Bay Area Sports Beat

Tough road to playoffs could be good for Sharks -- if they survive

2011-02-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

The Sharks have traveled the easy route to the playoffs many times before, racking up points faster than LeBron James against the Cavaliers then coasting into the postseason, but they've never reached the Stanley Cup Final.

The Sharks are traveling a tougher path this season, one filled with uncertainty in a wide open Western Conference. If they survive, which is likely but still no sure bet, the Sharks will enter the playoffs a much more battle-tested team after living on the edge for so long.

The Sharks entered Thursday night’s game against Washington in a five-way tie for fourth place in the West with 68 points. After beating the Capitals 3-2, the Sharks are tied for fourth with Nashville with 70 points. But they’re just two points ahead of Anaheim, Dallas, Los Angeles and Calgary, five ahead of Minnesota and six ahead of Chicago.

“Everyone realizes the standings and how tight the West is, and every game’s got a little playoff atmosphere,” said Sharks center Joe Pavelski, who scored the game’s first goal. “You’re trying to get there and you think you make a little ground, but you really don’t make any.”

“We' got to find a way to qualify for that tournament at the end of the year,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “Every inch of ice, every play around the net’s very important to us right now. Defensively we’re keeping teams to two and under a lot of nights, and that’s allowing us an opportunity to win.”

The Sharks went 5-2 on their recent road trip opened a two-game homestand by beating Washington. They’ve won 11 off their past 14 games, and seven of those wins have been by one goal. Playing tight games is becoming a way of life for the Sharks, and that experience could be a huge help in the postseason – if they get there.

“It’s so close, and it’s hard to play when you’re under pressure, but we’ve experienced that a lot this year,” McLellan said. “I’ve been told more than 100 times that it’s going to help us later on, but you never like to be in that situation. I thought we had some poise, some composure, as we did in Nashville the other night. We addressed it after the collapse, if you will, in Florida.”

Thursday night’s game was scoreless until late in the first period when the Sharks turned a John Carlson turnover into a two-on-one rush and a short-handed goal by Pavelski. Patrick Marleau corralled the loose puck near center ice, headed down the left wing then zipped a pass in the middle to Pavelski. Pavelski hammered the puck into the upper right corner of the goal, beating Michel Neuvirth at 18:49.

The Sharks barely had time to celebrate before Washington answered with a power-play goal by Alexander Ovechkin 22 seconds later. Ovechkin took a pass in the high slot from Carlson walked in uncontested and unloaded a shot past Antti Niemi.

After a scoreless second, the Sharks took a 2-1 lead at 4:27 in the third on Ryan Clowe’s goal from point blank range. Clowe parked himself in front of the net, and was in perfect position to capitalize when Kyle Wellwood fired a shot from the left faceoff circle. He knocked the puck down then knocked it past Neuvirth.

Then with just 9:11 left to play, the Sharks made it 3-1 on one of the strangest goals Dany Heatley will ever score. Dan Boyle fired a shot from the high slot that ping-ponged off Pavelski, Washington’s David Steckel, San Jose’s Joe Thornton and finally Heatley on the power play.

“You watch the goals being scored,” McLellan said. “Even 5 on 5, they’re simple goals. You don’t’ see a lot of pretty tic-tac-toe plays. They’re as ugly as ugly can be, and that one was ugly. Get people at the net and throw a little floater in and get lucky, and maybe we need more of that.”

Washington cut the lead to 3-2 with 1:55 remaining on Nicklas Backstrom’s goal, but the Sharks’ and Niemi withstood the Capitals’ final push for another one-goal win.

“We’ve been in that position it seems for the last -- forever,” Boyle said. “Obviously we’ve done a better job lately than we did the first half of the season. It’s pretty tight hockey. It would be nice to get one of those games where we can play with a bigger lead, but it is what it is. It was a huge two points for us. It’s a good win”

Of course in the West, every win will be huge from here on out.

Top 10 reasons why Cal added Presbyterian College to its 2011 football schedule

2011-02-17T13:56:00.000-08:00

When word slipped out earlier this week that Cal had scheduled a Sept. 17 football game at AT&T Park against Presbyterian College, I was appropriately stunned. I mean, why would the Bears schedule a game against a Bowl Championship Subdivision team out of the Big South Conference from Clinton, S.C.?

Only Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour and coach Jeff Tedford have that answer, and for now they're not even confirming the news.

So we're left to guess. Here are 10 possible reasons why Cal wound up booking this improbable matchup.

10) ESPN U doesn't have a football team.
9) Methodist College's 2011 schedule was filled.
8) If defending BCS champ Auburn can play Samford, no matchup is too lame.
7) Slippery Rock University demanded a home-and-home.
6) Presbyterian College has a defense even Cal's QBs can pick on.
5) With an expected seating crunch at AT&T, all 1,200 students at Presbyterian can fit in one section.
4) Saint Mary's, Santa Clara and San Francisco dropped football and weren't available.
3) What Cal fan wouldn't want to pay big bucks to watch a team that finished 2-9 last year with losses to Stony Brook, North Greenville and Coastal Carolina?
2) After going bowl-less in 2010, Cal couldn't say no to a tasty non-league creampuff.
1) Old Blues demanded a game against the Blue Hose.

Raiders make a deal with their biggest bully

2011-02-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Raiders coach Hue Jackson has said he wants to "build a bully" in Oakland, and Al Davis just delivered the cornerstone -- defensive tackle Richard Seymour -- for that construction project. Seymour, according to multiple reports, agreed to a new two-year deal worth around $30 million to stay in Oakland.

Seymour is a soft-spoken giant off the field. On the field, he plays as if opposing players just robbed his home and ran over his dog. He's mean, nasty and, truth be told, borderline crazy during games. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger found that out during a Week 11 game after throwing a touchdown pass when Seymour smacked him in the face, earning an ejection. Seymour, apparently, didn't like something Roethlisberger said or the fact that he made contact with him while celebrating. Two years ago, Seymour earned a 15-yard penalty when he grabbed Denver offensive tackle Ryan Clardy's dreadlocks and yanked as if he were playing tug-of-war.

Seymour is the physical, intimidating face of a Raiders' defense that made significant strides in 2010. And his value to the team goes far beyond the 5.5 sacks and 48 tackles he posted. With a resume that includes three Super Bowl victories at New England, Seymour has huge respect in the locker room, and he's embraced his role as a leader since coming to the Raiders in a 2009 trade with the Patriots. He's been a role model and inspiration for many players, particularly defensive tackle Tommy Kelly, who's coming off a career year that included seven sacks.

Locking up Seymour for two more years was a huge move for Davis. Not only did he keep retain his defense's biggest bully, but he also freed up the franchise tag, which he can now use on one of his other free agents -- tight end Zach Miller is a likely target.

Giants' Linceum looking more like his freakish self in latest start

2010-06-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, it looked as if the Giants’ Tim Lincecum might need a new nickname. The Freak’s fastball was hovering around a very un-freakish 90 mph. Almost everyone in the big leagues – freaks and non-freaks alike -- can hit 90 on the radar gun.

Some wondered if Lincecum had a dead arm or if sadly, at just 26, the two-time NL Cy Young award winner had lost the sizzling fastball that, combined with his small stature – just 5-foot-11 and 170-pounds with his pockets filled with rocks -- made him so unusual.

But when Lincecum took the mound Tuesday at Houston, he started pumping 94 mph fastballs, one after the other, at the Astros in the early innings. He even hit 95 on the radar gun.

Giants fans can breathe a bit easier. Lincecum’s latest start showed that his loss of velocity likely has more to do with mechanics than arm issues. He still has work to do on that mechanical front, but in the early going Tuesday, Lincecum got into a groove, and his fastball had some of its old electricity. If he could do that one day, he can certainly do it again.

I loved the fact that catcher Bengie Molina kept calling for a heavy dose of fastballs. Too often this year, Molina and Lincecum have fallen too deeply in love with his change-up and curveball. Granted, they’re great pitches, and they’ve helped him rack up many of his best-in-baseball 113 strikeouts, but it’s Lincecum’s fastball that sets the tone and sets the stage for his off-speed pitches.

When it comes to the fastball, it’s a matter of use it or lose it. Lincecum’s far too young to become overly reliant on off-speed pitches. He’s got to keep pumping fastballs and get back to being The Freak. Tuesday’s start was a great sign.

Warriors' Cohan putting finishing touches on his tarnished legacy as team owner

2010-06-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Warriors owner Chris Cohan put the for-sale sign up months ago. Apparently, he’s having a fire sale before he turns the team over to a yet-to-be-determined new owner.

On Monday, the Warriors traded down 10 spots in the second round with Portland – swapping the 34th overall pick for the 44th – and pocketed $2 million in the deal.

Then on Wednesday they shipped small forward Corey Maggette and that second-round pick to Milwaukee for guard Charlie Bell and center Dan Gadzuric.

That was a great deal – for the Bucks.

Maggette averaged 19.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists last season. For his career, his numbers are 16.6, 5.1 and 2.2.

Bell’s career numbers? Try 8.9 points per game, 2.4 assists and 2.2 rebounds. Gadzuric has averaged 4.9 points and 4.5 rebounds.

Then there’s the fact that Maggette was the Warriors’ only legitimate small forward. Of course Cohan could care less. He’s got one foot out the door and faces bigger problems from the IRS, which is after more of his money.

Warriors fans can only hope Cohan doesn’t order GM Larry Riley to trade Monta Ellis for two re-treads and a vault-full of cash before he sells the team.

Pac-10's plans thankfully go up in smoke

2010-06-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Pac-10’s plans to mega-expand to 16 teams imploded this week, and I’d say that’s cause for celebration.

It’s been sickening to watch the Pac-10 join what’s become an insane pursuit by conferences throughout the nation of television money at the expense of tradition and geographical reality.

Nothing says “Pacific” like Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Thankfully, those teams turned down the Pac-10’s invitation, most likely because they figured they could make more money if they stuck together and saved the Big 12. There are few if any saints in this ongoing story.

The Pac-10 has already added Colorado, and there’s apparently a good chance it will add Utah. That would give them 12 teams, the minimum required to break into two divisions and hold a Pac-10 football championship game. And yes, that’s another decision driven by the pursuit of TV dollars. But at what cost?

The Pac-10’s oh-so-fair round-robin football format is dead. That format produced truly legitimate champions because every team played every other team each season. Now, some teams will have easier schedules than others and, most likely, one division will turn out to be easier than the other – which is one of the problems Big-12 football has faced.

You have to wonder when this mad scramble will end. Are conferences going to continually raid each other, year after year, and continually re-align?

Who knows? Maybe one day Florida, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina, North Carolina and Duke will be part of the Pac-24 Southeast.

Sharks start fast but forget how to finish in overtime loss to Florida

2010-03-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

On second thought, maybe those frustratingly slow starts and amazingly fast finishes the Sharks had been producing weren’t so bad after all.

After setting an NHL record by winning three straight games in regulation after trailing entering the third period, the Sharks flipped the script Saturday afternoon against the Florida Panthers at HP Pavilion.

This time the Sharks jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period and lost 3-2 in overtime. Sharks coach Todd McLellan loved his team’s fast start but hated the continued inconsistency heading into a six-game road trip.

“We accomplished a couple things tonight,” McLellan said. “We came out and had a little fire in our belly. Played extremely hard in the first period but let it get away from us. That’s the inconsistency in our game right now. Obviously they heard the message for the start, now we reversed the trend. We didn’t finish real well.”

In their 8-5 win Thursday night over Nashville, the Sharks scored six goals in the third period. Before that, they came from behind to beat Columbus 2-1 and Montreal 3-2.

McLellan said one of his main goals for the upcoming road trip is for the Sharks to play consistently well from start to finish.

“There’s a lot of good things in our game right now, but the one thing we haven’t put forth maybe since the Olympic break is a solid 60-minute effort,” he said. “We’ve been 40, we’ve been 30, we’ve been even to the point where we’re probably 55, but a solid 60 …”

The Sharks appeared to grab the game by the throat in the first 20 minutes Saturday, taking a 2-0 lead.

In the first five minutes, the Sharks outshot the Panthers 4-0. Then with 14:28 still left in the first period, Ryane Clowe beat Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun, putting the Sharks up 1-0.

Patrick Marleau set the scoring play in motion when he won a faceoff in the right circle. Clowe chased down the puck along the boards, skated low then reversed course and glided to the point where he whipped a shot past Vokoun.

The Sharks made it 2-0 with 2:15 left in the first period when Marleau hammered home a one-timer on the power play.

Marleau, stationed low on the right circle, took a pass from Joe Pavelski and ripped a sharp-angled shot at, oh, 100 mph or so, past Vokoun, who didn’t have a chance. The goal was Marleau’s 41st of the season, yet another new single-season high.

Marleau’s one of three Sharks with at least 40 goals in a season, joining Jonathan Cheechoo and Owen Nolan. He’s third on the all-time list, three behind Nolan, who had 44 goals in 1999-2000, and 15 behind Cheechoo, who scored 56 in 2005-2006.

Just when you thought the Sharks might be headed for a rout, they went dead on offense.

“Coming out strong was good,” Marleau said. “You want to continue that. You don’t’ want to sit back because teams can sense that and they come right back at you.

“I think we had quite a few opportunities to score some goals. We didn’t finish. We tried to make probably too cute of plays instead of sticking with what works and what’s simple – getting pucks to the net and banging the rebounds. We did have chances.”

Florida sliced their lead to 2-1 with just 1:02 gone in the second period. The Panthers’ Keith Ballard took a cross-ice pass in the right circle and beat Thomas Greiss on the glove side. Greiss, making a rare start in place of Evgeni Nabokov, had been planted on the opposite side of the crease and couldn’t reposition himself quickly enough, leaving a huge opening for Ballard.

Greiss made his first start for the Sharks since Feb. 10, a 3-0 loss to Columbus. It’s not as if he hadn’t been on the ice since then -- Greiss started for Germany in the Vancouver Olympics, going 0-3-0 – but he struggled Saturday.

“It was pretty tough for me to get into the game,” Greiss said. “I never really felt good until the end of the game. A tough game for me.”

Florida tied the game 2-2 when Shawn Matthias banged a rebound past Greiss at 5:01 of the third period. Then with 2:14 left in overtime, after the Panthers won a faceoff in the Sharks’ end, defenseman Bryan Allen ripped a shot from the left slot past a screened Greiss for the game-winner.

The Sharks have to be wondering what might have been if they hadn’t lost center Manny Malhotra for 17 minutes of the third period. After Florida’s Jason Garrison hit Pavelski from behind, ramming him into the boards, Malhotra retaliated with his fists. Malhotra got hit with two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and 10 for misconduct. Morrison got two for boarding and five for fighting.

“It hurts,” McLellan said of losing Malhotra for so long. “Manny’s a valuable player. He plays in all situations. We talked about this before a lot. What happens when somebody takes a liberty? In this case, Manny stuck up for his teammate. We don’t mind that one bit. We’re happy that he does that, but in turn it also keeps him out of the game for 17 minutes, and 17 important minutes.”

Now, if this had been a playoff game, McLellan would have wanted Malhotra to show more restraint.

“In a playoff game, probably the best response we could have is win the game 3-2 or 4-2 and move on,” he said. “In this situation, we’re happy he responded the way he did.”

In truth, Florida is a team the Sharks should have dominated from start to finish. San Jose came into the game with 95 points, best in the Western Conference. The Panthers had 64 and were eight points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, all but dead. They suffered a 3-0 loss Thursday night to Colorado in Denver, the second stop in a three-game West Coast road swing.

Entering the game, Florida had one player with more than 17 goals – center Stephen Weiss with 23 – and he took a puck off a foot Thursday night and wasn’t at full strength. The Sharks had three: Marleau, Dany Heatley (36) and Pavelski (20).

So much for statistics.

“I am disappointed,” McLellan said. “We should be a better team. We shouldn’t be giving up two-goal leads. Let’s make that clear. I’m not happy, but I also want to give the other team some credit. They came in. They used five defensive men basically the whole game.

“Their goaltender played extremely well, kept them in the game. When we watch the video and sit down and look at the mistakes we made, there weren’t a dramatic amount. We certainly were far better than we were against Nashville. It wasn’t even close.”

Well, maybe better everywhere but on the scoreboard.

Sharks get a scare and a win against Montreal

2010-03-04T18:59:00.000-08:00

Quick hits from the Shark Tank after San Jose’s 3-2 victory Thursday night over Montreal.

*Sharks coach Todd McLellan loved watching his team’s gritty come-from-behind victory, but he hated seeing center Scott Nichol get shoved head-first into the boards early in the third period by Montreal’s Maxim Lapierre.

Let’s set the scene for what unfolded.

Torrey Mitchell whipped a pinpoint pass to a streaking Nichol on a break-away. Going full speed, Nichol fired a shot off the right post. As he zoomed past the net, Lapierre shoved Nichol from behind, giving him no chance to stop. Nichol went crashing into the boards.

Nichol got up off the ice holding his right should but still tried to confront Lapierre.
Surprisingly, Lapierre was not penalized for the play.

“I’m a Shark and I’m going to have an opinion on the call,” McLellan said. “I think it was a missed call. I think it was a real dangerous play. I wouldn’t want to see one of their players go in like that and I certainly don’t’ want to see one of ours.”

Nichol didn’t return to the game, and McLellan said he was waiting to receive a medical update.

“On the Scotty Nichol play, it’s a tough play,” Sharks defenseman Rob Blake said. “That’s the plays we don’t like to see just because it’s a very vulnerable position. It’s a tough call. The refs were up front about it.”

That play seemed to energize the Sharks. They trailed 2-1 at the time and outscored Montreal 2-0 the rest of the way.

*Playoff hockey in March? In some respects, it felt like it Thursday night. Both teams were grinding hard, and goals were hard to come by.

“I think that’s the way it’s going to be down the stretch,” McLellan said. “I’m glad we got to play in that game. You’re in the middle of it, and you’re down a goal, you’re wishing you could score. By the end of the night we stuck with the plan and won the game.

“Those are good games for us to play in. I didn’t see anybody going off on their own. They stuck with the program. I think what you’re asking me is was it frustrating to see the goaltender make as many good saves as he made. That’s what happens at this time of the year. You have to find a way to beat them.”

The game got chippy at times, and each team drew seven penalties.

*The Sharks came into Thursday night’s game on a two-game losing and scoreless streak. But according to Blake, their biggest concern wasn’t simply avoiding a three-game skid.

“We’re really more concerned with how we’re going to play,” he said. “Our record’s up there for a reason. We’re more concerned with style. These are games you’re going to see. We have 18 left and a lot of them are against teams fighting for the playoffs. So you’re going to see that style before you get in the playoffs.”

*Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov needed a strong game after what he’s been through this month, and he got one, stopping 28 of 30 shots and making some huge plays.

“He’s been great all year,” Sharks winger Dany Heatley said. “He keeps us in so many games. Tonight he was outstanding again, especially in the third period when he kept it 2-1 for a long time.”

Earlier in the month, Nabokov had a six-goal Russian Olympic nightmare against Team Canada. He gave up four goals in the first period and two more in the second before being yanked after facing just 23 shots. Then in his first post-Olympics NHL game, he gave up four goals Tuesday – three in the second period – in a 4-3 loss to New Jersey at the Shark Tank. In that loss, he faced only 21 shots.

Nabokov got off to another rough start Thursday, giving up a goal with 9:39 still left in the first period. Montreal’s Brian Gionta took a pass from Scott Gomez and, directly in front of the crease, blasted a long shot past Nabokov’s stick side.

Later in the period, Nabokov made up for his early lapse. In one rapid-fire sequence, he stopped Benoit Pouliot’s break-away shot from the right circle then blocked Gionta’s blast of the rebound with just over 7 minutes left. Moments later, Nabokov reached high for made a glove save while doing the splits.

Nabokov gave up a power-play goal to Scott Gomez at 2:06 of the second period. Later in the period he made a bad pass, right to the Canadiens’ Roman Hamrlik above the left circle. Hamrlik unleashed a laser, but Nabokov caught it. Threat – and potential embarrassment – over.

After giving up that second goal, Nabokov was a wall for the rest of the night, especially in the closing minutes when he made a handful of nice saves.

“They were coming,” Nabokov said of the Canadiens. “I was able to see the puck and I was able to make the saves.”

Nabokov also heard the chants of “Nah-bee! Nah-bee!” as he shut the door on Montreal.

“That’s nice to hear,” he said.

*The Sharks scored their first goal – short-handed, no less – just 53 seconds into the second period. That’s when Patrick Marleau, planted in front of the net, redirected Blake’s long slap shot from near the right boards for his 39th goal of the season.

That goal gave Marleau a new single-season career high with 18 games still left to play.

That 1-1 deadlock lasted all of 69 seconds before Montreal’s Gomez answered with a power-play goal.

For most the remainder of the second period, the Sharks and Canadiens spent their time drawing penalties and coming up empty.

The Shark’s Dan Boyle had the best scoring chance, but he was wide right by a fraction of an inch on a penalty shot, hitting the post. Boyle got his chance after Canadiens goalie Carey Price lost his stick and defenseman Hal Gill tossed it toward him while the Sharks were attacking.

There’s no throwing sticks in hockey.

*Heatley tied the game 2-2 with 7:28 with a power-play goal, re-directing Dan Boyle’s shot. Then with 4:55 to play, Manny Malhotra’s one-timer from the point off a Torrey Mitchell feed beat Carey Price and put the Sharks ahead 3-2.

“We had stressed all night getting on the ‘D,’ forcing them into turnovers, getting pucks to the point and getting shots” Malhotra said. “(Mitchell) had enough patience to find me. I don’t even think Price saw the puck.”

Thanks to a screen from a fellow Shark.

Giants' Lincecum works his way to another complete game win against A's

2009-06-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

Looking at the box score from the Giants’ 4-1 win Tuesday night over the A’s, you’d think this was just another no-sweat, Tim Lincecum gem.

He struck out 12 A’s. He pitched his fourth career complete game and second straight against the A’s this season. He allowed just seven hits and one run, Jason Giambi’s solo home run in the second. And he took just two hours and 16 minutes to complete the job.

Easy, right? Not exactly. Lincecum knows how hard he had to work to hold the A’s to one run and pitch a complete game.

He escaped one-out, bases-loaded jams in the fifth and sixth innings. Then the A’s put the first two batters on base in the seventh but came up empty.

“Tremendous effort,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He got in a couple jams. Double plays both times saved us there… He has tremendous poise. He makes pitches when he has to have them.”

In his previous start, Lincecum took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning against the Angels. The Angels scored three times in the eighth and won 4-3, handing Lincecum his second loss of the season. This time the Giants built a 4-0 lead and led 4-1 after two innings. Lincecum said the memory of that loss to the Angels fueled him against the A’s.

“I was just trying to make really good pitches, especially when they got guys on in scoring position,” Lincecum said. “I think that’s kind of what helped me focus in those innings when I ran into a couple jams with the bases loaded.

“I was able to induce ground balls. All in all, I was just trying to keep the ball down and trying to not let them get the ball up in the air and scratch back with one run here and there.”

With one out in the fifth inning, the A’s Ryan Sweeney and Orlando Cabrera hit back-to-back singles. Lincecum walked Daric Barton, loading the bases, and A’s manager Bob Geren sent pinch hitter Nomar Garciaparra to the plate for Jack Hannahan.

Lincecum got Garciaparra to ground into a 5-4-3 double play, third baseman Pablo Sandoval handling a tricky hop.

“I’m trying to get a ground ball there,” Lincecum said. “That’s kind of why I went with a slider there. Hopefully catch him off guard. It worked out in hindsight.”

The next inning the A’s loaded the bases again with one out. Adam Kennedy led off with a single. After Jack Cust struck out, Matt Holliday doubled Kennedy to third, and Jason Giambi worked a walk, loading the bases.

This time, Lincecum got Kurt Suzuki to hit a soft two-hopper to shortstop Edgar Renteria, who stepped on second then threw to first for a double play.

“That kid, he’s unbelievable,” Giants catcher Bengie Molina said of Lincecum. “That kid is special. … That’s what I think he’s shown ever since he’s come up. He doesn’t rattle that easy.”

Lincecum got into more trouble in the seventh when Sweeney and Cabrera hit back-to-back singles again to open the frame. But he struck out Daric Barton, got Bobby Crosby to ground into a fielder’s choice then retired Kennedy on a fly ball that left fielder Andres Torres caught in foul territory before running into the wall.

Crosby’s ground ball, which ricocheted off Lincecum’s glove to second baseman Matt Downs, led to some controversy. When Downs flipped the ball to Renteria, the ball popped out of his glove as he tried to turn two. Second base umpire Mike Reilly ruled that Renteria had control long enough for the out, a call that drew the ire of A’s fans.

Lincecum is 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA in four career starts against the A’s with 34 strikeouts in 29 1/3 innings.

“They’re doing their thing, too,” Lincecum said of the A’s. “They had seven hits. They put me in pretty tough situations. You flip a coin, and sometimes maybe the outcome is different, but it worked out in my favor today.”

By the end of the game, a large contingent of Giants fans was giving Lincecum a standing ovation as he completed the shutout.

“There was a lot of yellow and green out there, but there was a lot of black and orange, too,” Lincecum said. “You see wrestling going on in the stands. You hear yelling, bad things being said here and there.”

Rickey's return trip to Bay Area in '89 nearly ended in San Francisco

2009-06-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

It’s been 20 seasons since the A’s swept the Giants in the 1989 World Series, a series remembered more for the 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake that struck before Game 3 at Candlestick Park than for Oakland’s dominance on the field.

About a dozen players from that A’s team gathered for a reunion of sorts before Tuesday night’s game against the Giants at the Coliseum. Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco – the Bash Brothers -- were absent, for all of the obvious steroids-related reasons.

But Rickey Henderson, still polishing his speech just a few weeks before his Hall of Fame induction at Cooperstown, showed up for the party and received a standing ovation during a pregame ceremony.

Henderson returned to the A’s that year in a midseason trade from the Yankees. To hear Henderson tell it before Tuesday’s game, he could well have been wearing orange and black during the ’89 World Series.

“We had the deal made with the Giants,” Henderson said. “And then when we asked them what they wanted me to do for their club, they wanted me to play right field and bat fifth. The deal was off.”

Henderson hit leadoff and played center field. Period. A few days later, Henderson said, the A’s stepped in and made the trade.

“It was surprising that I was coming back home,” Henderson said. “That was a good thing. I was coming back home. It was really new life. Sometimes we get in that last (year of a) contract, you want to have such great success in that year to get you a contract and then all of a sudden things aren’t going right, and it’s just all crazy. So it was a new life for me.”

Henderson hit just .247 in 65 games for George Steinbrenner’s Yankees that season. He had three homers, 22 RBI and 25 stolen bases. In 85 regular-season games with the A’s, he hit .294 with nine home runs, 35 RBI and 52 steals.

Henderson saved his best for the postseason that year. He hit .400 in a 4-1 series win over Toronto, earning ALCS MVP honors, then hit .474 in the World Series.

“Rickey’s a spotlight guy,” said Dave Henderson, an outfielder on that team. “The more people watch him, the better he’s going to play.”

The ’89 A’s were already a dominant team before general manager Sandy Alderson and team owner Wally Haas made the deal for Henderson.

“Walter was a winner,” said pitcher Dave Stewart, the MVP of the ’89 series. “Sandy was a winner. We really believed in putting our feet on people’s necks. Getting Rickey was the move that put us over the top.”

Alderson said he made the trade while talking to the Yankees from a “pay phone in Mill Valley,” back in the days when they had phone booths.

“There was a little bit of debate internally, whether we should do it or not,” Alderson said. “There wasn’t a lot. … It worked out pretty well.”

Texas Tech coach takes aim at Browns' Mangini in defense of Crabtree

2009-04-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Can we call this Diva-Gate?

By any name, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach helped liven up the first day of the NFL draft.

After Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree was drafted by the 49ers with the No. 10 pick in the first round, Leach spoke to reporters at team headquarters in Santa Clara.

Leach used the interview to praise Crabtree and defend him against accusations that he’s a diva. Leach took aim at Cleveland coach Eric Mangini for apparently leaking that claim after Crabtree visited the Browns before the draft.

“Anybody who refers to him as a diva doesn’t know him very good,” Leach said during a conference call. “My definition of a diva is somebody who’s loud and self-absorbed. Michael Crabtree’s the furthest thing from loud I’ve ever seen. Michael Crabtree is self-effacing to the point where when he’d have the biggest of games and the biggest of moments, he would shyly hold his helmet and shuffle his feet. The sports information director would say,’ We have ESPN here, we have Sports Illustrated, we have the Sporting News, and then you’d look up and he was gone and he’d refuse to answer the phone. I’ve seen Michael Crabtree run from the spotlight more than I’ve seen him chase the spotlight.”

Leach was later asked if Mangini had ever called him to get information about Crabtree.

“No, which I find interesting,” Leach said. “I think he took it upon himself to figure that in a few minutes he had all the expertise on Michael Crabtree that he needed. So, you know, we’ll see how all those non-divas up there in Cleveland do this year. And here’s the other thing. It’s interesting that a guy who really has not accomplished a great deal there at Cleveland or the Jets, for that matter, would have the temerity to publicly comment on A, someone that he doesn’t even know and B, someone whose accomplishments speak for themselves. And within the specific field that Michael Crabtree is in, Michael’s accomplishments speak louder than Mangini’s do.”

At the end of the interview, Leach had a parting shot for Mangini.

“I appreciate your having me on,” Leach said. “On behalf of everybody here at Texas Tech, we’re very sorry we did not make a proper impression on Eric Mangini. We certainly hope that in the future that we can do better, because out here in West Texas, we’re all aspiring to somehow impress him.”

49ers stand pat and let Crabtree fall to them at No. 10

2009-04-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

First things first. I think a thank you note from the 49ers to the Raiders is in order. Don’t you?

The Raiders chose Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh pick in the first round, taking the fastest receiver in the draft but leaving Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree, arguably the most skilled receiver, for the 49ers.

This actually worked out perfectly for both teams. The Raiders got the big speedster they wanted, someone to run down JaMarcus Russell’s deep passes. The 49ers got a polished receiver with great hands, someone to move the chains and get into the end zone.

The 49ers, apparently, also got themselves a receiver with a bit of an edge and attitude. Crabtree has been mentored by none other than Deion Sanders. What’s more, 49ers coach Mike Singletary said he reminds him a little bit of former Dallas Cowboy wideout Michael Irvin, in terms of his “attitude” and physical skills.

As long as Crabtree doesn’t go T.O. on the 49ers, I have no problem with that.

Here’s the complete transcript of Singletary’s interview, just minutes after making the pick.

MIKE SINGLETARY

“Very glad about the pick that we had a chance to make. We had no idea that he would be there at 10. It was one of the last scenarios we thought we’d end up with. Obviously he’s the most productive guy the last couple years in college football as a receiver. So very excited to get a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball.”

When you saw him there, did you think, this is the guy we’ve got to get?

“It’s one of those situations where, like I said, there’s so many different scenarios, and when we were coming down to it, we thought for sure that the last couple of picks that were there, he wouldn’t be there. When he was, Scot (McCloughan) said, ‘Mike, you know what? This is great. This is outstanding. Make the pick.’”

Where does he fit in terms of the other receivers on the team?

“I think we’ll figure it out. I think it’s one of those scenarios where you’ve a playmaker. The biggest thing is we’re not going just put him out there and say, ‘Hey, you’re the X, you’re the Z,’ whatever it is. He’s going to have to earn his way on, but the most important thing is we know we have a playmaker. We were very excited about having that opportunity on our football team.”

He came in here several weeks ago to visit with you. During that time and since then there’s been a lot of talk about him being a diva and the entourage and the roommate. What did you learn from sitting down and talking to him that made you comfortable making this guy the pick at No. 10 overall?

“I think first of all, these are young men, not just him, but all those college guys, and they’re going from one team to the next, they’re being picked apart. I think it’s very difficult to get a feel for the guy just sitting there. But I think the thing that we had the opportunity to do, you talk to people that know him, you talk to people that played with him, you talk to people that have been around him. Just made several phone calls and really did our homework and came away feeling very good about his character and who he is and knowing that he’s one of those guys that really has the opportunity to be special. That’s just very exciting for us.”

Do you want the No. 1 receiver to be a little bit cocky, to be a little full of himself out there?

“Well, I don’t know a little bit full of himself. I just think it’s one of those things, normally when you get great players, sometimes you get a little bit of attitude with them. It has a tendency to throw some people off, but I think for us on the offensive side of the ball, a little swagger is fine with me.”

At No. 7, the Raiders picked. They had similar needs to you. What was the reaction in the room when they took Darrius Heyward-Bey?

“Well, they got the guy that…. When you look at Al Davis, Al Davis has been very true to what he’s done all along. He loves speed. He loves size. And that’s what he went with. I think for us, I think the speed is obviously a question for a lot of different people, but obviously not for us. When we look at the film we see a guy that has a different speed. I don’t know how fast he is. I just know that when he catches the ball, there’s separation there. I know he’s a physical guy. He does the things that he has to do. He’s willing to block. I’ve seen him do that. So, very excited about all of the upside he has.”

How did he check out medically?

“He checks out fine. Our doctors checked him out, and he checks out just fine.”

Will he be able to participate in next week’s minicamp?

“Minicamp, probably the biggest thing he’d be able to do is the walkthrough we’d have. I wouldn’t want him to do anything more than that, but he will definitely be ready for training camp. That’s really the most important thing.”

Did you have a chance to talk to him yet?

“Yes. I talked to him right after we had the pick. For him, I’ve been there. I knew that he was a little bit down but at the same time excited about the way we feel about him and how we see him and having the opportunity to come to our football team.”

What did you say to him?

“I just told him, ‘You know what, how do you feel about being a 49er?’ ‘Coach, I feel great about that.’ I said, ‘I know what you’re feeling right now. There’s a lot of different things going through your mind. Probably projected, you thought this or thought that, but just know that you came to the best place. We’re going to make the best of your talent and we’ll go from there.’”

Jeremy Maclin was on the board, too. Was this a clear choice

“For us, Crabtree on our board was the best receiver, and really one of the best players. For us, it was just jumped out at you. When you looked at the board, you really didn’t have to make the decision, the board and all of the work the guys have done and gone through this offseason really made the decision for us.”

Production in games important?

“Absolutely. You have the production. When you see him at wide receiver, it’s not just a guy catching the ball. It’s a guy out there, he finds a way to get separation. He knows how to use his body. He has exceptional hands. And he’s running away from people at the same time. He’s willing to block and does a good job of that as well. I’m very excited about what we saw on the film.”

Was there any discussion about (Mississippi offensive tackle) Michael Oher?

“Absolutely a thought. You know for me, that was definitely a thought. You look at Michael Oher, you look at a tackle. You want to protect the quarterback. But at the same time you have the opportunity for a playmaker, and you’ve got to make that decision, you’ve got to make that call.”

How much time did you need before deciding Crabtree was your guy?

“In all honesty, we were talking about a couple of other scenarios, whether Eugene Monroe would be there. And you come back and he’s still there and ‘Whoa, OK. We’ve got to rethink this and rehash some of the thoughts and ideas.’ But once he was there, as I said before, it’s just a matter of, if you look at the board, it just jumps out at you. It’s not even something that you really have to talk about.”

Did other teams call to trade up?

“We had several feelers, but nothing serious.”

You have Texas roots. Did that help in your research on Crabtree?

“It helped a lot. If you’re going to draft at the No. 10 spot, you’d better know a lot more than what you saw on film. For me, it’s having the opportunity to have some resources to go to and ask a lot of questions about the kid, his family, his background, his upbringing, all of those things. They all check out very well. The guy’s a winner. Very excited about his though process about what he wants to do and how he wants to work and what he wants to bring to that position.”

You’ve played against a lot of great receivers, you coached against some. Can you compare him to anybody?

“I guess to stand here and say, ‘He reminds me of this guy,’ I can’t think of anybody off the top of my head. Obviously you think of a guy like Jerry Rice. I don’t want to go there because he hasn’t done it yet at this level. Obviously we feel he can do it at this level. But there are certainly some other receivers. … He’s a thick guy. You may think of a Michael Irvin type of receiver. He’s big enough, he’s got the attitude. He’s got great hands. That may come to mind when you see him.”

