Yup - it no longer feels like the season is a waste trying to tread water until we can recruit a QB, etc. This season is now officially Heard's development year, and the fun will be seeing how he and the team progresses over the course of the season. Going into yesterday's game, I thought there was a really good chance we would be 1-5 after OU. Now, I think we have a chance to be at least competitive in some of those games, especially with how TCU and OU's defenses looked.
A couple of years ago I would have been upset after the loss. Now I am just so happy it looks like we have a quarterback. We have had so many teams that were held without one. Unfortunately the defense is not what it has been in most of these years without a quarterback, but just another year and a recruit or two might fix that. Heard seems like he has all the tools. Equally impressive he made many fewer mistakes than any other beginning quarterback since Colt McCoy. His decision making was almost flawless.
Goff is the real deal. Best prospect I've seen since Luck... But that's just personal opinion. Best to me as in skills, qualities, and mental attributes to make that transition. But to each their own. Here's a great summary post the UT game. http://mweb.cbssports.com/nfl/draft...-dazzles-vs-texas-makes-case-for-no-1-overall
As a Cal alumni I take little solace from this win. Cal secondary is still a joke and this game shouldn't have been this close. I will tip my hat to Heard he played great in the comeback and looks like a decent QB. That said Cal's secondary can make almost any Divison I QB look like Aaron Rodgers.
What was the deal with the punting? Does Cal not have a punter? Some of the pooch punts by the QB made sense, but some of them seemed ill-advised.
I don't know if Cal's punter is hurt or just bad but I think it's a deliberate part of the Sonny Dykes strategy. He has gone 4th and long and wants to keep the other team guessing. Also with how crappy the D is and how fast the offense works field position isn't a big issue.
Are your fans always as classless as they were at the game last night? They cheered twice when a UT player got hurt. Pathetic. And that doesn't even include acts by the players on the field.
Bridgewater and Winston were both better prospects than Goff... Goff wont slide though because people made a mistake passing on teddy
I wasn't at the game so I can't say what happened but are you sure they were clapping for UT player injuries? Maybe it was just timing as they were cheering for a play that happened to cause an injury? That said there are jerks among all fan bases but I can't recall from any of the CAL games I've been to of fans cheering for the injury of a player. As far as the acts of the players on the field I didn't see anything beyond usual player intensity on both sides. Goff and other Cal players did appear to be upset when it looked like one of the Longhorns was faking an injury to prevent a 12 man on the field penalty. http://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/texas-fake-injury-cal-video/274606 For the facemask on Heard you could see right after the play that the Cal player, was upset for what he had done. At the end of the game it didn't seem like there were any hard feelings when both teams were mingling.
They didn't even do the QB punts right. They kept kicking out of bounds. You're supposed to kick it midfield, so you get the roll without a returner back there. I think Randall Cunningham had the record long punt that way with the Eagles once.
There are lots of schools that travel well - Ole Miss' and West Virginia's visits to DKR in recent years come to mind specifically. But even if those fans were obnoxious at times, they were never classless. There was one instance where it did not look like a real injury, and Cal fans booed. That's fine. Another time, a UT player was actually hurt, and Cal fans cheered quite loudly while the rest of the stadium was quiet. As far as the face mask play, there is absolutely no excuse to twist a player's helmet that violently. The only reason for doing that is to injure the player.
As I said I wasn't there so I can't say what happened. I've been to several Cal road games as recently as last year and I don't recall Cal fans cheering for the injury of an opposing player even when it's been against a hated rival like Stanford or USC. Especially doing so in the other team's home stadium. Also I had a few friends who were at the game and I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have done that. As far as the face mask I agree it was a dangerous play and I wouldn't object if the NCAA leveled a fine for it. That said looking at what happened right after it's very clear that Loney was upset for doing it. Further even the commentators said it wasn't intentional.
It looks like the Longhorns lost more than just the game. http://www.californiagoldenblogs.co...alifornia-golden-bears-jersey-texas-longhorns
And now we find out that the guy who was apparently faking injury actually seriously hurt his shoulder. http://texas.247sports.com/Bolt/Report-Texas-freshman-LB-Edwin-Freeman-out-6-8-weeks-39620934
Well I hope he gets better soon. That said you have to admit it looked very awkward the way he looked confused out there on the play and then started to walk across the line of scrimmage only to suddenly fall on his back. Anyway it's not just CAL players and fans who thought it was suspicious as the link I posted is from Larry Brown sports. Consider too if it was another team's player and UT was driving downfield quickly. I doubt UT players and fans wouldn't have been suspicious. Also this isn't the first time that odd injuries have happened with Northwestern players seemingly dropping over to slow down CAL drives last year. For that matter 5 years ago against Oregon some CAL defense players seemingly dropped for no reason during Oregon drives. The PAC-12 fined Cal over that.
It was a fun game to attend. Half the stadium thought the XP was good. Epic comeback to someone just completely taking a stab at everyones happiness. Oh well. Heard looked great, it didn't even feel like he had 500+ total yards of offense, but I'm glad the Horns have someone & something to build on. That's more than we can say for the last 2-3 years even if it is just one game.
