Week 14 Ranking Implications

With the college football season coming to an end there’s very few ranked games coming up this weekend. Making a move up in the rankings this week will be difficult but I do see it happening. Here’s what I have going down:

#19 South Carolina losing to #1 Auburn

#13 Nebraska losing to #9 Oklahoma

#15 Virginia Tech losing to #21 Florida State

This will result in a 2 spot jump up to #15 in the BCS and #12 in the AP. Considering we won’t be getting a BCS game invite you might be asking why does any of this matter? It matters for bowl games. A higher viewed bowl game like the Las Vegas Bowl or the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl are more likely to give a spot to a higher ranked team in the hopes of creating a better match-up and maximizing profit.

With a win against La Tech and the Nebraska losing we could see an invite to the 2 aforementioned bowls. With Virginia Tech going down at the hands of Florida State, that will all but be a guarantee. Goodbye crappy Humanitarian Bowl, goodbye even worse New Mexico Bowl. With BYU already accepting an invite to the Las Vegas Bowl, it will be more likely that Nevada would take the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco and leave the other to once National Champion hopeful, Boise State.

Buncha Crap System (BCS) Part 2

Excuse me as I rant, but let’s get this weekend straight BCS ranking wise. It started out with #2 Auburn barely beating #11 Alabama (9 team difference in ranking), and to be honest had McElroy not been concussed, I think Alabama would have pulled off the win.

Then there was an upset in #19 Nevada beating #4 Boise State (15 team difference in ranking). Boise State was a 14 point favorite and yes there was a field goal missed that could have won he game but lets give credit to the Nevada defense who not only shut down a high-powered offense in the 2nd half but also stopped them in overtime.

Number 5 LSU lost to #12 Arkansas (7 team difference in ranking).

Oklahoma State at #9 got beat by #13 Oklahoma (4 team difference in ranking), in what was an amazing 4th quarter by Oklahoma.

#20 Utah barely beats BYU in a game that shouldn’t have even been close.

And then we get the rankings…

#2 jumps Oregon who has done nothing wrong to get the #1 spot.
#11 barely falls, moving back only 5 spots to #16.
#5 drops 5 spots to #10.
#12 jumps 5 spots in comparison.
#9 drops back to the #14 spot, once again a 5 spot drop.
#13 who pulled off the upset moves up 4 spots to the #9 position.
#20 who should have lost stays put at #20, they shouldn’t have any complaints about this.

So, so far everything looks up to par and the only thing to question is did #2 Auburn really deserve to overtake the BCS #1 ranking? Let’s talk about Nevada now who pulled off an amazing come from behind win when all the lights were on them.

#4 Boise State gets booted from the top ten to #11, a 7 rank drop.
#19 Nevada, little sister of the poor Nevada, who put on a show that people will talk about for at least a year jumps 2 measly spots in the BCS.

There is no respect given to a little school, the only thing sports programs are talking about is how Brotzman missed the kick. NOT about how this Nevada team, against all odds, being down 17, went in at halftime and made the adjustments that shut down a potent offense and in the end won the game.

The fact of the matter is this, everyone who has a say in the votes believes this, “Boise State handed the game to Nevada, Nevada did nothing to earn that W”.

Now let us talk about Colin Kaepernick, have we heard anything about him? Forget the records he now owns, he only put up better numbers than Cam Newton but he doesn’t even get mentioned 99% of the time that a commentator talks about that game.

Cam Newton had 216 yards through the air as opposed to Colin Kaepernick and his 259.

On the ground Kaepernick had 45 yards rushing with an average of 4.5 per carry, Newton 1.8 per carry for 39. Should we also mention that Cam ran 12 more times in this game?

Kaepernick threw a pick that was amazingly intercepted and not his fault; it was a ball that should have been caught.

Cam Newton did however bring a team from behind to win a game against a team that was the favorite.

