Bears, Utes used to winning ways

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Offensive tackle Mike Tepper counts as a unique figure on this year's Cal football team, in ways beyond his size, loquaciousness and status as a sixth-year senior. Tepper also is the only member of these Bears to lose a bowl game.

It happened here in San Diego, when Texas Tech flattened Cal in the 2004 Holiday Bowl. Tepper vividly remembers the feeling, so he gathered his teammates during practice last week in Berkeley and implored them to treat tonight's Poinsettia Bowl with urgency.

"That sour taste in your mouth is the worst thing in the world, 10 times worse than spinach or whatever vegetable you hate," Tepper said. "You lose a bowl game and your offseason is terrible. All the coaches do is rag on you."

The Bears (8-4) face a sizable challenge in avoiding the ragging, despite falling into a low-profile bowl. They meet No. 23 Utah, which sports a splashy 22-3 record over the past two seasons - 13-0 last year, capped by a Sugar Bowl thumping of Alabama, and 9-3 this year.

The Utes also arrive with the nation's longest active bowl win streak, at eight games. Cal counters with bowl wins in each of the past four years, from the Las Vegas (over BYU) and Holiday (Texas A&M) to the Armed Forces (Air Force) and Emerald (Miami).

Linebacker Mike Mohamed acknowledged the Bears talked about Utah's streak the past several days, adding an extra layer of motivation. Cal also finds incentive in ending its strange, up-and-down season on a strong note, after playing miserably in losing its regular-season finale 42-10 to Washington.

Senior cornerback Syd'Quan Thompson, whose status for tonight's game is in doubt because of a nagging sprained ankle, doesn't pay much attention to Utah's streak. But Thompson is fully aware of Cal's bowl record since he arrived in 2005 from Grant High in Sacramento.

"I just want to be undefeated in bowl games myself," Thompson said. "This is my senior season and I haven't lost a bowl game since I've been here - and I don't plan on losing one."

The Bears could use Thompson, because Utah boasts an all-Mountain West Conference wide receiver in David Reed (75 catches, 1,085 yards). The Utes also have a 1,000-yard rusher in tailback Eddie Wide, giving true freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn ample help.

Most troubling for Cal, maybe, is Utah's style - the Utes run the spread-option offense, routinely setting up in the shotgun formation with one running back (or an empty backfield) and three or four wide receivers. Sound familiar? Oregon used the spread-option to shred the Bears on Sept. 26, gaining 524 yards of total offense in a resounding 42-3 victory.

Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory did not seem to wince as he made the Oregon comparison, insisting his team is equipped to handle Utah's speed - even when it's scattered all over the field.

"We've actually played pretty decently against that type of offense in the past," Gregory said. "We just didn't play very well the last time. ... It's all about us and making sure we execute our technique fast."

It's hard to know what to expect from Cal, given its dual personality in 2009. The Bears probably played their two best games of the season in November, smothering Arizona at home (24-16) and marching downfield, time after ruthless time, in beating Stanford in the Big Game (34-28).

And then, against Washington, they couldn't do anything right. In some ways, the 42-10 loss was a fitting end to a regular season unlike any other since Jeff Tedford took over in 2002.

"We've done some good things this year - and we've done some really bad things," quarterback Kevin Riley said.

Or, as tailback Shane Vereen said, "I think this bowl game will have a lot to do with how we remember the season."

Briefly: Numerical proof tonight's game isn't generating much buzz: Bowl officials expect a crowd between 30,000 and 35,000 at Qualcomm Stadium, where capacity is nearly 70,000. ... Four seniors - Tepper, Thompson, defensive tackle Tyson Alualu and wide receiver Verran Tucker - landed invitations to play in the East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 23 in Orlando. ... Cornerback Josh Hill will miss tonight's game because of a shoulder injury and probably will need offseason surgery.
Cal today


Story line:

Which team will show up, the mighty Bears or the meek version? Cal won four games this season by 19 points or more - and lost four others by 17 points or more. Coach Jeff Tedford's teams historically perform well in bowl games, with wins each of the past four years. But Utah owns an even longer streak: eight consecutive bowl victories (including four under current head coach Kyle Whittingham). The Utes savor any chance to play a Pac-10 opponent and will no doubt show up ready to play. It's hard to tell with the Bears: Will they bring their "A game" or will they show their disappointment in falling to a lower-tier bowl?

Injuries: Cal: TB Jahvid Best (concussion), G Matt Summers-Gavin (concussion) and CB Josh Hill (shoulder) are out; CB Syd'Quan Thompson (ankle) is questionable. Utah: DT Kenape Eliapo (virus) and WR John Peel (foot) are expected to play.


