Nate Longshore: Redemption Is Sweet

The California Golden Bears defeated the Miami Hurricanes in the Emerald Bowl. The game was much closer than I had expected. I admit on my preview I felt that the three week layoff would benefit Longshore or Riley in getting better acquainted with the Bears wide receivers and it in fact did no such thing. 

I figured that Longshore would be starting considering he has the most starting experience, he's a senior, and of course it would be his last game as a Cal Bear. 

The start of the game did not go so well for Longshore. He went 1-7, but his only pass was a 73 yard completion to Verran Tucker on a perfectly thrown ball by Longshore who beat the coverage of the Hurricanes. 

As expected most of the offense came from Jahvid Best capped off the drive with a one yard touchdown run. The next Cal possesion happened to be on a short field due to only a 19 yard punt from the Hurricanes.

The only play of the drive was giving the ball to Best who took it 42 yards for a touchdown. His moves were remincisent of Desean Jackson's punt return against Tennessee to elude the defender. 

Cal seemed to be in the drivers seat at that point. A couple nice plays by the Hurricanes in the second quarter got them rolling and Jacory Harris started gaining confidence against the Bears defense. 

In the third quarter the Hurricanes were able to tie the score at 14-14. The Bears only points in the third quarter gave them the lead again at 17-14, but in the fourth quarter the Hurricanes got the three points back again tying the score at 17-17. 

Cal had a chance to go up 20-17 but the 34 yard field goal attempt was missed keeping the score tied.

It was the Hurricanes turn on offense to try to break the tie. That's when Zach Follet Cal's best pass rusher came to play sacked him and stripped him the ball. Cameron Jordan recovered the fumble and returned the ball to the two yard line. 

In came Jahvid Best who a couple of series before that went out with a thumb injury after landing hard on his thumb. Best wasn't able to get that far the most was a yard. 

The very next play was a pass play and a chance for Longshore to redeem himself from the nighmarish fourth quarters from a year ago. Did Longshore miss his chance at redemption? No, he did not! Longshore was able to redeem himself in his last game as a Bear.

Longshore rolled out of the pocket found a wide open Anthony Miller in the back of the endzone for the game winning touchdown to make the final score 24-17. 

The Hurricanes last possession was sad to watch. The inexperience of Harris showed and their clock management was non existent. With five seconds left and the last play of the game the only thing Harris was able to do was lateral the ball to his running back who got some yards, but it was nowhere near the end zone. 

Even though the majority of offensive power came from Jahvid Best at least Longshore can say he engineered a fourth quarter comeback to win the Emerald Bowl. 

Nate Longshore finished his last game of his career at 10-21 for 121 yards and the one touchdown as previously mentioned. Jahvid Best carried the ball 20 times for 186 yards and two touchdowns. Verran Tucker lead the Bears receivers in yards with that only catch for 73 yards. 

Jacory Harris ended the game going 25-41 for 194 yards two touchdowns, one interception, and one fumble. Graig Cooper carried the ball 12 times for 63 yards. Chris Zellner lead the Hurricanes with 8 catches for 48 yards. 

Overall, the game was exciting and definitely had shifts in momentum. Stemming from a long pass by Harris to Leonard Hankerson for 41 yards which got his confidence going.

For the Bears it happened on a fourth and one play. Miami had called a timeout the Bears were lined up to take the play, but the playclock had rundown too far and Longshore had to take a timeout. 

You could see the frustration by the offensive line for having to spend the timeout and just when I thought that the frustration might effect them. After the timeout Jahvid Best was given the handoff and he took it 25 yards down to the five yard line. 

The win makes Tedford's record in bowl games at 5-1. For Randy Shannon it was his first since taking over for the Hurricanes and that means it dropped him to 0-1. 

Lastly, for Hurricanes fans they have a special quarterback with Harris. One he gets more experience and make sure he holds onto the football in the latter part of games he will be a special quarterback for them. 

The Hurricanes will definitely be back to the program they once had.