We were driving across the bridge on the way to the stadium when our guests for the game asked, "What do you think is going to happen?" Well, I said, either one team will really pull away, or it'll be close and we still won't really know where these teams are in the pecking order. But it'll sure be a high-scoring game.

I think we are starting to get a picture about Cal. This team, especially the one in the first half, is exactly the team that the pundits expected when they were ranked in the top 10 to begin the season. The loss of Mixon has hurt the secondary, but otherwise we are seeing the swarming defense that we expected to see. Daymeion Hughes is a monster in the backfield -- he and his teammates seemed to know where Rudy Carpenter was going to throw it almost every time. And so Cal had four interceptions, scored in almost every way possible, and really pulled away rapidly after what is becoming a new Cal tradition: the Shaky Opening.

In three straight games, Cal has opened with a lousy offensive series and a lousy defensive series. And yet the team -- on both sides of the ball -- seems to adjust and get into the game, and then pull away from the opposition.

On offense, this game was a masterwork. Great passes by Longshore, awesome work by the receivers. Lynch was his usual self, refusing to go down and ripping off several long runs. Special teams were solid, with some fantastic punts and great returns. As I've already detailed, ASU cornerback Justin Tryon cheap-shotted Jackson on a punt return and deserves to be suspended. I should also mention that Lynch got another personal foul, and Tedford pulled him out of the game. In catching the TV replay I discovered what happened: Lynch whooped after the run, the long-haired ASU defender stood up and dropped an Eff You on Lynch, and then Lynch bumped him in the chest. Flag.

I want to give some praise to offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar, and not just because he's a family friend. This was a great game in terms of the play calling. After a turnover they went for a quick score to the corner of the end zone, and it was absolutely demoralizing for ASU. And even on a failed play -- Justin Forsett dropped the ball on fourth down late in the game for a turnover -- the Cal offense showed its ingenuity. The team lined up three receivers on the left, put one in motion to the right, and Longshore took the ball and faked the pitch right. Then he pivoted and flipped to Forsett, who was essentially standing on the empty half of the field, with nothing but daylight between him and the end zone. Guaranteed first down and pretty much guaranteed TD. A fantastic play call -- and Forsett dropped the ball. But still, great play calling.

There's a whole lot of season, including eight more conference games, to go. But on this sunny day in Berkeley, the season seems awfully bright.

Arizona State cornerback Justin Tryon, congratulations, you are today's Worst College Football Player In The World!

Here's the situation: Cal's up 28-7. DeSean Jackson has, in a matter of minutes, returned a punt 80 yards for a score and made a 52-yard reception that led to another Cal score. Cal's defense forces ASU to punt. Jackson goes back to field the punt.

Just as the ball is about to get there, Tryon looks up, sees that the ball isn't there yet, lowers his helmet and smashes into Jackson at full speed. Jackson spends five minutes on the ground. (He ends up getting up, bouncing off the field, and scoring a TD later, but it was a scary few moments when he was laid out.)

The stadium booed, I booed with them, and I've never been prouder to boo a college student.

The Second Worst Person In College Football today was the official who decided not to throw Justin Tryon out of the game. The Third Worst Person In College Football was ASU Coach Dirk Koetter -- already proven, via his ridiculous quarterback vacillations, as someone who is completely incompetent when it comes to dealing with his players -- who let Tryon keep on playing after the play, rather than sitting him down for even a single play.

On the list and rising: the Pac-10 officials who should review the tape and suspend Justin Tryon for his next game.

So, to recap: Justin Tryon sucks. He deserves to be punished severely for his terrible behavior.

This was a beautiful day, sunny with clear skies. The game was never really in doubt, even when Portland State picked off a pass early and ended up inside the 10. Curious play-calling at that point for a I-AA team known for their passing: run up the middle, run up the middle, run up the middle, field goal.

In our Undisclosed Location behind the visitor's bench, we got to see just how much smaller most of the Portland State players were than your run of the mill Pac-10 player. It's noticeable. And of course, that showed up on the field, especially when Cal rapidly sent out both the first-string and second-string Portland State QBs with injuries. (At one point Portland State moved their third QB to wideout and put wideout Tremayne Kirkland back at QB, and ran the option. It was actually pretty cool -- and Kirkland ended up tossing a touchdown pass on a trick play later.)

It was fun going to the game with a Portland State alum, the gentlemanly Curt Poff, and his lovely wife Ann. Curt seemed resigned to the outcome and several times repeated a version of the old Cal refrain: Maintain dignity, keep it close.

