Alex Mack News

Highlights: Derreck Halicki rushed for 260 yards and three touchdowns to life the Bears past the Bengals in a close contest.

You win some, you lose some and sometimes you're just better off without Jay Cutler .

LAKE FOREST – The word is out among NFL teams about how to stop the Bears' pass rush.

A dozen Browns missed practice Wednesday with flulike symptoms, which is more than a quarter of the team's game-day roster.

Highlights: Brandon Leyh threw touchdown passes to Sean Oa Neil, Jacob Rogers and B.B. Uppal, and ran two yards for another major score to lift the Longhorns.

Highlights: Kicker Troy Klassen was a perfect four-for-four on convert attempts, and also kicked a single on the opening kickoff, booting the ball through the end zone.

Highlights: A touchdown pass to Jeremy Reid and four points from kicker Kam Gill lifted the Bears to a win.

It took barely three hours on a gorgeous day in the Pacific Northwest for the entire conversation about Cal football to change.

The fashionable say brown is the new black. After the Browns ' deflating loss in Denver on Sunday in their inimitable chocolate pants, do we dare extrapolate that to say is the new Ken Dorsey and Cleveland is the new Detroit? The former is unfair.

The secret's finally out: Brady Quinn will start the Browns' season opener. Quinn beat out Derek Anderson in a summer-long competition, and was announced as Cleveland's starter an hour before Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings.

We'll have more on 12th-ranked California throughout the week, but I just wanted to share some early thoughts on one of the more intriguing teams in the country.

Eric Mangini insists he hasn't decided on a starting quarterback heading into tonight's preseason finale in Chicago.

Maybe you've heard - Jahvid Best might be pretty good this season. Fans think Cal's fast-twitch halfback will be better this season than he was last season.

3 vs. USC. Both teams could be ranked in the top five when they meet in Berkeley.

BEREA: After one of the Browns' training camp two-a-days, rookie center Alex Mack couldn't take the heat.

22. What I said in last year's preview: The Countdown believes the 2008 Golden Bears will more closely resemble the 10-win team of 2006 than the disappointing 2007 squad that disappeared down the stretch.

Kevin Riley, above, looked and talked like an accomplished quarterback in training camp - poised, accurate and fully aware of his leadership duties.

There are by unofficial count 49 college football awards, and we say unofficial because a new one crops up every time a sponsor can be found to fit a pretext; "Hey, we got some money from FedEx; let's make an award for the best long snapper in the country." Of these 49 awards, Cal's Jahvid Best is eligible for seven, unless of course he has designs ...

If there was one starting position in the Browns' lineup that seemed almost written in stone coming into training camp, it would be at center.

Pat Forde stopped by to chat Monday, ostensibly to talk about his column on the biggest villains of all time in college football.