By Jay Heater
Contra Costa Times
It was the fall of 2001 when Canyon High School football coach Harry Welch began searching through his physical education classes for a quarterback. What he found was a "big, skinny kid" -- Nate Longshore -- playing basketball.
"I had taken a sabbatical from being a head coach in 1993," Welch said. "I came back in 2001 and took a look at what we had. I didn't see a quarterback I could go with.
"I saw Nate, who was a little clumsy of foot. But he had a presence. I thought this was somebody I take a chance on."
Cal coach Jeff Tedford will take a chance on Longshore as well. On Monday, it's expected that Longshore, a redshirt freshman, will be named Cal's starting quarterback over junior college All-American Joe Ayoob, who was recruited to play right away.
Although Longshore is light years ahead of the kid who was enlisted by Welch, he remains somewhat of a gamble for Tedford, who prefers mobile, nimble quarterbacks.
But then there's that presence Welch noted, and with Longshore it is unmistakable.
"I knew we were going to sink or swim with this kid," said Welch, who has been a head coach in Southern California for 33 years. "And the first time he threw the ball for us, on a little grass field behind our tennis courts, I thought I had made a mistake.
"He had never played football except on the streets and flag football, and his form was horrific. It looked like mission impossible. But he had this focus and he believed.
"Over those next three years, I got to know him very well. Nate is a believer. He is a guy who buys into your program. When I speak to him now, it is evident that he has bought into everything Tedford is doing in Berkeley.
"He has changed his style and his release point and the way he carries the ball. And even though I know there are plenty of focused athletes at Cal, I doubt if you would find one person more committed than Nate."
That commitment and work ethic has impressed Tedford, who is a stickler for preparation.
"Nate takes a great deal of pride understanding what is going on with our offense," Tedford said.
Tedford regularly plays football chess with his quarterbacks, making a move, then questioning them about their counter. But instead of using a board, Tedford uses magnets on a wall.
"Early on, I was wiping them out," Tedford said. "They've made a strong comeback. There is a lot to know, and they've all caught up.
"Nate hasn't missed a question."
"It was a shot to our pride as a group when we kept getting hammered," Longshore said. "Even so, we knew there was a method to his madness."
Longshore's method is to out-work his opponents. At 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, he has the size coaches love in a quarterback. He has a strong enough arm to make all the throws. But he isn't going to dazzle anyone with his quickness or throwing motion. At least not yet.
"Nate was never, ever swift of foot, even relative to high school kids," Welch said. "The fastest I ever got him running the 40-yard dash was 5 flat. That's pedestrian at best. But he left Canyon Country (just North of San Fernando) at 246 pounds, and when I visited him four months ago, he was 219. I took him to dinner but he wouldn't eat the carbs or the processed sugar. He said they had timed him in 4.8."
With a brother, Nick, who is an offensive lineman at BYU and a family that runs on the "tall" side, Longshore always has been a guy people thought would grow into a lineman.
"I was always one of the biggest kids, the guy you would find at the top left of the picture," he said. "Naturally the coach wanted me to play tight end my first year. I didn't want to play tight end. So I played flag football instead and I was the quarterback."
Heading into high school, Longshore gave up football.
"I always thought my ticket would be basketball," he said. "That's all I played my freshman year. But then there was this coach, Harry Welch, who had coached in the 1980s and who had a 46-game winning streak. He came out of retirement and heard that I could throw from a guy who had seen me play in a church league. I guess I was just waiting for a coach to say that he could use me.
"I remember that first year all the guys on the team were older. But (Welch) entrusted the team to me and four or five other sophomores. We finished 3-7. But we busted our tails from there and went 10-2 and 11-2 the next two years."
"He just kept getting better and better," Welch said. "He has a great deal of pride and he is very receptive to coaching. His upside is awesome if he continues to develop."
Tedford said Longshore has developed very quickly since last year when he redshirted as an incoming freshman. That development will be a huge key to Cal's 2005 season. Tedford has assembled one of the top offensive lines in the country, has a Heisman Trophy candidate in running back Marshawn Lynch, and recruited touted wide receivers in DeSean Jackson and Lavelle Hawkins.
None of it will fly without a competent quarterback.
"His command of the offense is very good now," Tedford said of Longshore. "He has a lot more confidence throwing the ball and he is more accurate. He is more consistent because he knows what he is doing."
Although Longshore is a polar opposite in mobility and size to last season's quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, Tedford said he does see similarities between them.
"They both have a good sense of humor and they are both great kids," Tedford said. "They are both fairly religious. They are both very confident.
"The difference is that Nate doesn't give off the confidence the way Aaron did. You don't see it."
So if Longshore indeed starts against Sacramento State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, what will he have to do to keep the job?
"I will be looking at game management," Tedford said. "I will be looking at control of the huddle. ... how he runs the offense. Does he put us in position to successful?"
Longshore said he will concentrate on being "smooth and consistent."
"One of the main things is not to be greedy," he said. "Take the short pass if it's there. I don't have to do anything out of the ordinary."
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