Perspective from ESPN

ESPN put up another article in its Pac-10 spring notebook series today. There’s no revelations, but it’s always interesting to hear what people are saying and what the media thinks. The main things it observes for Cal come from the first spring scrimmage:

• Joe Ayoob is still in the QB competition (they celebrate his stats during the scrimmage)
• Marshawn Lynch is looking like Reggie Bush
• In addition to DeSean Jackson and Robert Jordan (who’s mentioned as #1 receiver quality), tailback tandem Lynch and Justin Forsett are looking to be great possible receivers in the spread. Marcus O’Keith is mentioned as well.
• Also, Lavelle Hawkins (the JC transfer receiver who struggled last season) appears to have picked up more of the offense in the offseason.

Check out the full article here.

Two spread/QB articles with quotes

There’s two new articles out with great quotes from head coach Jeff Tedford and the battling QBs.

Former SF Chronicle writer Glenn Dickey discusses the spread with Tedford and also the QB situation. One important quote:

Glenn Dickey says: Who’s No. 1? “If we had to play a game tomorrow, it would be Nate,” Tedford said, “with the other three pretty much bunched behind him. But that’s not to say that Nate has the No. 1 spot cinched.”

The Oakland Tribune details the QB situation again, with a lot of quotes from Longshore, Levy, Ayoob, and Reed. See this article here.

Coaching, QB, etc.

An article in The Contra Costa Times has some news tidbits to check out:

Coach Jeff Tedford is keeping busy this spring break. He’s visiting Florida and West Virginia to observe their practices – both programs that implement the spread offense. It looks like he is serious about putting together some form of the spread. Also, Tedford is interviewing candidates for a new defensive backs coach (former DB coach J.D. Williams left to Washington).

Starting QB Nate Longshore is reported to still have “a little bit of a limp”, although it seems more habitual than indicative of pain. He’s looking more confident than ever in practice.

Also, OT Mike Tepper is back as first-string on the depth chart. He was the guy who missed all of last season after getting run over by a car. EDIT 4/7/2006: Read an article on him here.

Cal’s QB receives more media attention

Nate Longshore is gracing the front page of ESPN’s College Football site. It appears as if our QB is one of the big question marks in college football right now.

ESPN.com says: Cal should be one of the nation’s best teams in 2006. The Golden Bears have a stingy defense, two impressive tailbacks and downfield threats at wide receiver. But who starts at quarterback? Coach Jeff Tedford has four candidates to choose from this spring.

Nothing much is new in the corresponding article; it rehashes Longshore’s unfortunate history, this season’s QB battle, and the introduction of Mike Dunbar‘s spread to the offense.

However, it does note that “this could be a top-10 team… if things work out at quarterback.” Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Longshore named starter for Spring

This season’s QB competition has begun. Nate Longshore has gotten the starting nod again to begin Spring practice. He started last season only to be injured in the first game.

Looks like Tedford named him that by default, and the resulting winner could be any of the candidates (Longshore, last season’s disappointing Joe Ayoob, backup Nate Levy, and redshirt freshman Kyle Reed). See article in SF Chronicle for more info.
Our QB battle was recently named #4 in the Top 10 spring QB battles by ESPN columnist Bruce Feldman. He noted that while last season Ayoob “flopped”, Levy was fearless relieving him but didn’t “throw a pretty ball”. The wildcard will be Reed, who he describes as raw but showing good skills.

EDIT 3/29/2006: Longshore has also been picked as the winner of the QB battle in the #6 Top 30 Quarterback Battles on Fox Sports. Check it out.

Offense getting “tweaked” to spread

New offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar (hired from Northwestern) is wasting no time in updating the Bears’ offense.

The Mercury News is reporting that while Tedford’s offense isn’t getting a total overhaul, it is definitely receiving some “wrinkles” from Dunbar’s spread expertise. View the article here.

Also, AP also has an article detailing this:

Associated Press says: Although the Bears won’t abandon Tedford’s effective running game, they’ll spend the spring installing some aspects of the spread offense in the Bears’ game plan. Tedford, who played in spread offenses while he was a CFL quarterback, hopes to turn Cal into one of the nation’s most versatile offensive teams, able to run a spread-out passing game and Tedford’s more traditional running attack on consecutive downs.

And you thought Lynch was hard to tackle during his sophomore season. Imagine being a defense that doesn’t know whether Lynch will run the ball, catch a pass or line up as a receiver. I’m excited to see the strengths of Tedford’s balanced pass/run attack melded in with some of the spread. This should be a great season…