The 49ers took two receivers most recently in the first round that didn’t work out so good, Rashaun Woods and J.J. Stokes. Any concerns about the risks of any player chosen at No. 10?

“Every player drafted today is a risk. Detroit paid seventy-some odd million dollars. That’s a tremendous risk. So I think that’s what the draft is all about. It’s about you doing your homework and not relying on hearsay. It’s a chance to see the kid, meet the kid, and to the best of our knowledge, this is a really good pick for us, and we’re very excited about it.”

Picking a receiver so high, any concern?

“No. The film to me speaks to itself. … When you look at this guy, then when you see the guy, obviously there’s something there. I really do think he has the chance to be special, but we’ll see. Time will tell.”

Who were some of the people that you talked to in Texas, concerning his diva image?

“As far as his diva image, one of the guys I talked to, I talked to Deion Sanders a little bit, who spent a tremendous amount of time with him. Basically, when you talk to Deion about him, it’s one of those things where, ‘Mike, here’s what it is, here’s what I see. I’m with the kid all the time. Here’s what it was before the season was over, during his last year at school, during his sophomore year at school, all of those things.’ We really talked about it. When you look at the kid, the most interesting thing he said when he was here, we sat and we talked. I said, ‘What is your hobby?’ He said, ‘You know, I could sit in front of a computer and just really get into fashion.’ He said, ‘You’re never going to see me wear the same thing twice. I’m really into fashion. I like designing things.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, fashion? Talk to me a bit. What do you mean?’ He broke it down a bit. He’s really into clothes. So of course I could see right away the connection between he and Deion. I felt like I was talking to Deion there for a bit. But this guy, he knows who he is. He knows what he wants to achieve. He has a best friend that he spends a lot of time with. He’s surrounded by good people. So I’m OK with all that. And I’m sure some things will come up here and there, but we’ll deal with that.”

As usual, Raiders think fast in NFL draft and grab speedy receiver Heyward-Bey

2009-04-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

You’ve got to hand it to Raiders boss Al Davis. He’s nothing if not consistent. He had his choice of wide receivers with the No. 7 overall pick in the NFL draft, and he took the fastest one, Maryland’s Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Most draftniks had Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree and Missouri’s Jeremy Maclin rated ahead of Heyward-Bey. But when did Davis ever accept the consensus view? Try never.

The way Davis values speed, you’d think he owned a NASCAR team. It’s all about the vertical game in Al’s world. As one of the talking heads on the NFL Network said, Davis is a height-weight-speed guy. In other words, his draft motto might as well be, “In the NFL Combine We Trust.”

Heyward-Bey wasn’t just the fastest wide receiver at the combine. He was the fastest player at any position, clocking a 4.3 for 40 yards. Combine that speed with his great size -- 6-foot-2, 210-pound -- and you have a perfect Raiders pick.

Some have questioned Heyward-Bey’s hands. Some have called him a boom-bust pick, a player who could become a superstar or could break your heart while he breaks the bank.

That’s perfect Al Davis, a man who’s never been afraid to take a risk or go against the tide.

Fortunately for the Raiders, Davis didn’t go too much against tide. The Raiders desperately needed a wide receiver, a go-to guy for quarterback JaMarcus Russell, and Davis grabbed one.

Time will tell if he got the right pass catcher.

Some free draft advice for the Raiders and 49ers

2009-04-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

The Detroit Lions are on the clock, but I’m more interested in what the Raiders and 49ers are going to do in the first round of the NFL draft on Saturday.

Here’s what I think they should do, starting with the Raiders, who have the No. 7 overall pick. Take the best wide receiver on the board. Not just the fastest wide receiver or the best combine workout warrior. The best wide receiver, someone who has good hands, runs good routes AND has good speed.

The Raiders invested the No. 1 overall pick and countless millions of dollars on quarterback JaMarcus Russell in 2007. They’ve got to get him a marquee receiver to catch his passes. You’re already starting to hear whispers that Russell is a bust. But it’s hard to tell if he is or isn’t when the Raiders’ receiving corps is so weak. I mean, when Chaz Schilens, Johnnie Lee Higgins and, if they can stay healthy, Javon Walker and Drew Carter, are the best of the bunch, you’ve got problems.

The Raiders haven’t drafted a wide receiver in the first round since 1988, when they chose Tim Brown out of Notre Dame. I’d say that pick worked out well. Certainly a lot better than some of the first-round picks since then, such as safeties Michael Huff and Derrick Gibson, cornerbacks Fabian Washington and Phillip Buchanon, tight end Rickey Dudley, offensive tackle Matt Stinchcomb and quarterback Todd Marinovich.

Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree could be a nice fit, if he falls to No. 7, although knowing the Raiders, they’ll probably be tempted by Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin’s blazing speed and maybe even Maryland wideout Darrius Heyward-Bey’s combination of size, strength, speed and potential, despite the red flag warnings that he’s a boom-or-bust risk.

Who knows? Maybe the Raiders can work a draft-day trade for disgruntled Arizona wide receiver Anquan Boldin. He’s probably not as fast as Al Davis wants his No. 1 receiver to be, but he’s a proven commodity, and one of the NFL’s most physical wide receivers.

Now for the 49ers at No. 10. If USC quarterback Mark Sanchez falls to them, the 49ers should take him and thank the football gods.

Quarterback is the most important position in football, and the 49ers have been searching for a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback ever since they let Jeff Garcia leave as a free agent after the 2003 season. Alex Smith, the No. 1 overall pick in 2005, was supposed to be the answer. But he struggled early then battled injuries. This year he had to take a huge pay cut for the chance to stick with the 49ers and battle journeyman Shaun Hill for the starting job.

During their glory years, there was always one constant for the 49ers. They had a future Hall of Fame quarterback leading the team, either Joe Montana or Steve Young. The last time they went to the playoffs was 2002, when Garcia threw 21 touchdown passes and only 10 interceptions.

If the 49ers draft Sanchez, Hill can keep the position warm until he’s ready to step in. They won’t have to throw Sanchez into the fray, the way they did Smith in 2005.

So what if Sanchez is gone when the 49ers pick, a very real possibility? If Crabtree slides that far, they should grab him. Same for Maclin.

The 49ers haven’t had a receiver who scared anyone since Terrell Owens forced his way out of town following the 2003 season. This is a franchise that has been known for its receivers, from the days of Dave Parks and Bernie Casey, to Dwight Clark, Jerry Rice, John Taylor and T.O.

Now they’re relying on Isaac Bruce, the ancient one, and youngsters such as Josh Morgan, Jason Hill and Brandon Jones, a free-agent pickup.

Here’s what the 49ers shouldn’t do. They shouldn’t pick an offensive tackle at No. 10. Yeah, I understand that coach Mike Singletary wants the 49ers’ to become more physical on offense, able to pick up a yards on the ground whenever they want, no matter how many defenders are in the box. A young, physical tackle would be nice to have.

On the other hand, the 49ers landed Marvel Smith, a veteran offensive tackle, in free agency. What’s more, since 2005, the 49ers have invested a first-round pick in offensive tackle Joe Staley, two second-round picks in guards David Baas and Chilo Rachal and a third-round pick in offensive guard/tackle Adam Snyder. Staley, Baas and Rachal are starters, while Snyder is expected to be the top backup at guard and tackle.

If the New York Giants have taught us anything, it’s that you don’t need a stable of high draft picks to have a quality offensive line. The 49ers have invested enough for now in their offensive line. Besides, the top offensive tackles, Baylor’s Jason Smith and Virginia’s Eugene Monroe, will already be gone when they pick. Alabama’s Andre Smith will probably be gone, too, which would leave Mississippi’s Michael Oher as the top remaining offensive tackle.

If Sanchez, Crabtree and Maclin are gone by the time they pick, the 49ers might be better served to grab a pass-rushing defensive end/outside linebacker or a nose tackle (to protect linebacker Patrick Willis) than an offensive tackle.

Or, they could trade down and stockpile picks to use on say, a safety, a situational pass rusher and a cornerback to groom for the future – Walt Harris isn’t getting any younger.

There’s my free advice. We’ll see what happens on Saturday.

What rust? Nabokov shines for Sharks in first game back after injury

2009-03-14T22:59:00.000-07:00

It was Evgeni Nabokov Appreciation Night at the Shark Tank on Saturday.

No, not officially. But by the huge ovation Nabokov received from fans during pre-game introductions and the chants of “Nab-eee! Nab-eee!” you could tell Sharks fans were ecstatic to have him back in goal.

Nabokov had missed the past seven games with a lower body injury. During that span, the Sharks went 2-4-1.

The sellout crowd of 17,496 was even happier at the end of the night, when Nabokov stopped six of seven shots in a shootout and the Sharks grabbed a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

“He played well,” said Sharks forward Jonathan Cheechoo, who beat Kings goalie Erik Ersberg for the game-winner in the shootout. “He made all the big saves.”

Nabokov stopped five shots in the first period, as the Sharks took a 1-0 lead on Milan Michalek’s goal at the 5:28 mark, the assists going to Joe Pavelski and Dan Boyle.

Nabokov gave up a goal early in the second period, Wayne Simmonds knocking a rebound past him. But later in the period he made a sprawling save when Simmonds had a breakaway chance during a Sharks power play. He stopped 11 shots in the period.

Then early in the third period, Nabokov produced one of the biggest plays of the game. The Kings had a two-on-none breakaway and came away empty against Nabokov. They never pulled the trigger because they never found an opening. Moments later, the fans erupted in another chorus of “Nab-eee! Nab-eee!”

“You don’t have much time to think,” Nabokov said. “You just try to read what they’re going to try to do. The odds are against me.”

Even though the Kings didn’t shoot on that play, Nabokov called it his “best save” of the night. There were more great saves to come, these ones on actual shots.

In overtime, Nabokov came up with another huge save. First he blocked Anze Kopitar’s slap shot from the right wing. The puck wound up lying in front of the Sharks goal in the crease. Nabokov located it at the last instant and smothered it before the Kings could arrive and blast it home.

“I had no idea where the puck was,” Nabokov said.

Then in the shootout, Nabokov outlasted Ersberg in a battle of the goalies.

In the third round, Pavelski put the Sharks up 1-0 with a beautiful goal. He angled right, then left, then hesitated before ripping a shot just inside the right post. The Kings’ Jack Johnson answered immediately, beating Nabokov to his stick side.

That was the last time a Kings shot found the net. Nabokov stopped Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, Alexander Frolov, Michal Handzus and, after Cheechoo scored for the Sharks, Teddy Purcell.

“He looked very sharp,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re excited for him. We’re happy to have him back. … The rest of the coaching staff who watched him warm up, they used the term he was ‘zoned in.’”

Nabokov is just one in a long list of Sharks who have missed games because of injuries. Defensemen Rob Blake and Brad Lukowich, two of the wounded, returned to action, along with Nabokov. Mike Grier, Jeremy Roenick, Claude Lemieux are among those still out.

The Sharks won’t blame their skid on injuries – that’s taboo in the NHL – but those injuries, particularly Nabokov’s, have definitely hurt their record. You simply don’t lose one of the NHL’s top goalies for seven games and not suffer some consequences.

Fortunately for the Sharks, they’re not paying a huge price for their slump, thanks to all of their good work earlier in the season. They still have plenty of time to get the rest of their injured players healthy and get back on a roll heading into the playoffs. With 98 points, they remained just one behind Detroit, which beat St. Louis, in the battle for Western Conference supremacy.

Even though the Sharks went zero for eight on the power play and found the net just once in regulation and overtime, McLellan said Saturday night’s win might be the official start of their turnaround and the beginning of the end of their offensive funk.

“We looked a little more like we should look,” McLellan said of the Sharks, who out-shot the Kings 39-24. “Sometimes when you’re trying to come out of a mini-slump, the bounces don’t go your way. I thought we generated a lot of chances. … Their goalie was a money goalie.”

But not quite as money as Nabokov.

“He played great,” Sharks Boyle said. “He came through in the shootout. He’s probably a big reason why we won the two points. We were all expecting him to be in top shape and he was.”

With Mills back on track, St. Mary's deserves NCAA Tournament berth

2009-03-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

St. Mary’s center Omar Samhan had it right, just minutes after the Gaels’ 85-65 win Friday night over Eastern Washington, a.k.a. their last chance to convince the NCAA Tournament selection committee that they deserve an at-large berth.

“Nothing you can do now but pray,” said Samhan, who scored a career-high 29 points to go with 12 rebounds. “All you can do is hope for the best. It’s out of our control now.”

That it is for a so-called “bubble” team from a mid-major conference. I can only hope that the selection committee is wise enough to realize that St. Mary’s deserves a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Gaels coach Randy Bennett rolled the dice last week when he added a game against Eastern Washington to the schedule. Bennett wanted to give point guard Patty Mills one more chance to convince committee members that he has recovered from the broken right hand he suffered on Jan. 29 against Gonzaga.

The risk for Bennett was that his team could have played poorly and Mills could have had his third straight frigid shooting night. That would have sealed St. Mary’s fate two days before Selection Sunday.

Bennett, though, hit the jackpot because Mills got his shooting groove back and the Gaels reminded everyone just how good they are when their leading scorer and court leader is healthy and in synch.

Mills scored 19 points, making 6 of 14 shots from the field and, more importantly, 4 of 9 from long range. Compare that to his numbers in the WCC tournament, when he went 5-for-28 overall and 2-for-16 from 3-point range against Portland and Gonzaga.

“I think he’s back,” Bennett said of Mills. “I don’t know what else you’d want a guy to do.”

Mills played 33 minutes, more than any other player on either team. He had four steals, two assists, two rebounds and just one turnover. He was aggressive on both ends of the court, from start to finish.

“It’s pretty much 100 percent,” Mills said of his right hand.

The beauty of having a selection committee, instead of some BCS system of polls and computers, is that those members can analyze teams and make rational decisions. They can factor in the impact of injuries and the return of injured stars.

The Gaels have won a school record 26 games against just six losses. They were 18-1 entering their Jan. 29 game at Gonzaga. At the time, they were ranked No. 18 in the ESPN/USA Today poll and No. 22 in the Associated Press poll.

Mills scored 18 points before he was injured in the first half. He helped St. Mary’s build a 39-33 halftime lead. Without Mills, the Gaels struggled in the second half and lost 69-62. Then they lost three of their next four games, falling to Portland, Santa Clara and Gonzaga, by just two points.

After that, they won their final five regular-season games, all without Mills.

“We only had one bad stretch,” Bennett said. “Any team in the country, if they lost a guy like Patty, is going to have the same bad stretch. Our guys, given the situation, I don’t know how much better they could have done.

“We were 18-1 when it happened. We dealt with it. We didn’t lose to any bad teams. We lost to Gonzaga three times.”

If Mills hadn’t broken his hand, it’s likely the Gaels would have remained a Top-25 team. They likely would have finished with at least 29 wins.

If Mills hadn’t returned to action and hadn’t shown that he’s back on track, then the Gaels wouldn’t deserve an at-large berth. But with the real Patty Mills, St. Mary’s is a legitimate tournament team.

The Gaels made the NCAA Tournament last year with 25 wins. Granted, St. Mary’s had more victories last year over eventual tournament teams, including Gonzaga and Oregon. But anyone who has followed the Gaels understands that this year’s team is decidedly better.

It’s deeper and much more experienced. St. Mary’s returned almost the entire squad from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. Mills was just a freshman last year. As good as he was last season, he has been that much better this year with that year of experience. Samham took his game to a much higher level. Forward Diamon Simpson, the Gaels’ all-time rebounding king, continued to improve. When Mills was out, players such as Mickey McConnell, Carlin Hughes and Wayne Hunter stepped up.

The Gaels team I watched Friday was NCAA Tournament worthy. We’ll find out Sunday if the selection committee agrees.

The reasons behind T.O.'s decision to sign with Buffalo

2009-03-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

Top 10 reasons Terrell Owens signed with the Buffalo Bills:

10. His good friend Donovan McNabb gave Buffalo two thumbs up.

9. The NFL doesn’t have a team in Siberia.

8. He can see Canada from the window of his new home

7. After striking out in the NFC _ 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys _ he wanted to swing and miss in the AFC.

6. Even Al Davis wouldn’t return his calls.

5. He thought Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith still played for the Bills.

4. After one season, he’ll be free to destroy another team.

3. Blame it on Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson.

2. In these tough economic times, his $6.5 million will stretch farther in a blue-collar town.

1. Must be the Buffalo wings.

A great day for Oregon Ducks baseball

2009-02-27T19:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve been waiting 28 years to say -- or write -- this about a University of Oregon baseball team: Go Ducks!

I watched my former team beat St. Mary’s last week in their season-opener in Moraga. Today, I followed the inning-by-inning action via Adam Jude’s “Talkin’ Baseball” blog for the Eugene Register-Guard as the Ducks beat defending NCAA champion Fresno State 1-0 in their home-opener at PK Park.

Not bad for a program that was disbanded after the 1981 season for reasons that still don’t make sense to me nearly 30 years later. But that’s history. I’m more interested in the new era of Oregon baseball.

From what I saw at St. Mary’s, this young Oregon team has amazing fire and spirit, which is a credit to coach George Horton. The Ducks may not have a ton of power, but they hustle and play hard.

It looks like Horton found himself an ace in Tyler Anderson, a freshman lefty from Las Vegas, who held Fresno State scoreless for eight innings. I saw him pitch against St. Mary’s. He’s got some great off-speed pitches, a good fastball and a lot of presence and guts for a freshman. He’s already been thrown into two pressure-packed games and handled both amazingly well.

Jett Hart (What a great first name for a guy who can run) and Caleb Tommasini look like they’ll give the Ducks’ offense a little juice.

I got a chance to look at PK Park a few weeks ago. I liked the setting of Howe Field better because it was in the middle of campus, with the forested hills beyond left and center-field. But man, this new park is truly a gem that will only get better when the second phase is completed, replacing the temporary stands with a permanent structure.

I only wish that Mel Krause, my old coach from 1973-77, had lived long enough to watch the Ducks play this season. He would have loved how hard these Ducks play and respected the job that coach Horton has done.

I was sorry I didn’t get a chance to attend today’s game. If there are any Ducks out there who saw the game, it would be great if you could share your impressions and thoughts.

Go Ducks!

More signs that sports world can't escape harsh economic reality

2009-02-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

If you didn’t already know the economy was in freefall, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hammered home that reality Wednesday.

The NFL confirmed that Goodell is voluntarily taking a 20-25 percent pay cut from the $11 million in salary and bonuses he was to receive in the 2008 fiscal year, which ends March 31. A few months ago, the NFL slashed 169 jobs, a reduction of over 15 percent.

No, Goodell won’t have to apply for food stamps. And NFL teams are still throwing around money for players (see Al Davis, Nnamdi Asomugha and Shane Lechler) as if times were flush. But when the biggest sports cash cow in the world starts cutting salaries and jobs, you know the entire industry could be approaching very tough times.

It could be that Goodell’s salary slash is a PR move as the league approaches negotiations with the NFL Players Association over the collective bargaining agreement. The league can go to the negotiating table trumpeting its staff and salary cuts as it argues for a bigger piece of the pie.

But enough cynicism.

Tough times are hitting more than just the NFL. While scanning a few headlines today, I saw that Greg Norman suggested that the PGA Tour should reduce its prize money purses, in light of the huge economic downturn. The Tour is losing some high-profile title sponsors, including FBR, the sponsor of that cocktail party/tournament near Phoenix, which will bow out after 2010.

Even some baseball teams, other than the Yankees, have shown some fiscal restraint in free agency. Manny Ramirez is still looking for a team to pay him as if it’s 2007.

Times can’t be that tough for baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig is still making $18 million a year. When Selig slashes his salary, I’ll know that the sports Apocalypse has arrived.

With Martz out and Raye in, 49ers' offense in peril of taking another tumble in 2009

2009-01-31T15:05:00.000-08:00

For the sake of all 49ers fan, I hope I’m wrong, but I have a feeling you and your team are going to miss offensive coordinator Mike Martz before too long.

After firing Martz then conducting an exhaustive search, coach Mike Singletary hired Jimmy Raye as the 49ers’ new offensive coordinator. Who knows? Maybe hiring Raye will turn out to be pure genius. Maybe he’ll bring stability to an offense that, counting Raye, has had a different offensive coordinator for seven straight years.

My gut’s telling me this hire was a mistake and that the 49ers’ offense is going to take a step backward in 2009.

I mean, this was the anti-WOW! hire. In eight of Raye’s 12 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator, his teams had losing records. Raye’s offenses failed to average over 20 points per game in seven of those seasons.

Under Martz, the 49ers averaged 21.2 points per game. Say what you want to about Martz, but he’s an offensive magician. He took the NFL’s worst offense and turned it into something respectable last season. Well, at least after Singletary stepped in and benched quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan in favor of Shaun Hill.

Singletary and Martz obviously clashed when it came to offensive philosophy. I suppose Mad Mike and smash-mouth Samurai Mike was a combustible marriage. I suppose it couldn’t last, even though the results they produced together were good, with Singletary forcing Martz to reign in his uber-aggressive, self-destructive tendencies.

Raye and Singletary apparently are simpatico when it comes to their shared belief in having a tough, physical offense that can run through brick walls.

Personally, I wish the 49ers had never abandoned the West Coast offense. That was the team’s signature, its identity, its source of offensive stability since the day Eddie DeBartolo hired Bill Walsh as his coach in 1979. You can argue whether it’s the best offensive system, but at least the 49ers knew who they were and the type of players and coaches they needed to fit their scheme.

When the 49ers fired coach Steve Mariucci after a 10-6 playoff season in 2002 and hired Dennis Erickson, they lost their offensive identity. They’ve been floundering ever since, switching schemes and coordinators as often as hockey teams change lines.

Raye’s approach is more akin to the Ernie Zampese/Norv Turner offensive philosophy than anything Walshian.

I’m certainly not expecting to see offensive magic from the 49ers next season. But at a minimum, they should establish an offensive identity and stick with it for at least a few years. The team simply can’t keep changing coordinators and schemes if it hopes to ever return to the playoffs.

At 62, Raye is probably too old to be a prime head-coaching candidate. So the 49ers probably won’t lose him the way they lost Mike McCarthy to the Packers and Turner to the Chargers after one season in San Francisco. Raye agreed to a three-year deal with the 49ers and said he hopes to fulfill that contract and land another with the team. The 49ers have also hired a new quarterbacks coach, 41-year-old Mike Johnson. So maybe Johnson can learn under Raye and be ready to step in for a seamless transition when Raye retires.

Of course that’s the best-case scenario. The worst-case is that the 49ers’ offense backtracks, Raye gets whacked, and the 49ers start over again.

We’ll find out soon enough.

Steelers will ride No. 1 ranked defense to Super Bowl victory over Cardinals

2009-01-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

I was watching a cable news channel this morning when a story came on about a Kodiak bear from the Pittsburgh Zoo predicting the winner of Super Bowl XLIII. There were two boxes, one with a Pittsburgh Steelers logo, and the other with an Arizona Cardinals logo.

Shockingly, a bear from the Pittsburgh Zoo picked the Steelers’ box. Imagine that. Of course that box wasn’t soaked in salmon oil or covered with honey. That would be dishonest. What are you, cynical?

I have to say, I agree with the bear. The Steelers will win the Super Bowl. I'll even give you a final score: Steelers 27, Cardinals 17.

Most of my reasons for picking Pittsburgh revolve around defense. I hate to drop the cliché card so early in the discussion, but there’s a simple reason they say defense wins championships. It’s usually true.

The Steelers nearly won the NFL’s triple crown on defense this season. They ranked No. 1 in total defense (based on yards allowed), No. 1 in pass defense and No. 2 in run defense. But here’s the most important defensive statistic: Pittsburgh held its opponents to an average of 13.9 points per game, the fewest in the NFL.

And Arizona? The Cardinals allowed 26.6 points per game, 28th in the league. They ranked 19th in total defense, 22nd in pass defense and 16th in rush defense.

Granted, Arizona has the edge on offense, averaging 26.7 points per game (No. 3) to Pittsburgh’s 21.7 (No. 20). And the Cardinals finished fourth in total offense and second in passing, while the Steelers ranked 22nd and 17th, respectively, in those categories. Pittsburgh’s only offensive edge came in rushing, where it ranked 23rd to Arizona’s 32nd.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, I’ll always take a team centered on a physical, dominant defense over one centered on a very good but far from great offense.

The Cardinals have been impressive in their playoff wins over Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia, averaging 31.7 points per game. Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner has been magnificent, throwing for 770 yards and completing 66.3 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. His postseason passer rating is 112.1.

Warner, though, rarely was forced out of his comfort zone in those three wins against teams that employ 4-3 defenses. More often than not, he was able to drop back, set his feet and throw on rhythm, usually to a wide-open Larry Fitzgerald.

Those days are over. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau will make life very uncomfortable for Warner and Fitzgerald with his pressure-packed, confusing 3-4 scheme.

Pittsburgh outside linebackers James Harrison, the NFL’s Defensive MVP, and LaMarr Woodley, combined for 28 sacks this season. Inside linebacker James Farrior added four sacks. Even if the Steelers don’t rack up a huge number of sacks against Warner, they’ll hit him and force him to throw on the run. When Warner is forced to move, he goes from being an MVP candidate to a very average quarterback.

There’s no way the Steelers let Fitzgerald run as freely as he’s been able to run so far in the playoffs. I have a feeling strong safety Troy Polamalu will be there to greet Fitzgerald a few times when he runs those shallow crossing routes. LeBeau will find a way to contain Fitzgerald and force Warner to throw more often to his less dangerous targets. Yes, Anquan Boldin is good, but he’s been battling assorted injuries and has been whining about his contract. At this point, he’s no Fitzgerald.

The Steelers aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut. But quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will find a way to make just enough big plays for the Steelers to win. At 6-foot-5 and 241 pounds, he’s tough to bring down. At some point during the Super Bowl, he’ll use his size and strength to escape a sack and complete a game-changing strike, likely to Hines Ward.

The Steelers will have one other big edge other than defense at the Super Bowl. Raymond James Stadium will seem like a home away from home for Pittsburgh.

Remember what it was like at Ford Field in Detroit for Super Bowl XL when the Steelers beat Seattle 21-10? Steelers fans far outnumbered Seahawks fans in the stadium that day. It will be the same thing this year in Tampa. The Steelers have a long and storied history that includes five Super Bowl victories. Steelers fans travel well and are willing to pay big bucks to see their team play.

The Cardinals are relatively recent transplants in Arizona. They’ve never won a Super Bowl. Let’s just say the Arizona Cardinals are not exactly America’s Team.

Let your Terrible Towels fly.

Round 3 of Sharks vs. Flames has a playoff feel to it

2009-01-15T23:51:00.000-08:00

Playoff hockey in January?

That’s the way it looked to me from high above the rink at the Shark Tank, and that’s the way it felt for those on the ice Thursday night in Round 3 between the Sharks and Calgary Flames.

For the first time all season, the Sharks lost a home game in regulation, falling 3-2 to a Calgary team they beat in the first round of the playoffs last season. They’re now 20-1-2 at home, but the Sharks certainly didn’t go down quietly.

“I think it was a great hockey game,” said Sharks center Joe Thornton, who scored one goal and came within an eyelash of scoring another. “It was a playoff type atmosphere.”

As for the Sharks suffering their first home loss in regulation, Thornton just shrugged it off, saying, “It was bound to happen.” His thoughts were clearly centered more on the emotional game he had just played against a tough and sometimes bitter rival than on the end of the streak.

“Who knows? We’ll probably meet each other in the playoffs,” Thornton said.

That thought certainly doesn’t worry him.

“I thought we were more physical than them. I thought we were quicker than them,” Thornton said. “I think we stack up pretty good against them.”

Thornton’s probably right. Then again, the Sharks have lost two straight to the Flames, including a 5-2 thrashing at Calgary on Jan. 6, a payback for a 6-1 Sharks victory in San Jose on Nov. 13.

The final three-goal margin in Calgary doesn’t come close to telling you the true story of that butt kicking. Calgary led 4-0 early in the second period. Sharks coach Todd McLellan pulled goalie Evgeni Nabokov and replaced him with Brian Boucher. At that point, he might as well have put Bobby Boucher into the game.

This will tell you exactly what McLellan thought about the way his team played that night. Instead of giving his players a practice-free day, as planned, he scheduled a workout for early the next morning in Calgary before the Sharks traveled to Edmonton.

“The effort (tonight) when you compare it to what we had in Calgary was much better,” McLellan said.”

Thornton’s effort, in particular, stood out.

“Joe was competitive,” McLellan said. “I liked the fire he had in him. I thought it rubbed off on some of his linemates.”

Thornton is a pass-first center, but on Thursday night against Calgary he took matters into his own hands more often than usual.

Thornton put the Sharks ahead 2-1 at 6:57 of the second period, ripping a shot past Miikka Kiprusoff. He took the puck along the right boards, glided to his left and snapped a shot that beat the former Shark goalie on his glove side, just inside the post. It was the type of effortless, powerful offense that makes you wonder why Thornton doesn’t shoot more often.

Calgary wasted little time before answering. Just eight seconds into a power play, Daymond Langkow redirected a shot from Michael Cammalleri past Evegeni Nabokov with 10:25 still left in the second.

Thornton nearly put the Sharks back ahead on a power play with under nine minutes left to play. He rocketed a shot that hit the left post then ricocheted off the right post and out of the crease. The Sharks came away empty on that power play, as well as their four others.

“That’s the breaks,” Thornton said. “Another inch one way and it goes in. Another inch the other way and it misses the net.”

Minutes later, another break went Calgary’s way. Dion Phaneuf’s shot from the right circle deflected off Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s stick and past Nabokov at 16:03 of the third.

“I just don’t like losing to Calgary,” said Sharks forward Ryane Clowe, who scored the game’s first goal. “I guess we can’t complain too much about the effort. We played physical. We played hard.

“It was a good test for us. That was probably one of the most physical games we’ve had this year. … It’s exciting. You push and they push back. You push again.”

Just like in the playoffs.

For most of the game, the Sharks were pushing back without one of their best players, defenseman Rob Blake. Late in the first period, a Calgary shot bounced off his stick and hit him in the face. He left the Shark Tank and went to the hospital for treatment. No word yet on the extent of his injury.

The Sharks don’t have much time to stress about their loss to Calgary. Detroit, the defending Stanley Cup champion, comes to town Saturday. The Red Wings beat the Sharks 6-0 in Detroit last month and lost to the Sharks 4-2 in San Jose in October.

Thursday night’s game, McLellan said, was good preparation for what’s to come Saturday night.

“This had playoff intensity. You could feel it on the bench. You could feel it in the building,” he said.

Remembering the start of Rickey Henderson's Hall of Fame career

2009-01-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

When I heard the news earlier today that Rickey Henderson had been elected into baseball’s Hall of Fame, I had a flashback to the first time I saw him play for the A’s.

It was 1979, and the A’s were in the midst of a 54-108 season. I was at the Coliseum with a handful of fans, enjoying the plentiful elbowroom when Henderson, then just 20 years old, came to bat. I’m not saying I knew then that he was destined to become a first ballot Hall of Famer and the best leadoff hitter in baseball history, but there was something about him that caught my eye.

First, there was that body. He was built like an NFL running back, compact, muscular and powerful. Then there was that batting stance, his right leg coiled, and his upper body angled sharply, putting his head all but over the inside corner of the plate.

When Henderson made contact, the ball exploded off his bat. And when he left the box, he shot down the line as if he were a world-class sprinter coming out of the blocks.

In 89 games that season, Henderson stole 33 bases, scored 49 runs, drew 34 walks drove in 26 runs and hit .274 with one home run and 13 doubles. He was just warming up.

Henderson stole 100 bases and scored 111 runs in 1980, his first full season in the majors. He walked 117 times, drove in 53 runs and hit .303 with nine homers and 22 doubles.

When his career finally ended after the 2003 season, with Henderson still campaigning for another shot, he had stolen more bases (1,406) and scored more runs (2,295) than anyone else in baseball history. He had also walked 2,190 times, second on the all-time list, collected 3,055 hits and slugged 297 home runs, a ridiculous number for a lead-off hitter.

No other leadoff hitter before or after Rickey had his combination of extraordinary speed, power, base-stealing instincts, batting eye and hitting stroke. No wonder he earned 94.8 percent of the vote in a Hall of Fame that clearly has the toughest standards in sports.

Looking back, I guess it didn’t take too long for all of us to see this day coming.

Mills vs. Foster duel highlights St. Mary's victory over Santa Clara

2009-01-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

St. Mary’s sophomore guard Patty Mills and Santa Clara freshman guard Kevin Foster have to keep meeting like this.

They put on a spectacular back-and-forth, high-wire show Friday night at a sold-out McKeon Pavilion in their first career confrontation.

Mills scored 31 points. So did Foster. Foster hit what looked to be a dagger 3 with just 12 seconds left, putting Santa Clara ahead 62-60. But Mills answered with one final trey, giving the Gaels a 63-62 victory against their archrival in both teams’ West Coast Conference opener.

“Patty hit a huge shot at the end,” Gaels coach Randy Bennett said. “Their guy Foster had an outstanding game. We needed to do a better job on a guy like that. We knew he was a good player.”

Maybe so. But Foster, a freshman from Katy, Texas, didn’t come into the game with quite the resume that Mills owns. Mills starred for the Australian Olympic team last summer after earning first-team All-WCC honors as a freshman.

“I wasn’t really thinking about that,” Foster said. “I was thinking about my own game and trying to win the game.”

Apparently so. Because with 12 seconds left, Foster took a pass in the right corner and launched a 3-point rainbow with a Gael in his face. Nothing but net. That gave Foster 31 points for the night and the Broncos a 62-60 lead.

St. Mary’s caught a break when a pass from Mills to Diamond Simpson in traffic wound up going out of bounds under the bucket off a Bronco with 4.7 seconds left. Bennett called a time out and, naturally, set up a play for Mills.

Using screens from Omar Samhan and Simpson, Mills broke loose beyond the arc on the right wing, took a pass from Mickey McConnell and buried a fall-away 3 with 2.6 seconds left, putting the Gaels ahead 63-62.

Fans at McKeon went nuts, of course. The Gaels’ unofficial theme song, “Down Under,” by the Australian rock band “Men at Work” blasted away, as fans sang along. And when Santa Clara’s James Rahon missed a desperation shot from half-court at the buzzer, those fans started chanting, “Pat-tee! Pat-tee! Pat-tee!”

Mills had missed a pair of free throws with 47.5 seconds left. And he was just 3 of 12 from beyond the arc before shooting his final 3. As the shot left his hand, Mills thought of his ailing aunt, Sharyn, home in Australia.

“When I let it go, I knew it was good,” Mills said. “That was for her.”

Foster wasn’t on the court for Santa Clara’s final shot, and he was in and out of the lineup late in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Broncos and fortunately for the Gaels, Foster’s left calf cramped up.

“Thank goodness,” said a relieved Bennett. “He might have had 40.”

Bennett might have been right. Foster was on fire for most of the night. He made 11 of 19 shots from the field, 5 of 9 from beyond the arc and 4 of 5 from the line.

“These guys know they go as hard as they can until they can’t go any more,” Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating said. “He tried.”

Foster used his quickness to get free for open shots, and the Broncos also took advantage of a St. Mary’s defense that was determined to stop 6-foot-11 center John Bryant.

“I was hot,” Foster said. “I made a couple shots. Coach Keating always said they’re going to come back to me if I made a couple shots.”

Mills had the scouting report on Foster. He knew he was good. But not 31-points good.

“We did a great job against Bryant,” Mills said. “I think we had a lot of focus on him. But then, out comes Foster. It’s hard to adjust, but to be a great team, you have to adjust. He got rolling. He’s very hard to guard.”

Grab your calendar and put an “X” on Feb. 7. That’s when the Mills and Foster meet again, this time at the Leavey Center in Santa Clara.

Ravens' Reed shows the 49ers what they're missing

2009-01-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Does Baltimore Ravens free safety Ed Reed have a fan club? If he does, sign me up. This is a player I’d definitely pay to see, and there aren’t many NFL free safeties in this era that I could say that about.

Reed put on another dazzling show Sunday in the Ravens’ 27-9 playoff victory over Miami. He intercepted two passes and, naturally, returned one of those 64 yards for a touchdown.