Kaepernick did the same damn thing only showing composure many athletes would rival. With 13 seconds left in the game, Colin was able to tie the game up with an amazing pass into tight coverage.

Just give the guy some credit, that's all I'm asking. Here's were the 2 guys now stand, and keep in mind that by the end of the season, Colin Kaepernick will have put up 4,000 yards of total offense:
The AP poll seems to be more accurate with Nevada at #14, that's closer to what they really are than #17.

Boise St. vs. Nevada Recap

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!! (as said by Maximus)

What a fun game to watch and an amazing performance but let’s be honest, it takes a little luck, and I love Kyle Brotzman! The game of football is all about how you capitalize when you get a chance and that’s what Nevada did, I’m just glad it wasn’t Ricky Drake kicking our game winner.

The hearts of Nevada fans dropped as somehow Kellen Moore made a hell of a throw downfield and still left 0:02 on the clock to win the game with a field goal. Why we did not have at least 4 men in a deep zone, I still don’t know. But that’s beside the point, the point is that had that kick gone, Boise State would still be getting the praise they deserve. They would hop over TCU and close the gap against Auburn, after what I consider a poor performance on their part. They had a shot at a national title game, although they would have never gotten it, they had a shot.

Boise State is a great team, but so is Nevada, and I’ve been saying that for a while. Do I think Nevada could match up against Auburn or Alabama? Yes, do I think we could win? No, but for so many people to write us out of the Boise State game before it even started, hurt. I never thought I would have to defend myself from my friends who didn’t believe Nevada had a chance. After the first half the odds-makers looked like they overestimated Nevada and that Boise would cover the 14 point spread, thousands of people thought they had just won a nice bet because “Nevada is a horrible team and Boise State is gonna run all over them”. But I said it would be a close game and would be decided on the final possession by 3 points or less…now I may have gotten the score wrong a little but I was pretty spot on.

The first half we played ugly on offense. Their defense had no problem containing us, their offense may not have moved the ball as fast as they usually do but they moved it. The second half though could not have been a different story. After letting them run all over us in the first half we held them to 8…yes I said 8...yards on the ground for the rest of the game. The defense held them to 1-6 on 3^rd downs. This defense who has struggled and people said was horrible was BY FAR the best defense I have seen in college football this year, in the second half that is.

I can only hope that that game showed this Nevada team is better than South Carolina, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas. Unfortunately we will have to wait till tomorrow to find out but it doesn’t seem like it. Hardly any of the commentators are talking about it today and when they do they just state how Boise lost, not that Nevada played an amazing game to knock them off their throne.

The game is over. Nevada has pretty much assured itself a share of the WAC title and a great bowl game. But what has not been discussed are the records that were set last night.

Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick, you are now the only quarterback in NCAA history to throw for 2000 yards and rush for 1000 in the same season, for 3 seasons in a row. I believe this record will stand for a long time if not forever.

Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick and Vai Taua, you are now the most prolific rushing duo in the history of college football passing Eric Dickerson and Craig James. You still have 2 more games to set that number higher.

For now the biggest game in school history is over, Ault can rest, there won’t be the naysayers like there was after the Hawaii game. You proved you are an amazing coach; the adjustments you made at halftime were perfect. You led your team into battle and beat one of the best teams in D1 football.

To everyone who says Boise State didn’t deserve a shot at a national title, if you watched the game last night you saw nothing but praise for them from the commentators, then they showed quotes from all the coaches whose teams have lost to them this year…all of them said that this is a legitimate team and possibly the best in the nation. You killed a Virginia Tech team that lost to a D2 school, but they play in a BCS conference and will win it and get their BCS game. At the end of the season they will be ranked ahead of you just as you will remain ranked ahead of Nevada. This is the cruel world we live in that makes no sense.

If you truly understand football and you watched the game last night, then you know how good of a team Boise State really is and now you know why I said this will be the greatest Nevada team in its school history.

