Conference Pacific-10 Conference AP No. 14 Offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar (1st year) | Coaches No. 14 2006 record 10–3 (7–2 Pac-10) | |
Head coach Jeff Tedford (5th year) | ||
The 2006 California Golden Bears football team represented the University of California, Berkeley in the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They played their home games at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California, and were coached by Jeff Tedford.
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The Bears began the season with a number 12 ranking. After sustaining an upset by then number 23-ranked Tennessee in their opening game, the Bears won their next eight games before suffering another upset to unranked Arizona followed by a subsequent loss to then number 4 USC. All of these defeats came in away games. The Bears qualified for a share of the Pac-10 title after USC was upset by rival UCLA the following week. The team made its second Holiday Bowl in three years, blowing out #21 Texas A&M and finishing the season ranked #14.
Preseason
Since Jeff Tedford took the Cal football coaching job after their 1–10 2001 campaign, Cal saw an immense improvement in its football program, having five straight winning seasons from 2002 to 2006.
This particular Bears team, with a wealth of talent returning from their previous season, had a good amount of preseason hype surrounding it, with the preseason AP Poll ranking the Bears 9th, while the Coaches Poll rated them 12th, their highest ranking since 1952. After a season-ending injury in the first game of the 2005 season, sophomore Nate Longshore was named the starting quarterback for the Bears over Joe Ayoob, who had struggled in the 2005 games that he had started. After a very impressive season, Cal also launched a program to officially campaign for running back Marshawn Lynch to win the Heisman Trophy.
In the College GameDay preview on ESPN, Lee Corso predicted the Bears to win the Pac-10 championship over the USC Trojans, and even went as far to say the Bears would win the national championship over West Virginia, saying "they play a tough schedule, but they could lose to Tennessee and still run 11 straight ball games. I like Cal...I'm telling you, it's Cal versus West Virginia, and then Cal wins it; the national title goes to Cal."