When Reed gets his hands on the ball, he has an uncanny knack for winding up in the end zone. He’s simply too quick, fast and clever for those offensive players who are forced to switch gears and try to tackle him.

Reed has now scored 12 touchdowns on either interception or fumble returns during his career. Earlier this year, he returned an interception 107 yards for a touchdown against Philadelphia. In 2004, he returned an interception 106 yards for a score against Cleveland.

If you’re a 49ers fan, Reed’s ridiculously good performance points to one of your team’s biggest needs approaching free agency and the draft. Starting 49ers free safety Mark Roman hasn’t intercepted a pass since 2006, his first season with the 49ers. He had one that year and has five in his nine NFL seasons. He has never returned an interception or fumble for a touchdown.

Of course there’s only one Ed Reed. This guy is a touchdown-scoring freak who has 43 career regular-season interceptions in just seven seasons. But even a poor man’s Ed Reed would be a huge upgrade for the 49ers.

They need more game-changing plays out of their free safety. Roman apparently doesn’t have the knowledge, instincts, hands or burst to make those big plays.

Reed always seems to be at the right place at the right time. On his first interception Sunday, he was basically playing center field when he tracked down an errant pass from Chad Pennington. He angled toward the left sideline, set up his blockers, then cut back across the grain and followed a convoy into the end zone.

Later in the game, Reed was lined up deep, but as Pennington dropped back, Reed read the play and, seemingly, Pennington’s mind. He knifed in front of a Pennington pass at about 100 mph for his second interception.

As that play unfolded, Reed was initially so far away from Pennington’s target that he probably thought Reed couldn’t possibly be a factor in the play. Reed, though, covers ground faster than most cornerbacks.

Reed will line up against the Tennessee Titans and quarterback Kerry Collins on Saturday in a divisional playoff game in Nashville. No one should be surprised if No. 20 winds up in the end zone again.

Utah makes a statement for West Coast football

2009-01-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

Friday was a beautiful day for fans of West Coast football, myself included. I have no special connection to Utah. I went to Oregon. I don’t even know what a Ute is. But I love the fact that the Utes beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl.

Maybe for at least a day or so we can stop hearing about the greatness of the Southeastern Conference, about how much bigger and faster and better their athletes and teams are, especially compared to those “soft” West Coast teams not named USC.

Alabama spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the country. But before it knew what hit it Friday night, Alabama was down 21-0 to the undefeated Utes. Utah quarterback Brian Johnson threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns against Alabama.

How could these superhumans from the SEC lose to a team from Utah, especially in what was basically a home game for them in New Orleans at the Superdome?

Maybe Alabama coach Nick Saban had a bad hair day. Maybe the mighty Crimson Tide overlooked the Utes. Granted, Alabama was without suspended All-America left tackle Andre Smith. But isn’t an elite team from the great SEC supposed to be three or four deep at every position? And besides, Smith doesn’t play both ways, so he wouldn’t have helped Alabama’s defense.

From what I saw, Alabama couldn’t handle the Utes’ passing game or its pass rush. Utah blitzed and stunted and basically made life hell for Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson. Oh, those tricky Utes. But Utah also bottled up Alabama’s power running attack, holding Glen Coffee to 36 yards on 13 carries and Mark Ingram to 26 yards on eight carries.

I know the SEC is a great football conference. But it’s not the only conference. They play a little football west of the Rocky Mountains, too. The Pac-10, which admittedly had a down year, went 5-0 in its bowl games. USC beat Penn State, Oregon beat Oklahoma State, Oregon State beat Pittsburgh, Cal beat Miami and Arizona beat BYU.

Then Utah, of the we-get-no-respect Mountain West Conference, made an even bigger statement for West Coast football as it served a slice of humble pie to Alabama and the SEC.

Montgomery has Bears playing with passion and precision in win over Arizona

2009-01-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

Take Lute Olson away from Arizona. Bring Mike Montgomery to Cal. What do you get?

You got your answer Friday night at Haas Pavilion.

Montgomery’s Bears opened the Pac-10 season with a 69-55 victory over a once mighty Arizona team that missed Olson last year when he took a “temporary” leave and miss him even more this year now that he has retired.

Yeah, you may get sick of hearing Dick Vitale talk and talk then talk some more about the importance of coaching in college basketball. But Vitale and his fellow talking heads have a point. A great college coach can transform a team and an entire program.

This is basically the same Cal team that struggled last season in Ben Braun’s final season. Well, the same team minus its best player, Ryan Anderson, currently earning a living in the NBA, and center DeVon Hardin.

Montgomery has the Bears playing with passion, intensity and intelligence.

“Coach Montgomery has brought a discipline to them that has really turned them into a good team,” Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell said.

The Bears had lost four straight and 18 of 20 games to Arizona before Friday night. During his final nine seasons at Stanford, Montgomery was 9-9 against Arizona. Now he’s won 10 of his past 19 games against the Wildcats.

“I think this validates we can play in this league,” Montgomery said.

It’s not as if the Bears haven’t had talent in the past. But players such as point guard Jerome Randle and shooting guard Patrick Christopher have flourished under Montgomery. They’ve bought what he’s selling about the importance of defense. And on the offensive end, they’ve found the proper balance of aggression and control.

Randle entered the game averaging a team-best 19.5 points per game and scored 14 against Arizona. But with Warriors executive vice president Chris Mullin watching from a courtside seat, it was Christopher who put on the most dazzling show.

Christopher scored a game-high 23 points, three shy of his career-high, mixing laser-like jump shots and acrobatic dunks. When he wasn’t scoring, Christopher was selling out on the other end, playing tough defense against both swingman Chase Budinger and point guard Nick Wise.

Budinger came into the game averaging 17.7 points and finished with just 9 on 4 of 16 shooting. Arizona was once one of the deepest teams in the country before Olson’s departure caused the talent pipeline to run dry. Now, if Budinger, Wise or center Jordan Hill has an off night, the Wildcats are in trouble.

“That intensity sparked our offensive game,” Christopher said of the Bears’ defense.

It took a while for the Bears to get going on offense, but in the second half they sliced apart Arizona’s 1-1-3 zone as if it consisted of five mannequins.

More often than not, one of the Bears’ forwards (usually Harper Kamp) took a pass near the free throw line, turned and hit a wide-open teammate (usually Christopher) cutting hard to the basket for an easy score. Kamp led the Bears with five assists.

“That was coach’s idea to put me up there,” Kamp said. “Whichever forward caught it up there, the idea was to turn and find the open man. My teammates made it easy for me. They’re great finishers.”

Montgomery, now a true believer in man-to-man defense, said he used to use the 1-1-3 zone and had a good idea how to attack it.

“We knew the middle was open,” Montgomery said. “From that point you do get cutters.”

“They definitely had a good game plan,” Pennell said.

The Bears improved to 12-2 under Montgomery. And with the Pac-10 decidedly weaker than it’s been for a few years, the Bears have a great chance to finish in the upper tier in the conference and notch 20-plus wins for the season. That’s the recipe for an NCAA Tournament berth.

If Braun were still Cal’s coach, I have a feeling we’d be hearing a lot from him about the losses of Anderson and Hardin and the Bears’ lack of size. I doubt if we’d be talking about a passionate, disciplined Cal team that’s a legitimate contender for an NCAA Tournament berth.

After the game, Kamp was asked about Montgomery’s impact.

“He just gives us confidence,” Kamp said. “We go in the huddle and come out with confidence every time.”

Cal's Follett, Best come up big in Emerald Bowl win

2008-12-27T22:56:00.001-08:00

Cal and Miami were tied 17-17. The clock was down to 3:45 and counting in the fourth quarter. My money was on the Emerald Bowl going to overtime Saturday night at AT&T Park.

Then Cal senior linebacker Zack Follett stepped up and did what he had done so often before in his career. He made a huge, explosive, game-changing play that paved the way for Cal’s 24-17 win before an Emerald Bowl record, sellout crowd of 42,268.

Great players make big plays in big games at critical moments.

This was a made-for-Follett moment, and he didn’t disappoint. When I saw a Cal defender at the far end of the field running 100 mph and knocking the ball out of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris’ hands, I had no doubt that speeding bullet was Follett.

Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan grabbed the loose ball at the 9 and returned 7 yards to the 2. Two plays later, Nate Longshore hit freshman Anthony Miller with a 2-yard game-winner.

“We all know Zack is the sack master,” Jordan said. “If you need a big play, Zack’s going to come up with it.”

Let’s set the stage for Follett’s heroics. The Hurricanes had roared back from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit. They had tied the game on Matt Bosher’s 22-yard field goal with 9:13 left and had held Cal to just three second-half points.

Now, Miami faced third-and-8 from its 22. Harris, a true freshman, took the snap and rolled to his left, looking for an open receiver. But as Harris rolled, Follett shot past right offensive tackle Chris Rutledge then hit another gear.

“I was battling against those tackles all game,” Follett said. “They’re big and athletic. I kind of said something at the pep rally that made them mad.

“Once (Harris) put the ball down and started to roll out, I knew I had him.”

Follett said that as he closed in, a message from defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi came into his head at high volume: Bring the “hammer” down.

Before Harris had a chance to throw, Follett launched himself through the air and jackhammered the ball out of his hands.

“He’s a tenacious player,” Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said. “He goes hard all the time.”

Not surprisingly, it was Follett who gathered the defense on the sidelines just minutes before that series and implored his teammates to make a big play.

“He’s the guy all the guys look to,” Gregory said. “Those are the kind of guys who win games for you.”

Follett had nine tackles, two sacks, four tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one pass defensed. And yes, he earned Defensive Player of the Game honors in what had to be landslide vote by media members.

Cal running back Jahvid Best, Follett’s big-play counterpart, earned Offensive Player of the Game honors in what surely was another landslide decision.

Best rushed for an Emerald Bowl record 194 yards and two touchdowns on just 20 carries. He averaged 9.3 yards per carry. Best’s 1-yard run gave Cal a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter, then he added a 42-yard scoring burst with 4:55 left in the opening quarter.

Going into the game, Best vs. Miami’s leaky run defense was clearly the most critical matchup. He had rushed for a combined 512 yards against Stanford and Washington in his two previous games. Miami had allowed 691 yards rushing to Georgia Tech and North Carolina State in its final two regular-season games.

“We had him in the backfield a couple times and guys couldn’t wrap up,” Miami coach Randy Shannon said. “Which is amazing, because we’ve been working on it the last two weeks.”

“We came out and we made a few mistakes,” Miami linebacker Glenn Cook said. “The last couple weeks at the end of the season we made the same mistakes. He’s a great player. He took advantage of them.”

The fact that he had set an Emerald Bowl rushing record was news to Best. He had more important matters on his mind.

“This game just meant so much to me, playing for these seniors,” Best said. “I was playing a lot for (fullback) Will Ta’ufo’ou.”

Ta’ufo’ou helped open running lanes for Best. Then Best did the rest with his blazing speed that seemed to catch the speedy Hurricanes off guard.

“I don’t think anybody’s really ready for Jahvid,” Ta’ufo’ou said. “I think people know he’s good, but maybe they don’t really know how good. He’s explosive.”

Follett and Best saved Cal coach Jeff Tedford from what would have been tons of second-guessing from fans and the media for his decision to start Longshore over Kevin Riley.

Longshore did throw the game-winning touchdown pass, a beautiful strike to Miller, who made his first career catch. And he avoided the killer turnovers that have plagued him. Longshore, though, completed just 10 of 21 passes for 121 yards, pedestrian numbers..

Riley, a redshirt-sophomore, started the final three regular-season games and was 6-3 as a starter. His numbers weren’t great this season, but benching him for the bowl game still seemed like a strange move. Maybe there’s more to this story than what Tedford said was Longshore’s great two weeks of practice.

Tedford said he never considered switching to Riley during the game, not even in the second half when Longshore was struggling and Cal’s offense had ground to a halt.

“I thought he managed the game well,” Tedford said of Longshore.

Whatever. Hopefully next season Tedford can pick a starting quarterback and stick with him, whether it’s Riley, Brock Mansion or some other candidate. This quarterback shuffle wasn’t good for Riley, Longshore or the Bears’ offense.

Yeah, right. That’s a story for another time. This is a time for Cal fans to savor an Emerald Bowl victory and the big plays they got from Follett and Best.

It will be strength vs. weakness when Cal runs against Miami

2008-12-26T13:23:00.001-08:00

As they prepared for Saturday night’s Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park against Miami, the Cal Bears made sure to let us know how fast, athletic and talented the Hurricanes are. Hey, that’s Football 101. You always praise your opponent in public.

But I wonder what the Bears are saying to each other when they’re away from the television cameras, digital recorders and notepads. My guess? I bet they can’t stop talking about how much fun it’s going to be run the ball against Miami.

College football is all about matchups, about finding an edge then exploiting it. And this matchup, Cal’s running game vs. Miami’s run defense, clearly favors the Bears.

Just consider some of the numbers.

In its next-to-last regular-season game, Miami gave up 472 rushing yards, the second most in school history, in a 41-23 loss to Georgia Tech. Nine days later, North Carolina State rushed for 219 yards in a 38-28 victory over the Hurricanes. That’s 691 rushing yards allowed in two games.

In its final two regular-season games against Stanford and Washington, Cal ran for 718 yards. Jahvid Best rushed for 201 yards against Stanford then a team-record 311 against Washington. Best has rushed for 1,459 yards this season and is averaging 8.0 yards per carry. Backup Shane Vereen has added 679 yards, gaining 5.1 yards a pop.

“We’re going to really have to run to the ball,” Miami middle linebacker Glenn Cook said Tuesday during a press conference at AT&T. “If you don’t, they take it to the house. They have a lot of speed.”

Miami has allowed an average of 184 rushing yards per game. The Hurricanes may be fast, but their defense is undersized and young. They do have a pair of 300-pound tackles, but no other starter weighs more than 266 pounds. Cal’s starting offense line averages 307 pounds. Three freshmen and two sophomores start on defense for Miami.

Cal’s defense, which has intercepted 23 passes, could have a matchup of its own to exploit, facing quarterback Jacory Harris, a true freshman.

Harris saw plenty of action as Robert Marve’s backup during the regular-season in a two-quarterback system. But Marve was suspended for the Emerald Bowl for missing too many classes, which means Harris will start and, most likely, play the entire game. Ironically, Harris’ only other start this season came in Miami’s season-opener against Charleston Southern when Marve was suspended for an incident off the field.

Harris’ numbers aren’t bad. He completed 93 of 153 passes (60.8 percent) with 10 touchdowns and just six interceptions. He ran 40 times for 198 yards.

“He can run the ball and he can throw the ball,” Cal linebacker Zack Follett said. “He’s trying to prove that he’s a passer. Since he’s young, my job is to try to get pressure. So we’ll see if we can get that done.”

At 6-foot-4 and just 185 pounds, Harris looks every bit the freshman. But he actually enrolled at Miami last January and took part in spring practice.

“I’m past the freshman stage,” Harris said. “We consider ourselves, the ones that came early, we consider ourselves sophomores now. Because starting in January, we’ll officially be sophomores anyway. The freshman phase, I think that passed me after the Duke game. I really felt like I could go into a game and take over and control this team.”

Harris threw four touchdown passes and ran for a score in Miami’s 49-31 comeback win over Duke on Oct. 18.

In Miami’s 52-7 victory against overmatched Charleston Southern, Harris passed for 190 and a touchdown and ran for a touchdown.

“Charleston Southern wasn’t a bad opponent,” Harris said. “It’s just that you wouldn’t put them in the same category as Cal. At the same time, playing against Cal is going to be a whole different level because of the speed, the talent, the coaching. Everything is going to be different, just because of those three factors there. That’s going to be the difference.”

Harris said he’s not the same quarterback he was in that Aug. 28 opener.

“My game has changed. I’ve gotten smarter, faster on my reads,” he said. “I’m more of a team player. I learned to love my teammates, and they love me back. So it’s a mutual bond between us. So we can go out there and have fun.”

Ex-49er Jamie Williams breaking new ground at Academy of Art University

2008-12-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

When I was newspaper sports writer covering the 49ers beat, tight end Jamie Williams was someone I relied on for deep, philosophical answers on a wide range of subjects related to the team.

Williams shattered the stereotype of the tunnel-visioned pro athlete who rarely thought of issues beyond the playing field or locker room.

Some 14 years since retiring from the NFL, Williams is still busting stereotypes and dancing to his own unique beat. Make that, Dr. Williams. After playing his final NFL season with the Raiders in 1994, Williams went on to earn a masters degree in mass communications from San Jose State and his doctorate in education from the University of San Francisco.

Williams now has the perfect job for someone who likes to go against the grain. He’s the athletic director at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, building an NCAA Division II program from the ground up. This is the Urban Knights’ inaugural year.

NCAA sports at a private art university may seem like an odd mix to many. But to Williams, it’s a perfect match.

“Personally, I’ve always broken the mold,” Williams said. “Somebody just came up and showed me a picture of when I had dreds (in the NFL) before anybody did. I’m smiling in the picture like no problem.

“When I was in college (at Nebraska) I was doing the creative, artsy thing. Everybody thought it was different, but I was the top cat in my class in terms of that field of study (broadcast journalism). At the time, I was chasing linebackers in the Big 8.

“That’s my big problem, people putting restraints on others because of what they don’t believe. I think that’s the wrong answer. If a kid loves art, has a passion for it, but is also proficient in a sport, who are we to take that opportunity away from them?”

On the school’s athletics web site, Williams has his mission statement. It reads: “I seek to inspire through the three A’s: Academics, the feeder of intellect and wisdom; Arts, the emancipator of spirit and expression; and Athletics, the builder of physicality and courage.”

The university has six men’s teams (baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer and track and field) and seven women’s teams (basketball, volleyball, softball, cross country, soccer, tennis and track and field). And yes, these teams offer scholarships.

Not surprisingly, as a new program the Urban Knights are taking their lumps this year, and Williams said he has experienced some dark days.

“But the highs outweigh the lows for sure,” Williams said. “Because there’s a there there. There wasn’t before I came and put the (program) together.”

Former Warrior Peter Thibeaux is part of the coaching staff that Williams hired. Thibeaux coaches the men’s basketball team while ex-Stanford and WNBA guard Lindsey Yamasaki leads the women’s team.

Williams credits university president Dr. Elisa Stephens and her father, former president Dr. Richard A. Stephens, for the decision to create an athletic department. According to Williams, they’re both “huge sports fans” who want to include a few traditional college touches to their non-traditional university as a way to bring students together.

“They understand that athletics can kind of break down inherent fragmentation that you find at schools that have a lot of different disciplines,” Williams said. “Sometimes there’s a disconnect there.”

Of course there are plenty of students who question the move.

“People inherently don’t like change,” Williams said. “The athletics part is not just about going to a game and cheering. It’s also about intramurals and living a holistic life with wellness. That’s all part of it, too.”

Sharks find a new way to win

2008-12-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

So how good are the Sharks?

So good that style points are starting to matter. When they “muck and grind” their way to a 2-0 victory, as coach Todd McLellan described Thursday night’s win over Anaheim, you start to wonder if the flu has hit the entire team.

We not only expect the Sharks to win every game, we also expect them to win with that explosive, high-octane, no-shot-is-a-bad-shot, pinball style of play they have used in their blistering 23-3-2 start. They’re the NHL’s answer to the 2007 New England Patriots, where a win just didn’t feel right unless Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes and the Pats scored at least 30 points.

The Sharks have set the bar higher than Jody Shelley’s pain threshold. And when a 2-0 win has you wondering what went wrong, well, that’s a clear sign that you have a special team.

“It wasn’t quite the kind of game we’ve been playing, the free-flowing game,” McLellan said. … It was good for us to be in a game like that, a little tighter, a little more physical.”

If nothing else, the Sharks proved they could win the old-fashioned way, with defense, lights out goal tending from Evgeni Nabokov and a physical scrum or three.

This is a Sharks team that took 57 shots against Nashville earlier this season. They entered Thursday night’s game averaging 36.1 shots. They’ve been overwhelming opponents with mass quantities of shots on goal.

In their win over Anaheim, the Sharks took only 27 shots and were actually out-shot 30-27. I know, I know. Shocking.

The Sharks hadn’t played a game since Saturday. So that layoff probably had something to do with the sluggish offense. Then there were the Ducks, who have a way of bringing games to a grinding halt.

“They’re a physical team,” McLellan said. “No surprise. They play hard. … That’s the kind of game they play. It’s very effective for them. I thought we did a pretty good job along the boards and in front of the net when we had to.”

The Sharks got a first-period goal from Patrick Marleau, who lasered a shot past Jonas Hiller from just beyond the right face-off circle. Then in the second period, Devin Setoguchi knocked in a rebound from in front of the net.

The way Nabokov was playing, turning back all 31 shots, that was more than enough scoring for the Sharks.

“Nabby’s Nabby,” Setoguchi said. “He’s going to stop the puck when he sees it. He’s an all-star caliber goalie. He played great.”

“When I didn’t see the puck, the guys blocked the puck,” Nabokov said, praising his teammates.

One fact was verified Thursday night. These two teams really don’t like each other. Shelley, the usual fisticuffs suspect, got into an early smack down with Anaheim’s George Parros. No surprise there. But typically mild-mannered forward Milan Michalek was in the middle of a couple scrums and even drew a 10-minute misconduct penalty, as did Anaheim’s Rob Niedermayer. Sharks defenseman Rob Blake drew five minutes for spearing.

“It’s a rivalry game,” said Sharks center Jeremy Roenick. “It’s a big rivalry. We have to keep our dominance at home. It’s always fun. It’s always heated.”

Well, it wasn’t that much fun for Roenick in the first period when Ducks defenseman Brett Festerling knocked him into the boards, sending Roenick to the locker room for treatment.

“Not good,” Roenick said when asked how he felt. “Shoulder came right out.”

Even so, Roenick returned to the ice in the second period when he was hit with two penalties at once, 2:00 for roughing and 2:00 for unsportsmanlike conduct when he argued the call.

“I don’t know what the refs are thinking,” Roenick said. “I don’t know what they’re looking for on penalties anymore. … Sometimes they punish you for working hard.”

U.S. House member takes aim at dreaded BCS

2008-12-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

I don't know Joe Barton. I'd never heard about him until a few minutes ago. But he's my new hero. Barton is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas. He's the ranking Republican on the House Engergy and Commerce Committee. And he plans to introduce legislation that would make college football get rid of the BCS and adopt a playoff system to determine its national champion. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3760232 As Marv Albert would say, "Yes!" I'm typically not much of a hater, but I hate the BCS. It's absurd to have computers and pollsters determining the champion in big-time college football.

President-elect Barack Obama has already come out in favor of a playoff system for college football. Two other Reps., a democrat from Illinois and a republican from Texas, are going to co-sponsor Barton's legislation. It will probably take political pressure or legislation to force those who are getting rich off the BCS to get rid of a system that insults the intelligence of college football fans, players and coaches throughout the nation.

We can always hope.

It's time for 49ers to get rid of "interim" from Singletary's coaching title

2008-12-07T18:56:00.001-08:00

Well, I’ve seen enough evidence to make a call.

It’s time for the 49ers to strip the interim tag from Mike Singletary’s title, give him a long-term contract and make him their official coach.

Am I right or am I right? Surely John, Jed and Denise-DeBartolo York, the 49ers’ deciders, are having similar thoughts after watching the 49ers beat the Jets 24-14 on Sunday at Candlestick Park.

Under Singletary, the 49ers are 3-3 after back-to-back wins over the Bills and Jets. They could easily be 4-2 if not for a meltdown late in the fourth quarter of a loss to Arizona when offensive coordinator Mike Martz had a brain-lock or two.

It’s not just the record that speaks so loudly in Singletary’s favor. It’s the transformation this team has made in just seven short weeks since he replaced the fired Mike Nolan. They say that a team takes on the personality of its coach. In this case, the 49ers have become intense, passionate and physical, mirroring the traits of their coach, a Hall of Fame linebacker and former Chicago Bear, who learned his craft under Buddy Ryan and “Iron” Mike Ditka.

“I’m not the guy to make those decisions, but obviously we all love coach Sing,” 49ers running back and special teams ace Michael Robinson said. “For some odd reason, he has a way of motivating you, especially on game day. You just want to go out there and fight to your death for him. Know what I mean?

“Obviously the credibility factor comes in. You know he’s been through it. When he says stuff, I think the guys listen a little bit extra. He’s done a great job. I hope he does get it.”

You’d have to search long and hard to find a 49er who doesn’t feel the same way about Singletary, especially now that their hard work is paying off in wins.

“He brings so much to the table, from a former player to a Hall of Fame player, to a guy who’s been waiting for this position for so long,” 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis said. “I’ve always believed just keep grinding, keep grinding, keep grinding until the opportunity comes, and when it comes, seize it. That’s how he’s been with the head coaching job. I’m excited for him. I know our team respects him a lot. … He coaches with intensity and passion.

“I want him to stay. I want him to be our coach. I’m excited. Who knows what’s going to happen. All I know is we’re going to continue to play for ourselves, the organization and for him.”

Are you listening John, Jed and Denise? If Singletary is good enough for your rising defensive super star, he should be good enough for you. Make the move now. Don’t make Singletary go through some long, drawn-out performance review after the season before you decide his fate. There’s no need for that type of drama.

I know some 49ers fans are pining for Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren and see him as the team’s savior, a link to its glorious past. But Holmgren has promised his family that he’s going to take at least one year off from the NFL. Even if Holmgren changes his mind, I don’t think he has the energy and passion to tackle the 49ers job at this stage of his career.

Singletary is the right man for the job. He’s already made a huge impact on the team

“I think Mike’s done a great job,” Jets coach Eric Mangini said. “They play hard, they play tough. We’ve seen it every single game they’ve played the same way, and you have to be able to match that.”

How about that? An opposing coach talking about matching the 49ers’ intensity and toughness.

Singletary coaches as fearlessly as his players have been playing. The 49ers opened Sunday’s game with an onsides kick and went for it twice on fourth-and-1. No, they didn’t recover that kick. But they made the first fourth-and-short and converted the second when Jets nose tackle Kris Jenkins jumped offsides.

Singletary said he was just sending a message with the game-opening gamble.

“We knew we wanted to set the tone from the very beginning of the game and just let them know, let our players know – because they didn’t know we were going to do an onsides kick, our players,” Singletary said. “So we just let the jets know and let our guys feel that, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re going all-out. This is our game. We’re approaching it that way and you’ll see it from the very beginning.’ ”

That aggressive approach is just part of the 49ers’ emerging personality under Singletary.

“When you take the few games that we’ve played, I think one thing that jumps out right away is that we play hard,” Singletary said. “The next thing that jumps out is we play fast. Then the other thing that jumps out is we play pretty physically. We’re still not playing as smart as I would like for us to be. But we’re getting there.”

Hey, three out of four ain’t bad.

After the game, Singletary did a good job of dodging questions about his coaching fate with the 49ers. Finally, a questioner asked him point-blank, “You do want this job next year?”

“I’ll say it again,” Singletary said. “Yes, I want the job. I’m going to work as hard as I can, as honestly as I can, and when it’s all said and done, whatever happens, happens. I’m not trying to impress anybody. I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m just being me. So hopefully when it’s all said and done, that’s enough.”

Singletary has already proved he deserves to keep the 49ers job. It’s time to get rid of that interim tag.

Bears trying hard not to overlook winless Huskies

2008-12-02T16:54:00.001-08:00

Cal’s football mantra and marketing slogan this year has been “Every Game Counts.” But it’s clear that some games count less than others. Take this Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium against winless Washington. Please.

The 7-4 Bears have already wrapped up a bowl game. They’re going to either the Las Vegas Bowl or, most likely, the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. The outcome of Saturday’s game probably won’t truly enter into their postseason equation.

This is a game that even Oski and Joe Kapp would have trouble getting excited about.

So it came as no surprise when Cal coach Jeff Tedford showed up at his press conference Tuesday and went all Lou Holtz on us. Well, minus the mumbling and the politically incorrect gaffes. Tedford pointed out repeatedly how dangerous these Huskies are, especially playing in fired coach Tyrone Willingham’s final game and being down to their last chance to avoid a winless season.

This is the same “Beware of Dogs” sermon Tedford has been preaching to his team. And it’s clear that he’s reaching deep into his bag of motivational tricks to prevent a letdown against the Huskies.

Trick No. 1 is a no-brainer. Tedford has already pulled out the videotape of Cal’s 37-23 loss to Washington last season at Husky Stadium and showed it to his team. That loss ranks as arguably the worst and most embarrassing in Tedford’s tenure at Cal.

It wasn’t just the fact that the Bears lost to a struggling Washington team that was missing injured quarterback Jake Locker. It’s the way that they lost. The Huskies rushed for 360 yards that day. Louis Rankin carried 21 times for 224 yards. Brandon Johnson added 121 yards on 23 carries.

After the game, the usually mild-mannered Tedford tore into his players at a volume you’d expect from Bobby Knight.

“The last time we played these guys, they embarrassed us,” Tedford said. “They knocked us off the ball. They were more physical.”

If there’s anything a football team hates, it’s getting physically manhandled.

“I remember the defense getting beat up pretty much the whole day,” Cal linebacker Anthony Felder said. “We played pretty bad that day. I think even if you were trying to forget it, the coaches wouldn’t let you.”

“I think our guys will be pretty focused to get some revenge,” Cal cornerback Darian Hagan said.

The Bears entered last year’s game in Seattle in a terrible slump. They had lost four of their past five games and were coming off a 24-17 loss to USC. Even so, Felder said the Bears took the Huskies lightly.

“I don’t think we were prepared mentally,” Felder said.

This shapes us as an even bigger “trap” game for the Bears. I mean, it’s not easy going oh-for August, September, October and November in college football, as the Huskies have done. It’s not easy losing 16-13 in double-overtime to a Washington State team that many consider to be one of the worst teams in Pac-10 history.

In their past five games, the Huskies have averaged 9.2 points. That’s tough to do, too.

“When you watch them on tape, these guys do a lot of good things,” Tedford said.

OK.

“I don’t think this is your typical 0-11 team,” Cal quarterback Kevin Riley said. “They have athletes all over the field.”

At least Riley didn’t say Washington was the best 0-11 team in America.

After listening to a handful of Cal players on Tuesday, it appears that Tedford has them convinced that the Huskies won’t lie down like dogs on Saturday.

“Every year they play us tough,” Cal fullback Will Ta’ufo’ou said. “No matter what their record is, they’re going to come out and fight.”

“At 0-11, you can’t just keel over,” Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan said. “They have to be fired up. People have too much pride.”

The Bears will try to draw motivation from a multitude of sources this week. They want to finish the season undefeated at Memorial Stadium. They want to give their seniors a victory in their final home game. They certainly don’t want to be the only team to lose to Washington. Consider that the motivation of fear.

Then there’s the matter of Jahvid Best’s pursuit of the Pac-10 rushing crown. He trails Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers by 170 yards. Best is coming off a career-high 201 yards against Stanford.

“I think that would be a great accomplishment for the offense as a whole,” Ta’ufo’ou said.

Finding reasons to get excited about this game is an accomplishment in itself.

Raiders' fake field goal blows up in Cable's face

2008-11-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

So now I guess it’s official. Well, at least as official as it can be before Raiders owner Al Davis goes to the overhead projector at his next press conference and outlines the reasons why interim coach Tom Cable won’t be coaching his team next season.

Cable looked like a short-timer from the moment Davis chose him to replace the fired Lane Kiffin. But after what took place Sunday in the second quarter of the Raiders’ 20-13 loss to Kansas City, there’s probably a better chance of Kiffin coming back than of Cable surviving.

I mean, what coach in his right mind thinks Sebastian Janikowski can gain 10 yards on a fake field goal? We’re not talking Usain Bolt here. We’re talking Seabass, all 250 pounds of him.

Let’s set the scene for Cable’s big roll of the dice. The Raiders had stalled at the Chiefs’ 25. They faced fourth-and-10 and lined up for a 42-yard field goal, a chip shot for the powerful Janikowski. But after Jon Condo snapped the ball to holder Shane Lechler, all sanity left the Coliseum.

Janikowski faked the kick and kept running to his left. Lechler didn’t just try to pitch the ball to his kicker. That would have been too easy. He actually hiked it though his legs. Only the snap was low and short and wound up on the turf. Then Chiefs cornerback Maurice Leggett picked it up and raced 67 yards for a touchdown.

Instead of taking a 6-3 lead, the Raiders fell behind 10-3. That’s your basic 10-point swing in a seven-point loss.

Cable didn’t fool the Chiefs, but he stunned his own team.

“I didn’t even see it,” Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. “I just saw the guy running down the other way. We do that in practice all the time, but I never knew it was a real thing we were going to attempt.

“When they told me that’s what happened, and it wasn’t a blocked field goal, I was a little surprised, but Cable owned up to that. He said that one’s on him.”

What would you pay to have videotape of Davis’ reaction as that play unfolded? We’ll start the bidding at priceless.

After the game, Cable had some explaining to do in his news conference.

“It’s something we had worked on all year,” Cable said. “(The Chiefs) were lined up exactly the way we wanted them to. We just didn’t execute. That was my decision. Obviously it was not a good one.”

Cable said that Lechler wasn’t just ad-libbing when he tried to snap the ball through his legs to Janikowski. That was part of the play. Seriously.

“We never had a problem handling it for almost two years now,” Cable said. “It’s been something we’ve worked on for really two years, and they’ve done it well. Something they’ve come up with. We just didn’t execute it.”

Unfortunately, Janikowski and Lechler didn’t stick around long enough after the game to discuss their special play.

In reality, Janikowski would have had to run about 17 yards for a first down because Lechler took the snap seven yards deep. But even if Lechler hadn’t botched the exchange, Leggett would have nailed him quickly. He wasn’t fooled.

Cable went into the game ready to take chances. He dialed up a hook-and-lateral early in the game that worked perfectly with running back Darren McFadden gaining 20 yards.

When the Raiders stalled at the Chiefs’ 25, Cable didn’t hesitate to gamble again.

“I felt like the momentum was ours, and we were really into the game on both sides of the ball,” Cable said. “So just looking for a lift there, just looking for another lift.”

Is it me, or does that statement make no sense? Just checking.

“That was a coaching decision,” Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell said. “That was out of my hands. Looking back at it, I wish we had taken the points.”

You think?

Despite having that ridiculous fake field goal blow up in his face, Cable wasn’t done gambling. Late in the half, the Raiders faced fourth-and-3 from the Chiefs’ 22. This time, the Raiders didn’t even line up for a field goal. They went for it, and Russell airmailed a pass over wide receiver Ronald Curry’s head in the end zone.

There went another three points in a game against a team the Raiders had already defeated on the road, a game they should have won.

“I felt like we had the right play called,” Cable said. “Just a little bit of an overthrow. Had it been a little bit shorter, it would have been a great play for a touchdown.”

And if Janikowski ran a 4.4 40, he’d be an NFL running back.

Time for Warriors to think big and give Randolph and Wright larger roles

2008-11-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

I would never go to Charles Barkley for gambling advice. But sometimes, the Chuckster makes a lot of sense when he sticks to basketball. I caught one of those times Tuesday when Barkley was talking to Tom Tolbert on KNBR.

When the conversation turned away from his gambling escapades to the Warriors, Barkley said he had no idea what this team was trying to do, whether it had a long-term plan to become a legitimate title contender. Barkley said it looked as if the Warriors were just continuing their addiction to small ball and could expect the same predictable, disappointing results. He said the best the Warriors could hope for would be to sneak into the playoffs and win one series if they got the perfect Mavericks-like matchup before getting crushed by one of the West’s bigger, stronger teams.

In this case, I’ve got to agree with Barkley. I don’t mind having a smaller, faster Warriors team, but not this small, not one that has 6-foot-6 Corey Maggette starting at power forward, taking minutes away from 6-foot-10 rookie Anthony Randolph and 6-foot-10 second-year player Brandan Wright.

So here’s my suggestion for Warriors coach Don Nelson, one way to build a bigger, better more viable team for the future: Give the power forward position to Randolph and Wright. Let them job share. Call them Branthony Randight. Make the position off limits to Maggette and all of your other “midgets,” as Sir Charles so politically incorrectly put it.

The Warriors gave up Jason Richardson for Wright in a draft-day deal last year. They spent a first-round pick on Randolph this year. They’re both tall, active, athletic players with huge wingspans. They can run, block shots and rebound.

