pronounce it, but watch it closely for screens being set, and in the process of avoiding damaging charges, especially in the paint near the hoop.”

Exhibition games for elite Division I programs mean two things, and two things only: win, and don’t get hurt. At Haas Pavilion, the Bears did just that, beating Cal State San Marcos, 74-52, in the second and final tune up for the upcoming season that begins next Friday against Alcorn St.

Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird led the Bears with 13 points each as Martin got 12 guys into the game, with starting guard Jordan Mathews playing a team-high 27 minutes. The Bears shot 49 percent from the field and led by 15 points at halftime. The Bears enjoyed a slight edge on the glass, out-rebounding the Cougars 36-29.

“I think we weren’t in a very good rhythm at the beginning of the game, we were just standing around too much and no movement,” Wallace said. “Once we got used to it and we had been practicing against the zone, we got settled in and were able to find guys in rhythm and find shots.”

San Marcos was led by Julian Camper with 11 points, but the senior forward missed nine of his 14 shots from the field. Despite the poor showing, the NAIA Cougars are expected to be a force at that level this season, with a No.3 national pre-season ranking. San Marcos played without two seasoned, Division I players, Santa Barbara transfer Taran Brown and Tony Freeland, formerly of Long Beach State.

The 43-year old Martin was hired in the off-season to replace Mike Montgomery, who coached the Bears for six seasons. Martin, the former Purdue player and assistant coach under legendary Gene Keady, has coached six seasons at the Division I level—three seasons at Missouri State and the last three at Tennessee, where his Volunteers won a pair of NCAA tournament games last spring.

Cal returns Mathews, Bird and Wallace along with senior forward David Kravish from a team that 21-14 in 2013-2014.

The Bears extended an 18-point, second half lead with a 12-0 run that had them up 30 points with 10 minutes remaining. The Cougars hit four three-pointers down the stretch to regain some measure of respectability.

“From start to finish, we did a great job,” Martin said. “For the most part we did a great job defending—for about a two to three-minute stretch—I thought our guys maintained a level of discipline on both sides.”

NCAA commentary: Miss St just gets by with TD in 4th;Ducks take out Cardinal; FSU Winston has lights out game

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by Michelle Richardson

Mississppi State (8-0) 17 vs Arkansas (4-5) 10: Arkansas came out at the beginning they had the ball for a long time and Miss St they turned over the ball three times but the game was about who wanted it more. Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen went 22-43 for 238 yards was sacked once and threw for an interception once.

Miss St quarterback Dak Prescott went 18-27 for 331 yards for one touchdown and two interceptions, Prescott threw two interceptions but still passed for over 300 yards. Looking at the ground game running back for Miss St Josh Robinson 19-64 and a touchdown, Prescott also rushed for 61 yards 19 times, Prescott can throw and beat you with his feet.

Prescott was amazing he was just three yards short of Robinson, the rushing leaders for Arkansas is Alex Collins carrying 16 times for 93 yards and a touchdown. Running back for Arkansas Jonathan Williams carried for 15 times and 47 yards. This game was about the defense who really came up strong for both clubs, in the fourth quarter a 69 yard pass from Prescott to Fred Ross for the game winner as Miss St just gets by Arkansas by a touchdown.

Oregon (8-1) 45 vs. Stanford (5-4) 10: This was one of those game where you give the Stanford Cardinal the benefit of the doubt and you hope that they can come up and do what they do. Stanford was just outplayed thats the only thing you can say about this contest. 14 points in the first quarter for Oregon, ten in the second, seven in the third and another 14 in the fourth.

It was the Ducks game, their time, and their stadium. Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota went 19-30 for 258 yards and threw for two touchdowns. The Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan was 21-29 for 237 yards and no touchdowns. Hogan threw for one interception but Oregon capitalized on every flaw that Stanford committed and as a matter of fact Mariota carried for two touchdowns himself.

Stanford turned over the ball twice as opposed to Oregon who turned over once, time of possesions in the those fourth downs come into play. Rushing leaders for Stanford Hogan carried 11 times for 42 yards and Remound Wright carried 11 times for 33 yards. Niether one of the running backs for Stanford got 50 yards. They had 11 carries a piece.

Florida State (8-0) 42 vs. Louisville (6-3) 31: FSU always reminded me of the Los Angeles Lakers in basketball the Lakers always turned it off and turned it on. For the Seminoles that’s scary, in basketball you could do that a little bit more but in football that’s scary when you do that.

