Sometimes, a program can own an area of the country for recruiting purposes. About 15 years ago, almost every top basketball recruit from Michigan headed to Missouri, of all places, until the NCAA began to get wise. For many years, Nebraska always snatched more than a few top athletes from Los Angeles every year; UCLA, in turn, built a series of great teams with players from Oklahoma and Texas. Now, Miami (FL), apparently not satisfied with dominating the "state" of Florida, had decided to make the Bay Area its own protectorate.

As a CAL alum, what's even more embarassing is that this particular recruit didn't even bother using the school for leverage, the way Dorsey and Williams did. Sad to say, the only Bears coach I remember ever getting the local kids to stay home was Todd Bozeman, and that experience didn't end particularly well for the University. In the meantime, CAL plays its first away game of the season Saturday in East Lansing, getting two touchdowns in what promises to be an indication of whether Jeff Tedford has really turned things around.