Bleacher Report - Articles by Rorik Strindberg

Short and Early Review of Cal Bears Football Season

Rorik Strindberg — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:43:36 -0500

Cal Offense

O-Line

Two issues have plagued the Cal offense this year. The first being injuries on the offensive line. Tepper has not played a down this year, Malele is out, so is Teofilo, as is Guarnero. That, folks, makes four starters out.

To add injury to injury, much of the backups on the OL have been out or on the injury list also, most prominently Schwartz.

Redshirt freshmen Justin Cheadle and JUCO transfer Donovan Edwards are regular starters. Possibly Cal should have taken Kevin Hart, the fake recruit from Nevada. (I am being facetious here.)

Something’s amiss in the passing game.

This issue, specifically related to the running game, has exacerbated issues with the timing of the passing game. I do not claim to know the intricacies of the Cal Offence, so I can’t lay blame on the wide receivers or the quarterbacks.

Most, if not all, college and pro teams run at least some routes that change based on the coverage. This often happens with pres coverage, either cover 2 or cover 3 cloud, the receiver against cov2 will likely run a fade rout against this coverage. Against cov3 cloud, the route may vary.

Without knowing the Cal offense, and watching hours of game film, I can not discern who is to blame, and it is rather trivial. The main issue is that something is not working.

With Cal this year, something is wrong with the communication between WR’s and QB’s. This manifests itself in the low completion percentage; the problem becomes more apparent in close games.

Overall, Nate Longshore leads Kevin Riley in completion percentage, 58.6 percent to 50.2 percent; both are exceptionally low. Last year, Riley completed 64.3 percent of his passes and Longshore 59.9 percent.

While the Longshore percentage is not much different, but it is still lower, Riley has gone from completing about ⅔ of his passes to ½. The percentage is exacerbated in close games. Note the chart;

Hate to live in the past, but Longshore should have played all season.

Riley (close games)

Date game % Comp.-Att.

8/30 MSU 70.8 17-24

10/18 U of A 36.8 7-19

11/1 U of O 58.3 7-12

11/8 USC 25.0 4-16

11/15 OSU 44.0 11-25

Total average in close games: 47.9

Longshore

8/30 MSU 60.0 3-5

10/4 ASU 60.7 17-28

11/1 U of O 48.1 13-27

11/8 USC 73.3 11-15

Total average close games: 58.6

One suppressing figure is the number of sacks given up by Riley: 18 on 203 pass attempts. This means that Riley was sacked 8.8 percent of the time he dropped back to pass (almost one of every ten passing plays).

Longshore was sacked four times on 133 attempts, or 3.0 percent of the time (one sack per 33 passes).

While this may the result of the play calling and game situation, the difference is astounding. (though in Riley’s defense, he did throw fewer interceptions, 5 in 203 passing attempts vs. 4 on 133). though the percentage is really not too different, 2.4% of Riley’s passes when for picks where 3.0% of Longshore’s did.)

This year

With any luck, Riley improves against Stanford. Riley will be the starting quarterback next season and needs improvement to help Cal maximize their offense’s potential.

Hopefully, OSU and USC win out, which would get both OSU and USC in BCS games, giving Cal a better bowl game. I expect Cal to beat Stanford in a difficult game, and UW with less difficulty.

Next Year

The move to a 3-4 defense was a success, and I would like to see it continue. Though Cal will lose Williams, Follett, and Felder. One should expect little drop-off from Mohamed, Young, and hopefully DJ.

Holt becomes the player in the middle that recruiting and practice notes predict. As for the DB’s, Cal will lose Thompson, but Ezeff, Hagan, Conte, Johnson and Cattouse should form solid DB’s. The D-line will be exceptional with, Alualu, Jordan, and Hill.

Hopefully, the line will be better and the quarterback and receivers will be on the same page.

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

Rorik Strindberg — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:59:20 -0400

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.

If one emerges, the team could do some exciting things with Best, including motioning him out of the backfield. They can see who matches up with him, line him up in the slot and throw him screens or passes to the flats and run reverses. This would not only make him less likely to take big hits but could give defensive coordinators fits about getting the right personnel on the field and worrying about giving up quick touchdowns.

