Daily Cal: Cal’s Special Teams Outnumbered—Literally

Bears Had 10 Men on Field During Crucial UCLA Fourth-Down Play, Tedford Says
By STEVEN DUNST
Daily Cal Staff Writer
• The UCLA football team received a helping hand Saturday in turning the momentum in their favor from an unexpected benefactor-the Bears. During the Bruins' fake punt in the fourth quarter, Cal fielded only 10 players instead of the standard 11, providing UCLA's Jarrad Page more room to run. Page seized the opportunity, sprinting for a 38-yard gain to set up the first of three fourth-quarter touchdowns. The Bruins rallied to upset the Bears, 47-40, at the Rose Bowl. During his weekly press conference Tuesday, Cal coach Jeff Tedford said when a Bears senior yelled at the players on the sideline to get off the field in order to avoid a penalty, a freshman on the coverage unit became confused and ran off the field, believing the senior was talking to him. The mix-up meant there was no one to man the edge where Page ran. "You can just picture it yourself," Tedford said. "There's a young guy, and a senior leader yells, 'Get back,' and he gets back thinking there's something wrong. We should still notice that and call timeout. It's something we can't allow to happen. It's a youthful mistake but something that should be noticed by the coaches involved."
With a man on the edge, Cal would have a better chance to thwart the fake and return the ball to the offense with the 12-point lead intact. "That's one you can really chalk up to youth," Tedford said. Although Tedford said the coaches are also at fault, he refused to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of special teams coach Pete Alamar. "We're all in this together," Tedford said. "The coaches take it very hard because they work extremely hard. We have to support each other, and if we find out something is wrong, we have to fix it. We have to bounce back."

• A factor in the special teams' struggles Saturday was punter David Lonie struggling to keep the ball out of the hands of UCLA's electrifying return man, Maurice Drew. Drew's 162 punt-return yards jump-started the Bruins. Lonie booted three punts to Drew, who took advantage of the open field to scorch the Bears. Lonie did not make stopping the Bruins' sensational return man easier for Cal's coverage unit. Though Tedford admitted kicking the ball away from a return man is difficult, he said he expects more from Lonie, a senior who was highly recruited out of Ellsworth Community College in Iowa. "It's not as easy as you may think, but it's something at this level we should be able to master," Tedford said.
• Tedford used an opportunity during Saturday's game to teach the Bears' freshman wide receiver, DeSean Jackson, about the dangers of being too greedy when fighting for extra yardage. Against UCLA, Jackson sniffed the end zone after a reception in the first quarter and leapt forward, trying to reach past the pylon in a risky play.
The ball slipped from his outstretched hands, coming dangerously close to a being a fumble out of the end zone, which would result in a touchback. The instant replay official reviewed the play and determined Jackson was out of bounds at the one-yard line. However, Tedford said he took the time to remind Jackson of what could have been. "(DeSean) is trying so hard to get in the end zone, I don't think he was 100 percent sure it could be a touchback," Tedford said. "He said, 'Coach I didn't fumble it-I was in the end zone.' I said 'But this is what could happen, OK? So don't do that anymore.'"
• After losing Andrew Cameron to a season-ending knee injury, the Cal offensive line must now deal with injuries to center Marvin Philip and Ryan O'Callaghan. Philip re-aggravating a rib injury against UCLA, and O'Callaghan broke his right wrist Saturday. It is in a cast. Tedford said both are expected to play Saturday against Oregon State. "It's going to hurt like hell," O'Callaghan said. Tedford downplayed the injury, pointing out that O'Callaghan looked fine playing with the break for the last three quarters Saturday.