There is no one subject more hotly discussed among Cal football fans than Jeff Tedford’s decision to stick with his beleaguered and injured quarterback Nate Longshore. And, it’s not just the fans who have been disturbed. I’ve heard from a reliable source that many of the players hoped he’d make the shift to redshirt freshman Kevin Riley. I asked Tedford, in an one-on-one conversation before Thursday’s media lunch, whether any players had come to him directly.
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Because Billy Beane made the kind of trade Brian Sabean should have made, the A’s have a much better chance of returning to the postseason race in the near future than the G
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The 49ers are falling apart as a team and as an organization, but there may be a saving grace for fans: Their troubles may finally force the Yorks to sell the team.When the DeBartolo corporation was split up, Denise DeBartolo York got the 49ers and brother Eddie got Simon DeBartolo stock. Denise was never excited about owning the team, and it probably doesn’t make her happier to see her profligate brother becoming super-rich as the price of his stock has risen dramatically.
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In the debate over the future of 49ers coach Mike Nolan, this is the key question: How stupid are the Yorks?
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The Raiders may not win another game this season, but, for the first time in five years, there is hope for the future because Lane Kiffin has taken firm charge as coach.
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The Cal football team has one more chance to redeem itself, in the Armed Forces Bowl. After the Bears’ listless performance in the Big Game, I doubt they can do it.
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We may never know which team is really the best in college football this year, and isn’t that wonderful?Well, not to the couch potatoes who apparently can’t sleep if they don’t know who’s No. 1, nor to the lunkheads in the media who keep hammering at the nation’s university presidents and chancellors to put in a playoff system.
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One of these years, the Big Game will revert to the competitive rivalry it once was, but not this year. Cal will win again, probably by a lopsided margin.The Big Game has had a couple of strange stretches over the last 12 years. First, Tyrone Willingham reeled off seven straight wins, though that should come with an asterisk because he had Tom Holmoe on the other sideline for six of those wins — the first year as a coordinator of nearly the worst defense in the country and the last five as an equally inept head coach.
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Mike Nolan is a dead man walking, but firing the coach isn’t enough to fix the 49ers. Owner John York also needs to get significant help for the front office. Of those currently making key football decisions, York should keep only personnel chief Scot McCloughan, who has done a good job of assembling talent. Otherwise, the 49ers are short in the front office. Val Heneghan, an NFL veteran, is chiefly a salary-cap expert. York is giving his son Jed a chance to gain experience, working on various projects, but Jed is too young and inexperienced to make football decisions.
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Mike Nolan’s benching of Alex Smith is a move he should have made before, but at least it now gives his quarterback a chance to have a good NFL career.Earlier, Nolan had insisted that Smith’s separated shoulder hasn’t affected his throwing, but Smith admitted the obvious this week: He’s been in considerable pain and his shoulder and forearm injuries have seriously affected his accuracy.
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Even the Raider Nation is catching on after their ingenious team found still another way to lose against the Chicago Bears.Much of the Raiders’ fan base has remained remarkably loyal, or remarkably stupid, believing that Al Davis still knows what he’s doing, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.But the booing has been loud and frequent at McAfee Coliseum this season. It started in the first quarter Sunday, as the so-called offense started a game-long stutter that left the Raiders with less than 200 yards.
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As the Cal-Southern Cal showdown approaches, Jeff Tedford is still in denial about his quarterback.We all know the story. Nate Longshore injured his ankle against Oregon and missed the next game, the Bears’ first loss of the season. He came back the next week, but he’s been obviously hobbled. In each of the last three games, he’s played well in the first half but as his ankle stiffened in the second half, he’s become more tentative and unable to step into his throws, resulting in critical interceptions.
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The Raiders bill themselves as The Team of the Decades but since they got to the Super Bowl after the 2002 season, this has been a lost decade. They got blown out in the Super Bowl and since have gone 17-55, worst in the NFL. Even more telling, teams that have had comparable season records have rebounded. The Raiders, San Diego Chargers and New York Giants were all 4-12 in 2003, but the Chargers went 14-2 last season and the Giants are 6-2 this season. In 2004, the Raiders and Chicago Bears were both 5-11; last year, the Bears were in the Super Bowl.
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As Barry Bonds neared the career home run mark of Henry Aaron this year, many writers happily speculated that Bonds wouldn’t hold the record long because Alex Rodriguez would soon catch and pass him.Be careful what you wish for. Rodriguez may not take steroids, which is the litmus test for so many moralizers in the media today, but he’s not exactly a hero for the ages.Consider this: » He’s Mr. April, flourishing in the regular season but seldom a factor in the postseason.
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When a team collapses, there are always two figures in the crosshairs, the coach and the quarterback. And so it is with the 49ers after their latest debacle.Coach Mike Nolan is in the more precarious position. He has total authority, acting as his own general manager in addition to coaching. But in his third season, the 49ers seem to be moving backward.In retrospect, Nolan made serious miscalculations in the offseason, hiring two inexperienced coordinators, JimHostler on offense and Greg Manusky on defense.
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