The Curse bites Bears again

  • Scott M. Johnson / Herald Writer
  • Saturday, September 29, 2001 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

BERKELEY, Calif. – This is what it feels like to be cursed – not that the California Bears needed another reminder. An entire generation of Cal football players, dating back to 1976, has gone into a game against the University of Washington without getting a win.

The last time the Bears beat UW, current Cal coach Tom Holmoe was a sophomore in high school. All but two players on the Bears’ roster weren’t even born.

So Cal’s 31-28 loss to the Huskies wasn’t an aberration. It was simply another memorable installment of what has come to be known around the Cal campus as The Curse. In 19 consecutive meetings, UW has come out on top.

“We haven’t beaten Washington since, what, nineteen-seventy-something? It would be sweet to be the team that beats them,” Cal’s junior quarterback Kyle Boller said. “I’m sure guys think about it. It’s not a big priority, but it’s in the back of your head.”

It looked like perhaps this was going to be the year. The Bears jumped out to a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter, held a 234-31 advantage in total yards, and controlled the game for almost the entire half. Then they were cursed once again.

“I thought this was the game,” Boller said. “Everything was going good, and then we just kind of hit a slump.”

So this is what it feels like to be cursed:

  • With a comfortable 14-0 lead and back-to-back scoring drives under its collective belt, the Cal offense was moving down the field again before wide receiver Charon Arnold fumbled the ball on his way to what would have been Cal’s 12th first down of the first quarter. Washington recovered, and scored on the next play when Cody Pickett hit Paul Arnold for a 42-yard touchdown pass.

  • After piling up 234 yards through the first two minutes of the second quarter, the Bears could muster only 136 the rest of the way.

  • In the end, with the game on the line, Cal couldn’t convert on fourth-and-2 from its own 36 because Boller’s perfect pass to wideout Sean Currin past the first-down marker went right through the receiver’s hands.

    Afterward, the Bears could only shake their heads, as if mystified by another comeback loss to UW.

    “That was a game that we should have put away,” Holmoe said a half hour after Boller’s final pass had fallen to the turf. “But we didn’t.”

    In between the obvious struggles, there were moments that could have only been attributed to the football gods.

    Boller’s fourth-quarter throw to Charon Arnold, who was wide open at the UW 20-yard line, should have been a 70-yard touchdown had the ball not floated helplessly to the turf a few yards out of the receiver’s range. The Bears watched in wonder as one Cal punt bounced off the back of a Husky special teamer, only to roll out of bounds, and after another hit UW return man Charles Frederick in the knee and harmlessly bounced close enough for Frederick to fall on it. On two separate occasions, Cal had players forgo easy first downs in favor of trying to make big plays – only to eventually be stopped short of the marker.

    “We’re looking in each other’s souls right now,” Holmoe said. “We’ve got to look deep inside and bring out the best in ourselves. The guys have some ghosts, and we’ve got to bring out the best.”

    The most ironic part about this game was that Cal had so badly outplayed the Huskies for the first 17 minutes. Offensive coordinator Al Borges drew up a flawless game plan that mixed quarterback rollouts, misdirection and a little bit of razzle dazzle, as the Bears built up a 21-7 lead.

    But then everything went sour again – just like it had last season, when the Bears took a 24-13 lead into the fourth quarter before giving up three touchdowns in the final seven minutes of a 36-24 loss. Saturday’s game saw Washington made the necessary defensive adjustments, while the Bears’ defense softened.

    Once again, the game slipped through Cal’s grasp. So no image could have better served as the Bears’ final play than the pass that Currin couldn’t handle.

    “Those things happen every now and then, I guess,” a visibly shaken Currin said afterward. “I just have to try and get it out of my mind. It’s going to be hard. I feel really, really bad.”

    Currin was hardly the sole defendant in this one, and a generation of Cal players before him know exactly how it feels.

    “We should have beat this team,” Currin said. “We had them. We had them on the ropes, but … “

    … but once again, The Curse had the final say.

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