Will Ta’ufo’ou seems to be a serviceable fullback who can catch, block, and run for short yardage.

Receivers

The receivers are the largest question on the team. But the question is not if there are any good receivers on the team but rather who will emerge and at what time? Nyan Boateng, Michael Calvin, Marvin Jones, Verran Tucker, and Jeremy Ross all seem to possess the ability become starting receivers.

Who will learn the playbook the best? Which will get on the right page with the starting quarterback? Who will gain confidence in the system? The answers to these questions are unknown and the longer they linger the less successful the offense will be.

If I were a betting man, I would pick Boateng and Calvin for their size and athletic ability. However, factors like their hands, the ability to read coverage, to adjust routs, and their knowledge of the playbook are also important. I lack any accurate manner of speculating on this matter.

The loss of Craig Stevens at tight end could have been a bigger issue then it will be. Cameron Morrah is an exceptionally athletic tight end and should make people forget the hands of Stevens. The major issue will be the loss of Stevens’ blocking; to address this, the coaching staff has made defensive end Tad Smith a tight end.

This has worked better than expected, Smith is said to have surprised the coaching staff with his soft hands. Again, this could allow the coaching staff to move Morrah around the field creating mismatches. Becoming a Teyo Johnson-like receiver/tight end, and relieving pressure on a question riddled receiving core.

Offensive Line

The Cal offensive line has consistently produced high yards per carry and low sack numbers. In 2006, the line led rushers to a 6.1 yards per carry average and gave up just 25 sacks on the year. In '05, 5.8 ypc and 23 sacks, in '06, 5.0 ypc and 13 sacks, and in '07, 4.9 ypc and 11 sacks. This could be attributed to two issues; good recruiting and development of players and solid playbook.

Cal generally runs a zone blocking; the advantage of this system is that o-linemen have fewer plays to remember. This allows plays to be thoughtlessly executed. The simplicity of the zone-blocking system allows the O-line to spend more of their practice time on other aspects of the game, i.e. pass blocking.

The personnel of the offensive line seem to be strong. Alex Mack, Noris Malele, and Mike Tepper return. Mark Boskovich and Chet Teofilo seemed to perform solidly in their playing time last season and should be counted on as solid players. Given the place in recruiting and information coming out of practice, Chris Guarnero, Kevin Bemoll, Mitchell Schwartz and Matt Laird should be serviceable backups.

Schwartz is said to be challenging for the starting left tackle position. One surprise is the emergence of vegetarian walk-on Richard Fisher, who is said to be challenging for the starting left guard position. If this does not work out, he could whip-up some mean sprout burgers and lure some of the arboreal hippies out of their trees.

The general point that I am trying to get across is that Cal’s offense should perform well next year. When the Cal Bears get consistent play from their receivers they should form a powerful offense. All the other pieces seem to be in place.

I plan on writing a section on their defense and how they compare with other similar teams in the Pac-10 (teams ranked 2-5). Also, why I think they should finish second to USC in the Pac-10, though hopefully they will go higher.

Explanation of my thoughts above:

I hate the idea of “calling the right play," the more important idea is lack of execution. Although, based on statistical analysis of the defenses' tendencies, certain plays could be more effective in certain situation.

I would be interested if any other current quarterback has as many solid wins against high ranked opponents where their team was predicted to lose.

I would not be surprised if Cal lacked a 1,000 yard back but I would expect about 1,600 to 1,800 team rushing yards.

In looking at the Cal receiving statistics I was shocked by the discovery that Morrah possessed more yards per reception and a greater long reception than DeSean Jackson. Morrah averaged 11.9 yards per catch and possessed a long of 49 yards, compared to Jackson’s 11.7 yards per catch and a long of 44.

In zone-blocking, many of the assignments are the same for all linemen. They want to reach block the player defending the play, side gap or push him out of that gap. Generally two offensive linemen play a "four eyes, four hands technique." This is where two linemen double team a defensive lineman, then one goes on to block the linebacker, called a chip-block.

I don’t actually think the hippies would leave their trees, but we can dream, right? If we have learned anything, terrestrial hippies are much less dangerous than their arboreal cousins.