LeonPowe: Despite the turnovers and general lack of tackling we were right there at the end. And if Webb doesn't throw high - that's a win. He had Hansen right there. Ugh. We can obviously throw the ball. And I think we can run the ball. The defense was bad, but they honestly gave us a chance - after the half they settled down until Pumphery got going again. It reminded me of 2014 not 2013 - where the guys were in the right space but just missed the tackle - unlike 2013 where we were just beat and had to chase guys. Seems like a small difference but 2014 gives slight hope.

Hansen, Robertson, Looney (the d line was playing well - the linebackers weren't. And the defensive backs covered well, but tackled poorly) Rubenzer continues to be a ball hawk. Enwere.

boomtho: Biggest positive for me was probably the offense, starting with Davis Webb. He obviously missed some throws but his deep ball definitely exceeded my expectations and he spread the ball around nicely. Chad Hansen obviously looks like a rockstar, and it's nice to get contributions from guys like Wharton, Rivera, and Worstell. And hey, Demetris had 4 catches, so great to get him contributing a bit more.

I also thought Vic ran welll, though his reps were limited probably more than we would like given game flow.

At a more macro level, the team showed a ton of fight in clawing back from the big deficit. That character will definitely serve us well this year.

Andy Johnston: Vic Enwere. I thought the ground game as a whole was impressive but Vic stood out as he continued to break tackles on nearly every touch. He averaged nearly eight yards a carry and provided a run threat sorely missed last season.

Avinash: This Cal defense is in full Bob Gregory mode, and that's not a bad thing! Give up play after play after play, miss tackle after tackle after tackle, and somehow at the end of the day they stiffen, get a few timely turnovers, and only allow 24 points in all. That is a very solid performance for a team lacking any depth at LB, missing a good DT, and having two young safeties. If the Bears can take a two or three score lead on a few teams and force the opposition into a pass-heavy offense, that should play into the strength of our squad (the secondary) and take the onus off our linebackers. Unfortunately turnovers took away that opportunity.

Nik Jam: If the offense can stop shooting themselves in the foot, they can put themselves in any game this season. Also, the defense did sometimes come through with stops. It'll be a big factor if they can force some empty possessions against Texas.

The best thing about this Cal football season is one of our own has returned to Bear Territory. BEAST MODE IS BEST MODE.

Marshawn Lynch sold some Lynch-centered Cal merchandise during Cal’s trip to Australia, and now he’s launching his BeastMode collection in partnership with Cal to produce Golden Bear gear. His merchandise will be sold at the Cal-Texas game and should be available online at the Cal Bookstore soon. You can also go to the game and buy some of his products at Memorial Stadium. You can also go to Lynch’s store in Oakland or go to his website to see what you’re looking for.

Proceeds from BeastMode Apparel will go to benefit Marshawn’s foundation, Fam 1st, which is dedicated to improving children’s literacy, education, and self-esteem.

The full set of Marshawn Cal related apparel can be found online by clicking here.

Here is more on the official announcement.

The University of California Athletic Department and BeastMode Apparel, LLC., owned by former Cal football star Marshawn Lynch, today announced the launch of a new co-branded merchandise collection. All products have been officially licensed through the Collegiate Licensing Company, Cal’s exclusive licensing agency. The Cal/BeastMode Collection will include T-shirts, fleece, headwear, and various gift items featuring popular Cal logos paired with the fashion-forward BeastMode brand.

Cal is donating all royalties from the sale of Cal/BeastMode merchandise to support the Fam 1st Family Foundation, an organization founded by Lynch and NFL quarterback Joshua Johnson to improve the lives of children by mentoring them on the importance of education, literacy and self-esteem.

“Marshawn Lynch is an iconic member of the Cal family, and he has been a great supporter of Cal Athletics and the University,” said Dan Perkins, Cal’s trademark licensing director. “We are excited to partner with BeastMode to create this exclusive collection for our fans. We’re proud to help support Fam 1st Family Foundation with its educational mission, which is a mission so closely aligned with our own.”

The Collection will be available for sale at the Cal bookstore and in the stadium to coincide with Cal’s football home opener against Texas on September 17. It will also be available online at the Cal bookstore and the BeastMode online store, http://www.beastmodeonline.com. Cal/BeastMode will also be available at the BeastMode stores in Oakland.

“The Cal brand represents a uniqueness, creativity, and freedom to be who you are that aligns with BeastMode,”said Marshawn Lynch, BeastMode founder. “Cal is and always will be a special place to me – the best of the best – and I’m glad I could work with them to bring this collection to the fans and help support my foundation."

To support the new Cal/BeastMode Collection, Cal and CLC will be launching several promotions via social media and at upcoming Cal football games with opportunities to connect Cal fans with BeastMode and Marshawn Lynch. Promotional and product details will be available soon at calbears.com.

As has been discussed ad infinitum on this site, Cal has a bit of an athletic debt they'd like to get rid of as quickly as possible. So they have done whatever they can to reduce it year-by-year.