Louisville had everything going for them Thursday night, they came out of the box just whacking FSU’s jaw, but after halftime FSU came back and proved why they are worthy of their perfect record. FSU star quarterback Jameis Winston threw for three interceptions. It was not a good night for Winston at quarterback if you really think about it. Winston threw 25-48 for 401 yards, was sacked twice and threw those three picks.

Winston threw for 401 yards and you have to ask what this kid can’t do? Winston threw three touchdowns even though he got picked off three times. Louisville running back Michael Dyer went 28-134 and was running all day. Dyer was on the National Championship team at Auburn who FSU beat for the National Champion. I’m really sure that Dyer is tired of seeing FSU.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google image

Bears’ bounce back win at Oregon State may be the season’s biggest to date

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By Morris Phillips

From 1-11 to bowl eligible in a year?

Not an easy feat, but the Cal Bears seem to be on the cusp of just that after soaring past Oregon State 45-31 on Saturday night. In what was the biggest night of Cal’s season thus far also was the biggest of junior Daniel Lasco’s college career. Lasco rushed for 180 and three touchdowns to lead the Bears past the Beavers in Corvallis for the first time since 2006.

The Bears improved to 5-4, 3-4 on the season, ending a three-game losing streak, and need one more win to gain bowl eligibility. Cal finishes with a road contest at USC on November 13, then home games against Stanford and BYU.

The Bears rolled up 564 yards in total offense with 339 of those coming in the first half, which ended with Cal leading 20-10. While the Cal offense kicked into gear early, OSU, led by record-setting quarterback Sean Mannion, sputtered. The Bears couldn’t get the ball into the end zone however, and the Beavers, who didn’t cross midfield offensively until early in the second quarter, led briefly 7-3 with 14:18 remaining before halftime.

The first of Lasco’s three scores followed with the Woodland, TX junior taking it in from 14 yards out to cap a 10-play drive and give Cal a 10-7 lead. Lasco struck again later in the second with a 21-yard run and score that put the Bears up 17-10. Lasco had 127 of 180-yard rushing total in the first half.

Cal forced OSU to punt in their first possession of the second half, and then fashioned a 9-play drive that ended with Vic Enwere’s 19-yard run that put Cal up 27-10.

But that’s when the Beavers made a stand, scoring touchdowns on three consecutive possessions to lead 31-27 with 12:02 remaining. In the run, Mannion became the Pac-12’s career passing leader with 12,454 passing yards, breaking the mark established by USC’s Matt Barkley in 2012.

But Mannion went from record-setter to turnover-prone when he was picked by Cal’s Caleb Coleman in Oregon State territory with 7:48 remaining and Cal leading 34-31. That set up James Langford’s 47-yard field goal in a run that saw Cal score the game’s final 18 points to win going away.

The Bears showed what a Sonny Dykes’ Bear Raid attack can do by running 94 offensive plays, racking up 34 first downs and committing no turnovers.   Dykes would prefer his offenses run at least 100 plays and coming close seemed to wear down Oregon State’s defense with two contributors along their defensive front, Lavonte Barnett and Jaswha James, out due to injuries.

Cal had dropped six of seven to Oregon State, including last year’s embarrassing 49-17 drubbing in Berkeley.

Cal Bears report: Bears got their game going with 44 point win over Cal State East Bay

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears won a Halloween exhibition game at Haas Pavilion 94-50 over Cal State East Bay Pioneers the Bears got help from their guard positions Tyrone Wallace 8-12 and Jordan Matthews 6-8 both were the top scorers in the exhibition with 21 points a piece.

Head coach Cunozo Martin made his coaching debut and was waving and yelling plays from the sidelines and the Bears responded with a solid defense and five Cal players got into double figures for the game. Senior David Kravish and sophmore Jabari Bird who scored 11 points each and sophmore Sam Singer ran up ten points.

Second year Roger Moute a Bidias had seven points and redshirt junior Christian Behrens, freshman Kingsly Okoroh, graduate student Dwight Tarwater all tallied 15 points. Matthews wasted no time getting three points early in the game scoring a lay up and a point from the free throw line. The Bears kept a small lead over Cal State until Kravish hit a jumper and the Bears rattled off 19 points to help bury Cal State.

The Bears duplicated their performance in the second half of the game with big help from Matthews and Wallace scoring nine of Cal’s ten points helping the Bears to take a 44-23 lead. The Bears had a whopping 67-23 lead over the Pioneers later in the half and you knew it was out of reach by that point.