As for the Bears, who can say? They played listlessly in the second half, but the outcome was already taken care of and many of the starters had been subbed out. Longshore looked okay. Marcus O'Keith, in a performance similar to what he did against Washington last year, showed that he's easily the best third-string running back in the nation. And of course, Lynch's 71-yard touchdown run might as well have had a big, neon sign blinking HIGHLIGHT REEL on it. He just refuses to go down, and against Portland State's overmatched defense, he was able to kick outside and run forever.

Next week, perhaps, we'll meet a team that's somewhere around Cal's level. Above or below, who can say? But based on these three games I'm pretty sure we can't tell just how good Cal really is.

Um... maybe next week. This week, we got a little taste of winter. A heavy marine layer floated fog above the stadium for the entire game. It was cold and damp, and by the end of the game the good folks on Tightwad Hill were basically obscured by fog. The cannon was merely a loud rumor. It was chilly!

The game was a whole lot better. After the first few minutes, which eerily paralleled the opening of the Tennessee game, Cal -- and Nate Longshore -- settled down. Clearly last week Longshore was rattled by the crowd and the speed of the Tennessee players. This week he was calmer, stepping up in the pocket at the right times, finding his open receivers and delivering his passes accurately.

And as soon as Cal established the pass, the running game unfolded beautifully. In the second quarter, Marshawn Lynch had a run for the highlight reel. He was almost tackled right away, but lowered his head and bounced right off of the first tackler. Then he juked past a second, broke a tackle from a third, and ended up with a solid gain. The reason Lynch is special is that he simply refuses to go down. (Of course, he needs to be smart and protect the ball a bit better -- he lost two fumbles today, too.)

Lynch also got a personal foul today, which was shocking -- that's really not like him at all. DeSean Jackson got one, too, for throwing a punch at a Minnesota defender. Stupid. Hopefully the coaches can get that stuff under control -- it could make a difference in a closer game.

All told, Cal played as well as the score would indicate. Good play by the receivers (barring a few drops) and by the quarterback, and the running game was exactly what it should be. On defense, barring a couple of big plays, the defense did extremely well. Even the secondary, which was torched by Tennessee, held up pretty well.

So, to sum up: Cal settled down this week and played up to the team's potential. There's a lot of season left, but they certainly showed this week why they were so highly thought of coming into the season. Next week's a tune-up game, but I'm feeling much better about how the more difficult portion of this season is going to play out.

Now let's hope there's more sun and less fog next weekend.

I feel so foolish. I bought into this whole Cal-is-a-powerhouse business.... Cal is like that girl you convinced yourself was so perfect, but then something happened, and suddenly it all became clear.... I think if the Bears could knock off USC, they probably still would not get back into the top 15.

So let me get this straight. First you bought into the media hype that Cal was one of the best teams in the country and somehow Jeff Tedford was going to turn either Nate Longshore or Joe Ayoob into a top-flight NFL prospect. And now that they were beaten by Tennessee, Cal is actually terrible.

Okay, Feldman, I see that you live in a very polar world. Everything either smells like roses, or it smells like crap. I can see you're that kind of guy. But what about that last sentence of yours? Are you telling me that if Cal beats USC in November to go to, oh, let's say 10-1 or 9-2, that they'll be ranked lower than 15th? That's ridiculous. In that late-November scenario, a first-game loss on the road against Tennessee almost three months before will be forgotten.

And if Cal isn't 10-1 or 9-2 after the USC game, well, it won't be the loss at Tennessee that will have knocked Cal down in the rankings. It will be what came afterward.

But, hey, Bruce Feldman isn't the first person in the media world to take a feast-or-famine approach. There's very little room for shades of gray when it comes to sports commentators.

For an audio version of our adventures, you can download our second not-a-podcast, an MP3 file where we sit in an echoey motel room and talk to you.

Download MP3: 18 minutes, 3.9 megabytes.

(Update: It should actually work now.)

Also, here's a movie of Phil drinking a football full of beer.

For a verbal recap of our adventures, you can download our first not-a-podcast, an MP3 file where we sit in a room and talk to you.

Download MP3: 18 minutes, 4.1 megabytes.

A visit to the travel agency web site later, I discovered that a round-trip itinerary that took me through Knoxville on my way back to San Francisco would run me almost exactly as much as my usual SFO-BOS-SFO round trip on Jet Blue. And a ticket to the game: $50. In other words, for extremely little cash I could have my Southern College Football Trip of a Lifetime.

I mentioned this to Phil, and he gave me one of those noncommittal looks that I'd expect to see from him if we ever played poker. But a few hours later he walked into my office and told me that he was intrigued by my crazy idea.

To make a long story short, Phil managed to finagle his itinerary to pass through Tennessee as well, and so the Idiots Who Write About Sports will be among the 100,000+ throng at Neyland Stadium on Saturday to watch Cal kick off the college football season against the Volunteers.

