BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -For California, last year’s cross-country trip to play Maryland turned into a lost weekend full of bad memories that still haunt the Golden Bears.
From the loss to an unranked opponent to the sight of star Jahvid Best on his knees vomiting following a hard hit, the 12th-ranked Bears feel like they owe Maryland something when the two teams open their seasons Saturday at Cal.
“Revenge I guess is a pretty strong word,” Bears coach Jeff Tedford said. “Redemption may be a little bit better just because we didn’t play well last year. It’s not the revenge of what they did to us, it’s the redemption of what we did to ourselves.”
That starts with Tedford’s decision to fly cross-country the day before the game, giving his players little time to acclimate themselves to the time difference. With the game starting at noon – or essentially 9 a.m. for the Cal players – the Bears looked half asleep at the start.
rapins ambushed them with two quick touchdown runs by Da’Rel Scott and led 21-3 one play into the second quarter. It was 28-6 midway through the third before the Bears finally appeared to wake up with three fourth-quarter touchdowns that led to the 35-27 final score.
“They came out here one day early, not really expecting the time difference to mean anything,” Maryland defensive tackle Travis Ivey recalled. “It was kind of like they were sleepwalking out there. I know they’ll be ready to play. I’m sure they thought they were the better team. I know they want this pretty bad.”
The Cal players refuse to use the time difference or early start as an excuse for the loss, saying they simply weren’t prepared to win the game.
They were often confused on defense as Maryland played at a fast tempo and the Bears found their groove too late for it to matter.
“It’s a game that we felt got away from us real early in the game,” cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson said. “If we had a couple more minutes on the clock we think could have pulled it off and got the win last year. We’re looking forward to the challenge again. We get a chance to redeem ourselves and start this season off on a good step.”
Whether the travel and unusual start time were a factor or not, the Terps are doing their best to remove that issue from the equation. With this year’s game starting at 7 p.m. local time – or essentially 10 p.m. for the Maryland players – staying awake is a bigger issue than waking up.
The Terps arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday having been ordered to stay awake on the flight. Quarterback Chris Turner, a Californian who has frequently flown cross country, thinks leaving a day early will eliminate jet lag as a factor come Saturday.
“It seems like everyone you ask thinks it was an issue last year,” Turner said. “You’d have to ask them; I don’t know. Maybe it was. It seemed like it was, that’s for sure. But we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it’s not a factor for us. We don’t want to have that as an excuse.”
With the travel less of an issue, Maryland can focus its energy on stopping Best, perhaps the most explosive running back in the country. Best ran for 1,580 yards last season, averaging a school-record 8.1 yards per carry. He scored 16 touchdowns and had seven runs of at least 60 yards.
But Best was held to a season-low 25 yards rushing at Maryland last year and was on the wrong end of the most memorable highlight from the game. In the second quarter, Maryland cornerback Kevin Barnes got a running start and struck Best squarely in the chest during an ill-fated swing pass.
Best hit the ground quicker than the ball, and it took several minutes before the standout running back got to his feet. As the cameras zoomed in for a close-up on the fallen Best, he vomited. The hit became an instant YouTube classic.
Barnes is no longer with the Terps and there are plenty more differences on the Maryland defense. New coordinator Don Brown has brought an attacking-style defense, whereas last year’s team preferred to sit back in zones.
The change has forced the Bears to study tape of Massachusetts, as well as Maryland to see what Brown’s defenses looked like last year.
“Any time you go into something like this it’s unsettling not to have anything on tape of their people,” Tedford said. “It would be nice to have one game on them from this year but we don’t. There will be some adjustments that need to be made during the game so we’ll be very focused on what’s going on.”
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