The Golden Bears return to Haas Pavilion for their next game Thursday November 6th against San Marcos. The regular season starts against Alcorn State Friday Nov 14th at Haas and it will be part of the 2K Classic.

Michael Duca covers Cal Bears basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: cal bears.com

NCAA Football commentary: LSU just gets by Ole Miss; Buckeyes roll on Lions; Arizona gets big win over Wash St

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by Michelle Richardson

LSU (7-2) 10 vs. Ole Miss (7-1) 7: LSU have been struggling when their at home they can let the good times roll too but in that game on Saturday for the most part it was a high scoring game it was only a 10-7 victory for LSU. Miss St scored in the first half and it was very much a defensive struggle. For total yards Miss St quarterback Bo Wallace had to pass and rush to get some yardage going.

Wallace threw for 176 yards and rushed for only 40 yards in 12 rush attempts. LSU had more rushing yards than Miss St and Miss St had more passing yards. Strangely enough LSU had a rough time with four turnovers but they controled the ball better they kept the ball for 36 minutes and Miss St kept it for 24 minutes. This is just one of those flukey kind of things that LSU turned nice flour into mud pies.

Honestly this wasn’t a great game by either team LSU just scraped and scrapped and managed to pull out a victory. LSU had good form and they needed this victory because they were number 24. Michigan State moved up into eighth place in the AP Polls.

Ohio St (6-1) 31 vs. Penn St (4-3) 24 (2 OT): This was a hotly contested game as two teams are rivals when they meet just like when Ohio St meets Michigan. The Penn State fans found out what hotel the Buckeyes were staying at and went and blasted music outside their hotel in the middle of the night. I guess you got to do what you got to do for your team.

Ohio State they scrapped through and managed to come across with a victory, they know that anytime they play Penn State the Nittany Lions are going to give them their best game. Ohio State knows that Penn St is their rivals. The Lions are the Buckeyes neighbors to the east and it’s a big rivalry for them. When it gets down to it it’s all about that ball handling management.

Ohio State possessed the ball for 34:24 and that was almost the full six minutes more than Penn State. They both had turnovers, Ohio State had to turnover more third and fourth down conversions, it was a game where it came down to who could get the job done. The Buckeyes had built a 17-0 lead and they were cruising to a win and then Penn State defensive tackle Anthony Zettel made an interception and returned it for 40 yards. The game went to two overtimes and Ohio State got the game winner in the second overtime.

Arizona (6-1) 59 vs. Washington State (2-6) 37: Airing it out is what the Washington State Cougars do and since the Cougars head coach Mike Leach is back he’s all about airing it out. That’s kind of what he does and as I’ve been saying week after week. Arizona is trying to be in a coversation with some of the other top teams in the NCAA and their a one loss team right now.

The Pac 12 is not getting a lot of respect when it comes to talk about the National Title games. Washington State had a whopping 543 yards and Arizona had 451 yards. The Cougars quarterback Connor Halliday threw for four touchdowns and he was picked off two times. It’s never a good thing and Wash St had more turnovers as opposed to one turnover made by Arizona.

Arizona won this game and did a good job, they clearly out muscled Washington in the first half of the game but the problem is Arizona got a little laxed because Washington State came back and scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. This is a game that could have got out of hand if they had a little more time. You have to watch out for teams like Wash St they haven’t been very competitive for the past few years and some teams say “it’s just Washington State” and get laxed but the Cougars were making a few move towards towards the end of Saturday’s game

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

San Jose prep star Marshall stands out in Oregon’s 59-41 win over Cal at Levi’s Stadium

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By Morris Phillips

In a true track meet of a football game, one featuring 169 plays from the line of scrimmage, 1,150 yards of total offense and 100 points on the scoreboard, turning points are as fleeting as an accurate, pre-snap read by an interior linebacker with too much information and virtually no time with which to digest it.

But the Cal Bears faced such a turning point just five plays into the third quarter of Friday night’s Pac-12 showcase at Levi’s Stadium with the visiting No. 6 Oregon Ducks. The Ducks’ offense led by Heisman hopeful and potential No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Marcus Mariotta had just committed a costly offensive pass interference penalty and faced a 3rd and 21 at their own 46. The Bears had already overcome a 17-point deficit in the second quarter, and were counting on forcing a punt and further slicing into Oregon’s 38-28 halftime lead.

