Poinsettia Bowl: First Impressions of Cal-Utah Game

San Diego, CA—The blue and gold team hit the field like a kid in the doctor's office waiting room right before getting a vaccination shot. A little tense, a little unsure and frankly, not very excited. Apparently, the fans have taken a similar stance.

Outside the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot, a group of Cal fans shook their heads and said, "I hope the Bears don't play like the Beavs did against BYU." They weren't joking, and it's that lack of confidence from the fans that seems to have directly hit the team.

Maybe it's because Jahvid Best, the preseason and early-season Heisman contender, isn't, well, contending. Or maybe it's the fact that the Bears haven't really lived up to preseason projections for seven years.

Instead of the Rose Bowl, it's been the Insight Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl and Emerald Bowl. And now, the Poinsettia Bowl.

Disappointing season again? Yes. But maybe football fans need to be gently reminded that since Jeff Tedford arrived at Berkeley, Cal had been to just five bowls since 1959. This is progress. It's just been sort of stuck in neutral for awhile.

Contrast that sort of progression with Utah's. The darlings of the non-BCS Conferences, the Utes have already two, count 'em two, BCS trophies. And good argument for why they should have been in the title game last year. 

The Utes are fired up. The team took to the field forty-five minutes before game time and engaged in a little smack-talking with some hibernating Bears who just arose from their pre-game slumber. It was almost surreal.

Even the schools' media guides portray a stark contrast in where the teams are going. Cal had a xeroxed copy black and white bowl media guide with a semi-gloss cover in the media room at the stadium, as well as a xeroxed email informing us that due to the fiscal crisis in California, the school has decided not to supply 2009 team media guides. (We kind of figured that out when Cal bussed its players down to to the UCLA game, but thanks for the reminders, guys.)

Utah, on the other hand, supplied the press with a beautiful glossy 2009 team media guide, conference media guide and bowl media guide with "Decade of Dominance" as their theme.

First impressions are everything.

With a seating capacity of around 65,000, the estimated crowd with less than thirty minutes to game time is about 8,000. And most of the fans are wearing red and white.

So far, Utah looks like the winner on and off the field. How that plays out remains to be seen.