What to watch for

-- Cal must figure out a way to combat Utah's spread-option offense. The Bears rank No. 108 in pass defense (out of 120 teams), a problem potentially compounded if Thompson, the Bears' best coverage cornerback, cannot play.

-- Sixteen seniors will end their Cal careers, including eight regular starters: Thompson, defensive lineman Tyson Alualu, linebacker Devin Bishop, fullback Brian Holley, safety Brett Johnson, offensive tackle Mike Tepper, wide receiver Verran Tucker and linebacker Eddie Young.

-- Four defensive players for Utah have Bay Area connections: Eliapo (South San Francisco High), defensive end Koa Misi (Montgomery-Santa Rosa), linebacker Mo Neal (San Leandro High) and defensive tackle Joape Pela (Mountain View High/Foothill JC).

-- Tailback Shane Vereen needs 170 yards rushing to extend Cal's seven-season streak of 1,000-yard rushers.


Bowl of victories

Since Jeff Tedford became coach, Cal has played postseason games every season but his first, compiling a bowl record of 5-1. The results:

2008 Emerald Bowl: Beat Miami 24-17

2007 Armed Forces Bowl: Beat Air Force 42-36

2006 Holiday Bowl: Beat Texas A&M 45-10

2005 Las Vegas Bowl: Beat BYU 35-28

2004 Holiday Bowl: Lost to Texas Tech 45-31

2003 Insight Bowl: Beat Virginia Tech 52-49

 

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Utah in Poinsettia Bowl

SAN DIEGO ? Cal left tackle Mike Tepper is one of 226 players on the rosters for the Poinsettia Bowl. He's the only one of the 226 who knows what it's like to end a major-college football season with a loss.

When Cal meets No. 23 Utah today in the Poinsettia Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium, it will feature two programs that have this bowl thing down. The Utes have a nation-best eight-game winning streak in bowl games, while the Bears have won four in a row and five of six.

Only Tepper, a sixth-year senior, was around to experience the feeling of carrying a loss into the offseason. Tepper was a redshirt in 2004 when Cal lost to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl.

"That sour taste in your mouth is the worst thing in the world ? worse than spinach," Tepper said. "Whatever vegetable you hate, it's ten times worse."

Tepper knows better than any Cal player the importance of ending the season positively, because he's the only one who's experienced the alternative. Punctuating the season with a bowl win sets the tone for the offseason, helps recruiting and, in this season's case, can erase the sting of a previous loss.

"Some of us talked about this being kind of like the first game of next season," Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed said. "It really gives you momentum going into spring workouts. With a loss, you're going to have that bad taste in your mouth. You're going to have to wait until August or September to get back on to the field. I think it's really important to go out on a good note."

During conditioning before a recent practice, Tepper talked to the team about the Holiday Bowl loss.

"Tepper said losing to Texas Tech was the worst feeling in the world to end your season on that note," Cal fullback Brian Holley said. "It brings you down for the rest of the offseason. I never put it in perspective like that. It adds a little more to it."

A loss tonight might sting even more for the Bears since they ended the regular season with a 42-10 thud at Washington. In a season in which many picked Cal as a Pac-10 contender, the Poinsettia Bowl might seem like a consolation prize. But the Bears say any concern of a letdown is mitigated by their performance against the Huskies.

"We put the Washington game behind us, but we didn't forget about it," Holley said. "It wasn't a great effort on our part. We don't want to end our season on that kind of note. The team is really amped up to get this victory ? to go out and put it all together one last time."

Ending the season strongly also can have recruiting implications. Recruits who desire to play for a national-level program with hope for the future could be turned off if a team ends the season with a whimper and well out of the national rankings. Cal has won a few notable recruiting battles in recent weeks and could make even more of an impact with a strong finish.

"Winning football games is a big deal because perception of the recruits and what you're doing here makes a big difference," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "It's always important to finish strong for a lot of reasons, but recruiting definitely is one of them."

Cal's ability to finish the season successfully will depend on which team shows up. The Bears have eight wins, including two over ranked teams, but also have been blown out in each of their four losses.

"They've been up and down all season long, but we fully expect them to come out and play as well as they have all season," Utah left tackle Zane Beadles said. "That's what we are preparing for. That's really all we can do. We can't bank on them coming out and having an off day."

 

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Kragthorpe: Extending Utes' bowl run hinges on stopping run


The defeats resonate much more than the victories, so the images of Oregon's LaMichael James and Texas Christian's stable of backs running through his defense are seared into the mind of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham.

Next: California's Shane Vereen, facing the Utes in the Poinsettia Bowl.