Local prep star turned collegiate duel threat Byron Marshall lined up in the far slot as the Ducks employed a single back, four wide out set to take on the Bears’ prevent defense with all but three down lineman at least 10 yards removed from the line of scrimmage. Marshall, from San Jose’s Valley Christian H.S., just a few off ramps down the 101 from the 49ers’ new stadium, had conceded his starting running back job to freshman flyer Royce Freeman only to find a more dangerous role as a running, catching slot man.

Comfortable in the Ducks’ complicated offense and at home in front of family and friends in Santa Clara, this was Marshall’s moment. Matched up with Cal’s Darius Powe, a 6’3” wide receiver moonlighting on defense to give a beleaguered Cal secondary an additional guy with size and speed, Marshall trailed the outside receiver briefly before hitting full stride on a go route along the far sideline. Marshall immediately ran past Powe, caught Mariotta’s pass along to the sideline in stride, and was already gone when Cal safety Michael Lowe attempted to close from the center of the field.

Marshall’s 54-yard catch and run would put the Ducks back up 17 and Cal was cooked. The Ducks would then run away from the Bears in a 59-41 win that marked Oregon’s sixth consecutive win over Cal. Marshall would go on to catch 4 passes for 133 yards, and run for another 57 yards on 7 rush attempts as Mariotta’s favorite big play target.

“We made too many mistakes in the ballgame to beat a team as good as Oregon. We’ve just got to get more disciplined,” Cal coach Sonny Dykes said. “Guys are trying to make some plays and sometimes are trying to do too much.”

Oregon coach Mark Helfrich saw his Ducks improve to 7-1, and move back into the National Championship playoff picture after an unexpected loss to Arizona on October 2. But afterwards, he seemed taken by Cal’s effort and talent in spite of the loss.

“Nick Saban was talking the other day about how frustrating it is when people expect certain things to happen,” Helfrich said. “That’s great, but at the same time, that’s a really good football team and a really good talented team, especially skill-wise on both sides. To win on the road in a neutral site on a short week with a bunch of guys gutting it out, you can’t just look at numbers and go, ‘These guys stink.’”

With impressive numbers compiled by both teams, Oregon’s efficiency and execution was the difference. The Ducks needed just 76 total plays to compile 590 yards total offense and 27 first downs. Meanwhile, Cal ran 93 plays, but committed 11 penalties and saw 22 of their 55 pass attempts fall incomplete. Jared Goff was again good, completing 32 of 52 for 360 yards, but only two of the 52 attempts went for touchdowns, and the Bears also suffered two costly fumbles.

Luke Rubenzer reprised his role as Goff’s understudy utilized mostly in red-zone situations. Rubenzer scored from 12 yards out to give Cal a 7-0 lead less than five minutes in, and then the freshman scored again late in the fourth quarter to slice into Oregon’s 25-point lead. Rubenzer finished with 48 yards on 10 rush attempts.

The conference game was played in front of an announced crowd of 55,575, which left huge chunks of empty seats in the brand new NFL stadium with Oregon fans present and loud as the subdued Cal crowd. The stadium will also host the Pac-12 Championship Game on December 5.

The Bears lost for the third straight week and saw their record fall to 4-4, 2-4 in conference. Cal now has an extra day of preparation for their trip to Corvallis to face Oregon State on November 1.

NCAA Commentary: Trojans Kessler throws for seven touchdowns; Horned Frogs wreck OK ST; Penalty call back Notre Dame TD

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by Michelle Richardson

USC (5-2) 56 Colorado (2-5) 28: The Colorado Buffaloes were not the cream of the crop in the Big 12 when they played in the Big 12. In the Big 12 you just can’t walk in the door you have to earn your stripes, that your going to go rough shod over people. Even though USC is really falling on hard times compared to the way they were in the earlier parts of the 2000s under former head coach Pete Carroll.

The Trojans still have heart, they still have talent and they have that will to win. USC quarterback Cody Kessler is well coached by head coach Steve Sarkasian. Kessler is coming into his own he was 19-26 on Saturday with 319 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was more of a balance you had USC running back with Javorious Allen who had 128 yards on 15 carries and Justin Davis had 97 yards on 11 carrries.

It was a very much a balanced attack it was flight of foot for USC and Colorado couldn’t keep anything and this is a game that they couldn’t touch. There was nothing that the Buffaloes could do, the Buffaloes receiving leaders Nelson Spruce had 69 yards in nine receptions and Tyler McCullouch had four receptions on 44 yards. If your just looking at numbers alone USC definitely handled Colorado besides looking at the score.