Give them a chance to develop his year, even if they make a few mistakes of inexperience that cost you. By next year, they might even be ready to start alongside each other, with Randolph moving to small forward.

That would give the Warriors a front line of 6-11 center Andris Biedrins and two 6-10 forwards. What a radical idea. Of course the Warriors would have to figure out what to do with a roster that’s overstocked with guards, small forwards and swingmen.

I’m sure Barkley has a few ideas.

49ers' defensive brain trust had a brain lock against Cowboys' Owens

2008-11-25T01:04:00.000-08:00

It’s been over a day since Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens abused 49ers cornerback Nate Clements, catching 7 passes for 213 yards and a 75-yard touchdown in Dallas’ 35-22 victory.

Clements has been taking plenty of heat for his coverage meltdown, and understandably so. But I think it’s time to turn the blowtorch in another direction, toward the 49ers’ defensive brain trust.

What was defensive coordinator Greg Manusky thinking? It was ludicrous to have Clements spend most of the day covering the former 49ers star man-to-man. And it was suicidal for the 49ers to give Owens such a huge cushion so often, to let him run freely off the line of scrimmage and quickly get his 220 pounds moving at max speed.

Defenses have been double-covering Owens all year. They’ve been bumping him at the line of scrimmage, disrupting his release, then doubling him over the top.

Until Sunday, Owens hadn’t had more than 89 receiving yards in a single game. In the previous five weeks, he had averaged 35 receiving yards.

Manusky had a ready-made blueprint for containing Owens, but for some reason he ignored it.

I admire Clements’ fearlessness. I admire the way he hits and tackles. He’s a solid cover corner. But he’s no Deion Sanders. Despite what his mega-salary hints, Clements is not a shutdown corner. And the 49ers shouldn’t have put him in such a vulnerable position against Owens.

At his Monday news conference, 49ers interim coach Mike Singletary said Owens didn't warrant consistent double-coverage. Are you kidding me? I guess Singletary still isn't fully aware of Owens' history of destroying his former teams, the 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles.

Containing Owens should have been the 49ers' No. 1 priority on defense. It clearly wasn't, and Owens made them pay.

Tricky Bears run past Stanford in Big Game

2008-11-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

Amid the mass of humanity that flooded the Memorial Stadium field Saturday after Cal’s 37-16 victory in the 111th Big Game, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh couldn’t get to Bears coach Jeff Tedford for the traditional post-game handshake.

So Harbaugh paid Tedford a visit in Cal’s interview room.

After shaking Tedford’s hand and congratulating him on the win, Harbaugh flashed a quick, you-got-me smile.

“Trickery,” Harbaugh said to Tedford. “Trickery out there. It worked.”

Worked to perfection, in fact, against a Stanford defense that kept getting fooled.

Cal’s deception plus superior speed turned out to be a lethal combination. Add a big dose of Stanford self-destruction to the mix, and what appeared to be a battle between two evenly matched teams turned into a Cal rout of the Cardinal, which on its final chance to become bowl eligible.

Tedford reached deep into his bag of trick plays during a 20-0 third-quarter blitz that transformed a tight game into a blowout.

Cal's third-quarter trickery began after Stanford gave Cal a gift.

Trailing just 10-3, Stanford got the ball to open the second half. But on first down, quarterback Tavita Pritchard scrambled to his right and threw back to his left, trying to hit fullback Owen Marecic. Pritchard’s pass sailed high, and Cal linebacker Eddie Young intercepted the pass then returned 17 yards to Stanford’s 28.

Moments later, Cal faced third-and-goal from the 1. Quarterback Kevin Riley rolled o his right while running Jahvid Best angled toward the front right pylon. But with the entire Stanford defense flowing his way, Riley stopped, turned to his left and hit tight end Cameron Morrah, wide open on the other side of the end zone, for a touchdown. No Cardinal was within 10 yards of Morrah.

“When we watched film, we noticed that they over-pursued a lot,” Best said of Stanford’s defense. “We thought if we got them going one way and hit them back the other way, we’d have some room to run.”

Or to pass. Or to do whatever the Bears wanted to do.

Morrah’s score put the Bears ahead 17-3 with 11:58 left in the third quarter. After the Bears’ forced a three-and-out from Stanford, Cal’s offense went to work again.

Best, a former California high school 100-meter champion. gashed Stanford’s defense for 36 of his 201rushing yards to the Cardinal 14.

“We felt like if we could get our athletes and speed in the open field, we had a chance to make some big plays,” Tedford said.

At that point, Cal went Boise State on the Cardinal. The Bears pulled out the old hook-and-lateral (or hook-and-ladder if you prefer) play. Riley fired a short pass to wide receiver Verran Tucker a few yards inside the left sideline. As Cardinal defenders converged on Tucker, he pitched the ball to Best, who raced untouched along the sideline, outrunning linebacker Pat Maynor to the end zone.

The Bears hadn’t even practiced that play until Thursday, two days before the game.

“I don’t think we were anticipating as many trick plays as they did,” Maynor said. “We thought they were just going to run the zone (blocking) at us, the stretch and the tosses. Hook-and-ladder in the red zone, I don’t think anybody can expect that one. They ran a lot of good reverses. They have good athletes, and they were tough to stop.”

Best’s touchdown put the Bears ahead 24-3. And they weren’t done fooling and outrunning the Cardinal.

After Rulon Davis and Zack Follett sacked Pritchard on third-and-9, forcing a punt, Cal took over on Stanford’s 48 with 8:24 left in the third quarter. On first down, Best took a handoff from Riley and headed around left end, but he flipped the ball to wide receiver Jeremy Ross, running 100 mph the other way.

Ross cut back against the over-pursuing Cardinal defense and sprinted 41 yards, with Riley and offensive tackle Donovan Edwards leading the way. That run set up Best’s 4-yard touchdown run, increasing Cal’s lead to 30-3.

“When you mix it up a little bit, do plays that could wind up on SportsCenter, it makes it tremendously fun,” Ross said.

“It got to a point in the third quarter where we just came unraveled,” Harbaugh said. “We couldn’t protect anymore, and that was against a four-man rush. It was nothing exotic. There were too many things that we shouldn’t have been doing.

“Cal got on a roll with their trick plays that were all working, one right after the other. They definitely got some momentum going, and that ended up being the ball game.”

Cal’s devastation of Stanford continued early in the fourth quarter. Best burned the Cardinal on a 45-yard draw play for a touchdown, making it 37-3.

For much of the day, Best did his best work on the outside, using his exceptional speed to outrun Stanford’s defenders.

“I feel like when I’m on the perimeter, I can do whatever I want,” Best said.

After the first half, it was hard to imagine what was to come. Cal led by seven points and was fortunate in many ways to even be ahead.

Let’s count the way.

1. Stanford had a first down at the Bears’ 16 after Pritchard hit backup tight end Colby Fleener on a 32 yard pass along the left sideline in the first quarter. The Cardinal stalled at the 8. Then Aaron Zagory pushed a 25-yard field goal attempt wide right. After marching all the way from its 1, Stanford came away empty.

2. Early in the second quarter, Stanford marched to the Bears’ 11, where it had a first down. On the next play, Cal defensive end Tyson Alualu ripped the ball out of running back Toby Gerhart’s hands, and defensive end Cameron Jordan recovered at the 10.

3. Late in the first half, Stanford went on another long drive, mixing power running with short- and medium-range passes, usually to wide-open receivers. Stanford had first-and-goal at the 9 and moved 8 yards closer on Pritchard’s pass to running back Anthony Kimble. At that point, Stanford stopped being creative and tried to pound into the end zone, but Gerhart was stopped cold on back-to-back running plays. The Cardinal settled for a field goal.

“That game could have gone either way right there,” Tedford said. “They really put together three nice drives. I thought the defense did a really good of stiffening.”

Granted, Cal blew a few good scoring chances of its own in the first half. On the Bears’ first drive, Best slipped Bo McNally’s tackle in the backfield, reversed field and gained 60 yards to the Stanford 26. But Cal came away with just a field goal.

Then early in the second quarter, Cal used a pair of Stanford penalties – facemask and unsportsmanlike conduct – to move all the way to Stanford’s 24. But on first down, Riley failed to spot tight end Tad Smith, wide open deep over the middle. Instead, he underthrew Morrah along the right sideline, and McNally cut in front to intercept in the end zone.

Late in the half, Riley redeemed himself, lofting 59-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to running back Shane Vereen. Give Cal’s coaches an assist on this play. They got Vereen isolated man-to-man against McNally, a strong safety.

This was a definite speed mismatch, with Vereen, a high school sprinter, having the clear advantage. He ran past McNally, caught Riley’s pass in stride at Stanford’s 20 and raced into the end zone.

A little deception. A lot of speed. Touchdown, Cal.

A year ago, Best was injured and on Cal’s sideline when Stanford beat the Bears 20-13 in Harbaugh’s first year as the Cardinal’s coach. He watched as Stanford’s players ran to Cal’s sideline and took possession of The Axe.

“It hurt,” Best said. “There was nothing we could do about it. I was so mad. I said, ‘That’s never going to happen again.’ ”

So far, so good.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Bears senior linebacker Anthony Felder said of the victory. “Having lost it last year, it’s like a dagger through your heart. As a senior, you want your legacy to be you left with The Axe.”

This year, Stanford is feeling the pain of both losing The Axe and missing out on a bowl game. Again.

“It was obviously a tough loss,” Stanford senior center Alex Fletcher said. “We went down the first half and just couldn’t put the ball in. We can’t give it to them like that. We turned the ball over and got penalties. It’s tough. You can’t do that against a good team.”

Especially a good team that’s as fast and deceptive as the Bears.

Sharp-shooting Bears still a work in progress on defense

2008-11-20T22:54:00.000-08:00

I took my first look at new Cal coach Mike Montgomery’s team Thursday night when the Bears played a non-conference game at Haas Pavilion against the University of Texas-Pan American. Not familiar with the UTPA Broncs? It’s a hoops “power” from Edinburg, about as far south as you can go in Texas before reaching Mexico.

Cal built a 39-25 halftime lead and won 85-58. Yeah, not much of a game, but it gave me a chance to make a few snap judgments about Montgomery’s Bears:

Snap judgment No. 1? These guys can shoot. The Bears shot 67.9 percent from the field, nearly breaking the school mark of 68.5. That type of shooting will keep the Bears in a lot of games this year, despite their lack of size.

Jamal Boykin made 8 of 9 shots, Jerome Randle 4 of 5, Theo Robertson 4 of 6 and Patrick Christopher 5 of 8. Sure, they made those shots against an overmatched team, but they made those shots.

“I don’t know if they could shoot the ball better if there was no defense out there,” UTPA coach Tom Schuberth said. “I think Cal can be a special team. … I think they’re great shooters and unselfish. They have a lot of weapons.”

For the season, Cal is shooting 56.6 percent from the field and 59.0 percent from 3-point range.

“We do shoot the ball,” Montgomery said. “You don’t guard our guys, they’re going to shoot it in. … You’re not surprised because you watch them every day in practice. There’s going to be a point in time where we’re going to have to rely on our execution to get those shots.”

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The Bears’ flashed some glimpses of the hard-nosed, man-to-man defense Montgomery is teaching them to play. Considering the Bears’ defensive meltdown last year, this is exactly what they needed, some firm advice from a coach known for defense.

The Bears forced 21 turnovers, 12 in the first half. But they also let the Broncos shoot 55 percent in the first half. In other words, this is a work in progress.

Are the Bears buying into what Montgomery is preaching about the importance of defense?

“Trying,” Montgomery said. “Slowly but surely. There’s an old saying, though, ‘If he doesn’t buy it as a pup, he ain’t going to buy it as a dog.’ So it’s not going to be something like you say, ‘Defense is important.’ ‘Ohhhh. Geeze. I didn’t know that.’ It’s a process. It takes a while. And ideally if a guy’s really bad you’re going to have to set him down, just get somebody else in there who will defend. But to do that you’ve got to find somebody that can defend.”

What’s Montgomery teaching?

“Just real defense,” Christopher said. “Hard-nose. Keeping your man in front of you. Team defense.”

“Taking it personal if your man scores on you is a huge key,” Boykin said. “So is a sense of pride on the defensive end. We protect our basket. If a man scores on you, you should take that personally.”

Montgomery was happy to hear what Boykin had said. But he knows actions are more important than words.

“Good defense takes time,” Montgomery said. “It takes time. It takes years. Even though they’re juniors, if they haven’t had that mentality, it’s going to take a while to get that. It doesn’t take away anything from offense. They’re two different ends of the floor.

“You cross the defensive end and you become a sumo wrestler. You become a street fighter. You go to the offensive end, then you become a virtuoso on the piano. It’s just finesse vs. effort, and you’ve got to have that mentality.”

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Freshman guard Jorge Gutierrez, Montgomery’s first recruit, is going to add a dose of hard-nosed toughness to this offensive-minded team. A freshman from Mexico, who attended high school in Nevada, Gutierrez came off the bench and instantly ratcheted up the intensity.

“I think Jorge’s giving us something that’s pretty good for us,” Montgomery said. “He’s just a tough kid, going on the floor. It’s infectious.”

Gutierrez isn’t flashy, but he’s smart and, as Montgomery said, tough.

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Forward Theo Robertson has always had a nice shooting stroke. But if Thursday night’s game offers a clue, his shot is even smoother now after his long layoff. He looks like a guy who spent, oh, say, a few thousand hours working on his shot last season when he was sidelined, recovering from hip surgery.

In the first half alone, Robertson scored eight points on 3 of 4 shooting and made 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. He drained a 20-foot jumper off the dribble to give Cal a 7-6 lead. Later in the half, he drained a 3 from the left wing. Then he buried another trey from just beyond top of the key. He finished with 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting.

Robertson entered the game shooting .464 from the field and .636 from 3-point range. Robertson’s outside shot is going to come in particularly handy when opponents try to zone the Bears.

Robertson is already considered the Bears’ best defensive player. If he keeps filling up the hoop, he’s headed for a monster season, which would be well deserved after what he’s been through.

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Max Zhang, a 7-3 red-shirt freshman from China, saw a few minutes of action. From what I saw, he’s still incredibly raw and a long ways away from helping the Bears, but he’s also surprisingly agile getting up and down the court for someone so tall.

Zhang blocked two shots and scored four points. But he didn’t grab a single rebound, and he fouled out in eight minutes.

At only 225 pounds, Zhang is a stick. But who knows? If he gains a few pounds and gets stronger, he could help some day, especially on defense as a shot blocker. He’s already a crowd favorite, but fans had better hope for more blowouts if they want to see him play this year.

111th Big Game looks like a toss-up

2008-11-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

If you believe the early betting line, Cal should beat Stanford by nine points Saturday in the 111th Big Game at Memorial Stadium.

I have some serious doubts about that hefty point spread. To me, this looks more like a flip-a-coin game.

I realize that Cal coach Jeff Tedford is 5-1 against Stanford overall and 3-0 at Memorial Stadium. I understand that the Bears haven’t lost at home to Stanford since 2000 when they fell 36-30 in overtime and that they’re 5-0 at home this season.

But consider these facts from the flip side. Tedford’s five wins against Stanford came against teams coached by Buddy Teevens and Walt Harris. Tedford is 0-1 against current Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh, suffering a 20-13 loss last year at Stanford Stadium.

When Teevens and Harris were in charge, Stanford was basically an automatic win for Cal. The once-proud Cardinal football program was in shambles. Under Tedford, the Bears beat Stanford five straight times by a combined score of 152-49. Each time, they physically dominated the Cardinal.

Teevens was simply overmatched. The perpetually cranky Harris blamed most of his problems on Stanford’s high admission standards. Neither one was a good match for Stanford.

Enter Harbaugh last season. Taking over a 1-11 team, Harbaugh finished 4-8 with huge wins over USC – on the road, no less – and Cal. This year Stanford is 5-6 overall and 4-4 in the Pac-10, one win shy of becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2001. Stanford suffered heart-breaking losses to Oregon and UCLA, both on the road, in the final seconds. They lost to Notre Dame by just seven points on the road.

Stanford is no longer a Pac-10 weakling or a pushover. On offense in particular, Stanford is pushing back. Harbaugh has turned Stanford into a physical, power-running team with a one-two punch of Toby Gerhart and Anthony Kimble.

Gerhart has rushed for 1,033 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’s 51 yards shy of tying Tommy Vardell’s single-season rushing record set in 1991. Gerhart rushed for 101 yards last week against USC, which boasts one of the nation’s best defenses. It was his seventh 100-yard rushing game of the season, tying Vardell’s single-season mark. Kimble has rushed for 688 yards this season and has 1,911 for his career.

I have the sense that Harbaugh, unlike Teevens and Harris, truly gets this rivalry and understands how to push the right psychological buttons during Big Game week. Maybe it’s because his father, Jack, is a former Stanford assistant, and he went to high school in Palo Alto. Maybe it’s because he played quarterback at Michigan and took part in one of the nation’s greatest college football rivalries against Ohio State. Maybe it’s because he’s an emotional, slightly twisted coach who’s well suited for this type of emotional rivalry game.

Harbaugh should have no problem tapping into his player’s sense of desperation. Their bowl game hopes are riding on this game. Win and they’re in. Lose and they’re out. Cal, on the other hand, is already bowl eligible. Although the Bears are still trying to land the most prestigious bowl possible, Stanford gets the motivational edge in this case.

I don’t know if Stanford can pull off the upset Saturday. Its defense has produced 33 sacks, tied for first in the Pac-10, and could cause problems for Cal’s injury-plagued, makeshift offensive line. But the Cardinal ‘D’ has a bad habit of getting worn down then collapsing in the fourth quarter. And it’s been vulnerable against the pass, which means quarterback Kevin Riley and Cal’s sputtering passing attack should have a chance to get back on track, as long as Riley gets time to throw.

Cal has the better defense, the home-field edge and a home-run threat in Jahvid Best. If this were 2006, 2005, 20004, 2003 or 2002, Bears fans could rest easy and plan their victory parties.

But it’s 2008, which means both Cal and Stanford fans should be very nervous ,and we can all expect, a close, exciting Big Game.

49er QB Hill makes another statement with a "perfect" first half

2008-11-16T19:17:00.000-08:00

Imagine that. A slice of perfection Sunday in a very imperfect 49ers season, thanks to No. 3 quarterback turned backup turned starter Shaun Hill.

In the first half of the 49ers’ 35-16 win over the Rams at Candlestick Park, Hill posted a perfect passer rating of 158.3. He became the first quarterback in 49ers history to accomplish that feat in the first half.

Hill completed 12 of 14 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He also ran for a touchdown, diving into the end zone from a yard out.

Not that long ago, Hill resided in the equivalent of Siberia for quarterbacks. He was sent to that deep freeze by offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who made the same mistake that so many other coaches have made. He underestimated Hill.

And after watching Hill slice and dice the Rams’ defense Sunday, it makes you wonder what might have been for the 49ers this season if he had been the starter from Day 1 instead of J.T. O’Sullivan.

Hill was 2-0 as an emergency starter last season and parlayed that strong play into a new multi-million dollar contract. He entered training camp in what appeared to be a tight, head-to-head battle with Alex Smith for the starting job.

But Martz wasn’t with the 49ers last year when Hill led the team to two of its five wins. He didn’t watch first-hand the way Hill skillfully read defenses, found open receivers and hit them in the hands. He didn’t see first-hand how cool, calm and surprisingly elusive in the pocket Hill was under the incredible pressure of a real NFL game.

Training camp had barely begun when Martz eliminated Hill from the quarterbacks competition and elevated O’Sullivan to the position of Smith’s chief competitor. Before long, it was clear that O’Sullivan was Martz’s choice to start.

I can understand Martz’s thinking. O’Sullivan played for Martz with the Detroit Lions as a backup. He knew his system. He had a quick release and a fearless approach to throwing the deep timing routes that are staples in Martz’s offense.

And Hill? Well, the company line was that he just didn’t pick up Martz’s offense quickly enough to compete for the job. I think I’m going to have to call bull you-know-what on that one.

Sure, Martz’s system is complex. But it’ not brain surgery. It’s football. And Hill isn’t some football dimwit. He’s in his seventh NFL season. He came off the bench last year and ran the 49ers offense better than it had been run all season. He had a passer rating of 101.3. He threw five touchdown passes with just one interception.

My theory is that Martz took one look in practice at Hill – OK, maybe a handful of looks – and decided he didn’t pass the eyeball test. Hill doesn’t have a cannon for an arm. He won’t win many foot races. Hill’s first thought is to take the safe throw rather than the swashbuckling deep shot.

Hill is a beige presence in practice. He rarely stands out. But put Hill in a game that counts, when defensive linemen are creating chaos and he has to make quick, sound decisions, and Hill shines.

It’s not a coincidence that it was interim coach Mike Singletary and not Martz who benched O’Sullivan and gave the starting job to Hill. Singletary saw Hill play last season.

After the victory, Singletary was asked if he knew in training camp that Hill could do what he did Sunday against the Rams.

“I knew that last year, way before training camp,” Singletary said. “Last year when I saw him play, I really thought he did a good job. He managed the game, he made some throws. Guys were excited. In training camp I just thought it was a matter of learning the offense and having some confidence going forward.

“Weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, I think he would tell you, ‘You know what? I’m trying to learn the offense. If I go in there, I can run three plays, and that won’t last very long.’ I just think it’s a process. Everything’s a process. I think he’s continuing to gain more confidence, and the offense is continuing to gain more confidence in him, not that they didn’t have it to begin with, but even more so. And I think they appreciate his leadership.”

Hill could only run three plays when the season started? I’m surprised Singletary was able say that and keep a straight face. Hill said that he has “a much better grasp of the offense now” than he did at the start of camp after having watched O’Sullivan start the first eight games. But when asked if he knew the offense well enough to start in Week 1, Hill certainly didn’t shoot down the idea.

“Ah, I don’t know,” Hill said. Yeah, I think he does.

I think Hill – especially if he had been given the starter’s reps during training camp and exhibition games – could have stepped in from Day 1 and played well. He could have managed the game, protected the football, made smart decisions and even made some tough, accurate throws on time, as he did Sunday.

In the first half, Hill fired a strike to wide receiver Bryant Johnson on a quick slant, hitting him in stride. He turned that short pass into a 42-yard gain, setting up the 49ers’ second touchdown. Later in the half, Hill rolled to his right, sidestepped defensive end Leonard Little and lofted a 31-yard pass deep down the middle to running back DeShaun Foster, who had a step on a Rams defender. That pass set up another touchdown.

Those lasers were part of Hill’s perfect first-half passer rating.

“I didn’t realize that I had a perfect passer rating in the first half,” Hill said. “The funny thing about that rating is it might say that somebody is perfect, but I promise you there were some mistakes in there.”

Maybe so. But there were many more good decisions and accurate passes and, yes, even some deep passes. Hill did more than just manage the game. He made some big plays.

“I think as we go forward Mike Martz is learning some things that Shaun can do,” Singletary said. “The more he sees, the better it gets. So what I would say is, yes, Shaun Hill can mange the game, but he’s also a good quarterback that can make some throws. I’m excited about seeing that.”

Better late than never.

Another day, another mind-blowing drama for the Raiders

2008-11-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you mix terrible decisions, horrible karma and over-the-top dysfunction into a giant cocktail and chug it down?

The Oakland Raiders, of course.

The Raiders have outdone themselves this year. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. Every time you think it can’t get worse or crazier, it does.

Here are seven mind-blowing Silver and Black dramas from a list that probably stretches into triple digits:

EXIT, STAGE LEFT: After just eight games, Raiders boss Al Davis cut cornerback DeAngelo Hall, his No. 1 off-season acquisition, last week. No problem. All it cost the Raiders was $8 million and a pair of draft choices for eight games. Did anyone scout this guy before closing that deal with the Atlanta Falcons? As it turns out, he’s not so good in man-to-man coverage, which the Raiders prefer. He’s more of a zone guy and a free-lancer. Who knew? Apparently not the Raiders.

ROB RYAN UNCUT: Who can forget defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s expletive-filled command performance for the media shortly after a Week 1 embarrassment against Denver. It came shortly after former coach Lane Kiffin tossed Ryan and Davis under the bus for the defense’s meltdown. Undoubtedly following Davis’ orders, Ryan met the press and fired back at Kiffin. Buddy Ryan must be proud of his son’s mastery of colorful language.

KIFFIN GOES DOWN FIGHTING: Kiffin was canned after just four games, but he knew he was doomed since the end of last season when he wanted to fire Ryan but was overruled by Davis. Kiffin didn’t go quietly into unemployment. He spent much of the offseason, training camp and early season publicly zinging Davis for his personnel decisions. Most Raiders coaches kowtow to Davis. Kiffin stood up to him and revealed some of the organizational dysfunction that has hurt the franchise. If nothing else, it was fascinating theater of the absurd.

AL DAVIS MEETS THE PRESS: Davis didn’t just fire Kiffin. He tried to publicly humiliate him in one of the strangest press conferences in the history of sports. Have you ever heard of an NFL owner cueing the overhead projector then reading, line by line, a letter he had sent to his former coach? Davis aired more dirty laundry than the team collects after playing a game in the mud. Of course his intent was to make a case for firing Kiffin with cause and stiffing him out of the remainder of his salary.

THE CABLE GUY TAKES OVER: After firing Kiffin, Davis promoted offensive line coach Tom Cable to interim coach, bypassing Ryan, offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and running backs coach Tom Rathman, among others. What, Tim the Tool Man wasn’t available. OK, cheap shot. Cable might turn out to be a great head coach. His 1-4 record to date says maybe not.

NOT SO BIG CATCH: Davis thought he struck free-agent gold when he signed former Broncos wide receiver Javon Walker to six-year, $55 million deal, despite Walker’s history of injuries. Not long after the ink dried on that contract, Walker was mugged in Las Vegas (more bad karma?) then decided to retire and return his $11 million signing bonus. Davis talked him out it. Talk about one bad decision deserving another. Walker caught just 15 passes before suffering a season-ending ankle injury last week against Carolina.

CABLE'S POWER GRAB: In the wake of an embarrassing 24-0 loss to Atlanta in which the Raiders had just three first downs, Cable stripped Knapp of his play-calling job and took on that duty. Makes sense. Cable called a few plays as a college coach. Knapp called plays for three NFL teams, the 49ers, Falcons and Raiders. Cable said he made the call to demote Knapp. Yeah, right. There’s no way Cable makes a decision this big without getting Al’s OK. That would have been Kiffian. I’d be willing to bet that Al told Cable to sack Knapp after that humiliating loss. So let’s see. Cable is now the interim head coach, offensive line coach and chief play-caller. What next? Specials teams coach? In Cable’s play-calling debut, the Raiders had 17 first downs but scored just six points against Carolina.

Holliday trade no reason for A's fans to celebrate

2008-11-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying to get excited about the trade A’s general manager Billy Beane’s swung with Colorado for outfielder Matt Holliday. It should be easy, right? Holliday is a legitimate star, something the A’s sorely lacked. He’s a big-time hitter who has slugged 128 home runs and driven in 483 in just five seasons. He’s young and talented.

Sorry, can’t do it.

This is just another instance of Billy being Billy, trading players as if they were baseball cards but having no end game in sight.

Holliday knows he should rent and not buy in the Bay Area. He’ll most likely be traded around the July deadline when desperate playoff contenders will bid his price through the roof. Or, he’ll walk away after one season, and the A’s will collect high draft picks as compensation.

Just don’t expect Holliday to be an Athletic long-term. He’ll make $13.5 million in 2009. He’ll be a free agent after this season. His agent is Scott Boras, Mr. Hardball himself. Get the picture? Holliday will demand and command more money than the small-budget A’s would ever consider spending.

I sympathize with A’s fans. They’re facing the same sorry situation they’re almost always facing. They’ll be watching a talented player knowing he’ll soon be gone. That’s great. Only the most naïve A’s fans would make an emotional investment in Holliday, no matter how many home runs he hits.

I’ll enjoy the Holliday show while it lasts in Oakland. I just won’t get too excited.

Raiders' offense unwatchable in loss to Carolina

2008-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Quick, get Safeway on the line. The Raider Nation is in serious need of brown paper bags. No need to poke eyeholes in these babies, the way Saints fans did when their team was known as the Aint’s. Just put them over your head and protect your eyes from the Raiders' unwatchable offense.

Only a handful of masochistic Raiders loyalists and countless seagulls showed up Sunday at the Coliseum to watch Oakland lose 17-6 to Carolina. In this case, a television blackout was beautiful.

Even on a day in which the Raiders’ defense intercepted four passes and Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme had a 7 of 27 passing nightmare, the Raiders scored just two second-half field goals.

That’s six more points than they scored in a 24-0 loss the previous week to Atlanta. And unlike that game, they didn’t post a first-down bagel in the first half. With backup quarterback Andrew Walter starting in place of sore-kneed JaMarcus Russell, the Raiders actually had eight first downs in the first half and 17 for the game. Consider that your Silver and Black lining.

So what went wrong on offense? To hear interim coach Tom Cable’s explanation, penalties killed the Raiders. They led to too many third-and-longs, he maintained.

So it’s official. Cable has taken up residence in fantasyland. The Raiders offense committed only five penalties, just one in the second half, on the last drive. Here’s what actually helped kill some of the Raiders drives:

A Julius Peppers sack on third-and-six at Carolina’s 44. A Richard Marshall interception on first-and-10 at the Carolina 16. A Peppers sack on first-and-10 at the Raiders 33. A fumbled exchange between Walter and running back Justin Fargas on first-and-10 from the Raiders 15. A shotgun snap that sailed over Walter’s head on first-and-10 at Carolina’s 43. A Chris Gamble interception on third-and-4 from the Carolina 45. A Peppers sack on third-and-7 at the Raiders 44.

Then there were a handful of your garden variety three-and-outs and a few drives that simply stalled. In reality, there were just two drives that were truly short-circuited with big penalties.

There’s more proof that Cable has lost touch with reality. Consider his answer when asked if he believes he can hold this team together.

“I do,” Cable said. “Obviously the proof is the effort we just put (forth) on the field, with all the changes and everything that were made, the things we went through this week.

“Shoot, if we play like that in the second half, we’ll win more games than we’ll lose, and I really believe that.”

Good one, coach. Miami, Denver, Kansas City, San Diego, New England, Houston and Tampa Bay should get a good laugh when they hear that one.

You have to give the Raiders’ defense credit. After last week’s humiliating game against Atlanta, the Raiders’ ‘D’ played with passion and, for the most part, skill. The Raiders held Carolina to 14 points in the first half. The first score came after Johnnie Lee Higgins fumbled the opening kick at the Raiders’ 16. The second came on DeAngelo Williams’ 69-yard run.

“I’m proud of the effort, but we still have to win games,” Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. “It was kind of like 2006 when we’d have a bunch of turnovers and still come away with the loss. The offense played a lot better than we did back then.”

That only tells you how bad the Raiders’ offense was in 2006 under coordinator Tom Walsh.

“They played hard,” running back Justin Fargas said of the defense. “They played lights out. As an offense, we’re disappointed we weren’t able to pay back the favor and put some points on the board.”

Cornerback Chris Johnson played well in his first start, replacing the jettisoned DeAngelo Hall. Safety Rashad Baker had two interceptions (but also missed a tackle on Williams’ long TD run), while Asomugha and Sam Williams had one apiece.

Yet for all those turnovers, the Raiders couldn’t get in the end zone.

“We’ve got to find the hunger, that when we get down close to the red zone we can smell the end zone and take shots at it,” said Fargas, who rushed for 89 yards on 22 carries.

Walter, seeing his first action of the season, completed 14 of 32 passes for 143 yards with two interceptions. He had a passer rating of 31.1.

What went wrong?

“Penalties. Penalties, for one,” Walter said, promoting the Cable-inspired fantasy. “We can’t catch a break, whether it’s a receiver catching feet with a defensive back for an interception and then penalties. I mean, we haven’t been able to catch a break.”

Yeah, I guess it’s a bad break when Peppers goes wild, racking up three sacks, making seven tackles and forcing two fumbles.

Delhomme apparently lost his groove during the bye week. He was off-target from the outset, over- and under-throwing receivers all over the field. The Raiders’ defense, of course, had something to do with Delhomme’s bad day.

The Raiders intercepted passes deep in Carolina territory on back-to-back drives to open the second half. First Baker, then Williams came up with picks.

The Raiders went three-and-out both times, gaining five yards each time before settling for field goals. Damn those penalties.

The Panthers kept begging to be beat, but the Raiders kept refusing. Early in the fourth quarter, the Raiders drove into Carolina territory. They had a promising drive going until Walter tried to hit wide receiver Javon Walker on a third-and-4 slant and Gamble cut in front to intercept.

How about that coaching change? Before Lane Kiffin was fired, the Raiders averaged 19.5 points per game. Since Cable took over, they’ve averaged 7.0.

That’s reality, not fantasy.

Warriors rookie makes good impression in loss to Memphis

2008-11-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

Quick hits from Oracle Arena after watching the Warriors lose 109-104 to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night:

Rookie forward Anthony Randolph finally got a chance to play some meaningful minutes, thanks to injuries that sidelined veterans Corey Maggette and Al Harrington. You know what? The kid that coach Don Nelson has said was nowhere near ready to play in the big, bad NBA actually looked pretty good.

Randolph scored eight points on 4 of 8 shooting in just over 17 minutes. He grabbed seven rebounds and blocked a shot.

Even Nelson was impressed.

“I liked it,” Nelson said of Randolph’s performance. “He’s way ahead of Brandan Wright, where he was a year ago. I thought he looked pretty good tonight.

“He’s going to be a terrific player some day. He’s probably a little too young now. He had some nice moments. He definitely has a presence to his game.”

Randolph’s jumper looked silky smooth. He used his tremendous wingspan to block or affect a few Memphis shots. Randolph even handled the ball well on the fastbreak. Not bad for a 6-10 rookie.

“It was a little nerve-wracking at first,” Randolph said. “I was nervous, but once the game started going, I settled (down) and just started to play my game. I was nervous. My heart was beating fast.

“I was probably having a little panic attack when I shot that first shot. But when I missed, it was like, ‘OK, nothing worse can happen, so just come out there and play your game.’ After I missed that first shot I was good.”

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Without point guard Baron Davis, the Warriors are still struggling in the final minutes of close games. Stephen Jackson made a concerted effort Friday night to be the Warriors’ go-to guy in crunch time. He did OK. But he’s not B.D. He doesn’t have Davis’ quickness or speed. He certainly doesn’t have his ball-handling skills and doesn’t demand the same type of defensive attention that leads to wide open shots for his teammates.

This part of the Warriors’ game is still a work in progress.

“The young guys played well, we played hard enough,” Jackson said. “But down the stretch I am the leader of this team so I have to make better plays. I have to be smarter.”

Jackson scored 27 points but had just four assists.

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Harrington missed the game with a bad back, and his time with the Warriors appears to be winding down in the wake of his public request for a trade.

Nelson said that entering the season he made a commitment to Harrington to give him major minutes every game. That deal, Nelson said before the game, ended earlier this week.

“For the good of the franchise, I think we have to anticipate that he won’t be here and do what we have to do to not be all of a sudden totally surprised about a different lineup,” Nelson said. “If we can do that gradually now, and we’ll bring Al off of the bench and he’ll have to pick up minutes where he can. It’s not that he’s not going to play. He will play, but we’ve got to look to the future here, so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Nelson was asked if it would be better to trade Harrington sooner rather than later.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nelson said. “It’s just so we get a good player. If that’s soon, that’s fine. If it doesn’t happen. … Hopefully it will happen. I hope it will. He hopes it will. A guy shouldn’t be where he doesn’t want to be. It’s hard for him to give his best and his all. It’s a good things for both parties at this point.”
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Point guard Marcus Williams finally slimmed down enough to get on the floor. He played like someone who hadn’t seen the court since the exhibition season. He went scoreless in nearly 10 minutes of playing time, missing all three of his shots.

Nelson said he told Williams he wouldn’t get to suit up until he got his body fat to 10 percent or his weight to 210 pounds. Williams made his weight and saw some game action against Memphis.

“We watched him in training camp, and he just couldn’t do what we thought he could do,” Nelson said. “So he got beat out by two guys. It was just something we thought we’d bring to his attention, that he needed to get his weight down.

