By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer
Friday, September 16, 2005
Ryan O'Callaghan remembers that wonderful feeling he had three years ago when the stagnant football program at California first showed signs of life under coach Jeff Tedford. Cal's right tackle remembers the thrill of going to crisp practices, followed by the collective growing confidence in games. He remembers when snickers from fellow students on campus turned into admiration. In other words, the Golden Bears' star offensive lineman once felt the way Illinois players feel now with new coach Ron Zook in charge — but O'Callaghan thinks Cal will slow that rebuilding process a bit when the Illini visit Strawberry Canyon on Saturday for their first road game of the season. "They're probably going through a lot of the things we did back then," said O'Callaghan, who redshirted on the Bears' 2001 team that went 1-10. "They didn't have much success last year, but now they've won a couple of games, and they're getting some confidence. We've just got to make sure we're working just as hard." The Golden Bears are four years into Tedford's creation of a perennial power. Cal (2-0), which outscored its first two opponents 97-20, moved up to No. 15 in the latest poll.
Though tailback Marshawn Lynch is expected to sit out with a broken finger, Cal hopes to run the ball relentlessly behind its powerful offensive line while still exploiting Tedford's signature passing game with quarterback Joe Ayoob and his fleet receivers, including Pac-10 player of the week Robert Jordan. That's what Illinois expects, too — and even with his team's growing confidence, Zook is impressed by the Bears. "They're very, very talented," Zook said. "Their offensive line, the sun will go away when they stand up. "It looks to me like they have just truly reloaded. The offensive line is huge. The running back is huge. They lost their receivers (to graduation), and they've got a guy (Jordan) who's got 11 catches in one game. They'll be obviously the best receivers we've seen to date." Illinois (2-0) has been a bit more adventurous than the Bears in its undefeated start, rallying from a 20-point deficit to beat Rutgers in the opener.
But fixing a team that went 3-8 last season practically guarantees such misadventures early on. It's a lesson Tedford learned well: His second Cal team was 1-3 in 2003 before winning 31-24 at Illinois. The next week, the Bears knocked off USC — the top-ranked Trojans' last loss. "I don't think it's done, but we've had some examples where we feel we've made some strides in that regard," Zook said. "Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ... We've put ourselves in some situations the last two ballgames that you don't necessarily want to be in, but yet they hung in there, so I've got to believe some of it's getting through." Cal has an eight-game home winning streak and the momentum of three straight winning seasons. Ayoob's confidence grew while throwing four touchdown passes last week against Washington in his first career start, while coordinator Bob Gregory's defense has played exceptionally well so far.
Though Illinois hasn't played enough games under Zook to develop many tendencies, Tedford seems to thrive with this type of challenge during his long hours of preparation at Memorial Stadium. "This week, we're watching their first two games against Rutgers and San Jose, but we are also watching the Florida tape from last year," Tedford said. "You just don't know what you're going to get. ... From what we can tell, they're pretty similar to what they did at Florida, both offensively and defensively. "But you know that there's going to be more coming, because they haven't done it all in their first two games."
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