Running over the competition is fun

CONTRA COSTA TIMES COLUMNIST
BERKELEY - Ryan O'Callaghan is a dying breed on California's officially licensed college football juggernaut. Which is to say, he is one of the few players left who can remember when the bandwagon was a turnip truck.
Now, this is good. Because there is no longer a need to wallow in the sordid details of the pre-Jeff Tedford era. "Then, on the way home from Rutgers, the in-flight movies were 'Penitentiary 2' and 'Howard the Duck.' I mean, it just never ended ... "
Obsessing over that kind of historical minutiae only detracts from more pressing matters. Such as, how are we going to comfortably cover against Sacramento State with two quarterbacks who have never thrown a Division I pass?
On the other hand, this is not so good. Guys like O'Callaghan, the Bears' mountainous 6-foot-7, 360-pound offensive tackle, serve a purpose. Not as keepers of the unsettling specifics of the way things used to be, but as guardians of the football program's newly earned stature.
Why is winning fun? And why is fun good? O'Callaghan is here to enlighten. In general terms.
"I was just a freshman," O'Callaghan said of Cal's rock-bottom 2001 season. "You know how freshmen are. I hurried off to class, did my thing, then I got out of there. I didn't even play that year. Which kind of sucks that you're not good enough to play for a 1-10 team."
Four years later, O'Callaghan is good enough to anchor the offensive line of a team coming off a Top-10 season. These days, his future is about as bright as the football program's. An All-Pac-10 first-team selection in 2004, he has his sights set at All-America altitude this season. It would surprise no one if his name is called in the early rounds of next spring's NFL draft.
He's already spoken with former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, currently in camp with the Green Bay Packers. He likes what he hears.
"He says it's a lot more fun," O'Callaghan said after a recent morning practice at Memorial Stadium. "The practices are shorter. It's all business. You either do it, or you get fined."
But that's getting ahead of the story. O'Callaghan's value to the here and now is helping Cal's offense achieve dominance, while putting the experience in perspective. Because he's been on both sides of that equation. All things being equal, he'll take last year's UCLA game.
"We ran 'power' about five times," O'Callaghan said. As an aside, "power" is a running play which requires O'Callaghan to shoot the inside gap and head for the inside linebacker, mowing down anything in his path. On this day, one particular UCLA defensive lineman kept finding himself buried in O'Callaghan's scorched-earth wake.
"The right guard and I started playing with the defensive tackle," O'Callaghan said. "We'd say, 'Here comes your favorite block!' One play he literally fell right out of his stance and grabbed the ground. And it was a pass play."
That's what we're talking about. Not, "And then there was the game against Oregon State when our quarterback got sacked by five different walk-ons." But rather, "Trust me, it's more fun to be the pancaker than the pancakee."
It's a primal feeling, the kind of satisfaction that's difficult to put into words.
"Getting the running game going," O'Callaghan said. "Putting someone on their back. That usually feels pretty good. That's when you know you've done your job to its fullest."
You'd think, then, that this season would promise a special kind of enjoyment. Rodgers is gone from last year's team, as is leading receiver Geoff McArthur. Running back Marshawn Lynch -- the Heisman Trophy candidate no one east of the Caldecott Tunnel knows about -- is gassed up and ready to roll.
It stands to reason that Cal will rely on the run game, at least until the Joe Ayoob-Nate Longshore square dance reveals a bona fide Division I starting quarterback. Which means guys like O'Callaghan will be the aggressor more often than not.
Aggression = fun, right?
Not necessarily. O'Callaghan tends to take the existential view, that domination is a journey to be enjoyed, by whatever means.
"I don't think our coaches are approaching it any differently as far as the offense is concerned," O'Callaghan said. "I kind of took (the passing game) for granted because we had Aaron and Reggie (Robertson), and before that we had Kyle Boller and Reggie. It doesn't really worry us, though. If each of us does our job to our fullest, we'll win."
If the Bears win, the high times will keep rolling. And by high times, O'Callaghan means:
"The stands are full. You (reporters) are talking to a lineman. We're not running off the field getting booed."
That's the kind of fun you can't find just anywhere -- no matter what you hear from Howard the Duck.