Golden Nuggets for 10.23.08

In today's world of highly scrutinizing world of college football it is truly astounding that Adam Weber could have injured his knee, had surgery and never have it reported.  In the Indiana game Weber tore three milimeters of meniscus in his right knee.  The next morning he was unable to straighten out his leg and it "frequently locked up on him" and surgery was his only option.

 "Because of the way it tore and how it was inside my joint, I knew there was no way I'd be able to play or walk," Weber said. "I couldn't really put weight on my leg or really walk. I knew something serious was wrong and something drastic was going to have to happen."

By late Sunday afternoon he was under the knife.  The amazing part of the story was that a week later he was playing again and beating Illinois on the road.  Adam Rittenberg gives us the story, but it then goes into the improvements Weber has made from his freshman to sophomore seasons.

Weber attributes his turnaround to a greater understanding of the Spread Coast system and better recognition of when to go for the big play or check it down. He also gets plenty of opportunities to see where he went wrong in the past.

"A lot of times when we're preparing for a team, we played them last year, so we have to watch our tape," Weber said. "It's pretty brutal watching how we played or how I played and just knowing we're leaps and bounds as an offensive squad from where we were.

"Last year, I rarely checked the ball down. That was probably my main problem. That was why I had 19 interceptions. My fumbles have gone down drastically, too."

Weber's improvement has been remarkable and his leadership has been instrumental in this team's turnaround.

• Check out Off the Tracks' has a thourough preview of the game this weekend.  He starts with some optimism "This could be the week our streak against ranked teams ends. We get the gift of an unexpected game against a ranked team that we were expected to beat when the season started." And ends with a little pesimism, "Right now, outside of a few individuals, everyone from the coaching staff on down doesn’t look interested in even starting a turnaround. On a team with this many seniors that is just sad, especially for homecoming. The official prediction will come in the Big Ten preview, but it likely won’t be favorable."
• One Cal blogger is beginning to question their head coach Jeff Tedford.  One "questionable" decision was to let go of Mike Dunbar and the spread coast offense. 
  

  But as the years have passed, things have settled down and our worldview of Tedford has grown more realistic.  The Mike Dunbar spread offense, despite its hiccups, kept Pac-10 defenses on their heels for much of 2006 and was set to become a cornerstone of Cal football, but there was no secret that Tedford never agreed with him about the spread’s role. Now at Minnesota, he has helped the Golden Gophers stand at 6-1 and bowl-eligible.

  I for one am glad to have Dunbar on my team.
• UM Hoops is doing his Big Ten basketball previews and has gotten around to Minnesota.  A 21 win prediction with the talent to maybe be this year's Purdue.
• This could have been the lead today but Charlie Walters has some great info on Joel Maturi's hiring of Tim Brewster.  The facts are these (I'm watching Pushing Daisies for those who may get it)...
  
  75 names on his list.  Nobody, neither Maturi or his search firm had ever heard of Tim Brewster.  Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was the other final interview.
  

  "He blew me away in the interview process with his energy, his passion, his enthusiasm, and quite frankly, I liked what he said," Maturi said. "I liked how he talked about recruiting, the plan that he had for assistant coaches, the plans of what he wanted to do on the field and the community, and so he stays on that list.

  "I'm obviously pleased that we're 6-1. The challenge is to keep it going."

  That is correct, 6-1 is great but there is much more work to be done.  The rest of this season should be very interesting and potentially a lot of fun.