BERKELEY, Calif. – For 30 minutes I felt like a genius for thinking Illinois would upset No. 15 California. Then I came tumbling back down to earth.

Lucky for me, I had a few Illinois football players to break my fall.

The Illini were bound to lose this year, but like my homework, I figured I could put off the idea for just a little longer.

Down 10 at halftime, Cal came back using what worked so well on its first scoring drive – sweeps, screen passes and outside runs.

Illini linebackers and linemen couldn’t keep up with play, making it easy for Cal backs to barrel into the secondary each time. Of Cal’s 415 total yards, 177 came from outside runs or screen passes.

The Bears’ 28-point second half was a stark reminder to Illinois fans who thought the rebuilding process ended after the first half against Rutgers.

Surprisingly, Cal fans were sympathetic. Maybe it was because just four years ago, Cal was 1-10 and beginning to rebuild as well.

In 2001, they fired Tom Holmoe and hired Jeff Tedford who resurrected the ailing program. Outside of football, Cal is a lot like Illinois’ sister school, only with scenery. Their mascot is named Oski and they have a well-respected engineering school.

So, how far away is Illinois from following in Cal’s football footsteps and building a winning program?

Senior wide receiver Kendrick Jones said he doesn’t believe the team is far off at all, and neither does head coach Ron Zook.

“I’m encouraged from the stand-point that we might not be as far away as people think,” Zook said. “That’s a good football team we played today.”

But in order to beat a ranked team, not just play with them, Illinois has to fix what Cal exposed Saturday – special teams and both lines. In the second half, Cal’s linemen finally began to consistently punch through the Illinois line, hurrying Brasic, and forcing him out of the pocket for minimal or no gain. As a result, Brasic tightened up and couldn’t throw downfield, instead opting to run and waste valuable clock.

“Our goal was to come in here and go for a win, don’t get me wrong,” Zook said. “But by the same token, when you’re playing not to lose, you’re not playing aggressively enough.”

Cal’s two-score lead with eight minutes left in the fourth also exposed the Illini’s lack of a deep threat. In situations where the Illini need a lot of yardage quickly, a ground-based offense falls apart.

Once Cal’s offense found Illinois’ weakness, the Illini were helpless. It wasn’t long before missed tackles and assignments started piling up, allowing the Bears to run a second-half clinic.

“Obviously I’m disappointed in the way we tackled,” Zook said. “We were in a position to make plays, and we just didn’t get them on the ground.”

No doubt the Illini have improved, but are still at least a year from winning Saturday’s game.

“There’s no reason why we couldn’t play these guys toe-to-toe,” Zook said. “We did for two and a half quarters, and we can do that in the Big Ten too.”

Thoughts and Second Thoughts

Saturday’s first half was the football game nobody saw. Instead, Illini fans were treated to a four-hour Indiana/Kentucky pass-a-thon. Had incomplete passes translated into ratings, this was the Super Bowl.

Who cares if Steve Weatherford can punt 50-yards when the coverage misses three tackles, and teams take it for six.

Not only did Cal shoot themselves in the foot with penalties in the first half, but also each questionable call went Illinois’ way. When the luck ran out, so did the Illinois lead.

At least everyone can sleep better tonight knowing Notre Dame won’t be playing for the National Championship either.

Dan Berrigan is a senior in engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].