66stang408

just wanted to say - had a blast, every fan we met was gracious both before and after the game. "aggressively friendly" is how i described it, at skybar and other places the night before it felt like anyone who noticed us came up to ask how we were doing and making sure we were treated well. and we made it (just) in time to see the eagle fly to the field, which is a damn cool tradition. good luck the rest of the way!

On a flight from LA right now. Haven't seen any Auburn logos, only a couple Cal guys. Still, should be a decent Cal contingent (not quite Auburn from last year but you might be suprised) Good luck tomorrow y'all

oh thats just our friendly lawrence livermore biolab plying its trade. nothing to worry about

if you're curious on that rugby story: Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 36: Forfeit Email, 2001 (si.com)

i mean, getting a team to agree to shortened quarters (and still dropping 70) *is* objectively impressive. if i were an auburn fan i'd be enjoying that kool aid too. the only comparable situation I can think of is one from rugby, when Stanford more or less surrendered to Cal and decided not to play one year (around ~2000) because their coach was certain several of his players would end up in the hospital.

Thats some great work! Thank you! *right click save as* Ah thats a shame. I've been a bit lucky... had some near misses (including a little oopsy this weekend), but i've managed to keep it more or less in one piece for ~25 years. They're great for a first classic car... simple, lots of parts, and certainly get their share of attention. Whats the classic car / hotrod scene like in Alabama? get another! (of course at this point you might have to consider things like a wife, garage space, etc....) Nah. The sticker dates back to my college days when i was in rotc. Developed a health condition so I never commissioned. But the sticker looks good and I still have USAF friends to support, so never took it off.

This is a few years ago, appropriately at a gas station (because where else would she be?). 408 stroker with a t5. The red pre-dates my Cal fandom so i had to apply for an exception among the Cal fanbase

no need to explain any of that. this is an auburn fan forum, and this is a auburn home game against a Cal team that hasn't done anything. you have every right to be confident. wilcox is far from a perfect coach, but one thing he has done well are these cross country road trips against good teams. wins against ole miss and north carolina, and near miss vs notre dame. and if the game is going well, under a wilcox team, it will be ugly. all of his best wins are.

Well that's awfully presumptuous of you

that sounds awesome. we'll see i can convince my party to skip 45 minutes of drinking though (i don't think the odds are good, but i'll try)

Cal fan here. Looking forward to visiting Auburn this weekend. Thoughts on each point... 1. Ott is certainly the star. He's listed as 'probable' for this weekend... a pretty rare level of injury transparency from Wilcox (i'm not sure he's ever actively volunteered such info). So I expect him to play and be fine. Most casual fans don't know we have a fairly loaded RB room behind him (though as you note, one of said highly touted backups' first carry was a fumble for a scoop/score on the goal line... so... that could have gone better). Cardwell, Calloway and Thomas are all capable RBs behind Ott In theory the offense is loaded at the skill positions. We have ohio state, notre dame and utah transfers who all have shown quite a lot in camp at WR, and brought in the #4 big 10 receiving tight end from maryland. How capable Mendoza and/or Rogers are getting them the ball is a bit of an open question. Mendoza looked ok in a disjointed UC Davis game, Rogers looked a bit rougher. 2. Run defense against Davis was - somewhat surprisingly to my eyes, if I'm honest - one of the best performances of the Cal era under Wilcox. Won't claim that will hold up all year and against power 5 teams, but thats what PFF says, not me. Cal vs. UC Davis Football: The Good and the Bad (writeforcalifornia.com) 3/4. No argument. Our team was great at generating turnovers last year, but also great at giving them up. Any road game in a hostile environment gets a lot easier if you can generate some turnovers. And the same game will get a lot harder if you give up turnovers. 5. Not really, see line 1 6. Maybe. While Wilcox's defenses have gotten worse over his tenure, DBs have consistently been a strong point and we have a bunch of transfers (a few SEC guys along with one of the best FCS CBs and others) coming in this year. Our main issues are on the lines. Cal hasn't recruited an NFL o-lineman in what seems like a decade. We also missed on a few very high profile DT targets in the NIL/Portal space. Auburn will certainly have an advantage there. Not an insurmountable one, but a significant one. "Auburn beat Cal in Cali last year when Auburn had a much worse team than the current team. Cal had the #17 transfer class coming in, but only one of the wide receivers they added had an impact in the first game." 2 counterpoints - 1, admit it, you expected to boatrace us last year too. Every Auburn podcast was predicting something along the lines of.. well, many points to not very many. As you may recall, the SEC refs gave you a gift out of the gate and took a Cal defensive touchdown off the board for reasons still unknown to science. You may also recall we missed 4 field goals (on a related note, potentially our biggest portal add was one of the best kickers in the country... its an amazing feeling when you actually get annoyed at a college kicker missing a 55+ yarder, but here we are). No doubt, Auburns final drive to win the game was impressive and we were unable to stop it. But to pretend the teams weren't very much equal and that Auburn may not have even had the chance to win had not all the breaks gone their way is a bit naive. In any case, can't wait for the game. Let me know what I need to see / do before kick off... i've had a great time at SEC venues before (even when we have gotten dumpstered). Go Bears!