Oh and how cool is this? I took this screen cap at 3:00am PST (click to see a bigger picture of it)...

Week 13 Ranking Implications

Are you excited for this game yet? It’s just a shame it’s this week because this would be a great week to move up in the rankings. Here’s what I have for this week:

#2 Auburn losing to #11 Alabama

#12 Arkansas losing to #5 LSU

#13 Oklahoma losing to #9 Oklahoma State

#17 Texas A&M losing to Texas

#21 Arizona losing to #1 Oregon

What does this mean? Well if Nevada loses we could potentially still be ranked, probably at #25. If Nevada pulls off the upset we might get the recognition we deserve but we will likely hear “I think this is proof that this Boise State team just wasn’t as good as we thought they were and truly did not deserve a chance at the national title”. Regardless I see us moving up 4 spots, and an additional 2-3 for taking down Boise. With a win we might be talking about the #13 or #12 Nevada Wolf Pack.

Regardless it’s going to be a great Friday of college football with the #’s 1, 2, and 4 teams in action, all against ranked opponents.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families! Be safe and enjoy college football!

Buncha Crap System (BCS)

It’s the holiday season and you have nothing better to do than to read this breakdown of the BCS, so it’s a little longer than a normal blog post, but I think you’ll learn something and hopefully enjoy it:

Could there be a better time to discuss this thing called the BCS than right now? No, especially after President Gee, Ohio State University’s President, came out and basically called every school that’s not a part of a BCS automatic qualifying conference a “little sister of the poor”. It’s clear that you sir understand nothing about college football.

The BCS was created to make a means for determining a “true” college football national champion. Let’s cut the bull. The BCS was formed as a way to increase revenue. Is there any surprise that the biggest schools, enrollment wise, and stadium wise, are members of this thing we call the BCS? No those conferences were allowed to be a part of the BCS because of how good their college football teams are (there's just a hint of sarcasm here), so lets look at em;

Big Ten – Ok, this might be the toughest conferences out there but aside from Ohio State, no one else has more than 2 wins in a BCS game

SEC – Florida and LSU, need I say more? They deserve to be there. They also have the highest winning percentage of any BCS conference in those big games (.737).

Big 12 – Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska those are the only real contenders year after year.

Pac-10 – They perform well in the big BCS games (.615) but until this year it had been the USC conference.

The last two conferences can easily be kicked out of the BCS and no one would question it:

Big East – This is a basketball conference! This year Pittsburgh will probably win the conference and get a BCS game with a dismal current record of 6-4. West Virginia who might be the best team in that conference is 7-3! In BCS games they don’t perform up to par, they are .500 in BCS games but 3 of those wins came when Miami was still in the conference.

ACC – why are these guys still in the BCS? They have been in 12 BCS games and have won an amazing 2. They hoist a .167 record with Florida State wining 1 and losing 5, and Virginia Tech wining one and losing 2. Everyone else that made a BCS game lost. But lets keep them in there because of the money those schools bring in.

If you combine the Big East and the ACC, they have a combined BCS winning percentage of .333, or they win 1/3 of the games they play in. Sure that’s not a bad percentage and it is college football but lets look at the WAC and Mountain West combined.

The Mountain west and WAC are both .667 in BCS games, but one of those games placed Boise State (WAC) against TCU (MWC) in a copout game where the BCS was afraid to see 2 BCS automatic qualifiers lose to two non BCS conference schools. When Utah got its BCS games, they won. When TCU got its game, it lost to Boise State. When Boise State got its games it won. When Hawaii got its game, it got destroyed. But 5 out of the 6 games were great entertaining games, is that not more important than money? Apparently not.

