Given Berkeley’s history of fighting for freedom of speech it’s shouldn’t be all that surprising that Spokane, Washington native and current California Golden Bear linebacker, Evan Weaver proclaimed that the reason his team beat Washington last year was that his team had the better culture.
His comments stoked a rivalry that has lain dormant for a very long time.
All the same, California and Washington have never been bitter rivals. Not like that of the Apple Cup or the Border War between Oregon and Washington. Nonetheless, there will be plenty of intrigue to Saturday’s Pac 12 North matchup between Washington and California.
Shots Fired
While UW Coach Chris Petersen and Cal Coach Justin Wilcox engage in the typical “Coach Speak” exchanging pleasantries and mutual respect. Now it is clear that there is a new level of animosity bubbling beneath the surface in anticipation of this upcoming battle at Husky Stadium. Shortly after the Golden Bears took down UC Davis last Saturday Weaver was shooting off his mouth again saying “We’ll fly up there and we’ll beat (the Huskies) Saturday. That’s what we do.”
Washington Coach, Chris Petersen responded saying that words don’t matter, “We don’t pay attention to that. Not exactly a shooting match between teams but Husky fans took bait and plan on returning fire towards Weaver and his Bears with selected chants on Saturday night.
Ten Year War
It’s mildly surprising, but mostly amusing to Washington Huskies football fans to hear all of this tough talk from Weaver. Since Tyrone Willingham’s final season at Washington in 2008 the Dawgs have regained control of the series going 8-2. In fact, the Dawgs have dominated the Bears not just over the past 10 years…and the better part of the past 5 decades.
Growing up in the Spokane area Weaver will be forgiven for not knowing the rivalry history. He wasn’t around for most of the Huskies winning 19 straight from 1977-2001. In fact the only time, in the last 50 years, that Cal has regularly gotten the better of UW was when Washington was racing to the bottom of the conference in the early part of the century under Willingham.
66-27
Cal played an unfriendly host during the Athlon’s Preseason All-American freshman campaign in the 2016 game. That game began with a bit of taunting of Washington by the Golden Bears. They commemorated former running back, Marshawn Lynch’s 2006 joy ride in the trainer’s injury cart by handing out Lynch in the cart Bobbleheads. Then, prior to the Golden Bears taking the field, Lynch recreated his joy ride by zig zagging his way around the field in the cart.
In 2006 Lynch scored a go-ahead TD with just under 2 minutes remaining in regulation. The Bears’ Justin Forsett scored on the two-point conversion giving Cal a 24-17 lead. The Dawgs’ Marlon Wood hauled in a Cal-tipped 40-yard Hail Mary at the two and plunged into the end zone 2 seconds after time had expired. The extra point was good sending the game into overtime. Lynch scored in OT and Washington didn’t giving the Number 11 Bears the victory.
That’s when Lynch hopped into the trainer’s injury cart and weaved his way around the field. Under Head Coach, Tyrone Willingham, UW had their own foot in their own accelerator enroute to losing 6 straight before a 35-32 Apple Cup victory in Pullman.
Amid the sophomoric distractions in 2016 it was Cal that got run over, ran past, and run right out of their own stadium. Then-sophomore Jake Browning connected with John Ross and Dante Pettis for a combined for 14 catches for 312 yards and 6 TDs. The highlight of the night was John Ross virtually retracing Lynch’s path in the cart on a bomb from Browning.
With the ball on the Washington 33 yard line UW QB, Browning Ross hauled in the pass on the Cal 23 yard line, slammed on the breaks to shed one defender, ducked under an arm tackle of another, then, surrounded by 4 Cal DBs he looked dead in the water. He bounced outside and, with the help of Pettis, he found paydirt.
Seething on the Cal sideline was the seldom-used freshman, and Washington-native. In the 2015 recruiting cycle Weaver was offered a scholarship very late in the process by Coach Petersen and Weaver never waived in his commitment to Cal. In 2017 Hudson finished with 6 tackles as Washington dominated the Bears in Husky Stadium 35-7…setting off the Culture War.
Culture Club
The irony of Weaver’s “we have a better culture” comment is that Petersen and Wilcox were members of the same club a couple of times. Both were on Dennis Hawkins’ staff at Boise State in 2001 and 2002, Petersen as Offensive Coordinator and Wilcox as a Graduate Assistant.
After a stint at Cal as a linebacker coach Wilcox was brought back to Boise State as Petersen’s defensive coordinator in 2006. He was an integral part of Boise State’s perfect season in 2006 including the upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Between 2006 through 2009 Petersen and Wilcox teamed up to go 39-4.
Culture War
Coach Chris Petersen knows the value of an athlete who plays with a chip on their shoulder. And Weaver has plenty of chips on his shoulders. In 2018, with a slim 7-6 lead but a stagnant offense Chris Petersen sought a spark to the offense.
His only poker chip to play was backup QB, Jake Haener. Haener had come up aces in relief of Browning against North Dakota State. In that game Haener was 7 for 7 for 110 yards and a TD.
In this game Coach Petersen didn’t have full deck with which to play: No Chico McClatcher, no Myles Gaskin, no Hunter Bryant. The weight of the offense was on Browning’s shoulders. It was Chris Petersen against his former defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox…Coach Petersen blinked first. Haener threw a pick 6 to Weaver giving the Bears the lead that they would not relinquish.
Free speech
In the 60s and 70s Berkley was a bastion of free speech. Today, however, much is muted these days during the season on social media to keep players from saying things like Weaver said. In fact, former UW right tackle, Kaleb McGary was deemed “socially awkward” by a reporter in Atlanta this past summer. But McGary was anything like that. The first-round draft pick was simply guarded with his words in public so as to not offend anybody.
That stands in stark contrast to former Washington receiver Andre Desaussure’s well-publicised comment about WSU. He said, “I wouldn’t have taken a recruiting trip (to Pullman) even if they strangled me. I’d die first. It’s a place where you can go and have a good time, as far as there being a lot of drunk people.”
To this day Dessasure swears that he was told that the microphone was off. But it’s Coach Petersen who puts outside noise on mute saying that 21018 2nd Team All Pac 12 linebacker’s comments don’t matter. “It just matters how we play,” Petersen said.
