Larry Brown Sports

California running back Brendan Bigelow has made some memorable runs already this season, but he probably won’t top the one he had against Ohio State on Saturday afternoon. It appeared that Ohio State had Bigelow in the backfield for a five-yard loss before he was able to turn the corner and gain positive yardage. He then broke another tackle and took it to the house.

But how did he stay on his feet? One of the reasons Bigelow was able to score was because some of the Ohio State defenders gave up after he was clearly down. The only problem was he wasn’t. The sophomore pulled off a couple of amazingly acrobatic spin moves and somehow kept his balance.

We’ve seen some amazing runs through the early part of the college season and while Bigelow’s is up there, we’ll still give the nod to Jawam Jamison for his crazy spin move earlier this week.

Cal football is in transition this year. Their home stadium is under construction so the football team is playing its home games at AT&T Park this season. As for Memorial Stadium, it’s undergoing a $321 million project that will redo the entire stadium. There will be a club level as well as a new press box and concession stands. In the bowels of the stadium, there will be locker rooms, offices, and meeting rooms. They’re having trouble selling seats for the stadium in order to pay for the project, but a 3-0 start to the season could help their fund raising efforts.

Anyhow, a friend of LBS was recently in Berkeley and stopped by Memorial Stadium to see how the construction project is coming along. They sent us pictures of the progress and it looks like they’re not too far off:

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Even in the age of the cell phone camera, we see a lot of physical force used by security guards at sporting events.  There has been plenty of controversy regarding when and when not to use a Taser to control a rowdy fan.  We’ve also seen security guards throw some respectable big hits on fans when they rush the field.  But choking?  That seems like a little much.

Security guards at the Stanford-Cal game tried to control students when they were rushing the field after Stanford beat Cal in The Big Game.  I’m not sure why fans were charging the field considering Stanford is a significantly superior team, but that’s beside the point.  It doesn’t appear that the situation got out of control in any way, but a certain security guard treated it like it did.  Check out this video of a Cal security guard choking a fan, courtesy of YouTube user jkromp:

I’d be surprised if that security guard keeps his job.  That has police brutality written all over it.  Seems like there was no need.

Oregon squeaked by Cal on Saturday in Berkeley, getting shutdown offensively for the first time all season. We wrote about Cal’s tactics to slow down Oregon’s “Blur Offense,” explaining how they faked several cramps. You figure they had to be playing dirty to hold down Oregon’s offense given that they allowed 52 points to Nevada and 48 to USC.

Well luckily for us YouTube user Russell Arch put together this excellent video which shows a Cal player faking an injury after getting instructed by his coaches to do so:

Many thanks to The Big Lead for sharing the video. Next time I want to see referees putting a stop to those shenanigans — there is no place for bullcrap like that in college football. If you want to stop someone, do it legitimately.

Oregon has developed a reputation for being a second half team this season. They were tied at 13 against Tennessee at halftime before outscoring the Vols 35-0 in the second half. They were down 31-24 against Stanford at halftime but outscored the Cardinal 28-0 in the second half. It was 18-6 against Washington at the half and then the Ducks got rolling outscoring the Huskies 35-10 after halftime. Even with all their slow starts and second half comebacks, no defense shut them down in a half the way Cal did.

The Golden Bears’ defense held Oregon’s offense scoreless in the first half allowing just 149 total yards and 43 total plays (the lone touchdown came on a punt return). Oregon leads the country averaging 567 yards per game and 54.7 points per game so to say they were shut down is an understatement. Many critics felt someone would figure out how to stop Oregon’s offense at some point during the season, but nobody figured the team to do it would be Cal, much less utilizing the strategy Cal employed.

At least a half dozen times in the first half a Cal player faked an injury and stayed on the ground after a play in order to slow down Oregon’s offense. Oregon prides itself on playing fast, running play after play without pausing. Their style tires out defenses and makes it difficult for defenses to swap out personnel for fresher bodies. That is as long as the opposing defense doesn’t fake cramps in order to stop play:

So was Cal’s strategy clever or dirty? The ploy worked perfectly in the first half but it would hardly qualify as an example of model sportsmanship. I think it’s a pretty dirty strategy and one the officials should have warned against, threatening delay of game penalties. What Cal did is not within the spirit of the game even if it was effective. Maybe someone will figure out how to legitimately stop Oregon’s offense, but that’s not the way to do it.

Anyone who is a fan of Cal football can tell you what a painful experience it is. Marred with inconsistency, the Golden Bears can get up for a game and blast an opponent by 50 points one week, and then come back and lose to an inferior opponent by 20 the next week. This season has already started out for the Bears much like their others: disappointingly.

Cal blasted UC Davis in their opener 52-3. Sure it was just UC Davis, but beating a low-level team like that is exactly what you’re supposed to do. The following week, Cal surprised me by smashing Colorado 52-7. The loss was so shocking and convincing that Buffs’ quarterback Tyler Hansen guaranteed his team would never get spanked that badly again. At 2-0 and outscoring opponents by a combined 104-10, the Bears appeared to be rolling. As soon as you think Cal is rolling, that’s exactly when they disappoint.

The Bears were on national television Friday night in Reno to play the Wolfpack. Nevada’s motive is simple; they’re going to score a ton of points and give up a ton and just hope they have more than you. Playing against Kevin Riley, the odds are generally in your favor.

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We’ve already seen Brandon Jacobs run over LaRon Landry, and Sheldon Brown crush Steven Jackson, but the hit of the year might be Kevin Barnes of Maryland on Cal running back Jahvid Best. I’m not sure you can place a hit on some more squarely than this one. No doubt Jahvid agrees.

Thanks to LBS tipster Andy, a saddened Cal fan, for emailing that in. We know lots of Cal fans who traveled cross-country to watch this game. Let’s just hope they didn’t see Best puking from where they were sitting, considering that one play probably encapsulates the entire game for Cal fans. Video courtesy of Mister Irrelevant via Deadspin.