TCU (5-1) 42 vs. Oklahoma State (5-2) 9: The TCU Horned Frogs they got the job done at Carter Stadium in Fort Worth Texas. That was a really significant win. TCU was letting them know that they should have been in the Big 12 before. TCU should have been in the Big 12 when it was starting out. TCU had a lot of people on their list.

The Horned Frogs want to knock off all the guys in the Big 12 and their saying they should have been there. However many years has the Big 12 have been in existence. The Horned Frogs in Saturday’s game jumped out to a 21 point lead in the first quarter and TCU outscored Oklahoma State 21-3. TCU had 26 first downs ,76 total yards, Trevone Boykin the TCU quarterback 26-49 for 410 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception for Boykin on Saturday that’s what you call quarterbacking.

Quarterback Daxx Garman for Oklahoma State 10-25, 132 yards, threw two picks and no touchdown throws. That’s not a good zero, as a quarterback if you don’t have a 40 yard passing game your below mediocre. On third and fourth down conversions TCU did much better than Oklahoma State could only converting three third down conversions. It was the Horned Frogs right out of the gate.

Florida State 31 (5-1) vs. Notre Dame 27 (6-1): The Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston displayed every reason why he’s headed to the NFL after this season and on Saturday I believe you saw the reasons. First of it was the play calling. Winston did a lot of game trickeration stuff whereas FSU was a little conservative sometimes in their play calling they played more of a pro style offense than Notre Dame.

For Notre Dame there was too much time to trick and deceive them Everett Golson the Fighting Irish quarterback is not an accurate passer. 31-52 for 313 yards, sacked three times, threw for three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Golson is not as accurate as Winston but Golson is very much the athlete right now he has some growing to do as a quarterback.

Winston was 23-31 for 272 yards, sacked once, threw for two touchdowns and one pick. The difference was the FSU running game was more balanced even though they didn’t get a lot of big runs they got those nice small one that they needed. Running back Karlos Williams from FSU carried eight times for 25 yards and scored two touchdowns. That means that FSU was converting in the red zone consistently.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA weekly for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

UCLA thwarts Cal comeback, wins in Berkeley for first time since 1998

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By Morris Phillips

Thanks to Jared Goff’s arm and an opportunistic defense, Cal was in position to extend UCLA’s misery in Berkeley that has seen the Bruins go 0-7 since 1998.

But Goff’s final pass was intercepted, and Cal’s defense, which forced three big turnovers, also missed far too many tackles in UCLA’s 36-34 win Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

The Bears (4-3, 2-3) lost for the second consecutive week at home after a 4-1 start to their season on the heels of a 1-11 campaign in 2013. UCLA (5-2, 2-2) broke a two-game losing streak following a 4-0 start to the season.

“In the end, we did some good things,” Cal coach Sonny Dykes said. “We got some stops when we needed to, we moved the ball offensively—it just wasn’t as crisp as we would like it to be.”

“To come into an environment where UCLA has struggled, overcome three turnovers and the back-and-forth to get a win, that’s something that you build on,” UCLA Coach Jim Mora Jr. said.

The exciting finish to the ballgame was marred by a neck injury suffered by Cal’s Trevor Davis on a kickoff return. Davis appeared to take the knee of a UCLA tackler on the crown of his helmet as he went down after a sizeable kickoff return. The junior receiver remained down for almost 15 minutes while medical personnel stabilized his neck and body before he was taken to a local hospital. Davis had movement in his extremities and was talking when he was taken off, although the extent of his injuries were not immediately known.

This was not a masterpiece of a performance for either team but the competition never waned in the 85th meeting of the north-south rivals. For Cal, that meant overcoming a huge disparity in total yards (567-366), offensive plays run (89-73) and on the scoreboard where the Bears trailed by 7 after a quarter, and 10 points (24-14) at halftime.

Defensively, the Bears simply put themselves in a hole with missed tackles and big plays allowed with UCLA running back Paul Perkins the biggest beneficiary. Perkins, the sophomore from Queen Creek, AZ ran for 88 yards and caught four passes, two of which went for scores, including his scintillating 49-yard catch and run that left would-be Bears’ tacklers in an embarrassing heap.