“Whether he’s with me or somebody else, it’s hard for him to get into the paint area where he’s effective when he’s heavy. So he was not going to play until he got to 10 percent body fat or 210 (pounds), and he got serious. He lost it quickly. … . I was very encouraged by yesterday’s practice, and I’ve been encouraged by watching him come in early in the morning and do his double workouts and sometimes three, and he got his weight down. I’m happy about that.”
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Andris Biedrins recorded his 13th straight double-double, dating to last season, the longest current streak in the NBA and the longest by a Warrior since Nate Thurmond had 13 straight in 1973. Biedrins scored 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and – drum roll – made 9 of 10 freethrows.

“He had some decent numbers,” Nelson said. “I don’t think he was as good tonight as he’s been.”

Tough crowd. Nelson was unhappy with the way the Warriors got outrebounded 55-41 as a team by the Grizzlies even though Memphis center Marc Gasol played only 17:15 before fouling out and backup center Darko Milicic played just 12:27 before being ejected in the first half for saying a few choice words to the officials.

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Rookie power forward Richard Hendrix is ticketed the NBA Development League, Nelson said.

“I don’t think that he’s ready yet,” Nelson said. “And I’m going to put him in the ‘D’ League, probably for most of the year. I think that would be good for him and then we’ll take a look at him. I don’t see that he’s going to be NBA ready for quite a while.”

Warriors take a trip to dysfunction junction

2008-11-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

I didn’t really think it was possible, but the Warriors are making a move in the battle to become the Bay Area’s most dysfunctional professional sports franchise.

No, they’ll never overtake the Raiders as long as Al Davis is in charge of the NFL’s wackiest franchise. I mean, until Warriors owner Chris Cohan fires a coach and goes overhead projector on us, he can’t compete with wild and crazy Al.

The Warriors still have a ways to go to catch the 49ers and that brand of Yorkian dysfunction. But the Warriors are definitely gaining ground.

Hours before Friday night’s game against Memphis at Oracle Arena – soon to be renamed the Nut House? – the Warriors announced news that had leaked out a day earlier. They canned assistant general manager Pete D’Alessandro and promoted assistant coach Larry Riley to replace him.

This was the latest move by Warriors uber-president Robert Rowell to both punish and disrespect executive vice president Chris Mullin. D’Alessandro was Mullin’s right-hand man, someone he trusted and relied on. Now he’s gone, reportedly for insubordination, which translates to supporting Mullin.

Why don’t Rowell and team owner Chris Cohan just fire Mullin and be done with it? Mullin, one of the most respected players and executives in team history, doesn’t deserve this type of treatment.

Yeah, Mullin has made mistakes, handed too much money to some players who didn’t deserve it. But it was Mullin who traded for Baron Davis. It was Mullin who convinced Nelson to return to the Warriors. It was Mullin who landed Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington from Indiana for Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy, two players most Warriors fans were worth next to nothing.

Just two seasons ago, the Warriors made the playoffs and stunned the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Talk about ancient history.

The team that made the playoffs has been destroyed. Last year the Warriors traded guard Jason Richardson to Charlotte in a draft-day deal for the rights to Brandan Wright in what now seems more like a move to save money than to actually get better.

If the Warriors had kept Richardson, they’d have made the playoffs last year, too. They’d have been a deeper team with more offensive firepower. Their tank wouldn’t have been bone dry in the final weeks of the season when they faded.

This year Rowell vetoed a tentative three-year contract extension that Mullin had reached with Davis. So Davis walked away, and the Warriors received nothing in return for their best player.

I can’t blame Rowell for Monta Ellis’ crashing his moped and seriously injury an ankle. But I can blame him for playing over-the-top hardball with Ellis to the point that Ellis, even if he does recover completely, might try to force the Warriors to trade him. To make matters worse, Rowell publicly ripped Mullin for being too soft on Ellis. Classy move.

Forward Al Harrington is as good as gone. He asked to be traded, and the Warriors apparently are trying to deal him. Harrington’s issues are with Nelson, not Rowell. But if he leaves, it will be just one more piece of the “We Believe” playoff team that’s been lost.

Add him to a list that includes Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes, who left after last season as free agents.

Ah, sweet dysfunction.

Cal facing long odds in its quest to beat USC in L.A.

2008-11-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Here’s a football fact that can’t have Cal fans feeling too good approaching Saturday’s showdown against USC in Los Angeles: The Bears under coach Jeff Tedford are oh-for-L.A.

Since coming to Berkeley in 2002, Tedford has turned Cal into a football powerhouse. The Bears are 56-28 and have been to five straight bowl games under Tedford. But they’ve lost three straight games to UCLA at the Rose Bowl and three straight games to USC at the Memorial Coliseum.

Cal’s teams are always packed with players who grew up in Southern California. So-called homecoming games are filled with potential problems. Players can get too hyped up or too tight, overwhelmed with emotion. During his weekly news conference Monday, Tedford was asked if those problems had anything to do with the Bears’ lack of success in L.A.

“No,” Tedford said. “We’ve played well down there. We’ve had close games. … I don’t know that our players have played tight. I don’t know that our players haven’t played well. You’re playing a really good football team,” he said of USC. “They’re close games. They can go either way.

“I don’t think at all that our players go down there with the thought of feeling intimidated or trying to do more than they can do. I think they’re excited to play and (play) with high intensity and they lay it all on the line. I don’t think there’s anything that really needs to be addressed there besides you don’t need to be superhuman. You don’t have to do something special. Just play to your potential and play hard.”

Tedford’s team losing three straight to UCLA on the road is baffling. Losing three straight to USC is much easier to understand. Since 2002, USC has lost exactly one home game. That was last year to Stanford, a 24-23 loss that stands as one of the most stunning upsets in Pac-10 history.

Cal, as Tedord said, has come close to beating the Trojans in L.A. In 2002, the Bears fell 30-28.

In 2004, the Bears trailed just 23-17 late in the fourth quarter and had the ball deep in USC territory. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had been almost perfect for most of the game, but he couldn’t get Cal into the end zone at the end in what was a crushing defeat for the Bears.

In 2006, Cal kept the game tight into the second half before USC pulled away for a 23-9 victory.

Tedford’s lone win over USC came in 2003 in Berkeley, a 34-31 triple-overtime thriller.

The oddsmakers have No. 21 Cal as a 17½-point underdog against the No. 7 Trojans. The Bears aren’t buying their long odds.

“It’s important to know that this is a good team, but they’re not unbeatable,” Cal center Alex Mack said. “I think it’s going to be more about what we do as a team and what kind of plays we make. If we get all over-concerned about how good they are or what they’re ranked or all this stuff, you’re going to come into the game feeling tight.

“It’s important to know that we just have to do what we have to do and do as well as we can. They’re still college players. There’s nothing extraordinary about them. It’s going to be about coming out and making plays.”

Mack is right about one thing. USC is not unbeatable. The Trojans lost 27-21 to Oregon State on the road in September. Last month the Trojans barely held on to beat Arizona 17-10. Of course that was another road game.

Maybe Tedford should show his team videotape of Stanford beating USC last year, just so the Bears know it’s possible for a road team to beat the Trojans at their home.

Motivation won’t be a problem. The Bears need to beat USC to keep their Rose Bowl hopes alive.

“I’m glad we set ourselves in position to make this game count,” Cal linebacker Zack Follett said. “Last year we kind of had our downfall and once we got to this game finally, it didn’t matter which way it went.

“It’s an exciting game going there to L.A. I can remember going down there in ’06 and walking out there under the lights, and it felt like a dream out there. It’s definitely a great place to play, and that’s what every athlete on this team, every competitor on this team dreams of is to play in a game like this, of this magnitude.”

A victory Saturday would be huge for the Bears this season and potentially in the future. USC sits in the middle of one of the nation’s hottest football recruiting areas, an area that supplies most of the players for the Pac-10. There’s no telling what a win over the Trojans in L.A. might mean long-term for the Bears.

Those potential reinforcements won’t arrive until future seasons. These Bears will be on their own against USC.

“They seem to always have No. 1, No. 2 recruiting classes in the country,” Tedford said of USC. “So they recruit very well. They’re very well coached. It’s difficult. But you can still. … I don’t think there’s any doubt if you’re successful recruiting and you can stay healthy that you can compete.”

Now the question is whether Cal can do more than just compete and actually beat USC in L.A.

Raiders' latest loss one for the ages

2008-11-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

I know it won’t be easy, but I’m going to try to put the Raiders’ 24-0 loss Sunday to the Atlanta Falcons into its proper, humiliating perspective.

Let’s start with a few of the final numbers. The Raiders were outgained 453 to 77. They had three first downs to the Falcons’ 30. They lost the time of possession battle 45:15 to 14:45.

They gained the fewest yards by a Raiders team in any game in the Al Davis era, which began in 1963, and the fewest yards in the NFL since Dec. 12, 2004, when Cleveland gained 26 against Buffalo.

The Raiders set a franchise record for fewest first downs in a game.

Are you getting the picture of exactly how gruesome it was Sunday at the Coliseum?

“During the week we look like we’re a Super Bowl team, and we come out there and we’re damn near the laughingstock of the league, and it’s ridiculous,” Raiders safety Gibril Wilson said. “I’ve never been in a situation where it’s been like this, and I don’t know what it is. I really don’t know what it is.

“The coaches are getting us prepared. That’s not a problem. The people in this locker room have to look at themselves in the mirror and see exactly what they’re bringing to the table, and if they’re not bringing anything to the table, then get off the ship, period.”

You can understand Wilson’s culture shock. A year ago, he was on his way to winning the Super Bowl with the New York Giants. This is still all new to him.

Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha is in Year 6 as a Raider. He has some history with the team.

Was this as bad as it gets?

“In the first half, probably as bad as it gets,” Asomugha said. “I think we played Jacksonville and Green Bay last year. Those were pretty bad. I’ve had some bad ones, but in the first half, that was bad”

NFL laughingstock bad.

The Raiders fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and 24-0 by halftime. Atlanta gained 309 yards in the first half. The Raiders “gained” minus-2. The Falcons amassed 20 first downs in the first half. The Raiders totaled zero. Atlanta held the ball for 24:08, the Raiders 5:52.

Atlanta’s Michael Turner rushed for 82 yards and Jerious Norwood 50 in the first half. Falcons rookie quarterback Matt Ryan completed 13 of 16 passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, meanwhile, hit on 2 of 7 passes for nine yards and was sacked three times. Justin Fargas carried three times for 5 yards.

“Very disappointing,” said Raiders interim coach Tom Cable, whose record dropped to 1-3 and odds of keeping this job in 2009 continued getting longer.

You had to see this to believe how ugly it was. Unbelievable. This looked like professionals against amateurs, men against boys, NFL vs. high school.

The Falcons’ offense had the Raiders’ confused and flummoxed from the outset. Atlanta opened with a no-huddle attack and marched 88 yards for a score, Ryan hitting Michael Jenkins on a 44-yard touchdown pass. Yeah, Jenkins beat cornerback DeAngelo Hall. Was there any doubt?

The Falcons did whatever they wanted against the Raiders’ defense. They hit the Raiders with a mixture of Turner’s power running and Norwood’s slashing blows. Ryan threw deep, midrange and short passes, hitting six different targets.

Invariably, there was a Falcon wide open somewhere on every play, and Ryan found him.

“They had a rhythm, they got hot,” Raiders linebacker Kirk Morrison said. “Once you get hot, it’s hard to break that.”

Apparently, so.

The Raiders’ problems on defense began early when they couldn’t stop Turner or Norwood. When the Raiders thought run, Atlanta passed. When they thought pass, Atlanta ran.

“They pretty much did the type of stuff we saw, and they did some of the stuff that we had been seeing in other weeks that they had never done,” Asomugha said. “It’s a copycat league so you see someone else do it and it works, then they’ll start doing it. Those were the plays we got.”

In other words, the Raiders’ defense has been exposed and an expect more of the same.

You’ve got to give Atlanta offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey plenty of credit for a great game plan. And Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan? Let’s just say that Lane Kiffin is probably having a good laugh.

It’s not as if Atlanta is an offensive juggernaut. The Falcons came into the game ranked 11th in total offense, third in rushing and 22nd in passing. Good, yes, but not nearly as good as the Raiders made them look, especially in the first half.

I don’t want to just pile on the Raiders’ defense. The Raiders’ offense was equally awful.

Atlanta entered the game ranked 25th in total defense, 22nd against the pass and 23rd against the run. Against the Raiders, the Falcons’ ‘D’ looked like the the 21st century’s Steel Curtain.

The Raiders couldn’t run. They couldn’t pass. They couldn’t do anything.

Fargas said he never saw this disaster coming.

“Not at all. We had a good week of practice. I thought the energy was good. I thought we were ready to play,” Fargas said. “It didn’t show.

“I don’t know how it happens, but it happened. We didn’t look good in any phase of our game. We have to do something to get it right.”

The contrast between the two young quarterbacks on the field, Russell and Ryan, was stunning. Ryan was cool and calm, making the proper reads and finding open receivers. He was also accurate. His 44-yard touchdown pass to Jenkins early in the first quarter was a laser. Jenkins had a step on Hall along the right sideline. He reached up at the 10, and the pass basically hit him in the hands.

Russell is in his second season, but he looked much more like a rookie than Ryan. Granted, he rarely had open receivers, but when he did, he usually missed them or threw uncatchable balls, as in 100 mph rockets from short range.

One of the lowest points for Russell came midway through the third period when he went to pass and had the ball slip out of his hands for a fumble. Later in the half, he forced a pass to a blanketed Javon Walker in the end zone. Erik Coleman came up with what had to be the easiest interception of his career.

The Raiders didn't get their first first down of the game with 9:26 left in the third quarter. The fans erupted in what clearly was a mocking Bronx cheer. For most of the day they simply booed the home team.

By the end of the game, there were almost more seagulls circling the Coliseum than fans in the stands. Vultures would have been more fitting.

Now the Raiders face that familiar danger of having their season implode with eight games still to play.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Fargas said, “and we can’t let it fall off. We just have to keep fighting, keep working and doing whatever it takes to get a win.”

What exactly is that? And how do the Raiders keep this bad loss from snowballing?

“I don’t know,” Asomugha said. “Is that a fair answer? I don’t know. I just hope it doesn’t.”

Confident Hagan's career at Cal soars to new heights

2008-11-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

I wrote story about cornerback Darian Hagan that appeared in Cal's football program Saturday when the Bears beat Oregon. In case you missed the game or missed the story, here it is:

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To truly understand how high Cal cornerback Darian Hagan’s football career has soared this season, you have to recall the day it hit rock bottom.

It was Sept. 8, 2007. The Bears had built what appeared to be an insurmountable 34-14 lead over Colorado State, and Hagan, along with some other young Bears, came off the bench late in the fourth quarter at Fort Collins.

Before Hagan knew what hit him, Colorado State had burned him twice, once on a 66-yard touchdown pass.

“That was a terrible experience,” said Hagan, a red-shirt sophomore. “I was kind of thinking, ‘OK, the light’s finally coming on.’ I get my opportunity, and I got out there and blew it.”

Hagan was yanked from that game, which Cal hung on to win 34-28. He never played another down at cornerback in the Bears’ final 11 games that season.

After being humiliated at Colorado State and spending the rest of his red-shirt freshman season on the bench, the light that Hagan mentioned actually did come on.

Hagan said he finally realized that the “practice habits” that served him well enough as a highly recruited cornerback at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, didn’t cut it at Cal.

“Coming from high school, I was one of the stars on the team,” Hagan said. “I was forced to practice, but it was kind of like a you-can-do-whatever-you-want-to-do kind of thing. I came to college with that attitude, and it wasn’t getting me anywhere.

“It took a little while to wake up. At this point, it’s not really a game anymore. This is a business. I had to get that through my head. I finally got it through my head.”

When he did, Hagan made one of the smartest decisions of his Cal career. He called linebacker Worrell Williams, a respected and forceful team leader, and asked for help. Specifically, Hagan asked Williams to push him to work hard and make sure he never slipped back into his bad habits.

“I think that was a sign of maturity for him to reach out,” Williams said. “He’s evolved as a player. He’s gotten smart out there. His tackling has gotten a lot better. He’s a lot tougher. He’s always been a good (cover) corner out there, a great corner. He’s doing well.”

When it comes to keeping Hagan on track, Williams takes his job seriously. He calls him often to make sure he’s lifting weights and doing his work off the field. At practice, he lets Hagan know he’s watching him.

“Whenever he sees me slacking, he’ll say, ‘Step it up, step it up,’ ” Hagan said. “He always reminds me of that (telephone) call.”

Hagan used the Colorado State game as motivation during spring practice, summer workouts and training camp, when he won the starting job at right cornerback.

Another motivating force arrived in his life on Feb. 21st when his daughter, Kenyan, was born. She and her mother live in Los Angeles, but they were in Berkeley visiting Hagan for a few weeks earlier this season.

Being a father, Hagan said, has changed his life.

“So that’s been an extra push for me to come out and make things happen and try to live my dream here,” Hagan said.

“I keep a picture of her on my locker, a big picture of her. So every day I come in before I hit the field and see that. It kind of wakes me up and gets me ready for practice. Got to make it happen now.”

Hagan didn’t have to wait long to get redemption against Colorado State. The Bears and Rams met again on Sept. 27, this time at Memorial Stadium. Hagan had his first career interception and made four tackles, including one in the backfield.

“He’s made great strides,” Cal linebacker Anthony Felder said. “He’s increased his work ethic, his focus. Every week he gets better.”

And every week he has a target on his jersey, playing opposite third-year starting left cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, the Bears most decorated defensive back.

Hagan said he understands why most quarterbacks avoid Thompson and attack him. But you know what? He loves the extra attention. In Hagan’s mind, more passes thrown his way equal more chances to make big plays and prove his worth.

“That’s kind of a plus for me for him to be a lock-down corner on his side,” Hagan said. “It will give me a few more opportunities to show that I can be the same type of players as well. I accept the challenge.”

There aren’t many, if any, challenges on the football field that Hagan doesn’t welcome.

He plays the game with a swagger and confidence that occasionally crosses the line into cockiness. Hagan said he has a split personality – one when he’s off the field and one when he plays football.

“I think I’m a real humble, laid-back guy off the field, but when I’m on the field I just turn into a totally different person,” Hagan said.

“I like to talk a little bit. It kind of motivates me. I like to try to get the (opposing) players into it a little bit, because when they start talking it just boosts me up to make sure I shut them down on the next play.”

Most of Hagan’s teammates aren’t nearly as talkative or expressive on the field. But Felder, for one, said he gets a kick out of Hagan’s game-day persona and said it helps motivate the team. He called Hagan’s attitude the “prototype” for most people who play corner, one of football’s most demanding and high-stress positions, where even the slightest mistake can cost your team a touchdown.

“You’ve got to have guys out there that are a little bit different from some of the other players on the field, higher energy, maybe a little bit more confidence and swagger than at other positions because you’re out on that island,” Felder said.

“It’s a lot like a boxer. He’s one-on-one with a receiver. … He’s real tough out there. At the same time, he’s able to be a team player and come up and help us out and also play within the system.”

Hagan said he pays close attention to a number of current NFL cornerbacks, including Green Bay’s Al Harris and San Diego’s Antonio Cromartie because they’re “tall, physical corners, kind of on the slimmer side, like me.”

But it should come as no surprise that Hagan’s favorite cornerback is one who has retired, ex-NFL great Deion Sanders, who went by that unassuming nickname of Prime Time.

“I just look at it like this,” Hagan said. “Deion Sanders, he kind of set the
standard for the cornerback position. And the type of player he was, he was real cocky out there. He’s having a lot of fun.

“It’s kind of like having to live up to that. That’s how I look at it. Playing this position, you have to have major confidence.”

Hagan has the confidence part of the cornerback job down pat. As for having fun, he’s got a good handle on that, too. This a player who loves to celebrate big plays on the field.

“He just kind of struts his stuff a little,” Williams said. “More body language than anything.”

“He’s not really a trash talker,” Cal safety Marcus Ezeff said of Hagan. “He’s more of a dancer. He likes to do his little dance. It’s kind of entertaining to watch.”

When Hagan made a big hit on an Arizona Wildcat receiver earlier this season, he had the wind knocked out of him and had to leave the field for a play. But not before he took care of some business.

“Even with the wind knocked out of me, I had to strike a pose,” Hagan said, laughing.

New Sharks coach downplays win over his old team

2008-10-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

With 7:00 left to play in the third period Thursday night and the Sharks leading the reigning Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings 4-1, a larger-than-life image of new coach Todd McLellan appeared on the big screen above center ice, and fans at the sold-out Shark Tank began cheering.

The fans knew and appreciated what was unfolding before their eyes.

McLellan’s team held on for a 4-2 victory over his old team and coach Mike Babcock, his former mentor and boss. On this night, the student beat the mentor and the San Jose Red Wings, as some are bound to call the Sharks, beat the Detroit Red Wings.

You know what? McLellan shunned the spotlight as if it were radioactive.

We’re learning more and more about the Sharks new coach as the season moves on. This week we learned that he’d rather play goalie without a mask than accept credit for the accomplishments of those who play hockey for a living.

He’s not ego-lite. He’s ego-less. Or at least that’s the way it seems. In this era of big egos and bigger salaries, that's remarkable.

In a span of three days, the Sharks beat Pittsburgh and Detroit, the reigning conference champions. Yet when asked if it was “rewarding” for a rookie coach, he poured ice cold water all over that story line.

“Not for the coach. For the players,” McLellan said. “It’s about the players. It’s not a reward for us as a staff. They’re the ones that are sweating and beat up and bruised. They did a pretty good job tonight.”

Many of McLellan’s players said they were happy they could give their coach a win over his former team. But he relentlessly downplayed the personal accomplishment.

“It’s a win. It puts us two points ahead of the team behind us,” McLellan said. “I’m pleased. Not for myself. Everybody’s making this out (to be) about me. It’s not about me. It’s about the players. It’s nice to know that they want to play hard for the coaching staff. It’s their team. I hope that by the time we get to the end of the year that we can take a step back and they get out there and do their thing and really they don’t even need us. And that will be a sign of a championship team.”

The Sharks under McLellan are dropping plenty of hints that they just might be a championship team this year. Winning back-to-back games over Pittsburgh and Detroit certainly made an impressive early-season statement. They held the Penguins and Sidney Crosby to 11 shots. The Red Wings had scored 28 goals in their previous six games before facing the Sharks.

Granted, the Red Wings had a tough overtime loss Wednesday night at Anaheim while the Sharks rested. And Detroit started backup goalie Ty Conklin. Even so, this was an impressive win and an impressive double dip.

“I think we have respect around the league as a good team,” forward Ryan Clowe said. “I think we showed this year we’re probably ready to take the next step. “We played the runners-up. We played the Stanley Cup champs. It was a huge win for us. Not only are they Stanley Cup champs. We stole their assistant coach. It was a big night for him.”

Well, at least that’s the rumor. McLellan never admitted as much to the press or his players. And he certainly didn’t play the win-one-for-the-coach motivational card.

“He didn’t mention it at all,” Clowe said. “I think he was probably sick of hearing that. But we knew. We knew the impact. We were pleased. I’m sure he had a smile.”

Well, maybe when no one was looking.

Is Cal QB Riley finally winning over his tough-love coach?

2008-10-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

I noticed an interesting change Tuesday in Cal coach Jeff Tedford’s approach to quarterback Kevin Riley. It was almost as if Tedford switched roles from bad cop to good cop.

For much of the season, Tedford has been very hard on his young quarterback. No doubt he wanted to humble Riley a bit and make sure he understood how much he still had to learn.

But in the wake of Cal’s 41-20 victory last week over UCLA and just days before a huge home game against Oregon, Tedford had little but praise for Riley during his weekly press conference. Tedford went so far as to say that he might have been too critical of Riley in the past.

I get the feeling that Tedford has had enough of this season-long quarterback shuffle with Riley and Nate Longshore, that he's getting close to going all-in on Riley and that he decided it’s time to start boosting his young QB's confidence. Yeah, I could be wrong. Tedford could do an about-face and make another QB switch – or two or three.

But consider Tedford’s review of Riley’s play against UCLA, a game in which he threw a 53-yard touchdown pass on a flea-flicker.

“Actually I thought Kevin played pretty well,” Tedford said. “I thought the difference in the game was decision making. They had four turnovers. We had zero. Kevin was harassed a little bit but held onto the ball, pulled it down when he needed to, those type of things. Didn’t make any poor decisions with the football. And that becomes critical in a close game. And then I thought he made some really good throws, too. He made some throws with tight coverage that were right there, that either they made a good defensive play or we maybe dropped a ball.

“I think the play of the game for Kevin was the flea-flicker. That play we had a lot of penetration off our right guard. As (Jahvid Best) is pitching the ball, Kevin’s there waiting for the ball to come back and he’s kind of moving sideways as he gets it and steps up in there and makes a great throw. I thought that was a key play. That was a great play by Kevin. Looking at it. I say again, always probably too critical of that, expecting guys to complete every pass. That’s not going to happen. As I’m watching tape, every quarterback misses throws. But I think we’re kind of used to Aaron Rodgers and those type of things where I think it’s a little easy to be too critical of a very tough position. And Kevin’s playing fine. Sure, he is going to miss a guy every now and then. Everybody does. I thought Kevin played a good game last week.”

If you’ve followed this quarterback saga at Cal this year, you know that qualifies as high praise from Tedford for Riley. It seems that Tedford is starting to truly appreciate the way Riley makes decisions and avoids turnovers. Just two of his 150 passes have been picked off. He has thrown nine touchdown passes.

Then there’s Riley’s mobility and quickness, assets that are even more important in light of mounting injuries that have struck Cal’s offensive line.

“I think one of his tools is to be able to pull the ball down and run,” Tedford said. “And he’s not afraid to do that, and he will do that. He’ll take a sack and get up. He’s made good decisions that way. If nothing’s there, either it’s a coverage sack or someone happens to get beat up front, or the backs or the tight ends or whomever’s in charge of that pass protection scheme, he’s made good sound decisions and pulled the ball down and not turned the football over. And that’s critical.”

Tedford didn’t go so far as to say Riley would definitely start against Oregon. But asked if he saw Riley as his starter this week, Tedford said, “As of right now.”

Spoken like a good cop.

Here’s a transcript of brief interview with Riley after Tuesday night’s practice.

Q: The coach came about as close as he has to naming his QB starter on a Tuesday. He said you are the starter as of right now. Does that give you confidence going into the week?

Riley: "Yeah. Definitely. After I watched the film I felt a little better about the UCLA game. There's still some throws i wish i could take back, just a little high, that could have been caught balls. But overall i thought it was OK. Needs to be better of course. It feels good. I actually didn't hear that. Definitely. We just got to get ready. We've got a good Oregon team. They're strong all around, especially on 'D'. I mean, that's all I've watched. Just watching them, they don't make a lot of mistakes. They're sound. This is going to be the best game we're going to have to play all year."

Q: The coach was talking about the way you managed the game and your decision making. He stressed no turnovers. Were you pleased with the decisions you made?

Riley: "I think I've done a pretty good job of that all year, taking care of the ball. That's something you need to do to win the game. There was one bad throw, the start of the second half on the first drive. That was a dumb throw and almost got picked. Even learning from that, I can't do that. Just drop down and run, get some yards. Just got to come out, make more plays, be smart with the ball. If there's some turnovers against this team, it's going to be a lot more trouble than it was last week."

Q: Coach said he's been overly critical of the offense this year. You guys do that to yourselves too. Is that a good thing, though, that you're expecting perfection?

Riley: "I think so. It hasn't happened. It kind of seems like our best game offensively was that Michigan state game. Everybody expects more and we expected by now that we'd be more in a rhythm all around like consecutive four quarters playing good offense. Like we say every week, we've got to start out early, but we've got to maintain that. We can't have that third quarter where penalties just killed us the whole quarter. It's hard to get in a rhythm at all when you're getting third-and-20, second-and-40. It's very unlikely you're going to convert those. So just try to keep ourselves in good situations to make plays, and I think we will."

Q: How good is the Oregon secondary?

Riley:"They're good. There's no question about it. We're going to have to be strong with the ball. They can jump stuff, make plays, big hitters. Probably overall the best secondary we're going to go against all year. Like I said, we're going to have to play our best game of football."

Q: Is this a game where a few runs by you might help to slow down Oregon's pass rush?

Riley: "Yeah, possibly. We're just going to have to see. They bring the rush. They do what they've done for a while now. They have the same 'D' that they had last year. They're just going to do what they're good at. We just got to be ready for everything."

Q: Did you get recruited by Oregon?

Riley: "I did a little bit. They were pretty late. They were a little late in their recruiting. For a home-state boy (Beaverton High School), I was like, 'What's going on?' No grudge at all against them. I know they're a good school. ... I knew about Oregon, growing up watching them. Coach (Mike Bellotti) was there when I was growing up. It's going to be kind of cool to start against the home state. Last year my first game ever was against Oregon State. I know a couple guys on their team. So it will be fun."

Q: Did Oregon State recruit you?

Riley: "Yeah. They recruited me a lot more."

49ers' Singletary lays down the law in a rough debut

2008-10-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching 49ers interim coach Mike Singletary’s debut Saturday, and I want to post the transcript from one of the most interesting and entertaining post-game coaching interviews I’ve ever heard.

Just a few thoughts before I get to Singletary’s quotes.

Singletary lost his debut 34-13 to the Seattle Seahawks, but man, did he make a strong impression in so many ways beyond that embarrassing final score.

He benched combustible tight end Vernon Davis late in the third quarter after Davis drew a costly personal foul. Then he sent Davis to the showers. Incredible. That’s something fired coach Mike Nolan should have done long ago.

I’m not a Davis basher. I actually like the guy. But he needs to know his limits. Now, hopefully, he does, although I’m not convinced considering that he pleaded innocent after the game, calling the penalty unwarranted.

Davis isn’t the only player Singletary benched. He yanked quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan from the game late in the first half after O’Sullivan threw a fourth-and-4 interception that Josh Wilson returned 75 yards for a crushing touchdown. Shaun Hill came on and did an admirable job in relief.

Singletary laid down the law during the game and after, in the locker room. Yeah, this game was about as ugly as you can imagine. Seattle fullback Leonard Weaver caught two touchdowns passes, the first one 43 yards and the second 62. O’Sullivan was wretched, again. The 49ers were outgained 388 yards to 261. The usual. But after watching and hearing Singletary in action, you know it won’t be business as usual this coming week during the 49ers’ bye.

Now for the Singletary post-game transcript. And yes, he delivered his opening statement and answered the questions with passion and conviction, just as you’d expect a former Hall of Fame player who played for Mike Ditka to do.

Singletary opening statement: “Before you ask any questions, I want to say this. No. 1, is I apologize. Apologize for the start. It’s like this, the day was good for me. It was good for me because sometimes you take a step back and you look at it and you think, ‘Hey, you know what? …We’re going to make it work. They’re working hard. They’re doing this, they’re doing that. We’re going to go out there, and it’s going to change right now.'

"It will change. ... I want you guys to understand where I’m coming from. It will change. And it will change because they want it to change. Not because of me. It will change because they want to be champions. But right now we’ve got to figure out the formula, our formula. Our formula is this. We go out and we hit people in the mouth, No. 1. No. 2, we are not a charity. We cannot give them the game. No. 3, we will execute from the very start to the very end of the game. That did not happen. I do not apologize about ... (At this point, Singletary cut off his opening statement and asked for questions)

Q: What happened between you and Vernon on the sidelines?

Singletary: “Vernon just. It was something I told everybody at the beginning of the week. I will not tolerate players that think it’s about them when it’s about the team. We cannot make decisions that cost the team and then come off the sidelines just nonchalant. You know what? This is how I believe. I’m from the old school. I believe this. I would rather play with 10 people and just get penalized all the way until we’ve got to do something else, rather than play with 11 when I know that right now that person has not sold out to a part of this team. It is more about them than it is about the team. Cannot play with them. Cannot win with them. Cannot coach with them. Can’t do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win.”

Q: Did you kick him off the field? Did you tell him to go to the locker room?

Singletary: “I told him that he would do a better job for us now taking a shower and coming back and watching the game than going out on the field. Simple as that.”

Q: Is he your starting tight end in two weeks?

Singletary: “Well, we’ve got to think about it.”

Q: Who’s your starting quarterback?

Singletary: “We’ve got to think about that too.”

Q: Who made the decision to change the quarterback? Did you decide to put Shaun Hill in or was Mike Martz involved in that?

Singletary: “It was my decision.”

Q: Did you get resistance from Mike Martz?

Singletary: “Well, I think Mike knows me enough right now, going through this week, that we didn’t have to talk about it.”

Q: Why did you do it? Why did you make that decision at that point in the game?

Singletary: “I thought that it was just one of those situations where you feel like you’re going in the game, and you want the best opportunity to win. You want the guy that, the quarterback is going in, he’s not playing well, he’s just not in that rhythm. After a while, his teammates can get frustrated and coaches can get frustrated. Rather than going there, just say, ‘You know what? Let’s make the change. We’ll revisit it later. But, I think right now, Shaun Hill today, in that situation, will give us a better chance of winning.’ ”

Q: Can you comment how Shaun Hill played?

Singletary: “One of the things that I asked the guys to do this week was manage the game. I talked to the quarterbacks early in the week and said, ‘All I’m asking you to do is manage the game. You don’t have to go out and win the game, just manage the game. We will win. We have special teams. We’ve got defense. We have other parts of the offense that can click and work. Give us a chance. Let’s just go out there and manage the game and let’s go.’ ”

Q: Is this an indication that it’s going to be a lot more difficult than you might have thought?

Singletary: “You know what? I’ll put it this way. I think if something like this is going to happen, happen now and not on national television. We’ve got between now and that time when we play Arizona to correct some things. And it’s not so much the play. It’s more the mindset and still having a chance to find out who wants to win, who really wants to win. Sometimes, you have guys that, it’s been so long that we’ve been unsuccessful, sometimes it’s like a bad relationship. You don’t know when it’s going to turn again. And after a while you become a part of the problem rather than the solution. I want guys that are solution-oriented, starting with myself. I’m not going to try to make something work when it doesn’t fit. And that’s really the bottom line with me.”

Q: Why did you take the quarterback out with 24 seconds left in the half as opposed to (after the half)?

Singletary: “Because Mike Martz said, ‘Mike, if we’re going to take him out, instead of waiting ’til the second half, why don’t we allow him to get in, get in a rhythm, get a feel for it, so that in the second half he gets that pressure off of him.”

Q: Is there anything specific that you can correct?

Singletary; “Got to look at the film. I was trying to keep up with it on the sidelines, and for a while I was. I think more so than anything else, we just have to look at the film. Right now, I don’t really want to talk about the things I want to correct. I know there are some things in the back of my mind.”

Q: So you do have a specific plan now?

Singletary: “In terms of what?”

Q: In terms of, because you have a bye week next week, so there has to be something that you really have to lay out. The defense is really (struggling). … There were too many fumbles in the beginning. It died down the whole crowd.

Singletary: “One thing I’ll say about that is this. I think sometimes when you have a loss like you had today. When I look at the defense. When you look at the pad that I had on the sideline, it says we got off the field a lot of times, particularly at the beginning. Then, all of a sudden, boom, they come out with a split backfield. One of the linebackers missed a guy underneath. FULLBACK, runs for a touchdown. It happens again. Quarterback scrambles around. Fullback, touchdown. You know what? We won’t play like that. We cannot play like that. I just talked to the player. He said, ‘Coach, I promise you it will never happen again.’ I know that. We will get it. We’ll deal with it.”

Q: Late in the first half, you had fourth-and-4, about a 47-yard field goal, decided to go for it instead and got a pick six. Why now go for the field goal at that point?

Singletary: “I turned to Mike and said, ‘Mike, what do you think.’ He said, ‘I’d like to go for it.’ Of course I knew he’d say I’d like to go for it.’ But, he said, ‘I’d like to go for it.’ I looked in his eyes and said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go.’ I don’t want to take anything … We’ve got our coordinators and they’re doing a good job. Greg (Manusky’s) over there, busting his tail, racking his brain, trying to find the right call. And sometimes it’s not the call, it’s the way it’s executed. Mike Martz, I’m very blessed to have him as a coordinator, a guy that you can turn to, been there, done that. And when he tells me, ‘Mike, I want to go for it,’ sometimes I’m going to say no. Probably most of the time. But at that time I felt, you know what, I want to support what he feels. So let’s go.”

