The sky is falling! The sky is falling! That’s the word this week on the Cal message boards as alums — mostly younger ones, I’m sure — have had the kind of hysterical reaction to the Cal football team’s two losses that you’d expect from supporters of the schools known as football factories.Let’s put this in perspective:» FACT NO. 1: Cal is two botched plays from a perfect season.
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JaMarcus Russell’s debut was moved up again by the Raiders’ latest loss, to Kansas City on Sunday. Not because Daunte Culpepper played poorly, but because the Raiders are again fading into irrelevancy. Soon, it will be obvious that there’s no point in giving the majority of snaps to either Culpepper or Josh McCown because they aren’t the club’s future.
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The Giants are in a familiar position during the postseason — on the outside looking in. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2003 and are falling further behind, a whopping 11 games out of fourth place in the NL West this season.Can they rebuild to get to the postseason? Not unless they realize how much the baseball landscape has changed.
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Kevin Riley can become the next great Cal quarterback — if he doesn’t become the next Joe Ayoob.Ayoob was a talented quarterback who transferred from City College of San Francisco in 2005 for his junior year. His confidence was destroyed by the boos he got at Memorial Stadium, as well as taunting by his fellow students, and he ended as a seldom-used backup in his senior year.Riley subbed for the injured Nate Longshore against Oregon State on Saturday.
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How long will Jim Harbaugh remain as Stanford’s football coach? The over-under is three years.Harbaugh’s immediate predecessors, Buddy Teevens and Walt Harris, lasted three and two years, respectively. Both were fired for gross incompetence. The opposite is likely to happen for Harbaugh: He’ll be hired by another school that values football excellence more highly than Stanford, which is to say, virtually every other school in Division I-A.
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Have the 49ers morphed into the 2006 Raiders? All the significant characteristics are the same. To wit:
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Except for his puzzling delay in naming Daunte Culpepper his starting quarterback, Lane Kiffin gets high marks so far in his first year as Raiders coach.A good coach is vital to a football team’s success because of the nature of the sport. Coaches can determine strategy on every play, which is not possible in baseball or basketball.
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Sports fans and writers often use the phrase "overpaid athletes," but that’s an oversimplification. We are living in a money-based society, not a merit-based one, and professional sports bring in a tremendous amount of money. The people who play these games, or manage or coach them, are responsible for this money, so they should share in it. The question is whether an individual deserves the money he’s getting and we had two interesting cases in the Bay Area last week.
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A multiple choice test: The game plan for the 49ers’ opener was devised by: A) Tom Walsh; or B) Jim Hostler.The correct answer, of course, is B, but 49ers fans can be excused for thinking ol’ bed-and-breakfast was upstairs in the box. The 49ers’ offense was as vanilla as anything Walsh produced last year with the Raiders. In fact, the 49ers’ offensive game plan looked like one from the exhibition season, when many plays are held back.
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The Raiders had the No. 3 defense in the NFL last season, based on yards given up, but at the news conference announcing the hiring of coach Lane Kiffin, owner Al Davis said, "We have a good defense, not a great one."
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Forget their last two exhibition games. The 49ers will be in the playoffs this season. The preseason MEANS NOTHING, folks. Have you all forgotten that the Raiders went 4-1 in these don’t-count games last year?In the exhibition season, coaches look more at individuals than team results and there are two encouraging signs for the 49ers, the promotion of their two first-round draft choices (linebacker Patrick Willis and offensive right tackle Joe Staley) to starting roles.
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There was good news and bad news when the Raiders announced their cuts. The good news: Al Davis continues to let new coach Lane Kiffin run his own show. The bad news: The Raiders still don’t have enough talent to expect an improvement past the five- to six-win stage this season.Kiffin made a very significant remark last week when he said there were no players "on scholarship" with the team this year, a reference to the fact that some of Davis’ pet players have been kept longer than they should have been in the recent past.
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Jeff Tedford wants Cal football fans to be just as nasty toward visiting Tennessee in Saturday’s season opener as the Vols’ fans were to the Bears in Knoxville last season. "I’m asking the fans to create a special environment for us," Tedford said. "When they’re huddling on offense, be as noisy as you can. When we’re on offense, quiet down so we can hear the signals." To help the cause, the Cal marketing people are handing out megaphones to the first 50,000 fans.
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The Warriors will be committing suicide if Don Nelson walks because of stalled contract negotiations, and team owner Chris Cohan will be the biggest loser.Nelson was the single biggest reason for the Warriors’ surge last season, which resulted in their first playoff appearance since Nelson was here before. Are we sensing a pattern here?Reaching the playoffs was also a financial bonanza for the team, as excited fans signed up for 2007-08 season tickets.
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Please, Mike Nolan, put Kwame Harris on the bench. Alex Smith’s survival may hinge on that. Harris has remained as the starter at right tackle for one reason: He’s a strong run blocker.
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