Throughout, the Bruins stuck with the screens and short throws that tested Cal’s ability to cover in space, a theme that smart offensive coordinators will undoubtedly employ for the rest of the season given Cal’s lack of quickness in their back seven. Perkins big play came just 13 seconds before halftime, putting UCLA up 24-14, and could have been a back breaker.

But the Bears fought back behind Jared Goff and his playmaking receivers, quickly becoming one of the best receivers units in the Pac-12 or anywhere else. Backup Luke Rubenzer was employed for one play in the first half and he threw a fade to Chris Harper that produced a highlight worthy catch. That first touchdown for the Bears brought them within 14-10 in the second quarter.

Then late in the third, Goff hooked up with Davis on a post route that saw the junior make a terrific leaping catch with three Bruins in the vicinity. That gave the Bears their first lead, 28-27 with 17 minutes remaining in the ballgame.

After UCLA answered with a touchdown followed by a missed two-point conversion attempt, Goff threw perfectly to Kenny Lawler on a 28-yard double move route that put the Bears on top again, 34-33 with just under seven minutes remaining.

But the Bears’ defense couldn’t contain heralded UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley on the following possession that resulted in a field goal with less than four minutes remaining. Hundley completed a pair of throws and ran for critical gainers twice on an 8-play drive that set up Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 26-yard field goal that would become the game winner.

Hundley would finish the day with 31 of 42 passing for 330 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

NCAA commentary: Stanford keeps Wash St under wraps; Seminoles keep roolling; Miss St with huge win over Auburn

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by Michelle Richardson

Stanford (4-2)34 vs. Washington St (2-5) 17: The Cougars are 2-5 but I’m going to tell you why that this is a young team that you’ve got to watch. The Cougars have a great quarterback in Connor Halliday. For Stanford although they won it 34-17 on Friday night the Cardinal defense really had to stop that young quarterback. Halliday next season is going to be the guy to watch in the Pac 12.

Halliday has some targets and he’s got some action, Washington State scored in the first quarter and they scored in all but the second quarter. Total they had two touchdowns and a field goal. Stanford a couple of years ago was in the top of the heap in the Pac 12, Stanford did a good job but the Cougars did a good job too and the reason why Stanford won this game is because they held the ball longer.

The Cardinal did better things with the football and they got 20 first downs, 477 total yards, 284 yards passing, their rushing game was on point with 109 yards. Whereas Wash St had 126 yards rushing. For any team to be successful you have to have a balance attack you can’t have one part working, like having the passing game working and the running game not working.

Florida (6-0) 38 vs. Syracuse (2-3) 20: The Florida State Seminoles are doing well but their first real test will be next week when they face undefeated Notre Dame (6-0) which comes to Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium. That game is going to be crazy. Florida St is going to show up and the thing is Notre Dame fans do travel and the Fighting Irish is one of those schools that have fans that really travel with their team, not just a few of them, a lot of them.

It’s going to be very, very interesting to see how this happens. I can guarantee you there will be a ton of Notre Dame fans down there. Their going to get tickets and their going to show up at Campbell Stadium and their going to support the Irish. This will be the Seminoles real first test, they had their real first test earlier this year with Clemson.

For the Seminoles it will not be quite the test they’ll get from Notre Dame, the Irish had a game against the University of North Carolina (2-4) they played Notre Dame really, really tight. The game was at Notre Dame and NC lost it but by a close margin 50-43.

Auburn (5-1) 23 vs. Mississipi State (6-0) 38: This was a game where number three beat number two. For the Miss St Bulldogs they remain undefeated. Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott threw for 246 yards, 18-34, one touchdown and two interceptions. The Bulldogs wasted no time going to work on the Tigers scoring 21 points in the first quarter and ten more in the fourth. The Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen walked off the field pumping his fist in the air satisfied that the school was able to win in what would have been a tough game but the Miss St defense was able to contain Auburn.

Once again Prescott is back in the Heisman Award discussion agian with his very satisfying win over a tough Auburn school, “everytime we needed to make a play, a guy stepped up and made a play, we always wondered how to take the next step in this league, that’s it” said Mullen. Mullen was also happy with the Bulldogs defense stopping Auburn in the red zone and forcing turnovers so the offense could get back out on the field.

For Miss St this is their ninth consecutive win which stretches into last season and beating Auburn was huge because they were the SEC Champion from last season. For Auburn they pulled within eight points 28-20 to try and get something going but couldn’t catch Miss St as Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall who threw for 209 yards, two interceptions and had 100 yards rushing.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Football commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Photo credit google images