The latest endeavor has been neutral site games, which sound more and more like they will become an inevitability every year until debts are paid. Cal is set to earn a million dollars from their trip to Australia.

Jon Wilner has more on the financial details, which are encouragingly friendly to the Bears.

A home football game against a Sacramento State, Portland State or UC Davis generates a negligible profit. Ticket revenue is usually in the high six figures, but it's largely offset by game-day operating expenses and the whopping guarantee required by the opponent — often more than $400,000.

...

The paycheck Cal secured for playing in Sydney is well in excess of $1 million. The Bears are guaranteed a seven-figure profit from the experience, even when all expenses are factored into the calculation.

Those expenses, by the way, include travel and the cost of cancelling the home game that had been scheduled before the Hawaii game materialized.

Considering how the Bears break even on FCS contests, does that mean more of these neutral games are now just an inevitability? The opportunity is there for Cal to cash in and keep moving faster to recoup costs.

Neutral site games have proven to make a lot of money for major college football programs thanks to TV money, so it seems inevitable that Cal will start signing up for more major games in NFL stadiums if they can do it. Whether it be in Australia, or Santa Clara, or maybe the new NFL stadium in Los Angeles, or elsewhere throughout the nation, Cal is likely to sign up for these one-and-dones if they can recoup costs.

While the experience will be financially beneficial for Cal Athletics, it probably will not encourage fan growth. And let's face it, neutral games will more often than not be strictly neutral. Cal fans are not likely to travel in huge numbers to sites outside the state of California. We saw how difficult it was for Golden Bears to even fill up games close to Berkeley in Santa Clara and San Francisco (in AT&T Park and Candlestick).

Cal fans, your thoughts on the potential for more neutral site games?

The Associated Press released their Top 100 football programs in the 80 years that they’ve been ranking said programs. The California Golden Bears came in at #45, which is somewhat mediocre. Here’s the methodology used to assemble the rankings:

To determine the all-time Top 25, the AP formula counted poll appearances (one point) to mark consistency, No. 1 rankings (two points) to acknowledge elite programs and gave a bonus for AP championships (10 points).

The Golden Bears earned 199 of these points, compared to 1,112 by the #1 team (who doesn’t need to be named here because Go Bears, duh). Garnering less than 18% of their points feels even more underwhelming than that 45th ranking.

Here’s the Pac-12 breakdown:

Nat'l rank	P12 rank	School	Points
5	1	USC	974
17	2	UC L.A.	535
20	3	Wash	430
27	4	Colorado	316
28	5	Oregon	293
30	6	ASU	284
32	7	Stanfurd	272
45	8	Cal	199
54	9	Arizona	168
59	10	WSU	129
64	11	Utah	100
65	12	OSU	95

The bad news gets worse with Cal ranking in the lower half of the conference...

Unfortunately, the AP started ranking teams a full decade after The Wonder Teams of Andy Smith (and four of our five national championships) or Cal would have been likely been ranked a tad higher.

As mentioned yesterday, Austin Aaron and Carlos Strickland have left the Cal football program. Strickland made the decision to move back to a team that is closer to Texas so he can be with his ailing grandfather more often, and Aaron retired of his own volition.

Sonny Dykes had this to say about Austin Aaron’s retirements.

Best of luck Austin!

Two other Golden Bears are leaving the program. Caleb Coleman is retiring due to concussions. We wish him the best of luck healing up from his injuries.

Cal does have a deep secondary, so Coleman’s loss won’t hurt the Bears too much on the field. Cameron Walker and Trey Turner are expected to duel it out for nickelback snaps. Coleman had a few nice moments for the Bears, particularly against Oregon State.

Additionally, offensive lineman Michael Trani has medically retired due to back issues. Trani was unable to play a single snap at Cal since signing with the Bears in 2014 due to his injury problems. Trani was not mentioned on the depth chart, so this is to be expected.

One injury note: A.J. Greathouse had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago. He’ll be out for several weeks but is expected to return to the team soon.

#TTU graduate transfer Davis Webb is named #Cal's starting quarterback https://t.co/eN3Nw5Ew0P

— Scout Recruiting (@scoutrecruiting) August 4, 2016

The saga of former Tech QB Davis Webb continues as he was named the new starting QB at Cal. This morning Cal head coach Sonny Dykes confirmed Webb will take over for No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Jared Goff.

The new Cal QB was named to the Maxwell Award Watch List in June, joining Red Raider Patrick Mahomes. This marks Webb's second appearance on the list along with his sophomore season before 2014. He was also named the top senior quarterback by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr heading into this year's college football season.

For his career Webb has completed 459 of 747 passes (61.4%) for a total of 5,557 yards with 46 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. He has a 138.4 passer efficiency rating for his career having played in 23 games and starting 14 of them.

Good luck this season Davis!