We will try to cover our trip with ample photography and maybe even an audio report or two from the scene. For those of you who can not make the trip, we'll try to be your eyes and ears. And if you are making the trip, drop us a note so that we can hook up when we're in orange-land.

This would, as you might guess, suggest that SI believes that USC will defeat Cal the Saturday before Thanksgiving in a late-season showdown that will determine the Pac-10 title. There's no other possible explanation.

Except... the same piece lists three "Can't Miss Games" for the Pac-10. They are: Oklahoma at Oregon, Arizona State at Cal, and Notre Dame at USC.

Um, guys? If that Cal-USC game does involve two teams that are 7-0 in conference play, in what conceivable way would that not be the biggest "Can't Miss Game" in the conference this year?

Mystifying.

More mystifying? Cal at USC is listed at No. 6 in SI's Top 15 Games to Watch. So while you can miss the game, you must watch the game. Or something.

(For the record, SI predicts that Cal will finish 10-2 overall, suggesting that they will lose to USC and Tennessee.)

What makes this camp a Cal camp? Well, the script Cal is everywhere. Every pronouncement from a Camp official ends with "Go Bears." The tent next to us was occupied by a lovely family, the dad of which turned out to be a former Cal starting quarterback. One evening we got a presentation from Jim Michalczik, the Cal offensive line coach.

And then there's Mike White. We get to camp to check in, and a gray-haired gentleman who seems eerily familiar shakes my hand and says, "Welcome, I'm Mike White, and I'm the camp manager." That Mike White? Former Cal coach, Raiders coach, football coaching lifer?

That's the one. This year, Mike White -- a former staff member at the Lair of the Bear when he was young -- is running the show at Camp Blue. (And no, there's apparently no way that Al Davis can fire him from this job.)

All the Cal stuff aside, it was a great experience and we're going to go back next year. The kids loved it, and there's something to be said for being cut off from e-mail and cell phone service for a week, out in the clean air of the mountains.

But if you ever go to the Lair of the Bear, be warned: You will find someone, perhaps many someones, who will make you question your true commitment to Cal Football. I told a few people the story of how my family has had season tickets since the '60s. They were impressed. But when they asked, "So are you going to the Tennessee game?" I had to sheepishly answer, "no."

"Man, you gotta go!" said the former Cal QB in the tent next to ours. I felt a slight amount of shame. But, I mean, Tennessee? Sure, that would be the experience of a lifetime, but am I really going to fly away to Tennessee just to see Cal play the Volunteers in front of 100,000 screaming fans?

Turns out that I am. And I'm even taking Phil with me. But that's the topic of another blog post.

The two big stories this week: Cal's recruiting class and a new hire. Recruiting bores me, I have to admit. Apparently Cal's class was pretty decent, second or third in the Pac-10. USC, of course, gets your national blue-chip recruits. But Cal apparently did well, and has added to Jeff Tedford's huge pile of quarterback recruits.

Mike Dunbar is the new Cal offensive coordinator, and it's an odd situation -- he's kind of a friend of the family. My aunt, uncle, and cousin became his friends when they lived in Toledo and he coached at Toledo. Dunbar was most recently the OC for the #4 offense in the NCAA at Northwestern. Now he's teaming with Tedford at Cal. I might be able to make my Florida-residing family members Cal fans after all, thanks to Dunbar.

I hope he does well. Could make for awkward family gatherings if he doesn't!

In the past, both Stanford and Cal have sold season-ticket packages that included a ticket to the Big Game even if it was in the opposing stadium. That clearly will no longer be possible given the limited seating that could be available at Stanford.

I've got mixed emotions about this one. On one hand, I'm a bit sad if I don't have the opportunity to go to Stanford to see the Big Game when I want to. On the other hand, I'm sort of excited about not having to pay for an away Big Game ticket as a part of my season tickets, since one of the main reasons I schlep all the way down to Stanford at all is because I've already paid for the freakin' tickets.

In reality what's going to happen is, big-donor Cal people (and I might technically be one of those -- that's a soap opera for another day) will probably either get Big Game tickets or the option to buy them, but that the rest of the fans will be left on the short end of the stick. Of course, if they handle the Big Game like they handle Bowl games, the people who eschew the Cal ticket office and just buy tickets from Stanford will end up with better seats, while I'll be sitting in one of those 10,000 crappy "portable seats" at Stanford.

Wait a second. We didn't go to Las Vegas. Phil and I are instead sitting on my couch watching this game on ESPNHD.

Go Bears!

(Update: Victory! More when I'm rested and don't feel crappy. Sick twice in two weeks -- not cool.)