Dave Albee
Staff Report
BERKELEY
OK, Cal fan, it's confession time. You were freaking out, maybe even stark-raving mad, that the Bears, a three-touchdown favorite, trailed Illinois, one of the worst teams in the Big 10 Conference, at halftime yesterday, at which point quarterback Joe Ayoob was 1-for-19 passing in his career at Memorial Stadium. Ayoob and the Bears offense rallied, but you're still miffed because they didn't cover the spread, play up to expectations or give the impression they've got a good enough team that can upset those cocky USC Trojans this year. Look at it this way: The Bears offense - without two of its starting offensive linemen, its Heisman Trophy candidate running back and its original starting QB - scored three TDs in the second half, two culminating 80-yard drives. Two of those touchdowns were scored by their third-string tailback, Marcus O'Keith, and the other by their No. 2 tailback, Justin Forsett, who rushed for 130 of his 187 yards after intermission. And, in case you didn't notice, Ayoob completed 7-of-8 passes for 100 yards in those three TD drives.
You're missing the point. When was the last time a Cal football team had that kind of star-quality depth on its roster to overcome such injuries and adversity? Never? "We have so many receivers and running backs and offensive linemen that we can put in at any point (and succeed)," said Ayoob, the City College of San Francisco transfer from San Rafael. "If these guys didn't have faces, you wouldn't know any of them had changed. There's no drop off anywhere. It's pretty amazing."
This is a tribute to head coach Jeff Tedford, his system and the way he has recruited players to fit into it. Take Forsett, for instance. He thought he was going to Notre Dame as a running back out of Arlington, Texas, until he called South Bend and was told the Fighting Irish found someone else and wanted Forsett to come as a wide receiver. Former Cal All-American running back Chuck Muncie got wind of that and alerted Tedford that Forsett, who ran for 384 yards in a Texas high school playoff game, was available.
With Marshawn Lynch sitting out yesterday's game with a broken finger, Forsett got his big chance. He made the Illini shut up their big, fat, trash-talking mouths. "In the second quarter, they were talking a lot and they were starting to run their mouths and they had good reason. They were playing well," Ayoob said. "They didn't say anything to me and I was kind of disappointed." Ayoob quieted the Illini - and his skeptics - in the second half. His biggest play was a botched play that helped the Bears tally the go-ahead touchdown. On first-and-10 from the Illinois 38-yard line, Ayoob fumbled the snap pulling back from center. He could have just fallen on top of it and taken an aggravating loss, but Ayoob scooped up the ball up and played on.
"I was hoping no one stepped on my hands," Ayoob said. "I knew it was a play action pass so I picked it up and I knew that maybe the fumble would work just as good as the play-action bringing guys in." Ayoob quickly saw the intended receiver, true freshman DeSean Jackson, running across the field and turned the faux pas into a fabulous 21-yard gain. "I threw a shoe box over there. An end-over-end (pass). It has four corners," said Ayoob, grinning. "That's a nice ad-lib play but it's not the way you draw it up on the board," said Tedford, not grinning. The imperfect pass on an imperfect play inspired the Bears to take the lead. After Ayoob drilled a 15-yard slant pass to Robert Jordan, Forsett scored to give Cal the lead for good. Tedford, however, still had some issues with Ayoob, notably a pair of delay game of penalties on offense that moved the Cal coach to step on the field and yell. Ayoob said the second one was caused before he forgot the snap count. "I thought it was on 'set' and when I said it, nobody moved," Ayoob said.
Later Tedford shrugged it off, understanding the aging and educating of Ayoob as a Cal quarterback is a work in progress. "He's going to learn more about how to play the game and how to handle game situations and monitor the clock and those type of things," Tedford said. "Those are the things that we need him to get better. I'm hoping the more comfortable he gets with the play calls and things like that he can absorb a lot."
After his four-touchdown performance in a 56-17 win at Washington last week, Ayoob graded himself a "C+" against Illinois. Though no one is rushing to nickname him "Bancroft Joe," Ayoob's effort was an upgrade from his 0-for-10 showing in the season-opening game. "I was part of the victory today whereas two weeks ago I kind of felt I played but I didn't do anything. If anything I hurt my team. It's more a confidence thing," Ayoob said. "We'll take the 'W' anyway it comes."
By the starters or their replacements. The Tedford Bears are good enough either way.
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