Tweets from @GoldenBlogs/golden-tweeters

It seems like Sonny Dykes doesn’t want to wait too long before announcing his decision. At Bay Area Media Day, Dykes made it clear he wants to have this thing wrapped up as soon as possible so he can get set to preparing for the season. More from Kevin Gemmell of ESPN:

“We’re hoping it happens quickly,” Dykes said. “We’re hoping it’s obvious to all of us quickly. But we’ll decide when we think it’s the best time to decide. It could be five practices in, could be a week in, could be two weeks in. I think the sooner the better for us, but it’s a big decision. It’s a decision that you want to let play out, and it’s an important decision so you have to make sure you have enough credible evidence to base a decision on.”

If you think Dykes is close to a decision, you can go in one or two directions here.

• Cal has a clear favorite coming out of spring camp in most likely Chase Forrest (or potentially Ross Bowers), and they’ll win the job in short order.
• Cal has a clear favorite come into Berkeley in graduate transfer Davis Webb, who should have the skills to be good stop-gap as the Bears transition from the post-Jared Goff era.
• Or the third direction: Dykes is just hoping that the competition resolves itself quickly, and he really doesn’t know which way to lean yet.

I’m not clear of another scenario at the moment. The Cal depth chart is not heavy on details here, giving us a three-way tie between Bowers, Forrest and Webb.

Cal has three weeks of practice (some of them open, come and watch!) before jetsetting to Australia for the season opener on August 26th.

Early thoughts on who the winner of the competition will be?

Here's how Cal's running backs split playing time last season:

Take out Lasco, who's now competing for playing time with the New Orleans Saints, and you've got a pretty good idea of the Bears' running back corps for 2016. With three upperclassmen sharing the load (not to mention lots of familiar faces returning on the offensive line), this crew has an opportunity to prop up the offense while our new QB and receivers get settled. New offensive coordinator Jake Spavital had a 1000+ yard rusher last year at Texas A&M, so there's hope that this trio will have a major role in the updated Bear Raid scheme.

#5 Tre Watson

We'll go in the order listed on the spring depth chart, although the coaches were careful to note that Tre, Vic, and Khalfani are in a three-way tie for the starting job. Watson really came on towards the end of last season, picking up double-digit carries in each of the last four games and getting involved in the passing game. He's in the middle of the three size-wise (5-10 190 lbs), so he's not a prototypical power guy or a true speedster. He's got a sneaky-good ability to get to the outside though, which could quietly make him a threat for some big plays. I'm expecting him to easily surpass his three touchdown total from last year.

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#23 Vic Enwere

Though he's the biggest and strongest running back of the bunch at 235 lbs, Enwere also has surprising elusiveness that makes him hard to bring down. He's more than just a short yardage guy, but he certainly can fill that role too. If Cal's seasoned O-line can help Enwere power through the middle of the field, he could be the drive-sustaining back the Bears haven't had in recent years. Vic led the team in carries and touchdowns last season, and if his spring game performance is any indication, he's well positioned to do the same this fall.

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#29 Khalfani Muhammad

After sitting out last season's spring practices, it seemed like Khalfani Muhammad might take a backseat to the two younger RBs, but instead he mustered 87 carries and led the team in rushing yardage. Muhammad's track speed is what makes him so dangerous. He gets to open space quickly, which makes him the backfield's best weapon in the passing game. And despite his small frame, checking in at just 170 lbs, he can shed tackles once he gets going. Muhammad's share of carries has fluctuated in past years, so it'll be interesting to see how Coach Spavital uses his unique skillset.

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#28 Patrick Laird

Assuming everyone stays healthy, those top three RBs should carry the load this season. But for a glimpse at the future of Cal's backfield, look out for redshirt sophomore Patrick Laird. Next on the depth chart, the former Mission Prep back joined the team as a preferred walk-on and has been making his presence known in practice. He dominated the spring game with 54 yards and two TDs on 10 carries. We'll see if that performance is enough to earn him playing time in an already crowded backfield. Behind Laird on the spring depth chart are redshirt frosh Alex Netherda and Billy McCrary III, junior Fabiano Hale, and early-enrollee Derrick Clark.

Early Vegas lines were released!

Cal is underdogs in all the games mentioned.

A quick look at all the early lines.

Cal 5.5 point underdogs to San Diego State. This is the whopper of all the lines. The Aztecs being nearly touchdown favorites at home seems a bit extreme at this moment, but I guess the Bears are a bit of an unknown commodity at this point.

Cal 2.5 point underdogs to Texas. That Cal is a bigger underdog to San Diego State rather than Texas gives you an idea as to how weird the state of all these programs is right now.

Cal 12.5 point underdogs to Stanford. So Vegas at this point thinks Stanford is still going to be very very good. I'm not quite buying that yet, but 12.5 point seems like a bit. The Bears have been beaten by three scores or more the last three meetings against Stanford, but things should change at home, right?

Cal 7.5 point underdogs to UCLA. This is about the fairest of all the lines. Cal is probably ten points worse than UCLA on paper, but you have to account for not only Cal's homefield advantage but the inability for the Bruins to ever play well in Memorial.

What are your thoughts on all the early lines?