Q: Were you at all influenced by the fourth-and-6 conversion by Seattle earlier?

Singletary: “Not at all. That had nothing to do with it.”

Q: What was your message in the locker room?

Singletary: “I’m going to say this, about that. I’m always been a firm believer, and it’s nothing like it was anything magical, and in all honesty you probably do not want to hear it. But, it was just sharing my heart with them. It’s as simple as that. I just believe that things that we talk about in the locker room should stay there.”

Q: Does Vernon Davis face any more disciplinary action?

Singletary: “I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about that right now.”

Q: Did you get a chance to talk to him after the game?

Singletary: “He wanted to talk, and I just told him he did not want to talk to me. I said, ‘I assure you, you do not want to talk to me right now.’ ”

Q: Was he arguing with you on the sideline?

Singletary: “He just said, ‘What? What?’ ”

Q: About being benched?

Singletary: “No, when he was coming off the sideline, he said, ‘Coach, what? What?’ ”

Q: When you first came in here, the first thing you said was I apologize. What specifically did you apologize for?

Singletary: “We did not play anywhere near to where I felt we could have played. And rather than going to the, ‘Well, this happened here, and that guy was outplayed,’ I’m not going there. I’m just going to apologize and … say, just keep watching. That’s all I can say. Just keep watching, and we’ll go from there.”

Warriors get one right by extending Nelson's contract

2008-10-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

I’m here at Candlestick Park, waiting for the 49ers-Seahawks game to begin, so I thought I’d use the time to weigh in on Warriors coach Don Nelson’s new two-year contract extension.

Of course I love it. I’ve ripped Warriors owner Chris Cohan and president Robert Rowell for pushing point guard Baron Davis out the door and killing a tentative three-year extension that lame duck executive vice president Chris Mullin had worked out. I criticized Rowell, in particular, for the way he took shots at Mullin in public over his call for leniency and forgiveness in the Monta Ellis moped affair. Rowell was very disrespectful to someone who has done so much for the Warriors as a player and executive.

But when it comes to Nelson’s extension, I’ve got to give Cohan and Rowell credit. I actually lobbied for the Warriors to do exactly that last year, to come to Nelson and offer him an extension before his contract became an issue again. It took them awhile to come around, but they finally reached the same conclusion.

It’s true that Nelson could get fed up and retire at any time during this and the following two seasons. But Nelson rarely walks away from money, and he told the Contra Costa Times’ Marcus Thompson II that he has had a change of heart and no longer pines for retirement in Maui. He said retirement is “not all it’s cracked up to be. So my philosophy has changed a little bit. I’ve lost some dear, dear friends over the last year. And the philosophy’s changed a little bit. Now I think I better bop ’til I drop.”

The Warriors have become so Nellie-dependent that the transition they’ll face when he does retire will be painful. But at least now the Warriors have bought themselves a little more time to prepare for that day when Nelson and his bag of small-ball tricks leave the Bay Area.

All in all, a good move for the Warriors and their fans.

Cal's Riley deserves another start after turnover-free day and win vs. UCLA

2008-10-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Cal’s revolving door at quarterback continued spinning Saturday, and no one, including coach Jeff Tedford, knows if or when it will ever stop before the season ends.

Kevin Riley returned to the starting lineup Saturday, throwing two touchdown passes in a penalty-fiilled 41-20 victory over UCLA that was uglier and closer than the score indicates.

In a span of roughly two months, Riley won the starting job out of training camp, lost it to Nate Longshore after four games and won it back after two games on the bench.

So will Riley start next week against Oregon?

“We’ll see,” Tedford said. “Same thing. Evaluate through the week.”

Tedford may need to see more, but I saw enough from Riley on Saturday to believe he deserves another start. And with just five games left for the 5-2 Bears, it might be a good time for a little stability at the quarterback position.

No, Riley wasn’t perfect against UCLA. He completed just 11 of 22 passes for 153 yards. He missed some wide-open receivers. Again. But as he’s done throughout most of the season, Riley made good decisions and avoided the type of killer interceptions that have plagued Longshore.

Not one of Riley’s 22 passes, in fact, was picked off Saturday. For the season, he’s been intercepted just twice in 150 passes while throwing nine touchdown passes.

On the flip side, UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft threw four interceptions Saturday, and Cal returned two of those for touchdowns. Ball game.

“We need to be better, still,” Tedford said when asked about Riley’s performance. “I think Kevin would tell you that, too. … But he was harassed a lot today in pass protection. That’s the worst that we’ve protected the passer all year.

“The thing about Kevin, though, is Kevin made good decisions. He didn’t turn the football over. The difference is they had four turnovers. We had zero. That’s a big part of the game, and Kevin didn’t turn the football over. Even though he was harassed in the pocket, he made good decisions, threw the ball away, ate the ball.”

Riley did more than just avoid mistakes. He also made a huge play in the fourth quarter, using his agility to avoid a UCLA defensive lineman then throwing a 53-yard touchdown pass to Nyan Boateng on a flea-flicker with 9:29 left to play.

First, let’s set the stage.

The Bruins trailed just 20-13 with over 10 minutes left to play. They faced third-and-23 from their 31. Time to punt? Nah. Coach Rick Neuheisel ordered a fake punt, and it almost worked.

Punter Aaron Perez connected with a wide-open Courtney Viney down the right sideline, but cornerback Chris Conte recovered just in time to tackle him one yard short of the first down.

Cal took over at its 47. And on first down, the Bears hit UCLA with a trick play of their own.

The play started with Riley handing off to Jahvid Best, who headed toward the line. But Best stopped, turned and pitched the ball back to Riley. The Bruins bit on the fake, and Boateng ran past safety Bret Lockett.

Riley stepped up in the pocket, avoiding a rusher, and threw a high-arching pass deep down the middle. Boateng caught it at the 3 and fell into the end zone, putting Cal ahead 27-13.

“Right when I (handed) the ball to Jahvid, the nose tackle saw me set up,” Riley said. “I saw that. I knew he was going to come at me. So I just tried to step up and get it off. It worked. We needed it.”

The Bears and their banged up offensive line will continue to face fierce pass rushes in the coming weeks, starting with Oregon and continuing against USC and Oregon State. The Bears will need Riley’s ability to avoid the rush and to run, whether by design or out of necessity, against those defenses. Against UCLA, he ran a handful of quarterback draws.

“I like running the ball,” Riley said. “It calms you down a little bit, too. You just get hit. You go, ‘Ah, sweet.’ You’re part of the game. It was fun. I wish we would have broke one.”

Riley came off the bench and replaced Longshore in the fourth quarter of Cal’s 42-27 loss to Arizona last week. He didn’t find out he was going to start against UCLA until Friday.

“It’s not the easiest thing, but it’s just something you have to deal with,” Riley said of the quarterback shuffle and uncertainty. “You can’t really worry about it. You’ve just got to go in, play your game, do your best and try to win.”

Lakers still look like the best in the West

2008-10-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

You want NBA predictions? I’ve got them. Well, at least for the Western Conference, where the Golden State Warriors have gone from legitimate playoff contenders to long shots after a tumultuous offseason.

Let’s just say there’s not much playoff fever in the Bay Area approaching the Warriors’ season opener Wednesday night at home against New Orleans. That’s understandable considering that the team let point guard Baron Davis leave as a free agent and lost guard Monta Ellis indefinitely to an ankle injury he suffered in a moped accident.

So how will the West’s 15 teams stack up when the season ends in April? Here’s my best guess. And hey, if you think I’m off base, send me your predictions. It’s always good to compare notes.

1) Los Angeles Lakers: The Lakers made it to the NBA Finals last season without injured center Andrew Bynum. Now Bynum is back, giving the Lakers a strong inside force to team with guard Kobe Bryant, the best player on the planet, and 7-foot power forward Pau Gasol. This is a deep, talented team, and it’s no secret that coach Phil Jackson knows how to get the most out of a talented lineup.

2) Houston: Last season the Rockets won 55 games then pushed Utah to the limit in the first round of the playoffs without an injured Yao Ming. Well, Yao is back, and the Rockets added the combustible but super-talented Ron Artest to a roster that includes lights-out shooter Tracy McGrady. Coach Rick Adelman’s team can score and defend. The question is, can the Rockets stay healthy? I’ll roll the dice and say yes.

3) Utah: What you saw last year when Utah reached the Western Conference semis is basically what you’ll get this year from the Jazz, which returns most of its roster intact. Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Ronnie Brewer and the rest of this very deep roster have another year of experience playing together in coach Jerry Sloan’s system. The biggest change this year is that C.J. Miles is expected to start at small forward with Andrei Kirilenko coming off the bench.

4) New Orleans: It’s only a matter of time before point guard Chris Paul wins an MVP award. He’s that good. Paul is all but unguardable. He either gets his shot or draws a double- or triple-team and dishes to either 7-1 center Tyson Chandler for a monster jam or to marksmen such as Peja Stojakovic or Morris Peterson for wide-open treys. The Hornets also added some experience in forward James Posey.

5) San Antonio: Yeah, the Spurs are getting old. Yeah, Manu Ginobili is injured and will miss the first two months of the season. I won’t bury this team until Tim Duncan retires. Last year, coming off an NBA title, this aging team made it to the conference finals. And we all know the Spurs never win back-to-back titles. History tells us this is there year to make another title run. The combination of Duncan, point guard Tony Parker and coach Gregg Popovich is enough to keep the Spurs afloat until Ginobili returns.

6) Phoenix: The Suns won’t be nearly as much fun to watch under new coach Terry Porter as they were under former coach Mike D’Antoni, who took his run-and-gun ways with him to the New York Knicks. But Porter, a more traditional coach, is probably better suited to lead a team that has 7-foot-1, 325-pound Shaquille O’Neal as its center. The Suns’ window of opportunity for an NBA title may have closed, but they still have Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw and Grant Hill, along with Shaq. Not bad at all.

7) Portland: Last year the up-and-coming Trail Blazer won 41 games even though center Greg Oden, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft, missed the entire season with a knee injury. Oden is healthy, and he’ll join a deep pool of young, talented players that Portland has collected, including All-Star guard Brandon Roy and power forward LaMarcus Aldridge. Oden should help put “Rip City” back on the NBA map again.

8) Dallas: I don’t think Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs ever truly recovered from their confidence-shattering playoff loss to the Warriors two seasons ago. Before that series, Dallas was considered to be one of the NBA’s elite teams, a true title contender. Now the franchise is in turmoil. The Mavs made a very questionable mid-season trade last year for aging point guard Jason Kidd then got bounced by New Orleans in the first round of the playoffs. After the season, Dallas fired coach Avery Johnson and hired Rick Carlisle.

9) Denver: The Nuggets slipped into the playoffs last year and were crushed 4-0 by the Lakers in the first round. This year, there’s little reason to believe Denver will even get the No. 8 spot. For some reason – money? – this defensively challenged team traded its best defender, Marcus Camby, to the Clippers. Superstars Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony will still put on an entertaining show, but the Nuggets’ defensive lapses might drive coach George Karl into retirement.

10) Los Angeles Clippers: With the addition of former Warriors point guard Baron Davis, the Clippers might push for the eighth playoff spot. Davis will be playing with a chip on his shoulder after the Warriors shoved him out the door. And he’ll be playing in front of his hometown fans, vying for attention in Lakers land. The Clippers lost Elton Brand and Corey Maggette but added Davis and Marcus Canby, who will team with Chris Kaman to give the Clippers a solid inside presence.

11) Golden State: Two years ago, the Warriors made the playoffs and stunned Dallas in the first round. Those will be considered the good old days for Warriors fans. They traded guard Jason Richardson to Charlotte in a 2007 draft-day deal. Now they’ve let point guard Baron Davis walk away as a free agent and lost guard Monta Ellis indefinitely to an ankle injury. Captain Stephen Jackson and free-agent pickup Corey Maggette will have to carry too much of the load. Then there’s the front-office turmoil. Executive V.P. Chris Mullin is a lame duck, and so is coach Don Nelson, who has a young team that might make retirement in Maui sound very inviting.

12) Memphis: The Grizzlies are still going to run and gun under ex-Suns assistant Marc Iavaroni, but they’ll also try to mix in a little more defense and toughness. The addition of 7-foot-1, 265-pound center Marc Gasol, brother of Lakers power forward Pau Gasol, should help. But with racehorses like Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, O.J. Mayo and Hakim Warrick on the floor, this team is going to run from start to finish.

13) Sacramento: The days of cowbells and playoffs are long gone for the Kings. This team is in full-blown rebuilding mode. Mike Bibby and Ron Artest are gone, leaving Kevin Martin as the undisputed star of a very young team. Coach Reggie Theus will have the Kings playing hard, but they’re not close to being a playoff team.

14) Minnesota: GM Kevin McHale got power forward Al Jefferson a little help, adding rookie Kevin Love and sharpshooter Mike Miller. Having a healthy Randy Foye to man the point guard position is a plus, too.

15) Oklahoma City: After moving this franchise from Seattle, a jewel of a city with a long NBA history, team owner Clay Bennett will get what he deserves. Kevin Durant is worth the price of admission, but this team is exceptionally young, raw and defensively challenged.

49ers make the right moves in firing Nolan and promoting Singletary

2008-10-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

I just heard that the 49ers reportedly fired coach Mike Nolan and replaced him with defensive coordinator Mike Singletary. So let’s get right to the gut reactions.

This was a good move, a necessary move by the 49ers. They should have fired Nolan after the disastrous 2007 season. Instead, John and Denise DeBartolo York let Nolan talk them into bringing him back. They stripped him of much of his front-office power and let him return as what could only be seen as a lame duck coach. For weeks, Nolan had that dead-man-coaching look. He knew what was coming.

Nolan was 2-5 this season and 18-37 in three-plus years with the 49ers. In the cutthroat NFL, getting 55 games qualifies as more than a fair chance. Granted, he took over one of the worst teams in the league, almost void of talent. So Nolan deserves credit for raising the level of talent on the team. But the results just haven’t followed.

During his tenure, Nolan made far too many strange game-day decisions. His handling of quarterback Alex Smith last season was a football crime. He publicly questioned Smith’s toughness when he was sidelined with an injury to his throwing shoulder. Smith responded by playing when he should have been letting his shoulder heal and wound up getting hurt even worse. Now, Smith’s very career is in jeopardy.

Nolan’s players didn’t quit on him. Just last week, running back Frank Gore said how much he liked Nolan and respected the job he’s done.

Even so, there was just something missing from Nolan, that intangible that great NFL coaches have. The great ones are either tactical wizards or charismatic leaders or, in rare cases, both. Unfortunately for Nolan, he was none of the above with the 49ers. Even the team’s defense – his area of expertise – took a huge and inexplicable step back this year.

Nolan was a solid NFL defensive coordinator who seemed in over his head as a head coach. He got the 49ers job largely because he played up his roots with the team as ex-coach Dick Nolan’s son and convinced the gullible John York he could fix the incredible mess that York had created. He somehow convinced York to give him power over almost all things 49er, on and off the field, even though he had never been a head coach before or held front-office power. As it turned out, Nolan was a better salesman than head coach.

I’ll give the 49ers credit for promoting Singletary, their assistant head coach. A few years ago, just before the Raiders hired Art Shell, I lobbied for them to hire Singletary. He definitely qualifies as a charismatic leader, a coach that players will follow. He has the Hall of Fame pedigree and a Super Bowl ring from his playing days with the Chicago Bears when television cameras loved to zero in on his perpetually wide-open eyes.

Some have questioned Singletary’s Xs and Os and point to the fact that he has never been a defensive coordinator. Get real. He’s a Hall of Fame linebacker now is in his sixth season as an NFL coach. Besides, Singletary has defensive coordinator Greg Manusky and offensive coordinator Mike Martz to call the plays. Singletary’s job is to motivate and lead, to make his players believe in themselves and raise their level of play.

Some will wonder why the 49ers didn’t promote Martz. Well, Martz already showed in St. Louis that he’s better offensive coordinator than head coach. Many of his game-day decisions regarding time outs and challenging calls were baffling. Besides, the 49ers need Martz to concentrate all of his efforts on coordinating their offense and tutoring struggling quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan.

There’s no guarantee that firing Nolan and promoting Singletary will save this from being another lost season for the 49ers. But in this case, changing coaches was far better than standing pat.

Raiders' Cable refuses to let history taint his first career win

2008-10-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

Don’t believe those so-called official NFL standings when you read that the Raiders are 2-4 after Sunday’s 16-13 win over Brett Favre and the New York Jets in overtime.

They’re 1-0. And Raiders interim coach Tom Cable is 1-0, not 1-1, since replacing the fired Lane Kiffin. Just ask him. Actually, Cable told us without prompting after Sunday’s win.

“Well, how ’bout that,” Cable said. “Let’s talk about the character of this football team before we talk about anything else, how hard they played, how long they played. We’re 1-0, and that is the goal of this team every Sunday, and we were able to go out and do that.”

The longer Cable lasts in this job, the more we learn about him. We now know that he loves coming up with themes – weekly and long-term – that he pounds into his players’ heads and repeats compulsively to the press.

This week Cable put his spin on taking them one game at a time.

During his seven-minute post-game press conference, Cable must have said the Raiders were 1-0 as often as John McCain says “my friends” in a stump speech.

“I think we made some strides,” Cable said. “We’re not going to worry about what went wrong or what we could have done better right now. We’ll worry about that tomorrow because we’re 1-0.”

A bit cheesy? Yeah. Think sharp cheddar. But coaches often resort to cheesy slogans and motivational ploys because, well, they often work.

Many of Cable’s players were parroting his “We’re One and Oh” line after the game.

“Bottom line, we got the win,” said Raiders cornerback DeAngelo Hall, who intercepted a Favre pass and helped hold him to 197 yards passing and zero touchdowns. “We won. It wasn’t pretty. One and oh.”

What’s important is the fact that Cable’s players are apparently buying almost everything he’s selling, not just the one week at a time mantra.

According to Hall, Cable met with the players on Monday and “called out” a wide assortment of Raiders to do more than they had been doing, to play up to their potential. He told his players to “challenge themselves” to make more plays and to practice and play harder.

“Tom’s been preaching his style of play, his attitude,” Hall said. “It’s rubbing off. We’re fired up. Guys bought into it.”

Cable’s attitude is straight blue collar, just what you’d expect from a beefy, no-nonsense offensive line coach. After the Raiders got crushed last week by the New Orleans Saints in Cable’s debut, it was crucial that they got some positive reinforcement Sunday. Another loss, and Cable’s players might have started tuning him out the way countless Raiders players have tuned out countless former coaches during tough times.

Under Kiffin, the Raiders suffered come-from-ahead losses to Buffalo and San Diego, blowing fourth-quarter leads both times. The Raiders let New York come back in the fourth quarter and force overtime, but they prevailed in overtime when Sebastian Janikowski hit a team-record 57-yard field goal.

“Relief, relief, relief,” Hall said of his reaction to Janikowski’s game-winner. “These wins are hard to come by. We let two slip out of our hands. This was huge. Just for the sake of Tom Cable’s success.”

Cable now has some evidence that his approach just might work.

“It’s a great win,” Raiders running back Justin Fargas said. “Guys are believing. It’s more than just a single win. It’s something we can look to down the road whenever we face adversity or tough times.

“We did need this. It was a test. We passed it. We’re 1-0.”

Must be true.

What else have we learned about Cable? Well, he’s making sure to embrace former Raiders greats and the team’s history, something Kiffin didn’t do, to Al Davis’ dismay.

On Saturday night, Cable had former Raiders Ken Stabler, Ray Chester and Phil Villapiano speak to his team. An overriding theme to their speeches, Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said, concerned digging deep and finding ways to win close games.

“We believe now,” Asomugha said. “I think we needed this to spark our success.”

Cable is demanding a lot from his players and coaches, but he’s also giving them plenty of praise and deflecting much of the blame. Again, Davis must be happy.

Asked about the Raiders’ penalty-fest in the first quarter – 7 for 40 yards – Cable blamed himself.

“That’s my fault,” Cable said. “I wanted them juiced and ready to rip someone’s lips off. That’s what it was. So that’s on me. At the same time, we have to have better attention to that detail. I’ll look at that tomorrow. Right now, I’m enjoying being 1-0.”

Late in the fourth quarter, Cable outsmarted himself when, with the Raiders leading 13-13, he called a late timeout, just before Jay Feely attempted a 52-yard field goal. Feely missed, his kick hitting the left upright. But thanks to Cable, he got a second chance. Of course he made that one.

Cable said he had second thoughts after channeling Mike Shanahan.

“Sure you do, but what do you do? I called it. And so you’ve got to live with it,” Cable said. “Yeah, I was kicking myself for a bit.”

Once overtime began, the Raiders went three-and-out twice before putting together the game-winning drive, with JaMarcus Russell hitting Javon Walker for 16 yards and Zach Miller for 38.

“We got a little conservative. And that’s my fault on offense,” Cable said, accepting more blame. “I said, ‘Look, let’s just go back and be balanced. Let’s go back and throw it and run it and mix it up. We did that and JaMarcus was marvelous and guys caught the football for him. Greg (Knapp) did a great job of calling that last segment. I’m just proud of those guys.”

If you couldn’t tell already, Cable is a so-called players’ coach, another quality Davis values highly.

Consider his decision to let Janikowski kick what turned out to be the longest field goal in Raiders history. Cable said that Janikowski told him he could make it if the Raiders drove to the Jets’ 40. They got to the 39, and Cable sent Janikowski onto the field.

“You’ve just got to believe in your players,” Cable said. “That’s really what that decision was all about.”

Cable made one other decision that pointed to his aggressiveness and fearlessness. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Raiders faced fourth-and-2 from their 27. The Jets had just marched 87 yards for a touchdown to tie it 10-10. Cable decided he needed to do something to reclaim the momentum and jumpstart his team.

So he ordered a fake punt, a play the Raiders have been practicing for two weeks. Up-back Jon Alston took a direct snap and raced 22 yards around right end for a first down, extending a drive that resulted in a 37-yard Janikowski field goal.

“I thought it was really a pivotal point in the game because it really juiced us back up,” Cable said. “It really put some life back in there. We were kind of teetering, you know, that gray area you don’t want to be in.”
Spoken like a coach who’s undefeated, at least for one week.

New Shark defenseman Boyle gets offensive vs. Flyers

2008-10-18T23:51:00.001-07:00

I got my first live look Saturday night at new Sharks coach Todd McLellan’s team when they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 in overtime at the Shark Tank.

My first impressions?

There’s no better place to start than with defenseman Dan Boyle. McLellan said he wanted his defenseman to be more offensive, and Boyle definitely got the message.

Boyle scored the game-winner, taking a pass from Joe Thornton and slamming it home past a helpless Antero Niittymaki for his first goal as a Shark. But that was just the exclamation point to Boyle’s game. Boyle, who came to the Sharks during an offseason trade with Tampa Bay, was seemingly everywhere at once, on both ends of the ice. He had two assists to go with his goal.

“I wanted to win bad,” Boyle said. “I just got involved offensively, and once again Joe made a great play. It was an open net. It was pretty easy.”

Maybe the finishing touch was easy. But Boyle put himself in position to take Thornton’s pass by aggressively crashing the net from the right side.

“That’s his game,” Sharks winger Jonathan Cheechoo said. "He goes 100 mph all the time. He’s so shifty and good with the puck, he usually gets in and creates some chances for us.”

Boyle helped create a great scoring chance for the Sharks after Philadelphia had taken a 4-3 lead on Daniel Briere’s second goal at 11:11 of the third period.

Boyle controlled the puck, weaved his way toward the goal then flicked a pass to his left to Jeremy Roenick who fired a shot. Devin Setoguchi, in the right place at the right time, banged the rebound home for the tying goal.

“I was coming down the flank, and the rebound came right on my stick,” Setoguchi said. “That’s the way Todd wants us to do it.”

What McLellan wants is for the Sharks to get bodies in front of the net and for his defenseman to lend a hand on offense.

Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff followed orders. He scored the Sharks’ first goal early in the second period, hammering home a long shot from the right side. It was his second goal of the young season.

Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Boyle earned assists on Jonathan Cheechoo’s second-period goal.

Ehrhoff got an assist on Boyle’s game-winner. He fired a hard shot that went wide of the net but bounced off the boards to Thornton, who maneuvered toward the middle then fed Boyle a perfect pass.

“I think for the most part this year we’ve jumped in the play when we’ve had to and we’ve gotten some chances,” Boyle said of the Sharks’ defensemen. “We just really haven’t put the puck in the net. We’re getting a lot of shots. It’s just a matter of getting the puck through.”

Boyle said he was even more aggressive than usual Saturday because he had yet to find the net.

“When you’re in a slump, I guess as far as scoring is concerned, you have to make something happen,” Boyle said. “You can’t just sit back and wait for it. Try to be smart about it, jump in when I could. I had tons of chances really. Wish I had more, but we’ll take one.”

“Nice to see him rewarded, first of all,” McLellan said of Boyle. “I think he’s been pressing as much as anybody on our team right now to produce some offense and finally got rewarded. He logged a lot of minutes the last two nights. Showed us that he has the stamina to do that. Very smart, intelligent player.”

Smart and fearless, as Boyle showed by going behind the Flyers’ net several times when the Sharks were battling back from behind.

“When you’re down by two you have to gamble a little bit,” McLellan said. “He’s playing with a pretty good partner right now. (Brad Lukowich) has the ability to stay back and cover for him. Again, making good decisions at the right time is real important. Danny makes them most of the time, and we want to see that continue.”

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When the Sharks hired McLellan, they expected him to put some power in their anemic power play. Whatever power play tactics he brought with him from the Detroit Red Wings haven’t quite taken hold.

Against the Flyers, San Jose was 1 for 7 on the power play, including one failed 5 on 3. The Sharks also gave up a short-handed goal to Jeff Carter when they got sucked in too close to the Flyers’ goal and got beat on a 2 on 1 break after a long deflection off the boards.

For the season, the Sharks are now 4 of 32 on the power play.

“I wasn’t as concerned tonight,” McLellan said of his team’s trouble scoring on the power play. “I was more concerned about the frustration. The guys did a pretty good job of moving it around. They have a very aggressive penalty kill. The frustration started to creep in after the 5 on 3, but we had a number of real good looks at the net. Sometimes the goal-tender is the best penalty killer, and he was tonight.”

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McLellan learns something new about his new team every game. What did he learn Saturday night?

“On the positive side that we’re resilient, we have a little bit of character,” he said. “We found a way to control our frustration when it was starting to show itself. On the negative side, I found we were a little impatient. We had control of a game. Even though we weren’t leading, we were still controlling it. Got impatient once we tied it. But it’s a satisfying night that we were able to dig in and come back.”

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Joe Pavelski tied the score 3-3 early in the third period, and an assist should go to Niittymaki.

Pavelski flipped a soft shot from near the blue line between two Flyers and toward Niittymaki and sprinted toward the net. The Flyers’ goalie tried to grab the puck with his glove but it somehow bounced out, directly to Pavelski, who buried the gift in the net.

Pavelski was fortunate, yes. But he was also rewarded for his hustle and for being clever enough to split two defenders with a shot and beat them to the goal.

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The Sharks didn’t have a single fight in their first four games. But if you were worried that they had gone soft, rest easy. Since those first four games, there hasn’t been a lot of peace and love on the ice.

The Sharks mixed it up with Anaheim on Friday night. And on Saturday night, the Sharks and Flyers acted as if there were bad blood between them, even though they met exactly one time last season, in February.

Midway through the first period, new Sharks defenseman Rob Blake introduced himself to Flyers center Mike Richards, who was making a dangerous rush toward the net and goalie Evegeni Nabokov.

Trailing Richards, Blake knocked him headfirst into the left post, sending his helmet flying and Richards sprawling on the ice.

Moments later, Steve Downie blasted Blake and a multi-player scrum ensued. Downie and Blake each headed to the penalty box for two minutes for roughing.

That was just the preliminary bout. The main attraction came late in the opening period when the Sharks’ Jody Shelley and Flyers’ Riley Cote started exchanging haymakers. Shelley, a 6-foot-3, 225 brawler, got the better of the 6-1, 210 Cote, knocking his helmet off and pulling his sweater over his head before they were separated.

Both players were hit with 5-minute penalties for fighting.

There was still time for one more free-for-all in the first period, touched off after Flyers’ defenseman Kimmo Timonen gave Boyle a shot to the back. When order was finally restored, three Flyers (Braydon Coburn, Scott Hartnell and Mike Richards) and two Sharks (Mike Grier and Boyle) headed to the penalty box for two-minute stays.

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Kudos to the NHL for making a major change in its scheduling and bumping up the number of interconference games this season. The Sharks played their first of 18 games against Eastern Conference teams Saturday night. For the past three years they played just 10 games against the East.

That was a joke. If you’re a hockey fan living in a Western Conference city, you shouldn’t have to wait years to get a chance to see Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby or Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin.

Both of those young superstars are coming to San Jose this season, Crosby on Oct. 28 and Ovechkin on Nov. 22.

You shouldn’t have to wait that long for a chance to see four members of the NHL’s original six – Boston, Toronto, Montreal and the N.Y. Rangers – that have such long, storied histories.

Sharks fans still won’t be guaranteed of seeing every team in the league in person every year. But the Sharks will play each Eastern Conference team at least once every year.

This year Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta, the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders are coming to the Shark Tank.

Sharks fans can tune in and watch their team play road play road games against Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Florida and Tampa Bay.

The Dec. 12 game vs. Toronto will be a homecoming for ex-Sharks coach Ron Wilson. That should be interesting.

Boyle and Lukowich will face their former Tampa Bay teammates twice, on Oct. 25 at Tampa and Jan. 13 in the San Jose.

In an 82-game schedule, the Sharks will still have more than enough chances to face their familiar Western Conference foes.

After two benchings, Cable's approach starting to come into clearer focus

2008-10-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

When the Raiders fired Lane Kiffin and promoted Tom Cable to the job of interim coach, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, would truly change. Well, other than the fact that Cable wouldn’t snipe at Al Davis the way Kiffin did, and he’d probably let JaMarcus Russell throw a few more passes.

This week I started getting a clearer picture of Cable’s coaching approach.

First, Cable benched free safety Michael Huff and replaced him with Hiram Eugene. Then, he benched wide receiver Ronald Curry and replaced him with rookie Chaz Schilens.

In both cases, Cable sent two very clear messages approaching Sunday’s home game against the New York Jets.

1) Cable demands aggressiveness out of his players. He praised Eugene for throwing “his body around in there.” He said he likes the way Schilens fights for the ball in traffic.

2) Cable values production over pedigree. Huff was the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft. Eugene was signed as an undrafted rookie in 2005 and spent most of his first two seasons on the practice squad. Curry is in his seventh season with the Raiders and started 13 games last year. Schilens is a seventh-round draft pick out of San Diego State.

Good for Cable. He needed to shake things up and let his starters know that their jobs weren’t guaranteed. Huff has been blowing coverages and missing tackles. He deserved to be benched. Curry had just six catches for 61 yards and on touchdown in five games. It was well past time to give someone else a shot.

As the Raiders’ offensive line coach, Cable set the bar extremely high for his players. Now, apparently, that bar applies to the entire team.

Will that change translate into more wins? Who knows? Cable’s a coach, not a miracle worker. But you can bet that Cable has his players’ attention. That can only help.

An upsetting start to NFL season

2008-10-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

If you’re a tunnel-visioned fan and only keep track of the Raiders or 49ers, you wouldn’t know that this has already been a crazy, unpredictable NFL season, one that makes you glad you don’t try to make a living by gambling on football.

The Raiders and 49ers keep losing to the teams they’re supposed to lose to and beating the few teams they’re supposed to beat. The only “upset” came in Week 2 when the 49ers beat Seattle 33-30, but the Seahawks were decimated at wide receiver and have struggled most of the season. So that wasn’t exactly a stunner. Their other win was against the awful Lions, while the Raiders’ one victory came against the woeful Chiefs.

Isn’t it nice to know we can count on something in the Bay Area?

As for the rest of the league, you never know what’s going to happen. After only six weeks, I’ve already got a pretty impressive list of Top 10 Upsets. Here they are, starting with the biggest:

1) Miami 38, New England 13 (Week 3): Yeah, I know Patriots QB Tom Brady is out, and New England isn’t what it used to be. But come on. The Pats hadn’t lost a regular-season game since the days of leather helmets, and the Dolphins were coming off a one-win season. What made this upset even more stunning was the way the Dolphins embarrassed New England -- in Foxboro, no less -- with a scheme that featured direct snaps to Ronnie Brown. The Pats were clueless and helpless.

2) Cleveland 35, New York Giants 14 (Week 6): Who saw this butt-kicking coming? Unbelievable. The Browns’ offense finally woke up and realized the season had started. QB Derek Anderson and WR Braylon Edwards remembered how to play catch. The Giants were undefeated going into this game and had won 11 straight road games, counting a 3-0 postseason run leading up to the Super Bowl last year. Well, that streak is dead. Eli Manning was intercepted three times in a thoroughly ugly loss.

3) Kansas City 33, Denver 19 (Week 4): Until this game, I had a feeling that the Chiefs might run the table the wrong way. Their offense was that bad. The Broncos, meanwhile had been putting up some ridiculous numbers on offense. This looked like a rout in the making. That was before Chiefs running back Larry Johnson gave Denver a blast from his not-so-distant past and ran for 198 yards.

4) St. Louis 19, Washington 17 (Week 6): For one of the rare times, firing the coach got immediate results. The Rams dumped Scott Linehan, and the fiery Jim Haslett, his replacement, won his debut. It was the Rams’ first win, and it came against a red-hot Redskins team that had won four straight. St. Louis forced three turnovers, all fumbles, from a Washington offense that hadn’t had a single turnover. Yeah, just as we expected.

5) Arizona 30, Dallas 24 (Week 6): There’s a little more elbow room on the Cowboys’ Super Bowl express after this loss – and the loss of QB Tony Romo to a broken pinkie on his throwing hand. Granted, the Cardinals play better at home. But this is a team that lost 56-35 to the New York Jets, giving up six touchdown passes to Brett Favre. How ’bout them Cowboys.

6) Atlanta 27, Green Bay 24 (Week 5): Atlanta imploded last season and won all of four games. Who’d a thunk the Falcons would go to Lambeau Field this year with rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and beat the Packers? Not me. Of course it helps the Falcons’ cause to have ex-Charger backup RB Michael Turner on their side this year. He rushed for 121 yards against the Pack.

7) Atlanta 22, Chicago 20 (Week 6): The Falcons may well have won their way out of underdog status for the rest of the year. The Bears’ dared Ryan to beat them through the air, and that’s exactly what he did, throwing for 301 yards, 112 of those to WR Roddy White, who’s having a career year.

8) Miami 17, San Diego 10 (Week 5): Maybe I shouldn’t have been that surprised at this outcome. Just as they did last year, the Chargers dug themselves an early hole and are now trying to fight their way out. These aren’t your one-win Dolphins of one-and-done coach Cam Cameron. New coach Tony Sparano and executive V.P. Bill Parcells built a much tougher and better team. But still. Come on. The Chargers should have won this game.

9) Washington 26, Dallas 24 (Week 4): The Cowboys had won 11 of the past 12 games against Washington at Texas Stadium. They were 3-0 and talking big. Oops. Redskins RB Clinton Portis went off for 121 yards, and Santana Moss killed the Cowboys with 145 receiving yards. In a way, this was Washington’s coming out party.

10) Carolina 26, San Diego 24 (Week 1): Right out of the shoot, we got our first upset. The Chargers had all the Super Bowl hype after nearly getting to the final game last season. Carolina was coming off a .500 season, and QB Jake Delhomme was coming off of “Tommy John” surgery on his throwing elbow. Then there was this: the Panthers were missing WR Steve Smith, suspended for punching teammate Ken Lucas in the face. I’d call this an upset.

Some fishy business going on with the Warriors

2008-10-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

As Randy Moss might put it, something “fishy” is going on in the Warriors’ front office, specifically with the relationship between executive vice president Chris Mullin and his bosses, team president Robert Rowell and owner Chris Cohan.

Mullin is in the final year of his contract. He’s a lame duck. But there have been no discussions about a contract extension and no talks have been scheduled.

