Busy summer for Ayoob

Dave Albee
Marin Independent Jounral
With the swirl of media publicity and lofty expectations all around him, the only time that Joe Ayoob has been in awe at Cal this year is when he was going into a quarterbacks meeting at Memorial Stadium and bumped into Jon Gruden.
Gruden, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former Raiders coach, was visiting Berkeley prior to this year's NFL draft to watch and evaluate Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Gruden's visit to Cal signaled a significant day in Ayoob's life.
"I remembered his eyes. They're crazy," Ayoob said. "Then I heard Rodgers was outside throwing to (Cal wide receiver) Chase Lyman and Jerry Rice."
If Ayoob wants to get noticed, too, his timing is right. Cal, after attaining its highest ranking (fourth) in 52 years in the polls last season, is now a nationally-recognized program. Combine that with Ayoob's credentials coming out of junior college - SuperPrep magazine ranked him as the No. 2 player in the nation in its postseason JC 100 after he passed for 5,790 yards and 55 touchdowns and rushed for nine TDs in two years at City College of San Francisco - and he has instant credibility.
For example, without having yet taken a single snap from center in an NCAA Division I game, Ayoob already is listed 46th on foxsports.com's Heisman Trophy top 100 "Watch List" and 51st on College Football News' Heisman preseason list. Plus Phil Steele ranks Ayoob 55th in his Top 62 quarterbacks in his 2005 College Football Preview magazine and third team in his preseason All Pac-10 team.
Those prospects, in part, can be attributed to the fact Ayoob is jumping into line behind a succession of successful quarterbacks who have developed under Jeff Tedford's tutelage. The Cal coach's lineage includes Trent Dilfer, Akili Smith, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller and Rodgers, all first-round draft picks in the NFL.
Like Ayoob, Boller arrived at Cal as a big quarterback with high expectations. Boller was 6-4, 210 pounds and came to Berkeley with so much hype that one teammate dubbed him "Baby Jesus."
In his first game at Cal, Boller fumbled the ball on the first snap he took. He then completed five consecutive passes. He won the first game he started (17-of-32 for 213 yards and two TDs vs. Arizona State) but his freshman season was cut short by a badly separated shoulder in the 10th game.
Boller started eight games and completed 100 of 259 passes (38.6 percent) for 1,303 yards with nine touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Like Ayoob, Rodgers took the junior college route to get to Cal. He was 19 years old when he played in his first game with the Bears, completing 9-of-13 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown in a 42-28 loss to Kansas State. Rodgers didn't start at QB for Cal until the fifth game when he completed 20-of-37 passes for 263 yards and one TD in a 31-24 victory at Illinois.
Rodgers started 10 games, including Cal's 52-49 win over Virginia Tech in the Insight Bowl. He completed 215 of 349 passes (61.6 percent) for 2,903 yards with 19 TDs and five interceptions in his first season in Berkeley.
Rodgers finished his career at Cal as the Green Bay Packers' first-round draft pick, the 24th player selected overall in the 2005 NFL draft, and Boller wound up being the first-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens, the 19th player taken overall in the 2003 NFL draft.
The manner in which Rodgers progressed at Cal amazed Tedford. But the Cal coach believes Ayoob may have an advantage Rodgers didn't have at the beginning of his Bears career - more reps and practice time. In an interview with ESPN analyst Joe Theismann last month, Tedford said he realized that Rodgers played only one year of junior college then didn't participate in spring practice his first season at Cal then missed his second spring practice because of an injury.
"Joe is going to have a little bit more benefit of going through spring football, going through the summer and coming into fall camp and then starting off the season," Tedford said. Nevertheless, on Wednesday, Tedford said that if he had to name a starting quarterback this week for Cal's season opener against Sacramento State in Berkeley on Sept. 3, it would be sophomore Nate Longshore, not Ayoob. Longshore, a 6-5, 225-pound redshirt freshman who was Cal's scout team QB in 2004, has the experience of having gone through practices and meetings with the Bears last season, allowing him to be more familiar and prepared for Tedford's offense.
Ayoob is still just learning.
"He struggled in the spring a lot, but that's also a test of what he's made of because he never got down on himself," Tedford said. "He came back the next day always wanting to get better, always trying to improve. That shows a lot of mental toughness and, to play that position, you have to have that."
It shows that Ayoob is not in awe of the situation. So long as Jon Gruden's not around.