Don’t put down teams from non automatic qualifying conferences based on where they play. It’s not really up to them, Boise State can’t just make a call to the ACC and say “hey we want in”, well they can but it won’t put them in the ACC. Speaking of the ACC and Boise State…Virginia Tech is going to win the ACC Costal, this is a team that lost to Boise State to begin the season, we won’t even talk about the D2 school they lost to. Is it not logical then that if a team from a non AQ (automatic qualifying) conference beats the champion of an AQ conference from the same year that they are the better team? Put Boise State, TCU, and Nevada in the Big East or ACC and watch all three teams finish in the top 4 if not win the conference.

The BCS is a load of crap. TCU, Boise State, and Nevada (the 3 highest ranked non AQ teams) are all garbage and couldn’t hold their own weight in a real (BCS) conference. That’s what I’ve been hearing from commentators. I’ve also heard that Boise State is THE BEST all around team in college football this year, BUT they don’t deserve to play in a national title game.

Let’s have a playoff system that has been talked about for a while now but will never happen. Why? Because the money isn't there. Here’s how my system goes:

There are 12 conferences including independents. At the end of the season the #1 and #2 team in that conference play to determine the representative. We now have 12 teams which will be ranked by the same coaches and sportswriters that already rank the teams. Then we reward the #1 and 2 teams by giving them byes. I have attached a table (click on it to make it bigger and more clear) with Rankings as numbers and Games as Letters. It will only take 4 weeks, the length of bowl season already, and you can still have your other bowls on the side.

Let’s not penalize teams like Boise State and TCU for not having the luxury of being in a BCS conference, and by all means lets not put them down and call them our “little sister of the poor” especially not when Boise State or TCU would beat your Ohio State this year.

Boise St. vs. Nevada

So Nevada plays possibly the most complete game of the season and drops a spot in the BCS. Welcome to the BCS era ladies and gentlemen. Does this mean anything? Yes, it means if we lose to Boise St. we will be out of the ranking picture.

If there’s one thing different with this Nevada team this year than from years past its that they can step up to the big game. Look at Cal, BYU, and Fresno State. Sure BYU wasn’t as good as they were thought to be, but that’s a team that we easily would have lost to in the past. We also wouldn’t have beaten Cal in the past, and Fresno State would have been up for grabs. Nevada is not exactly a team that can win when they fall behind, so this year that was a positive, and we almost pulled it out against Hawaii as well. Boise State on the other hand is a completely different story, they might be the best team in the nation, definitely the most complete team if you ask me.

But Boise State has always brought out the best in us, we put up great numbers against them and they don’t seem to look so dominant. In years past we didn’t have the team that could beat them yet it was always close and a nailbiter. This year Nevada HAS the team capable of walking out of Mackay a winner and making talking about Boise State a thing of the past. The sad thing is if we win, we won’t get the recognition we deserve, and well Boise State will be talked about how they just were never a really good team. If we lose, I still don’t see Boise State moving up, even if Oregon and Auburn both lose, I can easily see a 1-loss team moving ahead of Boise State and TCU to play in the national championship game. (I’m working on a nice little piece on the BCS which I’ll post this week)

Judging by the spread for this game, the “experts” think it should be a pretty easy win for the Broncos. I beg to differ. I honestly believe that this game will be decided on the final possession of the game and the difference in score at the end will be 3 points or less.

The key to the game is to get the lead early and play mistake free. If Nevada’s defense can hold the Boise State offense on their first 2 possessions and score on their first 2 possessions, we could be looking at an upset. On the other hand if Boise state does the opposite and holds us on our first 2 possessions, we could be looking at a disappointing night. As far as mistakes, this will be a high intensity game and we could see some fights. Those could be a good thing, what’s a bad thing is Ricky Drake kicking another kickoff out of bounds, what is that? 4 times this year so far?

I don’t expect our defense to hold this team scoreless, but I do know that they are capable of forcing them to punt on 4-6 possessions. On the other hand, our offense, if it gets in rhythm can prove extremely difficult for the Broncos defense to contain. I’m expecting the Nevada secondary to back off a little and allow short passes but try everything to prevent the long ones. Maybe even some 3 deep coverage on 2^nd down?