Fishy? Yeah, I think smell some bad salmon.

When Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury asked Rowell if Mullin had done a good job, he said: “I think he’s done a lot of things for us over the last several years that have helped the organization, yeah.”

Boy, that’s a ringing endorsement. Praise of the highest order.

Get a whiff of that rotting carp.

That alone is enough to make you think Mullin is on his way out after this season. But there’s also this red flag: Cohan and Rowell reportedly vetoed a tentative three-year, $39 contract extension that Mullin had reached with point guard Baron Davis.

Davis would have been locked up with the Warriors though the 2011-12 season. Instead, he opted out of his contract and signed with the Los Angeles Clippers. No big deal, you say? I guess not if you think it’s no big deal for the Warriors to lose their best player, someone that coach Don Nelson and captain Stephen Jackson said is “impossible” to replace.

Not only is Mullin a lame duck. But now higher ups in the organization with zero NBA player-personnel knowledge are questioning his judgment and nixing his plans.

Week-old tuna, anyone?

Want more? OK, how about the whole Monta Ellis moped-gate affair. Rowell and Cohan suspended Ellis 30 games for violating his contract by riding a moped when he suffered a serious ankle injury. Ellis will lose about $3 million.

Here’s the rub. During a news conference, Rowell ripped Mullin for not taking Ellis’ transgressions seriously enough.

Rowell said that “Chris Mullin made it perfectly clear to both Mr. Cohan and myself that he didn’t think this was a big deal at the beginning. And we happen to think it’s a very big deal.

“We happen to think that it’s a big deal for our fans, it’s a big deal for our season ticket-holders, it’s a big deal for our business partners, it’s a big deal for the Warriors organization.”

Ouch. That had to hurt. Of course neither Rowell nor Cohan have Mullin’s perspective as a former player who made mistakes but used them as the catalyst to become a star. Mullin credits Nelson, his former coach, with saving his life by making him get help for an alcohol problem.

No doubt Mullin felt Ellis had suffered plenty with his injury, surgery and public humiliation. He no doubt figured Ellis had learned his lesson without a $3 million hit and that the best course of action for the organization would be to support him and encourage him to become more serious about his profession and the way he takes care of his body. That’s exactly what Mullin did after going through rehab.

So yeah, there appears to be a serious disconnect between Mullin and his bosses. When it comes to the way the Warriors have dealt with Baron and Monta, I think they should have listened to Mullin.

Very fishy, indeed.

This crystal ball sees four wins in Cable's future

2008-10-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I posted a poll asking readers to predict the number of regular-season games interim Raiders coach Tom Cable would win this season. The choices are 0 to 2, 3 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12.

I don’t vote in the polls I post, but here’s my prediction: Cable will go 4-8. Some will call me overly optimistic. Others will call me a Raiders hater. We'll see.

Now for the game-by-game breakdown:

Oct. 12, at New Orleans: The Raiders don’t have enough offensive firepower to keep up with Saints QB Drew Brees, especially on the road. This would be a tough assignment for Tom Landry, let alone Tom Cable. Prediction: Saints 27, Raiders 14

Oct. 19, vs. N.Y. Jets: Remember that Monday night game a few years ago when Brett Favre, then playing the Packers, torched the Raiders at the Coliseum just a day or so after the death of his father? If you saw that performance, you’d be nuts to pick against Favre this time, even if he is playing for a new team. Cornerback DeAngelo Hall could be in for a long day. Prediction: Jets 24, Raiders 21

Oct. 26, at Baltimore: Oakland’s defense can’t wait for this game. The Raiders should have their way with Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco and get Cable his first NFL victory. Prediction: Raiders 20, Ravens 14

Nov. 2, vs. Atlanta: Another week, another rookie quarterback on the other side, this time Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. Cable should win back-to-back games for the first time. Prediction: Raiders 24, Falcons 21

Nov. 9, vs. Carolina: Panthers coach John Fox, a former Raiders defensive coordinator, has his team playing well on both sides of the ball. Panthers QB Jake Delhomme and WR Steve Smith could have a big day. Prediction: Panthers 24, Raiders 20

Nov. 16, at Miami: Last year the Raiders steamrolled the Dolphins 35-17 in Miami, rolling up huge running numbers. These aren’t you’re 2007 Dolphins. New executive VP Bill Parcells and coach Tony Sparano have quickly built a tougher, better team. Prediction: Dolphins 23, Raiders 20

Nov. 23, at Denver: Broncos coach Mike Shanahan keeps making Al Davis pay for canning him in 1989. Prediction: Broncos 28, Raiders 21

Nov. 30, vs. Kansas City: The Raiders already beat the Chiefs in Kansas City. They’ll double their fun against one of the NFL’s worst teams. Prediction: Raiders 30, Chiefs 17

Dec. 4, at San Diego: The Raiders have lost 10 straight times to San Diego, including a 28-18 setback earlier this season at the Coliseum to former coach Norv Turner. This streak has to end sometime, just not this year. Predictions: Chargers 30, Raiders 20

Dec. 21, vs. Houston: The Texans beat the Raiders last year in Oakland, 24-17. This time the Raiders will even the score against this underachieving bunch. Prediction: Raiders 24, Texans 17

Dec. 28, at Tampa Bay: The Raiders will face yet another former coach, this time Jon Gruden. Gruden is 1-1 against the Raiders, but that one win was huge, a 48-21 victory in Super Bowl XXXVII. Winning so far from home at the end of another lost season will be a nearly impossible task for Cable’s team. Prediction: Bucs 20, Raiders 14

Leaving a comment just got easier

2008-10-07T00:46:00.000-07:00

If you've visited this site before and tried to leave a comment, you know it was a pain in the back side. There were far too many hoops to jump though. Well, I tweaked the comments section, and now you can leave a comment without having to register, lose your anonymity or jump through a single hoop.

I hope this helps.

E.G.

Sure-handed Cunningham grabs a big role in Cal's offfense

2008-10-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

(I've posted my article about Cal wide receiver LaReylle Cunningham that appeared in the Bears' football program for Saturday's game against Arizona State. Cunningham used his sure hands Saturday to catch three passes for 42 yards, including a sweet 19-yard score where he had to go low to grab Nate Longshore's toss. He now has 14 catches for a team-high 223 yards. He ranks first among receivers in catches and is tied for third overall, one behind tight end Cameron Morrah and running back Shane Vereen, the co-leaders.)

Former Cal quarterback Troy Taylor’s eyes are naturally drawn to any wide receiver who catches passes as if his hands were covered with Stickum.

Taylor said he spotted LaReylle Cunningham’s sure hands the first time he watched him during a training camp practice in 2005.

“I saw him catch the ball and was like, ‘Who’s that guy?’ ” said Taylor, Cal’s football radio analyst.

That guy, Taylor found out, was a walk-on from Fairfield’s Vanden High School. He came to Cal with no guarantee of ever seeing the field in a game. But those good hands helped Cunningham grab a spot on the team, earn a football scholarship last spring and win a starting job this fall as a redshirt senior.

“I’ve always had the ability to catch the ball wherever it’s thrown,” said Cunningham. “I guess it was just natural.”

Cunningham had a breakout game against Maryland three weeks ago, catching seven passes for 138 yards, both career highs. But for most of Cunningham’s career at Cal, he’s been relegated to putting on pass-catching clinics in practice. He red-shirted in 2004 then was stuck behind the talented DeSean Jackson, Lavelle Hawkins and Robert Jordan for most of the past three seasons.

The one exception came on Oct. 22, 2005, when injuries struck Cal’s receiver corps and Cunningham took center stage as an emergency starter. Cunningham caught five passes for 112 yards in a 42-38 victory over Washington State that night at Memorial Stadium. His 57-yard touchdown catch keyed Cal’s comeback win.

The next week against Oregon, however, Cunningham was back on the bench.

“If anything, it made me hungrier,” Cunningham said of his first career start.
“It made me more motivated to keep working hard, (knowing) that my number can be called at any time, and when it is, I’ll be there to make plays and do what I came to do. If my role is a backup, then I’ll just do the best I can being a backup.”

Cunningham said he had no “set in stone” football scholarship offers from any college coming out of high school. That made his decision to walk on at Cal easy.
“I just kind of had my mind set on Cal,” Cunningham said. “My mother (Adrienne Cunningham) really wanted me to come here to Cal because it’s a great university. I was able to get in through academics. It all worked out good.
“I was taught well. Always, school (came) first. Thanks to my mother. She sent me on the right path.”

Now he’s taking the final class he needs to graduate with a degree in sociology.
On the football field, Cunningham caught just 10 nine passes for 155 yards and one touchdown during his first three seasons after red-shirting.

Even so, Cal coach Jeff Tedford thought so much of Cunningham that he awarded him a scholarship last spring. With Jackson, Hawkins and Jordan no longer blocking his path, Cunningham moved up the depth chart by catching everything that came his way in spring practice and training camp.

“They’re ridiculous,” Cal linebacker Worrell Williams said of Cunningham’s hands. “If it’s in his vicinity, he’s going to catch it.”
Best hands on the team?

“Oh yeah,” Williams said. “Hands down.”

Cunningham isn’t a speed “burner,” Taylor said, but he has tremendous hand-eye coordination, body control and timing.

“He has obviously had one of the better pairs of hands on the team since he’s gotten here,” Taylor said. “Just real consistent, real smooth.”

Cunningham said he also has a knack for getting open.

“I’m good at getting my body in position to catch the ball,” Cunningham said. "I’m good at getting separation, enough needed to get the ball caught. I’m really good at body position. My routes are decent, too.”

When he played for the Bears, Hawkins liked to work over the middle, while Jackson was most dangerous on deep routes. What’s Cunningham’s preference?

“I like to work the middle, side, top, bottom,” he said. “Anywhere. Wherever the ball is, I like to work it.”

Cunningham said his favorite route is the “fade” in the end zone, where he’s able to “go up top and get it.”

“Or the post (route),” he added. “Anything, really. I just like the ball.”

As you can sense, spending the previous four years without consistently getting his hands on the football has been tough for Cunningham. But he’s persisted and persevered.

“I’ve been here a long time,” Cunningham said. “I’ve definitely been through a lot. It’s been a grind, mentally and physically. Everything’s fine. Everything turned out the way it should be. So I’m happy. I’m fortunate and blessed.”

A peak inside Patriots Nation

2008-10-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

I spent Sunday at Candlestick Park covering a winning NFL team. Of course I was doing a freelance job for the Boston Herald and writing a sidebar about New England Patriots running back Kevin Faulk -- not the 49ers.

Faulk hadn't run for a touchdown since 2006, but he rushed for two against the 49ers. It was that kind of day for the home team. Faulk seemed like a class act, a team-first type of player. He caught the 49ers napping when he took a direct snap and scored a crucial touchdown in the third quarter on a 2-yard run.

After spending decades sitting in football press boxes where I was surrounded by beat writers and columnists from the Bay Area, it seemed odd being smack in the middle of Patriots Writers Nation. It kind of reminded me of the 49ers' press corps near the end of the team's dynasty. Let's just say the standards are extremely high after so many Super Bowl seasons. Understandably so.

Here's the link to my story in the Herald.http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view/2008_10_06_Kevin_Faulk_just_rushes_to_judgment/srvc=pats&position=3

The Patriots are going to practice most of this week at San Jose State before heading to San Diego for a game against the Chargers. No wonder they rallied to beat the 49ers 30-21. The fear of losing back-to-back games then being stuck in the same hotel for a week with Bill Belichick, their warm and fuzzy coach, was more than enough motivation.

Defense a big hit in Cal's victory over Arizona State

2008-10-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

That sound you heard Saturday afternoon from Memorial Stadium was Cal linebacker Zack Follett hitting Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter at 100 mph midway through the fourth quarter, separating him from the ball and, most likely, his senses.

It was a huge hit. A violent hit. It was a great defensive play on a day in which Cal’s defense made big plays seem commonplace. And if you’re looking for a signature moment in Cal’s 24-14 victory, Follett’s payback sack has my vote.

Follett had been waiting nearly a year for another shot at Carpenter after last October’s 31-20 loss to ASU in Tempe.

“That felt good, man,” Follett said. “That was a long hit coming since last year. Last year he kind of got in my ear a little bit, talking a little trash. A long hit coming. A year of frustration was let out on that play.”

Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan saw the play unfold just a few feet yards in front of him.

“I had an (offensive) tackle, and I had him stood up, ready to pull him,” Jordan said. “I saw Zack make contact, and I literally might have stopped playing and watched. I told the offensive lineman, ‘Your quarterback just died.’ ”

No, not literally. But Carpenter did leave the locker room on crutches and with a foot in a boot after the game. Follett’s sack and forced fumble forced the Sun Devils to punt and helped kill their comeback bid.

Quarterback Nate Longshore, starting for the first time this season after losing his job to Kevin Riley, deserves some credit for Saturday’s win. He completed 17 of 28 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.

Running back Shane Vereen, starting for the injured Jahvid Best, did his part, rushing for 98 hard-fought yards and catching five passes for 51 yards. LaReylle Cunningham, Cameron Morrah and Nyan Boateng each caught a touchdown pass.

But if you want to pass out game balls, you might want to hand a dozen or so to the defense. The Bears held ASU to 71 net yards rushing and 2.2 yards per carry. They sacked Carpenter three times, Jordan notching two. They picked him off twice -- Chris Conte got one and red-shirt freshman Sean Cattouse the other – and broke up countless other passes. Cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, as usual, played out of his mind.

Carpenter completed 20 of 35 passes for just 165 yards. Of course it’s hard to complete passes when you’re running for your life, trying to escape, Follett, Jordan, Tyson Alualu and a cast of thousands.

“Our biggest goal going into the game was stopping the run,” Follett said. “Even though they have a great passing attack, they came off their bye week saying how they were going to be more physical, they were going to run the ball. That was our first priority, and at home we usually take care of the run. So we came out of there fired up.

“As far as taking care of the pass, I’ve got to give credit to the ‘D’ line and to the pressure (defensive coordinator Bob) Gregory called. That’s what I think took care of the pass. Then after getting pressure on them, the (defensive backs) made plays. It was great defensive play all around.”

The longer the season goes, the better handle Cal’s defense seems to get on its new 3-4 base scheme, which allows the Bears to keep four linebackers – a team strength – on the field. Last year their base defense was the 4-3.

“The 3-4 did amazing,” Jordan said. “It gives us one less ‘D’ lineman, but it seems to put more pressure on than last year.”

Cal’s defense had four sacks and three interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, in a 42-7 victory over Colorado State two weeks ago. So Saturday’s game makes it back-to-back dominant defensive performances by the Bears.

“People are telling us this is the best they’ve seen the defense play so far,” Follett said. “The defense is going to get better as it gets more comfortable in it and starts knowing our strengths and what we can do and gets a little more experience. Because we’re still a little young.”

Cal needed its defense to step up, especially in the second half. That’s when the Bears’ offense scored just seven points and repeatedly stalled, giving ASU chance after chance to get back into the game. Longshore was 14 of 22 for 159 yards and two scores in the first half. In the second, he completed 3 of just 6 passes for 39 yards and one touchdown. Vereen had 111 of his 149 combined yards rushing and receiving in the first half.

“As an offense, we need to do better,” Longshore said. “It’s always nice to win. But in order for us to continue to have success, I have to do better.”

“The defense played hard all day for us,” Vereen said. “They’re a big reason why we were able to win this game. They picked us up.”

Longshore was right. Cal’s offense will need to play better, especially in back-to-back-to-back games against Oregon (Nov. 1) at home then USC (Nov. 8) and Oregon State (Nov. 15) on the road.

Arizona State was picked to finish second in the Pac-10. But the Sun Devils, who have now lost three straight games to UNLV, Georgia and Cal, were clearly overrated entering the season. And Colorado State offered little opposition to the Bears. Tougher tests are coming, and Cal will need more help from its offense.

Longshore played well enough to keep the starting job for at least another week. Cal coach Jeff Tedford said Longshore would “probably” start against Arizona on Oct. 18 after Cal’s this coming week’s bye. “We’ll talk about it.”

Tedford bristled when asked whether he may have created a quarterback controversy by benching Riley, who went 3-1 as a starter, for Longshore, who struggled last year down the stretch when Cal’s season imploded.

“You guys create the controversy,” Tedford said. “I don’t create the controversy. We just put in who we think is going to give us the best chance to win. I’m not saying it can’t be Kevin. I’m saying there are certain things we watch and evaluate, and we’ll make decisions. We’ll evaluate this game and we’ll look to see what Nate could have done better and what Kevin would have done differently.

“I’ve said it many times. It may take both those guys to get where we need to go. … Both those guys support each other. They’re completely fine. … There is no lock on the quarterback position. We may play both of them.”

Tedford said he made the quarterback switch Saturday in an effort to get a faster start.

“I felt we’d been starting a little bit slow, so I wanted to switch roles a little bit and let Nate have an opportunity to start the game. For all of our games, we haven’t started real fast offensively. We’ve had big runs, but we’ve missed some plays in the passing game. So I wanted to change it up a little bit and see if we could create a spark.”

Longshore certainly helped Cal get off to a faster start Saturday. But it was Cal’s defense that played the role of closer.

“To tell you the truth, I like that,” Follett said. “I hate to see the offense stall, but that’s more opportunity for us on the field. The day we were having today, that was nothing but fun. We were having a lot of fun. I was like, ‘If we go three and out, oh well, we’ll go back out and get a sack or an interception.’ That’s how the day was for us. It was a fun game.”

A day filled with big hits and big plays by Cal’s defense.

For Cal wide receiver Sean Young, it's better late than never

2008-10-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

(I’ve posted my story below about Cal wide receiver Sean Young that ran in the Bears’ game-day program last week when they played Colorado State. After a fast start, Young’s numbers have dropped quite a bit, but his story is still compelling. You’ve got to admire someone who didn’t give up after five frustrating seasons and two major surgeries. So in case you didn't go to the game or didn't buy a program, here's the story.)
---

You couldn’t have blamed Cal wide receiver Sean Young if he had walked away from football after the 2007 season and moved on with his life, far away from the frustration, disappointment and pain of his career.

In five years at Cal, Young had undergone two major surgeries – one on each of his big toes – and caught just three passes. He had spent countless hours in rehab or on the bench and only a few minutes on the field.

So when he had to decide whether to petition the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility – a solid proposition considering his medical history – Young had serious reservations.

“I knew coming back in I was going to be at the bottom of the depth chart, where I’d been the whole time,” Young said. “I was still recovering from an injury.”

Young said he was leaning heavily against petitioning the NCAA. Then some advice from his father, Henry Young, hit home.

“I think he was just really discouraged,” Henry Young said. “I said, ‘You never want to walk away from something and say I wish I would have.’ ”

Young not only came back for his sixth year at Cal, but he also won a starting job. And in his first career start he caught four passes for 81 yards in the Bears’ 38-31 win against Michigan State.

“The whole week, I couldn’t think of anything but this game,” said Young, whose brother, Eddie, is a starting outside linebacker for Cal. “I was having dreams and waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about making plays.

“I was nervous the first portion I got in, and I just started easing up and everything just felt like practice. I was able to make plays. It felt great. It felt awesome.”

So did catching his first career touchdown pass in a victory over Washington State, a 14-yarder from Kevin Riley. For the season he has eight catches for 112 yards.

If you ever doubted that good things come to those that wait, Young might convince you otherwise. He’s been at Cal for so long that his teammates call him “Grandpa.”

“I know one comment a lot of guys make to me is, ‘Sean, you know, I was in middle school when you were in college,’ ” said Young, who turns 24 in December. “Everyone teases me, but it’s nice being the older one. A lot of people look up to me, and I can kind of mentor guys.”

When Young came to Cal in 2003, he was a highly touted receiver from Berkeley High School. But in his first training camp he was tackled from behind, ripping the ligaments in his right big toe and breaking a small bone.

“I must have seen about 10 different foot specialists,” Young said. “Over half of them said they couldn’t perform the surgery. They said if I did get the surgery there was the possibility I would never be able to play football again or run.”

Young finally found a doctor who performed successful surgery in January of 2004. But he missed spring practice and faced a long, arduous rehab program. What’s more, by 2005 he was looking up on the depth chart at DeSean Jackson, Lavelle Hawkins and Robert Jordan, among others.

When the 2007 season began, Young was still buried on the depth chart, but at least his body was healthy. That is until Cal’s third game when he caught a 19-yard pass against Louisiana Tech, was tackled from behind and suffered the same injury on his other big toe.

More surgery. More rehab. More pain.

After all that Young had been through, Cal coach Jeff Tedford said he was surprised to learn he wanted to come back.

“Because he’s really had some pretty poor luck here,” Tedford said. “He’s been injured ever since he’s been here. I think he saw or he recognized at least there would be an opportunity for him to be a strong contributor.”

With Jackson, Hawkins and Jordan no longer blocking his path and with his body healthy again, Young moved up the depth chart.

“I’m so happy to see Sean Young go out there and finally get his chance,” Cal linebacker Zack Follett said.

Henry Young said that when he watches Sean play now, he can tell that for the first time since coming to Cal his son is “in that zone” again where he believes he can catch everything.

“It felt great to see him there, see him experience that feeling again,” Henry Young said. “That in itself will be a lifetime memory for him.”

Strangeness of the Raiders, Part II

2008-09-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here’s the transcript from the second part of Al Davis’ news conference Tuesday, featuring the introduction of interim Raiders coach Tom Cable:

Al Davis: “Ladies and gentleman, this is Tom Cable, the new interim head coach of the Raiders. He’s been our offensive line coach for the Raiders, last year, first year, this year, and has a tremendous record as a coordinator and an offensive line coach at Atlanta. I think he was No. 1 rushing team in the league in Atlanta. At UCLA he really developed some outstanding Pac-10 teams as a coordinator. ... He can tell you about himself, tell you about our team, and I think he’ll do great. I know it’s tough on you listening to me saying someone’s going to do great, but I’ve watched him now, I didn’t him until last year when he came to us. I’ve watched him operate with the offensive line. I think anyone will tell you that if they’ve watched our offensive line work, he knows what he’s doing, schematic, he’s very good, trying to sell him on some things to do, but it’s tough with them today, the young ones. I’ll just introduce you to Tom Cable, and I’m proud to say that he’s an Oakland Raider head coach.”

Tom Cable: “Thank you all for coming. The first thing I want to say is this is in many ways a strange day, obviously. I have a friend who’s lost a job. It’s difficult in this business, but as we know this is a business. It’s time for us to move forward. It’s time for us to put the past behind us, what’s gone on up to this point, and that’s what we’ll do. We have a good coaching staff here. We’ve got a good football team here. Make no mistake about it, this is a good football team. There’s a process you go through as you learn how to achieve and succeed in this game, and we’re on that process. We’re right in the middle of it. That won’t change. As we move forward, we’ll sit down with the staff here shortly after this press conference and we’ll have some discussions. Probably a lot of questions you might have will be handled in those meetings. We’re going to move forward and we’re going to take this football team where it needs to go.”

Q: With Tom doing such a good job with the offensive line, are you concerned it will affect their play with him being the head coach?

Cable: “No, that won’t happen. That ain’t going to change. I’ll coach the line. That’s what I do. That’s what I am. Those guys in that group, I’m always very familiar and most familiar with in that group. And there’s a bond there, there’s a bond that won’t be broken and can’t be broken. We will move forward with that happening every day, when we go to work, do what we do. At the same time, we’re going to bring that work, and that commitment and that bond to the rest of this football team as the head coach now, and that’s really what this amounts to. There’s no reason to make any changes that way. This is a good coaching staff, we’ve got people in the right place, we’ve got good players, and the bottom line it’s up to us to go win football games because at the end of the day, that’s all this is about. This is a good football team.”

Davis: “I was concerned about it. I really was, but he knows how to sell, and he knows how to talk, and he’s very strong, very forceful, and I think it can be done. It has been done in the past, and I think if anyone can do it, he can do it. But I thought that this team needed him.”

Q: Will Greg Knapp call plays?

Cable: “Yes, Greg is going to call the plays. Greg and I will work side-by-side . I had the fortune of being with Greg in Atlanta in this system. We’re very familiar with each other. He’s very good at what he does. So there’s no issue there. I will have final say in how we do it, how we game plan, how we’re going to get after you, how we’re going to attack you, how we’re going to manage the game. But as the game goes in terms of his role in play calling, the right decision right now, is for Greg to do that and I’m very confident in him doing that well.”

Q: How difficult were the last three weeks?

Cable: “You know what you can control in this game? You can control how hard you work. You can control what kind of plan you give players to succeed. You can control how hard you play on Sunday. You can control, you can look around the room at the guys that are in there with you, whether it’s on offense or special teams, and you can look in their eyes and you can control, I got your back today, I’m going to play for you today. That’s what you can control. All that other stuff, it really doesn’t have a place in this game, it doesn’t have a place in what I believe and what I think of this organization, this organization is a championship organization, it’s been that way, there’s tradition, there’s history here. I grew up a Raider. I grew up loving this team from the time I was a little boy. So to me, you go out and you do your best. You don’t worry about all the other stuff. On every Sunday, you get back on a plane, you go back in the locker room, and you’re 1-0, then you did what you’re supposed to do.”

Q: Why will this team be better with you than with Kiffin, and with the title of interim coach, does that mean you’re a short-timer?

Cable: “No, it means to me I’ve been given a great responsibility. I’m thankful to Mr. Davis for this opportunity. What it means is this, we’ve got 12 games to play, starting in New Orleans, and all we’re going to do is go out and play each one as if it’s the most important thing on that day and try to be 1-0. You can’t address it or you can’t approach it any other way. I don’t think there’s any other way to do it. You’ve got to believe in who you are and what you do and the people around you. I have great conviction that way, and I feel good that we’ll go out and do what we need to do. It’s not up to me to worry about those kinds of things. What it’s up to me to worry about is tomorrow. It’s practice, tomorrow, and that game a week from Sunday in New Orleans. If I worry about those other things, I’m cheating every guy on this team and I’m not going to do that.”

Q: And why do you think you’ll do better than Lane Kiffin?

Cable: “Well, the way that we went out and did it, you have to look at it, I think, from a couple angles. One, this football team is better. This defense has gotten after people’s rear ends in the last couple weeks like nobody’s business. And what we gotta learn how to do is finish football games. Let’s call it what it is. Went to Kansas City and did what we needed to do, walked out of there with a win. It’s hard to do in that place. Hasn’t been done there very much. Ran for a bunch of yards, played great defense. Special teams, awesome. Then we go out to Buffalo. We got ’em right where we need to have ’em to finish ’em, to get it done. And we don’t finish it. For whatever reason, it doesn’t get done. Last week the same way. You’re leading 15-0, it’s 15-3. You get a sack, fumble, it’s 15-10. You’re still leading. What this team has to do is learn how to win football games at the end. It knows how to take the lead, that’s well documented. It knows how to compete, it knows how to grind, it knows how to throw its body around, it knows how to go out there and put it out there. But at the end of the day, the job’s not done till they say it’s done, the clock goes zero. So that’s what we have to learn to do, and we’ll do that. That’s where we’re gonna be different.”

Q: How was your relationship with Lane, and did you ever dream you’d be sitting here as head coach?

Cable: “Yeah, I had that dream. I had that dream like every young boy. I’ve had great teachers in my career, great coaches who taught me, great parents, all the things that I think are quality in life. So yeah, I’ve had that training. My relationship, to answer the first part of the question, with Lane is good. I respect Lane Kiffin, I love the guy. I think he worked his tail off. However, whatever that’s gone on here is between him and Mr. Davis, and I’ll leave it at that.”

Q: How do you instill the ability to win in this team?

Cable: “Well, I think you first gotta understand something. The spirit of the team is of utmost importance. All of these guys, to be professional football players, have been winners. They are winners. They didn’t get here because they were second hand or they couldn’t achieve or any of that. So you gotta draw that out of them. You gotta take them back and find that spirit, and then you gotta do it collectively as a team. And that’s what we’ll plan to do, that’s what we’ll work towards doing. How you finish games? You don’t let up. You don’t let up. You throw the football to score points in this game. You run the football to win it. And you gotta find a balance between those two. You gotta get your playmakers the ball in their hands, and you gotta be able to do that to finish. Defensively, you gotta be able to choke ’em out. You gotta be able to get out of drives. You gotta be able to intercept balls, cause fumbles. To me, you emphasize and talk about those things, but you know at sometimes it’s just better to go out and play, pull out the spirit of these men. They’re good football players, they’ve always been winners. That’s why they’re pros.”

Q: What’s the strength of this team, and have you had a chance to address your staff yet?

Cable: “I have not, will do so later this evening. As I mentioned earlier, I think the strength of the team is the character of this football team. I think you got great men on this team. I think you got guys who can fly around, and playmakers on defense. You’ve got a defensive coordinator that, I watch him daily, is gonna put everything he has into it. That’s his life, it’s all of our lives. Rob’s no different than any of us, and he’s done a great job. He’ll do a great job, even more so now. Uh, the rest of the staff, they’re a very, very, very solid group of guys. Good teachers, and I think fundamentally that’s the most important thing. This football team, its strength to me is its character. To me it’s we’ll run fast, hit you in the mouth, we can run the football at you, we got a quarterback that I think’s a special guy, and now it’s up to us to get him in a position to succeed. Obviously, we’ve been attempting to do that. We’ve gotta do it better.”

Q: Will you be hands-on with JaMarcus now?

Cable: “You know, Greg is his teacher. John DeFilippo, those are his two teachers. But understand this: I coach that offensive line, but I don’t just live in that little world. I don’t go down to my corner and disappear and just wait for them to call us up when we do that. I know who they are. I go in that locker room, I know who they are, I shake their hand, I talk to them about life, I talk to them about their families. Do I need to get to know some of them more? Yeah, I do. But I know who the guys on this football team. I’m proud to be sitting in this chair and to lead this football team.”

Davis: “One thing I said to Tom. I want him because he does have that personality to dominate that locker room, dominate those players. I’ve watched him with the players from other positions, and as I’ve told him, we don’t have to make an example of players publicly, we have to make those players want to be great. And they will be great. But we can’t bring them down publicly. And that’s an important thing, he has to dominate the locker room.”

Q: What can you tell Raiders fans to inspire confidence in you?

Cable: “Well, I think this. Everybody has a past, everybody has a journey in life, whether it’s professionally or personally. For me, it’s been a great journey. Not always successes, by the record I have at Idaho. At the same time, not too many people move the ball like I did in college football, whether it was at Colorado, Idaho or UCLA. So I’m very confident that way, very confident. My whole thing is you learn from your past, and I’ve done that. When I was head coach for the first time, I was in there, a young guy at 34 years old. So make some mistakes, you make those errors here and there, whether it’s how you handle people, whether it’s how you call the game, whatever that is. But you learn from it. The most important thing to me is, I was blessed to have those opportunities. Even more so, I’ve had the greatest teachers in this game. I’ve had Dennis Erickson as a college football coach, Keith Gilbertson was a line coach, Greg Smith was a line coach, Alex Gibbs has mentored me at this level. I have had great teachers: Steve Mariucci. Great teachers. So I’m well prepared to be sitting where I’m sitting, and I look forward obviously to the opportunity.”

Q: Did you consider Rob Ryan for the job, and have you talked to him about not getting it?

Davis: “I talked to Rob this morning, and I’ve always considered Rob. I considered everyone on the staff. I went down the staff, took a look at the staff, and my thought as to what we needed right now was someone who can lead men. Rob can lead men. But I think he’s more important right now over there on the defense, handling that. They played, at the start of that game the other day and in Buffalo, like we’re supposed to play. Just like Tom said, they got after your ass. They’re a tough bunch over there on defense, and you need a tough guy. I don’t know if we could afford to let him get away from the domination of that defense. Tom knows him. They get along very well. And that’s what I think you’ll find, that collectively we’re gonna be much better right now, as a group. It might now show right away, but we will win.”

Q: When did you decide on Cable?

Davis: “During the summer, when I say summer up in training camp, Tom and I were discussing Tom's future here with the Raiders as a coach because the season ends this year, it was his last year on his contract. We were discussing the future and the more I talked to him, the more I felt there were some things there that I liked that I thought that the Raiders needed. As I talked to other coaches on the staff about the future, about contract in the future, I just got to feel and watch him, I watch him work. I watch him work with the players and he dominates that offensive line. They do like him and they do love him. Look, we gotta win and I think he can win, and that's what we gotta do."

Q: When were you offered the job, and what convinced you to take it?

Cable: “We talked this morning and what he had to convince me of really was it was the right thing at the right time and he believed in me. That was really all it took. It was a surprise to me, at the same time, it's a dream obviously. I think when I heard in his words that he believed that I could take his football team and his organization where he wants it to go, that's all I needed to hear. Because my passion, my love for the game, my love for the players and coaches that I worked with every day, it does not wane, it does not go back in any way, it just gets stronger. Once I heard it in his voice that he believed in me that way, this was the right thing to do."

Q: Will the offense look any different under you?

Cable: “The biggest thing I need to do is go back and sit down with the coaches and get some input and give them some input about the direction we're going in terms of specifics. It's no secret what we have to do. You need to protect the football, you need to score points. And on defense, you got to get the ball away, you got to knock people's heads off and you got to keep them scoring points. And at the end of the day, win. It doesn't matter if it's 49-48, it don't matter if it's 1-0, win. That's how the whole approach has to be. In terms of the details of that, we go back and sit down, we'll talk it out, but we'll have a nice plan.”

Q: What does Tom have to do to get rid of the interim tag?

Davis: “Look, he's got a chance and if he does it, I'll be happy as hell but I think he's got a good chance. And that's what interim means, he's got to win and it may not be right away because we go to New Orleans, that's tough. Then that bunch from New York comes in here, they're riding high and throwing the ball pretty well. But we can play with them. We were a little banged up this week but we can play with them, and we'll see. We'll see. And that young guy has to come along. We have to bring him along. He's good. So we'll see.”

Q: Does this seem like a no-win situation considering all the coaches who have been fired?

Cable: “Not at all. First of all, I think the most important thing to understand is what's done is done in the past. If I worried about that, you're right, I will fail. What I'm going to worry about is right now and right now I plan on succeeding. It's the only way I know.”

Strangeness of the Raiders, Part I

2008-09-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

You’ve got to hand it to Al Davis and the Raiders. Just when you think things can’t get any stranger, that’s exactly what they get.

Davis fired coach Lane Kiffin on Tuesday and named offensive line coach Tom Cable as the interim coach. Davis firing a coach isn’t exactly a news flash. He fires coaches as often as most NFL owners order an expensive bottle of wine. Since the end of the 2003 season, he has canned Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell and now, Kiffin. I don’t think I left anyone out. It’s hard to keep track.

What took Raiders strangeness to a whole ’nother level, as Keegan-Michael Key would say, is the way Davis announced Kiffin’s firing. He turned Tuesday’s news conference into the Lane Kiffin Firing Palooza. He offered an exhaustive list of Kiffin’s transgressions. He called him a serial liar. He accused him of sabotaging the team. He blamed him for the trade of Randy Moss. He made sure we knew that Kiffin was fired “for cause,” not performance, and that Davis would not willingly pay him another dime.

But here’s what put this session over the top. Davis went power point on us and displayed a letter he had sent to Kiffin on Sept. 12, warning him that he’d be fired if he continued to publicly criticize him or the organization. Then he read the letter, line-by-line, offering periodic asides.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Oh yeah. Then there’s this. Davis actually held a two-part news conference with a 10-minute break in between. The first part was dedicated to Kiffin bashing. The second part was for introducing Cable as his interim coach.

I don’t want to leave any of the details out. So I thought I’d just give you the entire transcript. In this post, I’ll deal with the first session.

Opening statement by Al Davis:

“I start by saying that it is a regretful day, very much so ... It was January of ’07 when I was excited about the naming of a new head coach of the Raiders, a young guy who I thought was dynamic, I thought could carry the flag, carry the torch of the Raiders ... because I wanted to get young. I wanted to get young people into the organization. And we had our meeting here, I think it was in this room, and his family, I knew them, I knew them for about 30 years. His father once applied for a job with us when we were in Los Angeles, that was Monte Kiffin. I knew the father of Lane's wife. We were excited and I was excited. I knew it was a bold attempt, calculated, but I had always had great success -- at least I thought I did -- with young people, and even those that didn't stay with me long, I knew were qualified and quality and sometimes things just don't work out.

