BERKELEY - Halftime mercifully arrived Saturday at Memorial Stadium for the Cal Bears, and by that time tons of you know what had already "hit the fan," as center Marvin Philip put it. The 15th-ranked Bears trailed Illinois 17-7. They had run only 21 plays to the Illini's 49. They appeared clueless against Illinois' version of the spread offense, the same confounding scheme Texas Tech used to humiliate Cal last season at the Holiday Bowl. Quarterback Joe Ayoob had completed just 1 of 9 passes, making him 1-for-19 at Memorial Stadium counting his oh-for-10 debut against Sacramento State. The Bears looked more like 21-point underdogs than the three-touchdown favorites oddsmakers made them. Then the second half started, and it was as if the Bears woke up and remembered they were, well, the Bears, playing, well, the Illini.
Final score: Cal 35, Illinois 20.
"This team doesn't fold," Philip said. "We handle adversity well. That says a lot for us, as young as this team is." Weeks from now, many will remember Saturday's game as just another Bears win against a team they were supposed to beat. Yet in truth, it was much more than that. This young Cal team grew up in a big way Saturday. The Bears proved they could dig their way out of a huge hole and win going away. They proved they could face adversity and live to attend a victory party. They proved they could play without running back Marshawn Lynch, two starting offensive linemen and four other starters from Week 1 and still triumph. All those positives are stored securely in every Bears' memory bank.
"I think it's really the mark of a team that believes in one another and has high expectations," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said of the comeback win. "They don't bicker. They don't argue. They don't panic." Tedford had plenty of reasons to ream his team at halftime. Of course fire-and-brimstone is not his style. Tedford kept his composure, and so did his players. "We were cool and collected when we came in here," Cal rover Donnie McCleskey said. "We knew exactly what went wrong. Fixed it. We were a whole different team in the second half." Cal's defense led the transformation. The Bears forced Illinois to punt on its first four drives of the second half. The Illini's first drive ended when defensive tackle Brandon Mebane sacked Tim Brasic for an 8-yard loss on third-and-10 from the Illini 48. Cal cornerback Tim Mixon said it was a matter of getting "after them more" in the second half, playing more aggressively.
"Second half, there was no doubt we were going to win the game," Mixon said. "You could see it in the players' eyes. We weren't going to be denied." After Cal's defensive stop, Ayoob took the ball and ran. Actually, he took it and passed, hitting tight end David Gray over the middle for 14 yards on a key third down. Four plays later, Ayoob hit running back Marcus O'Keith on a screen pass in the right flat, and O'Keith raced 26 yards for a score. "The first week I kind of dwelled on my stats at halftime," Ayoob said. "This week I didn't even think about it. "The second half, I just kept playing." Against Sacramento State, Ayoob was benched in the second half. This time he completed 7 of 8 passes for 99 yards and one touchdown. Ayoob continued to learn on the job. The Bears and Tedford, meanwhile, learned beyond all doubt that they are not a one running back team. Sophomore Justin Forsett, subbing for the injured Lynch, carried 16 times for 187 yards and two touchdowns. This won't be another Wall Pipp story. Lynch is too good to lose his job. But Forsett is too good to be stuck to the bench once Lynch returns. "He's just a great runner," Philip said. "We have a lot of great running backs.
"This team, we have a lot of talent. The depth we have is amazing." Tedford might want to send former Cal running back Chuck Muncie a thank you note. It was Muncie who tipped him off about Forsett after Notre Dame decided at the last minute not to give him a scholarship out of high school. "We didn't know anything about him until after that," Tedford said. After watching Saturday's comeback victory, Tedford knows plenty about Forsett and the rest of his young, improving team.
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