If Nevada is behind by more than 10 at half it’s going to be a tough game to win. Anything closer than that and its anyone’s game. This might prove to be one of the best games of the year

Final Score Prediction

Someone 45 – Someone 48

Week 11 Ranking Implications

Here’s what I have for rankings this week:

#19 Mississippi State losing to #12 Alabama

#24 Kansas State losing to #17Missouri

#23 South Carolina losing to #22 Florida

#25 Texas A&M losing to Baylor

And

#9 Ohio State POSSIBLY loosing to Penn State

So what does this mean? We move up 1 spot? Here’s the thing about this game, its on ESPN, not ESPN2, or ESPN38, just plain old ESPN and its got the 7:30 time slot which means its pretty much the only game on tv at that time. Expect people to be watching especially as the one Heisman hopeful Colin Kaepernick will be breaking two records.

We will move up at least 1 spot this week, with a big win we could move up more. The way I see it right now, Nevada is better than Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Arizona, and Missouri, which is why I really believe we should be ranked #17 coming into this week. I think with a strong performance against Fresno we could finally get the recognition we deserve.

we could be ranked anywhere from #21-16 come Sunday evening when the BCS rankings are released. In all reality though I see us making a leap to the #18 spot. Now if there’s a crazy week in the top 25 like there was last week, and Nevada wins in commanding fashion, then we could see an even bigger jump, but what happened last week was rare, so lets not focus on that. With a loss this week, it will take nothing short of a win against Boise State to get back in the rankings.

Utah State vs. Nevada recap

National Champs?

In the first half of last night’s game, I saw a team that could be BCS national champions. Ok maybe we shouldn’t take it that far, but I did see a team that could compete against an Auburn, Oregon, Alabama, TCU, or Boise State. It was an amazing display of power and dominance. The defense stood its ground shutting Utah State out. The offense was methodical as always, at times running a 2-quarterback system looking as if it was running drills in practice.

The second half on the other hand was a completely different story. I saw the reemergence of a team that struggled to pull away from San Jose State, unlv, and who eventually lost to Hawaii. That team wouldn’t stand a chance against any of the aforementioned national championship candidates. We hadn’t given up 42 points all season, and the fact that we gave up everyone of those points in the 2^nd half was flat out embarrassing.

I highly doubt any coach on our staff went into the locker room at halftime and used the word “content”, but that seemed to be the motto of the defense. The Aggies had 6 possessions and had 6 touchdowns. Our offense slowed as we were finally forced to punt in the game. Our special teams gave up a return for 6. I can go on and on about how poorly we played in the second half but I won’t.

I can only hope that the players realize that what they did in the 2^nd half was unacceptable. I am sure the coaches will preach it, but the players need to act on it. This was a game that should have ended 77-0, It’s a game that should have reestablished us as a threat to Boise St, but it didn’t.

The only thing more disgraceful than our second half was our fans. To say the stadium was empty was an understatement. I can understand that a lot of our fans have kids and last night was the night to take your kids trick-or-treating, but last I checked students don’t go trick-or-treating anymore. At the start of the game there might have been 100 students in the student section, and at half that number dropped to 45. Now this is a blog and I’m protected by the 1^st Amendment (I hope) so this goes to the students:

To the girls who would have rather gone out dressed like naughty schoolgirls and bad cops, And to the guys that decided it was more important to be Jack Sparrow or a giant penis…Please never show your face at another game. You are not a fan of football, you are a fan of social events. Burn your Nevada clothing because you don’t deserve to wear them. To the 3 girls sitting behind me who were chanting “Come on Collin!” when Tyler Lantrip was our quarterback, please attend your math 101 classes and learn the difference between the number 10, and the number 16. Furthermore the only thing that has continued to disappoint me about The University of Nevada is our sub-mediocre fan base, you say how horrible we are as a team, and then you say we’re great, then we lose a game and nobody comes to the games. How about you refrain from saying anything about the team, and how good or bad we are unless you actually come to the games and learn a thing or two.

