Source: Cal To Make Key "Stadium Announcement"

Bears Could Be
Playing At AT&T Park

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The mysterious announcement expected at Cal Monday morning probably won't end up being all that mysterious.

The Golden Bears are expected to announce they'll play their home games at AT&T Park in San Francisco during the 2011 season.

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GAMEDAY GALLERY: USC at Cal (October 2009)

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Cal's Sports Information Department sent out a release Sunday night announcing Monday's press conference scheduled to take place at AT&T Park, the home of baseball's San Francisco Giants. That Giants president Larry Baer will be present Monday helps connects the dots, as does the Cal source who sent a text message to OGS late Sunday night confirming "a stadium announcement."

Cal has played its home games at historic Memorial Stadium since 1923. In 2005, the school announced a two-stage plan to overhaul its athletic facilities, and just a few months ago approved $321 million to renovate the stadium, a project slated to begin next month and be completed by the 2012 season.

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The Golden Bears still have two open dates to fill for the non-league portion of their schedule in September 2011. Same goes for early 2012, but Cal will welcome Big Ten foes Northwestern and Ohio State in September 2013.

Monday Notebook

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Here are some notes as I begin a new week in Baton Rouge, five days away from Saturday's heavyweight bout between visiting No. 1 Florida and No. 4 LSU:

+ Cal is not a good football team. I strongly doubt that in the history of college football polls, a team has never followed up a No. 6 ranking by going out and losing two games by a combined score of 72-6.

+ From the sideline, I've watched USC in a Friday walkthrough and twice during pregame warmups, and Florida once during pregame warmups, and in each case you can't help but just feel that you're in the presence of an elite football team. Swagger isn't necessarily something a team has; to me it's more like what that team stirs inside of you when you watch it.

+ I get that powerhouses like to load up on a creampuff or two before playing someone tough or getting into conference play. But we're into October and I'm still really curious about what Texas can do. Beating a mediocre Texas Tech team by just 10 points at home tells me more about the Longhorns than do lopsided wins over Louisiana-Monroe and the like. I really think Alabama is more of a No. 2 team than Texas right now. The Tide don't appear to have any weaknesses.

+ The same goes for Penn State. Easy wins over Akron, Syracuse and Temple -- and presumably another one against Eastern Illinois this Saturday -- are unimpressive. I don't really remember the last time Joe Paterno had a strong team that played a marquee game in September.

+ Boise State won Saturday, but played poorly enough to drop from No. 5 to No. 6 in this week's poll. But despite the listless showing against Cal-Davis Saturday, the Broncos gain street cred when the Oregon team it manhandled five weeks ago won by huge margins its last two times out.

+ My Cincinnati friends are a little nervous about our No. 8 Bearcats' Thursday night tilt at South Florida on Oct. 15. UC is off this week, and then will face a USF team, though now ranked, that's without veteran quarterback Matt Grothe for the rest of the season. I think it could be like the season-opener at Rutgers all over again. Easy win for Cincinnati, which will take a 9-0 record into its home date against West Virginia on Friday, Nov. 13.

+ Seven of the AP's top 15 teams have a loss, and we still have more than two months of regular-season football left to play. Please stop describing the Armageddon when USC or Virginia Tech or Ohio State lose in September.

+ Iowa has more trouble with non-BCS teams than it does with the Penn States of the world. The Hawkeyes, 5-0, pulled off a stunner two weeks ago on the road when they beat the Nittany Lions, 21-10, but their two  closest calls have come at home, where they defeated Northern Iowa and Arkansas State by one and three points, respectively. By that logic, look for Iowa to rout visiting Michigan this weekend. Actually, I believe the opposite to be true. The No. 12 Hawkeyes will bolster the argument that the Big Ten is weak when they lose to no-longer-ranked Michigan on Saturday.

Soundbites: Cal Bears Expect Better Effort vs. USC

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

BERKELEY, Calif. -- It seemed like the reporters gathered around a few of Cal's football players Wednesday want Cal to beat USC more than the Cal players themselves want to trip up the Trojans.

That's not to say the Bears lack determination to topple the team that's won the last seven PAC 10 championships, but several expressed an attitude that reflected a sincere, we-want-to-win-but-it-won't-be-the-end-of-the-world-if-we-don't kind of attitude.

Running back and Heisman Trophy candidate Jahvid Best said if there's a different buzz around campus, he's too busy between classes and practice to notice. But he added that many guys on Cal's roster are from Southern California, so they'll be excited once kickoff nears on Saturday.

Fourth-year starter Syd'Quan Thompson, a first-team all PAC 10 cornerback, said the Bears appear to have gotten over Saturday's embarrassing loss at Oregon, as this week's practices are indicating a lively effort against the powerhouse Trojans.

Cal's Tedford Seems Tired Of Tedious Oregon Inquiries

By JOHN P. WISE 
One Great Season

BERKELEY, Calif. -- I spent a few hours at Cal's Memorial Stadium today, and boy will that be a great place to watch a college football game.

Shoot, it would be a great place just to take a nap.

Anyway, inside the stadium is where Cal coach Jeff Tedford speaks at his weekly media luncheon on Tuesdays, and the reporters who gathered there still were asking questions about Saturday's embarrassing 42-3 loss at Oregon.

It's clear that Tedford wants to focus on what's ahead -- a team called USC -- and forget about last weekend's surprising blowout loss.

Below is the video of Tedford reacting to yet another Oregon question, and below that is just a rough, minute-long pan shot of the tree-covered hills behind the east side of the stadium, then shots of San Francisco off in the distance to the west.