Shane Vereen News

Monday, December 21, 2009 at 1:24 a.m. POINSETTIA BOWL UTAH vs. CAL Wednesday : 5 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium On the air: ESPN; 98.9 FM The Best player on either team will not play in Wednesdaya s San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

Tim Tebow called it the "petting zoo", the smothering publicity that comes with winning college football's highest honor.

The assumptions going into the final week of the college football season were that Cal would easily beat Washington and go to either the Sun Bowl or the Emerald Bowl.

Isi Sofele grew up in Salt Lake City, not far from the University of Utah campus.

Turns out, probably one point. You may have missed it last night, but Wisconsin pounded Hawaii, which needed a win to get bowl eligible.

SERIES HISTORY: Washington leads the all-time series 46-38-4, but the Bears have lost just once in the Jeff Tedford era THE STORY LINES: The Bears are trying to finish in a four-way tie for second place, which likely would land them in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve.

Cal may not be playing a team from a major conference in its bowl game this season, but based on how it performed in its 42-10 loss at Washington on Saturday, just having another game on the schedule will suffice.

For the last week and a half, the No. 19 Cal football team has fielded questions about the timing of its second bye.

A day after its lopsided loss to Washington knocked it from a potential second-place tie to a fifth-place tie in the Pac-10, the Cal football team accepted a bid Sunday to play in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec.

SERIES HISTORY: Washington leads the all-time series 46-38-4, but the Bears have lost just once in the Jeff Tedford era THE STORY LINES: The Bears are trying to finish in a four-way tie for second place, which likely would land them in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve.

The low rumble started in the student section in the first half and increased in volume as the minutes ticked by.

This is the opposite of what No. 19 California did two years ago. Back in 2007, the Golden Bears were on the cusp of taking over the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25 when they suffered a 31-28 loss to Oregon State.

It was quite a way to end the season. An upset victory on the road in arguably the biggest game on the schedule.

Make no mistake about it, the Washington Huskies' run defense has been atrocious over the last couple years.

With one game left on its regular-season schedule, the Cal football team can still finish this season with 10 wins, in a multi-way tie for second place in the Pac-10 and ranked in the national top 20.

Shane Vereen ran for a career-high 193 yards and three touchdowns on 42 carries and Mike Mohamed intercepted a pass from Andrew Luck at the 3 with less than 2 minutes left as California spoiled No.

The Cal offense started the game playing a familiar tune. On their first two offensive series, the Bears went for the big plays and crumbled when they could not execute them.

Comment: Given the location and opponent, this was Cal's best all-around performance since the 2007 victory at Oregon "... The gameplans were smart; Cal out-coached Stanford on both sides of the ball.

What's a California-Stanford Big Game without heart-wrenching drama? One of the more interesting endings in a rivalry full of interesting endings had Stanford turning it over on downs inside their 30 and still almost pulling out a win before upset-minded Cal triumphed 34-28 in the 112th Big Game.

California's Shane Vereen runs against Stanford in the third quarter of a NCAA college football game in Stanford, Calif., Saturday, Nov.