Week 9 Ranking Implications

So after a week off in the ranking pictures, Nevada is ranked again coming in at #24. Just to put that into perspective, had Nevada have beaten Hawaii, most likely they would have been sitting at #15 this week. But what happened happened and it’s time to start moving up the ladder again. I see 2 teams ahead of us losing:

#18 Iowa losing to #5 Michigan Stat

#14 Nebraska losing to #6 Missouri

This means a jump of 2 spots to #22, but it could get better. The BCS rankings take into account the AP and the coaches’ polls and right now we sit at #26 in both of those. With a quality win this weekend we could be thrust up to #24 or 23 in those rankings which means we cold leapfrog #23 Virginia Tech who is idle this week. Depending on how well the team plays, meaning we have to show that we aren’t the same team that played the last 3 games, we could even sit as high as number #20.

Look for Nevada to be sitting at #23-20 come Sunday, realistically I’m predicting #21. Without the loss to Hawaii, maybe as high as #13.

Week 7 Ranking Implications

At the end of this weekend the only rankings that matter will be released, the BCS rankings. This might come as a shocker to all of you out there who aren’t familiar with the BCS, but don’t be surprised to see Nevada drop in the rankings. I have 3 teams ahead of us losing this week.

#12 Arkansas losing to #7 Auburn

#15 Iowa losing to Michigan

#18 Wisconsin losing to #1 Ohio State.

So looking at this you might think that those teams are all within our reach of ranking so we will move up 3 spots to #16 in the AP poll and #18 in the USA today poll. This matters a little bit as the BCS system takes this into account, but the other parts of the BCS don’t favor us too well.

Our strength of schedule might be one of the worst in college football this year. Although it did not look to be that way coming into the season, reality is that we are 6-0 against teams with a combined record of 10-23. And 4 of those wins are from D2 school Eastern Washington. Take them out of the picture and our opponents are only 6-21, that’s horrid.

Realistically I’m predicting the following rankings:

AP: 18

USA Today: 19

BCS: 22

I hope I'm wrong about the BCS, but just remember that being ranked at all is an accomplishment in itself. Also remember that this is a tough game and a must-win as is every game from here on out.

First and foremost, congratulations goes out to this Nevada team that has started the season 5-0. At the same time, I’m worried and torn about what to think. Coming into every season the Pack has two goals in mind:

1. Beat unlv
2. Beat Boise St. / Win the WAC (this is usually hand-in-hand)

But this year is different. Coming into this year, if you knew how good this team was, as I had been saying, there was a 3rd goal:

3. Get a BCS game (this is hand-in-hand with beating Boise St. this year, granted we are undefeated going into the game)

This team is more than capable of playing in a BCS game. If you really watched the last 2 games however you would have noticed that we’re not playing up to our full potential. The UNLV game should have never been close. The second half of the BYU game was average. The team needs to go back to playing how they played against Cal. That is Nevada football, and that is what this team needs to not only get that BCS game, but also to beat Boise St.

Remember a few blogs ago when I said we need to “blow out” teams? Well that’s not happening. When it comes down to the BCS computations, we are not going to rank as high as we should because of this. Cal being ranked #24 when we beat them has no relevance anymore as they are 2-2. Furthermore the combined records of the teams we have beaten so far is 8-16. The sad thing is that Division 2 opponent Eastern Washington is contributing 3 of those wins. The Division 1 opponents combined record is only 5-14.

As of now, there are only 4 games remaining against opponents with winning records (>.500), and one of these is Boise St. I can not stress how “perfect” we have to look against these teams. Playing like we have the last 6 quarters will not cut it anymore.

