(Warning-Novel sized response)
Oregon's had virtually the same program for YEARS now... ever since Rich Brooks' last few years, and ever since Bellotti has been at the helm, they have been awesome. Jeff Tedford came out of their program. He was their OC before he left for Cal, and won pac10 titles in 2000 and 2001 with them... Theyve been one of the top teams in the conference since the 1990's... Big deal if they've been top dog the last 2 years, theyve always been good and always competetive. Theyve always had Nike money since the 1980's, and that's not about to change or increase any...
However, don't believe for a second they wont lose a coach and fall into an abyss again. After Tedford left, they were still good, but Cal ran house for a while... 2004, they lost 1 game all season - to USC. And it came right at the end on the last Cal drive, in Los Angeles, to the team that the NCAA now accuses of cheating that season.
Chip Kelly's also a newb when it comes to coaching, and is reaping Mike Bellotti's benefits. We'll see what happens when he actually has to compete for recruiting...
Stanfurd(note my misspelling comes out of my no-red shirt wearing disdain for that evil institution) came out of ABSOLUTELY nowhere. They were jack shit horrible for years after losing Ty Willingham (who failed at 2 more schools by the time they did jack shit again).
They lost to UC FUCKING DAVIS. AT HOME. At least Appalachian State was a GOOD FCS team that beat Michigan... UC Davis were in thier first year of D1 football...
They were good for 2 years, and then as soon as Harbaugh came, he ditched for the 49ers. Cal still had a winning record against him, regardless of last season. They were successful at a time when USC was not retarded good as they were when Cal was at their peak...
And even then, they didnt win the conference - only made the rose bowl because 1: Oregon was in the NC, and 2: Texas was also garbage last year, going 5-7, so Mack Brown wasn't able to steal it from them like he did from us...
Now, they have lost their head coach to the NFL like we did with Marriuchi, and will lose Andrew Luck after next season. They will go back to the depths of the conference where they belong and take their lack of a fanbase with them (yeah, they won the rose bowl last year but were 9th in the conference in attendance %... they dont deserve shit, and they will be back to shit soon enough. They only hold the edge in the Stanfurd Axe count because of the 1960's when Cal was more interested in protesting against Vietnam... and even then, they only lead by 6. Even if they retain it again this year, We're going to come back and claim that shit for years to come, because theyre historically useless at football, and will resume that shit soon.
California has had an established program ever since 2002 when Tedford took a 1-10 team under sanctions, and turned it into a winning record, and made his QB into a first round pick... Last year, the team started off strong as always, but then the injury bug WRECKED the team. Recievers dropped like flies, secondary players were all banged up... then came Linemen. Our top 2 linemen out for extended periods, and our better depth DL guys were knocked out too. Finally, our QB blew his knee and was out for the season (yeah, that Kevin Riley who blew our chances of a national championship in 2007 by fucking around against Oregon State)
Last year sucked, but then again, I didnt expect much more than 7 wins anyways. We had a tough schedule, and the youngest, least experienced roster in the conference - we will have one of the least experienced rosters again this season. We still lost to Oregon ONLY because of a botched field goal (we lost 3 games this way last year because we cant seem to find a guy who knows how to kick the damn ball). If we had a guy who could kick, we would have beat Arizona, Oregon, and Washington, and gone for 8 wins.
You dont know Cal like I know Cal lol. They'll be back in action for a bowl game this season. 5-7 is the worst they've been under Tedford, and they weren't even half bad last year, just injured all the time, and bad at kicking field goals.
And, fuck what conference is 'the best' because that's just a load of BCS manufactured horseshit. Drop that crap.
