Pac 12 Football Teams USC Trojans – Cal Bears
Only on the Pac 12 football Network will this game be seen. Not on a national channel, not on ESPN, not on ABC, not on FOX, not on CBS or FX. Not on DirectTV. If you want to see this football game, you need to have a subscription to one or the cable companies or the Dish Network. Now we are seeing the genius of Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott. He know that there will be games the country wants to see and it will cause carriers to sign to pick-up the Pac 12 Network. So far, DirectTV has said NO. But The will come around.
Even before this season started, any Cal fan could see that this two-week stretch of Cal’s football schedule was likely the most daunting one the Bears would face this year. Two straight road games at Ohio State and at USC would be an unenviable task for anyone. For Jeff Tedford’s California Golden Bears, who have gone a long time without a signature road win (take your pick between the 2009 Big Game or the 2007 Oregon game), this two-week stretch seemed to hold even more potential for the sort of disaster that could shake the confidence of a team (not to mention an already apoplectic fanbase).
Today, the Bears face the second half of the two-week gauntlet. For many a Cal, the first half of the gauntlet went better than expected. Cal represented itself (and the Pac-12) quite well in Columbus, Ohio, before losing a hard-fought 35-28 game to the Buckeyes. It was a game that Cal had every chance to win and maybe should have won. But despite 512 yards of total offense and a silly four-carry, 160-yard, 2 TD performance by sophomore running back Brendan Bigelow, Cal still finds itself 1-2 on the season heading into today’s Pac-12 opener at USC. Perhaps unfortunately for the Bears, however, this week’s part of the two-week gauntlet got a little bit tougher last week. With USC losing its Pac-12 opener at Stanford, 21-14, for the Trojans’ fourth straight loss to the Cardinal, one can imagine that coach Lane Kiffin’s team will come in a little bit more ornery than it may have otherwise been. (Heck, Coach Kiffin is so jacked up about getting back on track that he cut his press conference to 28 seconds!)