Now you might think I’m being pessimistic towards my team, but I’m not. I have high hopes and high expectations because I know that this is the best team we’ve had in the 8 years I’ve been following this team, and it will the best we have for a while. I am a Nevada fan through and through and have stood by this team through thick and thin. The team needs to stop being content with being ranked and move on to the bigger picture. We need to make this a year that people will talk about for years to come.

Tomorrow: SJSU game preview
Wednesday: Ranking Implications

The Road to The BCS

If you thought getting a BCS game was easy, you were wrong, especially for a team in a non-BCS conference. There are two ways to get this game though if you’re Nevada, 1 of which is unrealistic:

Unrealistic Way

Beat every team from here on out by 50 or more points, with the exception of Boise St.
Have the #1 Offense in the country.
Have the #1 Defense in the country.
We will beat a few teams by 50 this season, but not everyone from here on out. And honestly having the #1 defense in the country just will not happen.

Realistic Way

1. If you’re not a Boise St. fan by now, become one…until November 26th that is. Boise St. needs to be undefeated when they come into Reno. Then we have to beat them, which this team is very capable of doing. If we don’t win this game, it needs to be close; I’m talking a loss by 3-7 points at max.

2. Hope that Colorado State finishes the season .500 at least.

3. Realize that Cal was a good team and were picked as a legitimate team to play in the Rose Bowl this year. As of now they have 5 top 25 ranked teams left to play this season, they need to win 3 of those and they need to finish the season 8-4 at least.

4. Get lucky. There has to be some key losses by teams ranked ahead of us. After week 5, it gets real hard to move up if everyone ahead of you keeps winning. Just because we’re undefeated doesn’t mean we will leap frog a 1-loss team from the SEC, ACC, or Big Ten.

The BCS rankings have just as much to do with what you do as it does with what the teams you beat do. If Cal and Colorado go sub .500 on the season, the validity of our win diminishes, we also need to pray for UNLV to some how start winning games after we beat them (maybe that should have gone in the unrealistic scenario).

We don’t have to go undefeated to get that BCS game but if we do you can consider it almost a guarantee. We got lucky to get the schedule we got this year, now we just have to capitalize on it. With the exception of the 3 key games I will discuss below, we should be heavy favorites to win the rest, and we need to win by more than what we’re expected to win by. If we’re the favorites by 21 going into a game, winning by 14 is unacceptable; we need to win by 21 or more.

If we get that BCS game, please don’t get mad that it will most likely be against TCU…I guess that’s still a BCS game right?

Key Games

If you thought the rest of the schedule was a cake walk between Cal and Boise St. you’re wrong. There are 4 key games which could kill any chance we have. I urge you not to overlook these teams.

1. Beat BYU this coming weekend. If this game were in Reno, I wouldn’t be so worried about it but its not. This BYU team has not put up great numbers as of late and has lost their last 2 games. Those last two games however were against quality opponents and on the road. Provo is a tough place to play, and their fans are loud. If we don’t win this game, it will be extremely difficult to get the game we want.

3. Win on the island. Playing at Hawaii is not an easy task. Regardless of how much Hawaii has been struggling, they can easily pull out a win on their home turf.

4. Win in the valley. Playing Fresno is a tough task. This team is good and if you didn’t know they are on the verge of being ranked as well. I’m seeing this team being undefeated come November 13th. We don’t win this game and we’re done.

5. Beat Boise. This is something I have never experienced and if you ask me, now is the time. Going into this game we could be ranked as high as #9, losing this game puts us out of the top 10, which means no BCS. Winning and we could be sitting at #6 come selection day. The funny thing is Boise St. might still be ranked ahead of us if they lose. I can see us sitting at #7 and them at #6, or us at #6 and them at #5. If that happens hope the BCS doesn’t shaft us by putting us in a BCS game against Boise St. Could that happen? Well they shafted Boise St. and TCU last year and put them in a BCS game against each other. The BCS doesn’t want to see a non-BCS team beat a BCS team.