“It was after a short period of time that I realized I didn't hire the person I thought I was hiring. And there are reasons which I can go into. ... What I thought I would do is bring you up to right now. This morning I called Lane and told him that he no longer was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and I was dismissing him with cause. I just couldn't go on much longer with what I would call the propaganda, the lying that had been going on for weeks and months and a year and time.

“He had a few questions. He says, ‘Does that mean I don't get paid?’ I said, ‘That is what I am saying to you.’ I said, ‘I warned you,’ and I will go over with you people exactly how I warned him. He asked me, ‘Is anyone else going to get fired or dismissed?’ I said, ‘Not at this particular time.’ He wanted to know who the head coach would be. And I wouldn't tell him because I hadn't finalized ... this was about 9:30 in the morning ... with the gentleman I was going to offer the opportunity to be head coach. I wouldn't tell him who the head coach was going to be. No sooner that I got off the phone with him, within five minutes, (ESPN’s Chris) Mortensen had the story exactly the way it went down. It could have been no one else (except Kiffin) other than (Raiders public relations people) John Herrera and Mike Taylor to have given that story to Mortensen. And Mortensen had a couple other things in the story that got me to the point where I am that I wanted to talk to you about one of the things Mortensen had in the story was a Raider source said that Davis privately sent a letter to Kiffin after the season's opening game loss to the Broncos, attempting to document that the coach approved the off-season acquisition of all those great players we signed ... or we think have a chance to be great. A source close to Kiffin described the claim as fiction. Now, this is the first time that they admit to you that there was a letter, communication, after the Denver game between the Raiders and Kiffin. For weeks we have heard on television that there has been no commitment or no communication between Al Davis and Lane Kiffin except before the Denver game.

“Totally untrue. After the Buffalo game, someone said, ‘Have you talked to Al Davis yet?’ He said, ‘I have not talked to Al Davis personally.’ Went all over the country. But yet, the night of the Buffalo game at the airport, he did talk to me. And we talked on several subjects which I can tell you about if you are interested.

“So I wasn't going to do this, but I am going to give you the letter that was given to Lane on the Friday before we went to Kansas City. It was after his false accusations on a Wednesday night about the defense belonging to Al Davis and (Rob Ryan) and attacking Rob Ryan publicly which was unfair, unheard of in professional football that the head coach would attack one of his assistants. But I sent him a letter, gave it to him actually, on the Friday before we went to Kansas City and Federal Expressed that letter to him. And I would like to have John (Otten) put up the first page of that letter if you will bear with me -- it's about three pages.

(Davis' Letter to Kiffin)

‘"Over the past months you have made a number of public statements that were highly critical of and designed to embarrass and discredit the organization and players and coaches. I left you alone during training camp … in the hopes that you would cease your immature and destructive campaign.’ (“I wanted to make this work. I really did. I felt we had a chance. We had some great new young players, we DO have some great new young players. We have added some veteran players.) “However you continued to make public statements that are critical of the organization, its players as whole as well as individual players.

“‘Such statements constitute conduct detrimental to the Raiders. And I (will) no longer stand silently by while you continue to hurt this organization. Further, your contract is quite clear, that you work subject to the direction and supervision of the general partner, and that the general partner has the exclusive right to do all things which is in the sole discretion are necessary to maintain and improve the club, the football organization, and their activities.

“‘I realized when I hired you that you were young and inexperienced and that there would be a learning process for you. Your mistakes on player personnel and coaches were overlooked based on our patience with you. But I never dreamt that you would be untruthful in attempts and in statements in the press, as well, as so many other issues. Your actions are those of a coach looking to make excuses for not winning, rather than a coach focused on winning.

“‘For example, with the exception of Gibril Wilson, you were involved in recruiting all free agents and determining salaries for them and you were explicit about your desire to sign Javon Walker and DeAngelo Hall, amongst others. All were a must to sign in your eyes. Hall, in particular, because he played for Greg Knapp in Atlanta and that gave him high grades. Don't run from that now.

(“Coaches sometimes draft players, they make the pick and they run from it. I believe that there are players, we live with them, they got to play for us and no matter what you think of Al, we got to love them. That's the way this world is.”)

“‘I realize that you did not want to draft JaMarcus Russell. He is a great player. Get over it and coach this team on the field. That is what you were hired to do. We can win with this team.

(“Now, why did I say that? I said it because that was the battle at the draft, my first draft with him. About seven days before the draft, he came to me and he said he didn't think we should draft JaMarcus. And I told him we were going to draft JaMarcus. He had other ideas.”)

“‘In regards to your recent fabrications about the defense, during the final cuts, you made every cut on offense and every cut on defense, except for Wakefield on defense and Wand on offense. Furthermore, during the game Monday night, Rob played your Cover-2 defense, and we got killed on an approximately 50-yard touchdown pass and an approximately 70-yard gain that led to a field goal.

(“Now, he has never said to you people, at least he does individually, that I wrote this letter to him and there's no way he can hide from it because he got it.”)

“‘You meet every week with the defensive coaches to go over both the game plan and to get a general feel for what will happen during the week in practice. You have the ability and authority to provide your input during those meetings and preparation of the game plan. I do not have meetings with Rob at all. You do.

“‘During the week, no one has ever told you what to do either offense or defense. In addition, no one has ever told you during a game what to do on either offense or defense, and you still call every play.

(“Now in the past two years, he has called every play on offense, but this past week he split it with another coach. And that's the reason, maybe, that the ball went up a little bit. But no one has bothered him. No one has interfered with him. He was hired to coach the team”).

“‘Although you continue to use the media to express your dissatisfaction with others, no one has publicly pointed out to them that in four preseason games and one regular-season game played this year, your offense has scored one first-half touchdown. That put tremendous pressure on the defense.

(“Now, we have played eight games, and we have two first-half touchdowns, one in the preseason and one in the regular season. It's pretty tough for any football team and to continuously blame the defense. You just can't get away with it”).

“‘I know that you wanted to bring your father in to run the defense, and Monte -- that's Monte Kiffin told me that he wanted to come here, even though he is under contract to Tampa. I did not want to tamper with another team.

(“We had our attorneys call Bruce Allen and tell him that Monte Kiffin, because otherwise it's a tampering charge, talked to me and all he talked to me was about Lane, how to handle Lane and things like that. What he really wanted to do was come here and coach.”)

“‘In any event, that was over seven months ago. Do not now, run from the defense and your responsibilities. The letter constitutes notice that if you violate any term of your contract in any manner whatsoever, you will be terminated for cause. I trust that this will not occur.’”

(End of Letter to Kiffin)

“This was a warning to him, that he’s got to be a coach, that he’s got to take care of the players. He’s got to do his job and stop complaining every day that he doesn’t have this, he doesn’t have that.

“Now, admittedly, he didn’t think we could win with this team. This was in January, February. He didn’t think we could win with this team. As we started to sign the free agents, as we started to bring them in, and no matter what anybody says about the amount of money we spent because you don’t always win in a negotiation with a player, we don’t always win with a coach. The idea most of the time is to get the player, get the good players to try to win. He finally came to the point when he said, and he said it to some of you, that we look great on paper. Now we’ve got to put the pieces together and make them work, and that’s his job. But when we went to training camp, someone somewhere gave him the idea that he could get out of his job and still get paid. And that’s what he was doing. He was everyday harping, ‘We don’t do this, we don’t do that, and attacking players publicly. Agents calling me, ‘What’s going on?’ And one agent did call him and challenged him, that this can’t go on, what you’re doing to my client. Just can’t go on.

“We played the Buffalo game and after the game I met him at the airport and I asked him some questions, talked to him about it and didn’t think anything of it until the next day when he met with you people and someone asked him, ‘Have you talked to Al?’ He said, ‘I’ve never talked to Al since before the Denver game. It’s all documented that he had talked to me that night in front of the strength coach, in front of one of our publicists, and in front of one of our coaches about the game. And at that time I asked him a couple of questions. I said to him, ‘Tell me something, where’d those two timeouts go? Where’d they go? And his answer was beyond the wall. And the only thing I say to you when I say beyond the wall, that means beyond comprehension. I say to you, if we had 20 seconds left on the clock, and one timeout, they had kicked a field goal to go ahead by two points, and they kicked off to us, and we threw a pass and got to about their 40-yard line, after the run-back of the kickoff, now Janikowsk’s trying a what, a 57-yard field goal to win the game, not trying a 75-yard field goal to what, I don’t know. What I’m saying to you is there was no rhyme or reason to the clock management there. I understand that he’s young and the experience will come. I understand it. But see, he takes exception when you question him. I wanted to know why we went with five safeties in the game, three corners and we got a corner hurt in the game and we were in a little trouble, and he put down one of our players off the dressing roster because he was going to show me that he had some authority and he really didn’t have the authority to do it and I challenged him. He said, ‘Well, I talked to the defensive coaches.’ A defensive coach was standing right there and the defensive coach said, ‘And we told you not to do it. We didn’t want to do it.’ He put down C.J. Johnson, who played in this game because we some hurt.

“What I’m saying to you is it started to go where it was tough, tough to believe anything that was being said. Then yesterday, I think it was yesterday, someone of you asked him, ‘Have you talked to Al?’ And all of a sudden he said, I’m not going to tell you if I’ve talked to Al, after having denied talking to me, after having denied having communication, I’m not going to tell you what goes on between Al and I. But in the past, ho, ho, ho, he couldn’t wait to talk about what goes on between Al and I.

“I reached a point where I felt the whole staff, we were fractionalized, that the best thing to do to get this thing back was to make a change. It hurts because I picked the guy. I picked the wrong guy. There’s a lot more to this, a lot more to it. There’s this business of me sending him a resignation letter. That is not the truth at all. I never sent him a resignation letter. What happened was, after the season, he told me he didn’t want Rob Ryan. I said, ‘We’re going to keep him.’ You got 24 coaches - I think we got 24 coaches, now you can question it. Maybe we got 22 and they say someone’s not a real coach, but it’s almost unheard of, 24 coaches. I didn’t want … to change the entire staff and bring in his father. He said, ‘Well. I can’t win with this guy. I can’t win with this team.’ And we had had the problem with JaMarcus and someday, I don’t think it’s‘ important now because I love the guy, he had JaMarcus all wrong. He had him all wrong in his thinking about him and JaMarcus has proved a lot of you wrong, a lot of people wrong.

“He was going to be the overweight guy. He was going to be the uninterested guy, and he was never that way. We had a player here who played in Alabama, high school, the same high school as JaMarcus and was telling me about JaMarcus when JaMarcus was 12 years old. We had a player here who was a great player at Tennessee when they won the national championship, Tee Martin the quarterback. He played at the same high school as JaMarcus. So I knew JaMarcus wasn’t that kind of kid. But, he said, we can’t win. We got to get a rookie quarterback. We can’t win with this. So I said to him, ‘What do you mean you can’t win?’ And he said, ‘Well, we can’t win.’ And I said, ‘Then do the honorable thing. If you don’t think you can win, resign. If you don’t think you can win, resign. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So, he was after a job in college that he didn’t get, and it’t amazing how Bobby Petrino took the job.

“They had called me. A friend of mine who is very big at the University of Arkansas called me and said, ‘They’re interested in Lane Kiffin. What do you think? I said, ‘Let him finish the season and do what you want, whatever he wants. Finish the season.’ They said, ‘OK, we’ll wait.’ However, Petrino had a chance to get the job, and that’s why he really left Atlanta sooner than the season was over because he wanted to beat Lane for the job. Lane was upset as hell about it and went after some other job. And Lane said to me this: ‘Will you let me go and not ask for any penalties if I leave and go to a college job or go to another job. I said, ‘Lane, if you say you’re not going to get paid, if you’re going to resign, I’ll certainly let you go right after the season.’ His attorney, Gary Uberstine, and our attorney, Jeff Birren, worked out the language and it was about a quarter of a page, and all it says was, ‘Lane Kiffin resigns his job with the Oakland Raiders, expecting no remuneration -- or is it renumeration? -- and the Raiders will take no action to stop him from taking another job based on his contract. That was the story of what he called, supposedly -- he’s got (Chris) Mortensen. Mortsensen comes in. He lies. He’s a professional liar. He got Mortensen to say that I sent him a letter, which I never did, and a lot of you carried the fact that I sent him a letter. So, what I’m saying to you is this is regretful but I thought it was best for the Raiders. And I wanted to make it work because I want the Raiders to do great. Someone said to me the other day, a newspaperman, ‘Why don’t you tell us your side of the story? Why don’t you tell us what’s happening? And I said, ‘Look, I don’t want to win in the press. I want to win on the field.’ But I’m telling you because I had to regretfully let him go. It’s based on cause, and it’s not based on, necessarily, performance, because I understand what we’re doing, although I think we can do better.

“I assume there’s a lot more. What I wanted to say is we signed DeAngelo Hall, Gibril Wilson, Kalimba Edwards, Tommy Kelly, Javon Walker, Kwame Harris, Justin Fargas, Dar ren McFadden. These were the high-priced people this year. Not every one has been a factor, but you’ve got to stick with players. I remember last year all during training camp -- and it was tough on me because I didn’t want to do it -- we traded Randy Moss for a fourth-round draft choice. Randy Moss for a fourth-round draft choice. And everyone here, the coaches look at the film. His foot was bothering him. (The belief) around the country (was) that he can’t run anymore. Well, I had seen him. I go to practice. I had seen him run. They talk now, ‘Boy, if we had a playmaker.’ Well, all he caught was over 20 touchdowns last year. If we had a playmaker. But, those are the facts of life. We’ve had some great players come through here. In 2003, 2004, Rich Gannon went down with knee injuries. We let Kerry Collins go. He’s driving Tennessee pretty good right now. And, we’ll get back, we’ll be back. The Raiders will be back. I have unshakeable confidence, the will to win, and I just know that the fire that burns brightest in this building is the will to win, and we will win. We will win.”

Q: Who will be the next head coach ?

A: “I thought what we would do was go through the question and answer, then take a little break and then we’ll bring him back.”

Q: At the end of last year, there were problems with Lane that went on February, March. Why not fire him in the offseason as opposed to this part of the year when it’s going to kind of disrupt the season?

A: “Because I wanted to make it work, to be real honest. It’s my belief that I would work and it could work. I wanted to make it work. Maybe I didn’t want to admit that I’d made a mistake. And to be quite frank with you, I’m firing him for cause right now. I’m not firing him for anything else other than cause.”

Q: Your motto is just win baby, one of your mottos. You’re saying you’re firing Lane more for cause than on-field performance. Do you feel the team has improved under his watch, and doesn’t that motto, just win, imply that you will overlook personality traits and past history if it can produce a winning team on the field?

A: “I don’t really follow. I want to win, if that’s what you’re asking me. I don’t know what you meant by the back part of the question, that I will follow personality traits. What did you mean by that?”

Q: Why would you fire Kiffin over a personality conflict?

A: “It’s not a personality conflict. It’s flat-out accusations of lying, bringing disgrace to the organization. He took a young coach who had criticized him and suspended him, didn’t tell me about it. Then actually, crazy like, said, ‘You’d better go to a doctor to get examined.’ And suspended him. He was the best worker (Lane) ever had. He told me that repeatedly. But the coach criticized him. But two days later, (Lane) goes out and criticizes Rob Ryan publicly. No, I don’t think I could lose necessarily with Lane. But I didn’t think I could win anymore, based on what he’s done to this staff and what he’s done to the defense and what he’s done to some of the assistants.

“If I thought so, I probably would have stayed with it. But it didn’t have to do with winning. It had to do with personality. It’s the first time I ever let anyone go based on what I call just a flat-out liar. I mean, let me ask you something: Did he tell you that for two weeks, other than prior to the Denver game, that he has not heard from me?”

“He did. Did he tell you after the Buffalo game that he has never talked to me since before the Denver game? It’s a flat-out lie. We talked several times. And the letters -- I sent him another letter; if you want, I’ll read the other letter to you. Because I had to caution him about lying to the press continuously. But you see, they know I won’t do much. I won’t talk. I never once, when he would lie, raise my hand and say, ‘He’s lying,’ or something like that. They know I don’t. I let it go. Like I said, I thought he was young and immature and that someone would grab him by the throat and tell him that he was doing the wrong thing. But his own father and Pete (Carroll), they’re the advisors, somewhere they got lost in this thing.”

Q: When did you realize he wasn’t the coach you thought you hired?

A: “Well, his attitude, to be real honest, toward people. When he took the job, if you remember his admonitions and statements were, ‘We’ve got great players, we have a great defensive coach in Rob Ryan, I’m excited, I looked at the defense, I’m excited about the offense.’ And I realized that what they were more interested in was cleaning out the locker room and getting their guys in there than winning. And I can only say to you, I have a different opinion on this thing. And you can talk to anyone who has won a lot of games in life that the locker room is a great locker room when you’re winning. And it’s not a great locker room when you’re losing. Sometimes you can hold it together when you’re losing. I just didn’t like his attitude toward people, toward coaches, toward everyone. If you look at the staff that he hired, he wanted to fire everyone, get rid of everyone.

“We had players who had played eight or nine years here, that I asked him to be careful with, just … give them a chance. I can’t let a guy go. I admit this. Take Zack Crockett. He played here eight or nine years, got touchdowns for us and all. And I just can’t let him go, like they can just close the door and get ’em out of here. And I just don’t operate that way. I couldn’t get him to feel toward ex-Raiders the way I wanted him to feel. But I thought he would because when he came here for the job, ‘Oh, I know about the history, I know about the organization, I know about the history, I know about this. Bull. We had a publicist and he didn’t want him at practice. I said to him, ‘Why don’t you want him at practice? ‘Well, we don’t need him out at practice.’ So he’s not at practice.”

Q: Do you feel you have enough of a case documented against your coach that if Kiffin and his representatives go to Roger Goodell for a grievance that you would prevail?

A: “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think I was going to prevail. … That’s why I sent him the letter. I sent the letter and defined to him at the end of the letter … just coach the team. That’s what you are paid to do, that’s what you were hired to do. Coach the team. And any other accusations, any other step out of line and I’m going to fire you for cause. And that’s the only thing that I thought would get him. But he still kept on going. Why (did) Mortensen know about the letter and none of you people knew about it, and Mortensen just came with it today? It’s because (Lane) gave it to him. He feels that’s the way to go. Then Mortensen broke the story that I was interviewing three guys. … No sooner than the three guys left the office one, two, three, it was running on the wires. Unless there’s someone upstairs, our executive secretaries, I don’t know.’

Q: Four coaches have been fired since 2003. You said you made a mistake on this one. How much responsibility do you bear for what’s gone on?

A: “I bear the responsibility. Yeah, it takes a toll on me. It sure does.”

Q: Do you feel this organization is better and should they have more wins than just one this year?

A: “I don't want to get into that. I'm not here to discuss the team. I'm here to discuss my letting Lane go and why and the reasons for it. I love this team. I think this team can win. I think this team can win. Let me just say I see every team in the league, I look at the tapes. I see one or two that may be a little bit above the rest. For example, Buffalo is 4-0 and we can play with Buffalo. San Diego is 2-2, we're getting closer. We can play with San Diego. There's one or two that may be above. But other than that this league is starting to balance out. We'll get there. If we keep him alive, he's good. This kid from LSU, he's a good player and a good kid. We're going to make him great. We'll get there. McFadden is a hell of a player. We have some great players, we really do. Asomugha is a great player. We've gotten a little banged up and all but we'll see. It's not over yet.”

Q: What was last straw for Lance?

A: “I don't think it was any one thing. It was a cumulative thing. The pattern just disturbed me. The first question he asked me when I said you would be fired or was relieved for cause was, 'Are you going to pay me?' First question. There are a lot of people who believe in the organization that he wanted to be fired but he wanted to be paid.”

Q: Are you concerned that by building a case before acting you sabotaged the season?

A: “Yeah. But I thought we would do a little better in the season. I think it's together. I think it's together. I don't want to get in to football tactics or strategy. That's not why I'm here. I don't want to get into that. I could say for example three passes in the second half against Buffalo. Just beyond. We're not Woody Hayes. If this kid is going to be what I think he is we have to let him go. He can play. But I don't want to get into tactics or strategy. I did mention one, on the field goal, the time management, the clock management. Even in this game, we might have gotten 20 yards closer with a pass just before the 75-yard field goal with clock management.”

Q: Do you personally believe he was daring you to fire him?

A: “That's a good question. I don't know what he was doing but he got me to fire him.”

Q: Is the new coach interim?

A: “Excuse me, it's an interim coach. And he's not going to come in, he's here now. By that I mean he's on the staff.”

Q: Will he be here for a while?

A: “I haven't made that decision relative to how long he'll be here. I want to give him an opportunity. He has a love of the Raiders, he always has had, he wanted to come here. That's another thing, you hear about coaches, that it will be tough for him to get a coach because coaches don't want to get in over here and it will be tough to get a coach. Then the statement was made about two weeks ago that I had to recruit these coaches, a lot of them didn't want to come here. But go talk to them. He even listed Rob Ryan as some coach who didn't want to come here. It got to the point where I think he forgets who he's talking about. You talk to Greg Knapp, who coached for us, who's been here before. Talk to Tom Cable, talk to anyone. There are a lot of people who want to come here and there are a lot of guys out there who are doing TV who were on the phone this morning just wondering what I am going to do. And they all had pretty good names so we'll find out.”

Q: How much does it bother you personally that there has been so much upheaval these last few years?

A: “It bothers me. A great deal. Yeah it bothers me because I like to think that wherever you go in the world, you say Silver and Black, you say Raiders. We do have great fans and we have a lot of things coming up you know. We have three more years, '08, '09, '10 with the players associated and then there's a work stoppage possibly in '11. You have to be prepared for that. We have stadium. There's a lot of things. It bothers me. I want it to g in the right direction with youth and see if we can build something that way.”

Q: How much of a detriment are repeated coaching changes to your success?

A: “Not every season. Well obviously I don't think that a coach has to be more than four years because I think this thing is cycle, cyclical, cycle now. You got to remember one of the guys on TV the other day said the Raiders had been in the Super Bowl in 2002. Dallas hasn't been there since I don't know when, 1995 or something. No one in the West has been there in about 20 years, Kansas City, Denver about 10 years. We've been in 2000, 2001 and 2002. And we hit a thing that I admit that I didn't think we'd hit. I didn't think it possible that we'd hit these couple of years. But as I told you, we'll get it back. I do believe that it's good to have one guy for four or five years.”

Q: Who shared playcalling with Lane against Chargers and what's up with Mark Jackson?

A: “As far as I know he is. Why have you dismissed him? The one who shared the playcalling was Greg Knapp. But other than that in the past year and three games, Lane has called all the plays on offense.

Q: If you won these past two games would he still have been fired?

A: “Yes he would be if the same events took place.”

Cal's QB competition back in full swing

2008-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Cal quarterback Kevin Riley's hold on the starting job is getting looser by the hour. At least that's the way it seems after listening to coach Jeff Tedford at his weekly news conference Tuesday.

Tedford pulled Riley midway through the third quarter of Cal's victory over Colorado State and replaced him with Nate Longshore. After the game, he said he might make a change at quarterback.

During his weekly news conference, Tedford certainly didn't back away from that possibility.

Here's what Tedford had to say about a potential quarterback shuffle:

Q: You talked after the game that you might switch quarterbacks. Have you rethought that?

A: “Both of them are going to get equal reps this week, and then we’ll make a decision before the game.”

Q: Why the change of heart?

A: “Just because I think we need to start a little faster. I think offensively we started kind of slow in our games. We need a little boost there. We cannot afford to continue to wait and wait and wait for things to happen. We need to find out who’s the guy that puts is in the best situation to start a little bit faster.”

Q: Have you talked to Kevin directly about this, and what was his reaction?

A: “Yeah. He’s fine He understands. He understands that we’ve started a little bit slow and he’s missed a couple balls. I told him, you don’t get down about it. You compete and continue to do what you’re doing. He could be a starter or not. Like I said in the beginning, it may take both of them for us to get where we need to go. But we’ll evaluate it through the week of practice. It’s no different than any other position. It’s no different that the safety position or anything else that gets evaluated on a weekly basis.”

Q: Of the two, would you be concerned that Kevin would maybe lose his confidence a little more than Nate because has the experience, or not? Do you worry about that?

A: “That position is so, I don’t want to say mental, but there’s a lot with it, you know? Especially when you’re the starter there’s a little more pressure on you. And Kevin’s young. Nate’s an experienced guy. Nate’s had good, he’s had bad, back and forth. And Nate’s a very strong guy and puts it all in perspective and is very mature about it. Kevin’s a little bit younger and so, he’s going to have to learn that everything’s not always going to be good. At that position, there’s going to be some bad days, there’s going to be some rough days, and it’s important that you respond and you continue to compete. And so that’s something he needs to do.”

Q: Is it a little easier to do this when the backup is so experienced? Last year the roles were reversed.

A: “Absolutely it does.”

Q: Is there anything wrong with Riley’s arm?

A: “There’s nothing wrong with his arm. He’s fine.”

Q: Is confidence an issue with Kevin? Is that something you need to really work at to pump him up?

A: “I don’t know. We’ll see how it works this week. Obviously in this game it seemed like he was pressing a little bit and he was missing – we’ve missed a few open guys for the last few weeks, for whatever reason. Is it mechanical? Are we pressing a little bit? Those are the type of things that we have to evaluate with him and just make sure he gets through them. Absolutely, do you want to instill confidence in the guy, yes. There’s no question about it. You want him to get over the hump, you want him to overcome the bad times, and confidence is really a major issue with everybody. But he’s a strong competitor. So I don’t think that he’s going to have a confidence issue. He’s a very strong competitor, and he’ll get through it.”

Q: Is it tough to evaluate games just because of the way they’ve gone? At Washington State you were up so big early. At Maryland you had to throw so much late.

A: “Yeah. Like this last week, it’s a little bit difficult to get into a flow, because just when you’re to go on the field you have a blocked kick for a touchdown. And you’re going to go back on the field and you have an interception for a touchdown. Those are all series that you’re standing on the side – I’m not complaining about that, that’s great to put points on the board – but they’re taking away opportunities to evaluate and have plays. We only had 57 plays last week. You’re used to getting 80 plays. Now we’re getting 50 plays when that happens.”

On another issue, Tedford gave an update on running back Jahvid Best, who dislocated his left elbow on Saturday.

“Jahvid is coming along very well," Tedford said. "A lot of encouraging news with him. He did dislocate his left elbow. There’s no fracture there, as we knew on game day. After the MRI, they saw that there were some capsule issues of course, when you dislocate anything, but nothing is torn. There’s no surgical procedure that needs to be done. And so we feel that by the Arizona game, there’s a possibility he may be back for the Arizona game. No guarantee, but a possibility.”

Raiders' Kiffin: Going, going ... ?

2008-09-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

I’m going to miss Raiders coach Lane Kiffin when he’s gone. And you know he’s going, if not this week during the team’s bye – the odds-on favorite for his whacking -- then sometime in the not too distant future.

Kiffin’s team fell to 1-3 Sunday with a second straight come-from-ahead loss, this time 28-18 to the San Diego Chargers. He’s 5-15 overall. That losing record alone is reason enough for Al Davis, the Captain Hook of NFL owners, to fire Kiffin.

Sure, Davis could fool us all and anoint Kiffin as Raiders coach for life. But I have a feeling that Kiffin’s team could be 4-0 and he’d still get the ax. I have a feeling he’s been figuratively dead to Davis for weeks, if not months, and that Davis was just waiting until the bye week to fire him, making the coaching transition easier and giving him more time to build a case against Kiffin for insubordination.

Kiffin challenged Al’s supreme authority over all things Raiders. That’s a huge sin in Davis’ world.

Then when Al tried to crush him – he reportedly wanted Kiffin to resign after last season -- Kiffin fought back by publicly zinging his boss for everything from his player-personnel moves to his role in the team’s defense after a season-opening debacle against Denver.

Some have criticized Kiffin for taking this fight public and for disrespecting his boss. Yeah, maybe Kiffin took it a bit far when he kept referring to Davis as “the owner.” But what other means did Kiffin have to fight back?

If nothing else, it’s been fascinating to finally watch a coach stand up to Davis and pull back the curtain just a bit, offering us a better look at the strangeness of the Raiders.

After Sunday’s loss, Kiffin was asked if he expected to be the Raiders coach when they play their next game against New Orleans on Oct. 12.

“Once again, that’s not my call,” Kiffin said. “The question is, do I expect to. I don’t know what I expect. I’m not going to do anything different than what I’ve been doing, keep this team together the best that we can, keep this staff together and just prepare and figure out a way to win these games at the end of the game, figure out a way to hold onto these fourth-quarter leads.”

Kiffin is the fourth Raiders coach since Jon Gruden basically forced Davis to “trade” him to Tampa Bay after the 2001 season. He followed Bill Callahan, Norv Turner and Art Shell – each one fired.

At what point do you start blaming the man who does the hiring and firing instead of the coaches he hires and fires? I think we’re well beyond that point.

Kiffin deserves praise for what he’s trying to accomplish amid the dysfunction. During pre-game introductions Sunday, Kiffin had his team come out in groups – position by position -- instead of as individuals.

“When I was talking to the team I said, ‘Guys, you’re never going to win if you play as individuals. I don’t care how much money you make. I don’t care how good you look on paper. You’ve got to play as a team and you’ve got to pick each other up. To have one player introduced and dancing around, we’re not doing that anymore. That’s not who we are. We’re going to play together as a team,’ ” Kiffin said. “So that’s why we did that.”

Kiffin’s players certainly haven’t quit on him, something you couldn’t say in the final throes of past coaching regimes. They’re certainly not the “dumbest team in America” as Callahan called his Raiders team during its 2003 meltdown.

“I’m not discouraged,” Kiffin said. “When you get discouraged, for me, when I would get discouraged is when your team doesn’t play with effort and they don’t play smart football. I thought our guys played smart football. They made good decisions. There weren’t a lot of dumb penalties. Our effort was great. I thought our guys came out electric. Some bad things happened in the second half. We lost our juice for a little bit.”

Kiffin talked for over 15 minutes in his formal post-game news conference, primarily about the game. Then he talked some more in the locker room about his own situation. Here are some of those questions and answers:

Q: How are you dealing with all this, this circus? Is that distracting you from being able to do your job? And is that affecting the way you approach your job from week to week?

A: “I’m trying the best for it not, and I don’t think I’m letting our players see it. Once again, I’m really proud of them, and our coaching staff did a great job. The way they came out and played today, they played together as a team. They really battled but unfortunately weren’t able to pull it off again.”

Q: Have you had any communication with (Al Davis) at all?

A: “There’s not been many conversations lately. I’m not going to go into the timeframes of that. Once again, I’m just trying to do the best I can each day. I think our players played well today. I sound like a broken record, but we’ve got to find a better way to finish. That’s my job.”

Q: Have you talked to your dad (Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin) about how to handle this situation?

A: “You talk to people that you trust and know, but I don’t think that anybody would understand it. I take their advice as much as I can. Staying positive and find a way to hold this team together and go down to New Orleans and get a win. We let one get away today that would put us 2-1 in the division. Can’t look back now. We just have to plug away, get some guys healthy. We had a number of guys injured today and a lot of guys stepped up and played really well today.”

Q: Do you feel like you’re coaching for your job?

A: “I don’t really understand what that means. What do you do when you’re coaching for your job? Do you try harder? I don’t understand that. I don’t do anything different from the way I’ve done it from the day that I got here. That’s be the best that I can to motivate our coaches every day and our players every day to have a good practice and prepare to have a really good game. We haven’t been able to finish it off in the fourth quarter the last couple weeks.”

Q: Have you received any feedback from the organization on your coaching performances or your job status or the media speculation that you’re going to be let go?

A: “No, I have not. Like I’ve said before, until I’m told something different by Al, not by other people, we’re going to keep trying to find a way to win.”

Cal's 42-7 win not a feel-good football story

2008-09-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Not all 42-7 victories feel the same.

If you’re a Cal football fan, you know what I mean. You had to feel as if you had eaten some bad nachos Saturday during the Bears’ 35-point win over Colorado State at Memorial Stadium.

You had to feel sick watching running back Jahvid Best land hard on the artificial turf early in the third quarter, dislocating his left elbow. You had to feel nauseous seeing Best writhe on the ground in pain and grimace as team trainers popped his elbow back into place.

Then there was Cal’s stomach-turning passing attack, which was so bad that coach Jeff Tedford yanked starting quarterback Kevin Riley with 7:15 left in the third quarter and replaced him with Nate Longshore. After the game, Tedford said a quarterback switch is possible next week when the Bears face Arizona State.

Good times. Good times.

First things first, which means Best, the Bears’ best hope for a great season, thunder and lightning wrapped into one explosive package.

The bad news for Cal is that he dislocated his elbow. The good news, Tedford said, is that X-rays revealed no fracture. Cal won’t know how long they’ll be without Best until after he has an MRI today. But you get the sense that he’ll miss at least a week and maybe longer. At least that’s what the Bears and backup running back Shane Vereen seem to be bracing for.

Now for the potential quarterback shuffle. Tedford was asked whether he pulled Riley because the game was safely in hand at 28-0. Let’s just say he shot down that theory in a hurry.

“Nate played because Kevin was missing too many open receivers,” Tedford said.

Riley was 6 of 13 for 59 yards and one touchdown, a 17-yard strike to Nyan Boateng. Longshore was 9 of 13 for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

When asked about Riley’s job security, Tedford made it clear that nothing’s set in stone.

“We’re always evaluating that,” Tedford said. “We’ll see what happens. We’ll talk about it, see the tape and things like that.”

Tedford said that if “if a guy’s not playing well” at any position, “you have to look at making adjustments. I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but it’s always being evaluated.”

Tedford gave Longshore a good review, especially compared to the two thumbs down he gave Riley.

“Nate did fine,” Tedford said. “Nate, he wasn’t asked to do a lot because of the game situation. At that time we ran the ball quite a bit. But I thought he was pretty smart with the ball. He didn’t force the ball. He threw a couple nice balls. … For the most part, I thought Nate did fine. He ran the show and he ran the huddle.”

After the game, a despondent Riley took responsibility for missing those open receivers.

“Those are easy throws,” Riley said. “I’ve got to hit them. I just rushed it.”

Riley said he understood why Tedford yanked him from the game.

“I wasn’t performing,” Riley said. “Nate went in and did the job. I just need to play better, plain and simple. I need to hit open guys. … I was over-thinking a little too much.”

Cal definitely needs to get its passing game on track for Arizona State and the rest of its Pac-10 schedule. The Bears can’t rely so heavily on its defense, special teams and running game, the way they did against Colorado State.

Cal was never in danger of losing this game. You could tell early in the first quarter by the way Cal’s defense was having its way with Colorado State’s overmatched offense. The Bears were just too quick, too fast and too strong for the Rams.

Rams quarterback Billy Farris was under siege, particularly from Cal’s strong push up the middle. Farris didn’t help his cause with a slow release and little zip. Cal had no trouble with the Rams’ one-two running punch of Gartrell Johnson and Kyle Bell. They were big and strong but slow.

Cal’s Bryant Nnabuife returned a blocked punt for their the Bears' first touchdown. Brett Johnson returned an interception 43 yards for Cal’s second score.

But Cal’s offense lost two first-half fumbles -- one by Best and one by Vereen – and didn’t produce a touchdown until late in the second quarter when Riley hit Boateng.

“The offense didn’t play very well,” Tedford said. “I thought we ran the ball pretty well. We were having pretty good success on first down most of the time, but we weren’t sharp in the passing game. We fumbled the ball twice. … I didn’t think we threw the ball very well. I thought we had some open guys and missed them.”

After Cal’s loss to Maryland, Tedford pinned some of the blame on his inexperienced wide receivers. Not this time.

“I didn’t see any issues today with inexperience at receiver or them running the wrong routes or the wrong depth or anything like that,” Tedford said.

If Tedford wanted to send a message to Riley, consider it sent. And if he wanted to lay the groundwork for a quarterback switch, consider it done.

Cal fans can only hope that if Tedford makes that switch, Longshore plays the same type of calm, cool, turnover-free football against ASU as he did coming off the bench with a 28-0 lead Saturday.

The alternative is enough to make an Old Blue sick.