When I first found out about Cal beating Michigan St. I thought I was dreaming... literally. Earlier in the week, I found out from Ben Tao, a friend of mine, that there's a live link on the web that lets me hear Cal football. Immediately I got all excited. But then, I thought about the time difference... and I found out that the Saturday 9 AM PST kickoff time would be 1 AM Sunday here. To put this all in perspective, all I really have to say is, I am a missionary here. If I show up at church Sunday morning looking crazy tired because I was busy listening to a college football game until 4 AM... well, it won't be a good situation. Regardless, I was prepping up to listen to the game... until somebody put my head on straight. So, at about 1 AM I went to bed... but with the computer on, playing the game.
It's the weirdest thing, to be all excited when your body doesn't want to move because it's too tired and is already in the "get ready to sleep" mode. For those who followed the game, I was still awake for Jameel Powell's punt return for a TD. But I was definitely in bed. I had enough energy to maybe clinch a fist in celebration. But inside, I was jumping around with my mouth wide open... flailing those plastic blue and gold pom poms. Yes, inside, I probably looked like a complete idiot.
I was also awake for Christian-Jensen's 50+ field goal. I have to say, that guy's gone a long way. Last I saw him, he couldn't kick a 20 yarder. He had a reputation for kicking the goal posts... the actual posts. Yeah, you don't get any points for hitting the posts. It has to go between them. It was uncanny. I remember a home game in which he hit a goal post 3 times. 3 different tries. 3 consecutive tries. 0 points. After that game, anytime the Bears were within 30 years of the end zone and in a 4th and long situation, I'd go into "Madden mode" screaming at them to go for it. For those of you who aren't familiar with the football video game world, Madden mode means 4th and long situations are opportunities to chuck the football downfield hoping that a receiver'll catch it. 9 times out of 10, you'd get a 1st down. Maybe there are some things that don't carry over into reality from the video game world... but it didn't matter. Seeing a scholarship player not only miss a 15 yard field goal... but miss it by hitting the goal post is excruciating. I mean the only thing this scholarship player does is kick the ball... supposedly through the uprights (although you couldn't tell by watching the Cal special teams). He gets a free ride to school because he supposedly has an exceptional ability to kick a football. Anyway, the 50+ FG was another fist clencher. Maybe I squinted my eyes a little harder.
Everything after that was a blur. Somewhere I lost consciousness. But the game played on on my computer. And I swear i heard the final score... but that would've been sometime around 4 AM here. At the time I thought I was dreaming, so when I really did wake up in the morning, I checked ESPN and saw that it was reality! This has definitely become a different brand of Cal football. These guys actually win! "Gimme a C. Gimme an A. Gimme a L. What does that spell? Who are we? Who's gonna get ranked? Who just beat Michigan St? And who's gonna beat Air Force next week? Goooooo Bears!" (Yeah, I've become a bandwagon jumper)