Pre-season
Since Jeff Tedford took the Cal football coaching job after their dreadful 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 pre-season hype surrounding it, with the preseason AP Poll ranking the Bears #9, while the Coaches Poll rated them #12, 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."
Read more about this topic: 2006 California Golden Bears Football Team