Maxx Wolfson

BERKELEY, Calif. - Walking around the UC-Berkeley campus a day before the big football game, I thought it would be interesting to see how the students at Cal were preparing for what could have been the biggest game in the Pacific 10 Conference all year. OK, so the game between two teams with a combined conference record of 0-10 didn't really attract national attention, but I still wanted to see what the students thought.

Between protesting and studying, I thought the students of Cal must be into athletics too. Boy, was I wrong.

I headed toward Bancroft Street right at the end of the campus. The street resembles Fourth Avenue here in Tucson, if you can catch my drift.

I first went up to one guy who looked like he might have known a thing or two about football.

He looked like he was 25, was wearing a wrinkled Cal T-shirt and had dreadlocks.

I said, "Hi, I'm from Tucson and wanted to know what you thought about the game tomorrow."

The guy replied, "Do you have any money for LSD research?"

Guess students are more into academics than I first thought.

I didn't give up hope, though. I wanted to find somebody who knew there was a football game.

Walking around lost, I stumbled into an anti-war protest.

There was an older Asian man on a box with signs all over his body saying "War equals more terrorism" over and over.

I thought it would be best to save my next question of which quarterback - Kyle Boller or Reggie Robertson - he wanted to start Saturday's game for another time.

I was about to run out of time before I had to make it across the Bay Bridge - on the same day terrorist threats were made on all West Coast bridges - and I still couldn't find anyone that wanted to talk Cal football.

C'mon, this is a school that has produced such great NFL players like Iheanyi Uwaezuoke, Kato Serwanga and Mawuko Tugbenyoh. The history here is endless.

I know, it's been a rough season at Cal, but at least they have a good marching band. Instead of playing some of the alternative music the Pride of Arizona plays, they have whole themes dedicated to Bon Jovi and Michael Jackson. Plus, the formations the band creates make the reversible UA that the Pride uses look like a high school production.

Finally, I spotted this one girl sipping on a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette. I heard that was also the same pre-game meal that Cal safety Jameel Powell has. No, it really isn't but after what Bobby Wade did to him Saturday afternoon, he might want to try switching to Wheaties.

I knew the girl would be perfect.

She actually knew that there was a football game the next day.

I told her the reason that I was in Berkeley was that the Arizona Daily Wildcat sent me to the game because our editor in chief actually thought we had a chance to win. Plus, he wanted to make sure somebody was there to witness it because he felt it might be the only conference win of the season.

I found out - after asking her more questions about the guy juggling fire right next to us - that she was actually going to the game.

Like me, she also felt that her team had a chance to win the game.

After a couple more minutes of talking, I asked her where the stadium was. She said she had no idea but that she had been there a hundred times. What are they feeding the students at Cal? Can a lack of meat in your diet really warp your mind that much?

Our conversation ended early after we saw two people get into an argument about God knows what. I guess one student was from Cal and another was from some other Bay Area college. The Cal student definitely put up the better fight and the girl I was talking to ran over. She later told me it was the first time she saw Cal anything win this year.

Maybe the football team should have taken lessons, because they couldn't put up a fight against the Wildcats.