Saturday, College Football Odyssey embarked on its ninth doubleheader day in its 60-year history.   Perfectly mimicking the bizarro world that 2024 college football has become,  we witnessed the first ever ACC home openers for both Stanford and Cal.  Pappy Waldorf and John Ralston must be spinning in their graves!

In the wake of Stanford’s disspiriting 31-7 loss to Virginia Tech, the Odyssey again wonders if Stanford should even bother to stay on the football carousel.  If few are willing to show up on a beautiful (if warm) afternoon, why should the Cardinal bother? The Odyssey concludes that those in Palo Alto must have exciting weekend activities since said activities surely do not involve football attendance at both a beautiful setting and an attractive stadium.

If Stanford QB, Ashton Daniels, had not tweaked his ankle the previous Saturday against Clemson, Stanford would have had a fighting chance because Virginia Tech played an indifferent game, perhaps due to the combination of a mostly empty stadium, jet lag and the overruled Hail Mary the previous week against Miami.

Daniels’ standin, Justin Lamson, was simply not up to the job.  When Stanford was driving for a key first half TD, Lamson coughed up a costly  fumble near the goal line.  His passing ineptitude castrated the Cardinal’s #1 offensive weapon, wide receiver extroardinaire, Elic Ayomanor.  For Ayomanor to have been delivered the ball consistently in this snoozer, Stanford would have needed to hire FedEx.  Stanford’s tiny band was entirely in keeping with its football squad.  Eminently unimpressive.  In days gone by, the band was much more irreverant and fun:  Such as featuring a large placard showing the classes taken and grades of the fictional Mick Dumbstud when playing at USC.  There simply was no fun in Palo Alto Saturday afternoon.

The Odyssey made two key mistakes on Saturday.  The first was taking Lovely Liliane’s grandson to the Stanford game.  Oh no!!  His first college game.   Perhaps his last after this sordid saga.  Now if we had only taken him to the evening game at Cal!

For the Cal game experience will be imblazoned in the psyche of the Odyssey for the rest of our life.  As it will for the rare (and spirited) sellout crowd in Strawberry Canyon.  Gameday made its first appearance in Berkeley.  The supposedly laid back Cal fans turned Gameday’s appearance into an all-night rave as many camped out all night before Gameday took the air at 6AM PDT.

An undefeated Miam team made the 3,000 trip for a 7:30PM start time that had to be tough on their body clocks.  That Cal would take a 21-10 halftime lead only added to a festive halftime that included 155 alumni band members and an out-of-this-world light show.

The third quarter would only get better for the Cal faithful.  Two more TD’s made this a 35-10 affair that was almost a laugher.  ALMOST, being the operative word.  Miami QB, Cam Ward, a Heisman favorite going into the game, had been repeatedly harrassed by Cal’s pass rush and gifted the Golden Bears a Pick 6.

I almost pulled the ripchord and left at this juncture.  Due to a car snafu, I had to resort to a long Lyft ride from San Mateo and was very wary of getting a driver for a return trip late at night.  Staying proved to be as interesting as witnessing an 8-car pileup on I-880.

When you have a 25-point lead well into the third quarter, coaches face a dilemma.  How conservative should one get?  Cal was quite conservative.  The Golden Bears had not sprinted off to their large lead by a bulldozing rushing attack.  Instead, Jadyn Ott, star of the memorable “Ott To Go” spoof, had largely been held in check (Cal wound up with only 73 yards on 25 rushes).  Cal had ridden the wave of three 50+ yard gains and its Pick Six to its 35-10 cushion.

However, Cam Ward was far from done.  Toss in a tiring Cal D and the Golden Bears had a recipe for unimaginable disaster.  The pass rush vanished in the 4th quarter as did the Cal lead in the final 30 seconds.  Ward finished with a whopping 437 yards of passing.

For the 2nd straight week, the U benefited from a controversial call.  With Cal nursing a 38-32 lead, the officials reviewed a call for targeting.  If so, Cal would have had a vital first down and very likely the game.  When the partisan crowd saw the play on jumbotron, they wildly cheering an imminent targeting call.  The verdict: no targeting and a jeering crowd.

For both teams, the consequences of the game’s outcome were colossal.  Miami gets to keep tightroping in its undefeated year.  For Cal, an immense opportunity lost.  The Golden Bears had not played in a Rose Bowl game since 1959 despite some megawatt stars.  During the Odyssey’s lifetime, consider Cal’s best quartet of QBs:  Steve Bartkowski, Joe Roth, Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff.  How many other programs can compare to this illustrious foursome?  Yet, Cal regularly figures out a way to shoot itself in the foot.

I contemplated massive frustration and loss while I stewed in downtown Berkeley past midnight.  I did finally get a ride and got to sleep by 2:15AM.  Regardless, I feel sure I wound up with more sleep than Justin Wilcox.