A Look At the Cal Bear's Offense: Far From Bare

Today there seems to be a great amount of information on the Cal bears but most of it is of little use. Mainly, there are writers who know about as much about football as they do about, well, you know what General Patton said.

All seem petrified about picking the Bears any higher than fourth in the Pac-10 based on Cal’s breakdown last year. Basically, I would like to add my two cents.

Quarterbacks

Though it seems to be the unpopular decision, the Bears are better off in the hands of Nate Longshore than Kevin Riley. Riley’s run at the end of the Oregon State game was no fluke. This is not based on him as a player but his experience in the system. This will be Longshore’s fourth year in the Tedford system; such a length of time gives a quarterback a familiarity with the system. This, in turn, allows him to look through his first through fourth or fifth receiver.

Younger quarterbacks, like Riley, are prone to running the ball after going through their first and second read. The lack of familiarity would also affect play calling, a younger quarterback will not be able to run a good percentage of the play book.

This could lead to a) the play caller not calling the right play, b) the right play being called but the lack of familiarity of the quarterback causes the play to be executed poorly, or c) the offense playing to the strengths of the young quarterback by running a limited playbook, which good defenses will pick up on.

Longshore has become the Cal Bears' Phillip Fulmer, people tend to forget how talented he really is. Cal fans seem to focus on the failure of his last six games rather than the promise and his consistent play of his first 15 games. All of Cal’s most recent big wins have come from the hand of Longshore. They include a 42-21 stomp down of No. 22 ASU, a 45-25 drubbing of No. 11 Oregon, a 45-10 shellacking of No. 21 Texas A&M in the 2006 season. Also, the 45-31 run around of No. 15 UT and the 31-24 defeat of No. 11 Oregon.

We should note that in many of these games Cal was expected to lose. Longshore combines a very strong arm with good pocket awareness and a familiarity of the system.

Don’t get me wrong, Riley is a good quarterback, I would feel comfortable with him running the offense. That being said, Longshore puts the Bears in a better position to win every game. I would suppose that we will see Riley play often, but Longshore should be the starter and the player in the behind center when the game is on the line.

Running backs

The last time there were this many questions surrounding the Cal running back situation, some guy named JJ Arrington emerged and rushed for 2,018 yards at 7.0 yards a pop. I am not too worried about the running backs.

Jahvid Best possesses phenomenal speed and is not a track guy playing football, but a football player. One worry would seem to be his durability; hopefully Shane Vereen or Tracy Slocum will emerge as a solid backup to Best. Though, the two will likely split time in the backfield.

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