If there's a theme in Utah's run of eight bowl victories, it is the defense's ability to stop the opponent's running game. It happened in last season's Sugar Bowl, when the Utes contained Alabama's Glen Coffee and Mark Ingram, who now owns a Heisman Trophy.

Navy rushed for 316 yards in a 35-32 loss to the Utah in the 2007 Poinsettia Bowl, but that's forgivable because running is all the Midshipmen do. Nothing resembling a conventional scheme has succeeded against the Utes in the postseason since 1996, when Wisconsin freshman Ron Dayne pounded his way to 246 yards in the Copper Bowl.

That's also the last time the Utes lost a bowl game. Nobody other than Navy has managed to sustain much of a running game against the Utes in December or January, beginning in 1999 with Fresno State and continuing with the likes of USC, Georgia Tech and Alabama.

It is disconcerting to Whittingham that the Utes rank only 57th in the country in rushing defense this year, allowing 141 yards a game. "It's been spotty," he said. "We've been good some weeks, and some weeks not so good. We need to be more consistent."

Big running plays have hurt the Utes more than usual, beginning with a 96-yard burst by Utah State's Robert Turbin in the opener. TCU's 342 yards and Oregon's 217 yards skewed Utah's statistics, and the consolation is that those teams have diverse schemes with running quarterbacks. Cal is different.

As designed by coach Jeff Tedford, the Bears' approach is a more of a pro-style, straightforward scheme that lines up and dares a defense to stop it, or else Cal will just keep running. That helps explain why the Bears average 29 points, yet scored a total of 30 points in their four Pac-10 losses. When they could not run, they were done.

And stopping the run is entirely the issue for Utah against Cal, even with the Bears missing onetime Heisman contender Jahvid Best, who's sidelined by a concussion.

"Critical, very critical," Whittingham said. "They've got a nice running attack, and we've got to be ready. The other guy is very capable. There's not much dropoff between the two."

Best's replacement is Vereen, who rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns against Stanford. Vereen carried the ball 42 times that day, and Cal offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig will feed him that much if he's having similar success against the Utes.

Ludwig also knows that's unlikely, having spent the previous four years scrimmaging against Utah's defense in April and August as the Utes' offensive coordinator. He also directed offenses for Fresno State and Oregon that averaged 15 points in two games against Ute defenses coached by Whittingham, while struggling to run the ball.

The way the Utes commit an extra defender to stopping the run and compensate with man-to-man coverage in the secondary, "You have to run the ball into a loaded box and win the one-on-one matchups on the outside," Ludwig said.

And anyone watching this game can likely gauge the outcome by what happens on first downs. If Vereen consistently runs well to start a series, Cal could join Oregon, TCU and BYU as teams that beat the Utes in 2009. If not, the Bears will be added to the long list of Utah's bowl victims.

 

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Utes : Team feels ready to play


Aside from a walk-through this afternoon at Qualcomm Stadium, the Utah Utes have wrapped up preparations for Wednesday's Poinsettia Bowl game against California.

"I think we had a very good practice today," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who noted that his team moved around well with good focus and concentration.

Monday morning's two-hour session at San Diego State's football facility capped things for Utah's graduating seniors.

"I'm just in shock. I really don't know how to take it. It's just weird," linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said after his final practice with the Utes. "It's crazy right now just to realize that I won't be having this No. 10 jersey on."

Sylvester vows to cherish the time he has left with his brothers on the team.

"We had a lot of fun today," he said.

Fellow captain Zane Beadles acknowledged it was a good day on the practice field. The pace, he noted, was up-tempo.

As such, the senior isn't slowing down to reminisce.

"I've got one thing on my mind and that's winning this ball game," Beadles said. "I'll have time to think about this down the road. But right now, it's all ball."

Utah is seeking to extend the nation's longest bowl winning streak to nine games.


"We're always ready to roll," Sylvester said. "At this point we're just frustrated because it's taking so long. We're ready to go."

Having experienced half of the bowl run ? the first as a redshirt and the past three as a starter at left tackle ? Beadles likes where the Utes are as the game approaches.

"I think it's right on track with all the other ones. I think our guys are ready to go," he said. "They've got their minds in the right place. We've had a good time down here, but we're ready to play a ball game."

Beadles and Sylvester are among a group of 24 seniors (including injured running back Matt Asiata, who may petition the NCAA for another year of eligibility) on the team.

Whittingham said their final practice was somewhat emotional ? more so for some than others.

Many of the seniors will be playing their final football game. Others, like defensive end and captain Koa Misi, will pursue NFL careers.

The entire class, however, shares a common goal ? another bowl victory.

"It would be nice," Misi said of continuing the win streak. "Hopefully we keep that going."