QB job not set in stone

By Dave Newhouse, STAFF WRITER
BERKELEY — Cal coach Jeff Tedford shed more light on the stability of his quarterback situation by indicating Nate Longshore is on a short leash.
Longshore beat out Joe Ayoob for the No.1 job, but Tedford hinted Tuesday that if Ayoob outplayed Longshore against Sacramento State, Ayoob could start Sept.10 at Washington.
"We'll see what happens the first game," said Tedford. "It could happen totally different (the next week). I don't know. We'll go into this game and take it from there."
POLL TOLL? Could a dominant performance against Sacramento State, a Division 1-AA school, hurt Cal in the polls?
"It's not going to help us," said offensive tackle Ryan O'Callaghan. ''You don't want to open up with the No.1 team in the nation. You just want to get it going. It's a warm-up, I guess."
Bears senior linebacker Ryan Foltz doesn't see his team having a problem in getting up for the Hornets.
"It's an opening game, and there's a lot of excitement," said Foltz. "We're excited to get things going, and we can't overlook anyone. They're going to come to play, and we're going to give our best effort.
"We lost a lot of good defensive players, but these new linebackers have unbelievable potential: Desmond Bishop, Worrell Williams, Greg Van Hoesen. Plus some freshman guys,
Zack Follett and Anthony Felder, look like they're going to be great players."
As for the polls?
"I think we've established a reputation for having a solid program year in and year out," said Foltz. "Regardless of who's on our schedule, there should be confidence that we're going to be a quality football team no matter who we play."
NEW VOICE: Sixteen years after completing his last pass for Cal, Troy Taylor remains the school's career passing leader. Now he is Cal's new radio color man.
"I've been researching. I want to be overprepared. I want to do a great job," said Taylor, 37, who's making his broadcasting debut this year other than previous postgame work.
Taylor was initially approached for the sideline job, then was upgraded when Mike Pawlawski had to give up his radio color job because of other business pursuits.
But Taylor was forced to give up his head coaching job at Folsom High after four years, although he will continue teaching physical education and driver's education at the school.