By Bob Rodman
The Register-Guard
In two seasons, he had thrown for 5,790 yards and 55 touchdowns, run for nine more scores, won 23 of 24 games, secured a national championship and was an MVP so many times those letters replaced the name on the back of his jersey. The quarterback was Joe Ayoob, and life was good for this not-so-ordinary Joe. Real good. Maybe too good. "I thought I would just be able to walk right in, pick up the offense and roll on," said Ayoob, whose transition from his highlight days at City College of San Francisco to California was rather rude, at best. The heir apparent to Aaron Rodgers, who left the Bears a year early to become a first-round draft choice of the NFL's Green Bay Packers, Ayoob failed to win the starting job for Cal's season opener six weeks ago. "I was a little bummed out," said Ayoob, whose Bears play Oregon State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. "I was supposed to be the guy, but I accepted it and waited for my opportunity to play." He got it. Man, did he get it.
Nate Longshore, the redshirt freshman who did a better job of catching the coach's eye during spring and fall practices, broke his ankle late in the second quarter of what would be a 41-3 victory over Sacramento State. Ayoob, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound athlete with a reputation as a prime-time player and the flair to go with it, had one of those "Oh-no!" debuts, failing to complete a pass in 10 attempts and being replaced by a third-stringer. "It hurt my feelings," said Ayoob. "I had to reprove myself." Which he did one week later, in the Bears' Pac-10 Conference opener at Washington. "Joe understood that he got his opportunity through an injury," said George Cortez, the Cal offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. "He got his opportunity and made the most of it." Ayoob's first pass against the Huskies was intercepted. The next two were incomplete. And then the real Joe Ayoob arrived. He finished with a 17-of-27 passing day for 271 yards, four touchdowns and a 56-17 dismembering of Washington. Not bad for a kid who was not even a first-team quarterback in high school and had, he said, "more accomplishments with his feet than his arm" as a punter, receiver and running back before his CCSF successes began.
"Those are the things we saw when we recruited Joe. He's going to get better each week. The sky is the limit," Cal coach Jeff Tedford told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The thing I remembered most about the Sacramento State game was the completion percentage," the 21-year-old junior from San Rafael, Calif., said. "Zero. I knew I was better than that." He was, leading Cal to a 5-0 record before last weekend's shootout at UCLA shot down the Bears 47-40, ending their chance to start a season 6-0 for the first time since a 9-0 run in 1950 - 34 years before Ayoob was born. "Just goes to show that in the Pac-10, nothing is over until it is over," said Ayoob, well aware that Cal led twice in the game by double digits, had 150 more yards of offense and 10 more first downs than the Bruins.
Now he and the 18th-ranked Bears await the Beavers and their defense, which has been allowing a conference-worst 470 yards per game, including 15 touchdowns and an average of 349 yards through the air. Oregon State coach Mike Riley tried to get Ayoob to come to Oregon State. "Oregon State was the first to offer me a scholarship," Ayoob said. "I like Mike Riley, but Cal was close, I liked the school, the way the program was going and coach Tedford. It's been a good fit." Ayoob, ranked ninth in the league in passing with a 55 percent completion rate, 1,028 yards and 10 touchdowns, said he is not drooling over the apparent opportunity that awaits him when OSU blows into Berkeley. "You don't take stuff like that for granted," he said. "You don't think that you're going to go out and throw for 350 yards. They could pick me off five times." So, Ayoob said, he leans heavily on the corner of the learning curve that he appears to be rounding. "Any new guy coming in has to earn his wings," Cortez said. "It's a tough role to take over. It's been a real learning experience." Ayoob told the Chronicle that in his junior college days he didn't think, he just threw the ball. "At the (NCAA) Division I level, there's the mechanical stuff, the speed of the game and the learning of the offense," Ayoob said. "It takes more time and effort when you're not playing football." Ayoob has had help, including a much appreciated and most beneficial running game. The top two tailbacks - Justin Forsett and Marshawn Lynch - are averaging 123 and 109 yards, respectively.
"With those guys and a great offensive line, there's no pressure to throw the ball," Ayoob said. "It makes it a lot easier." Ayoob, whose father, Joe, earned a basketball scholarship to Clemson, is as competitive as they come but also "enjoys life," Cortez said. "We just do what we do, and we don't worry about it," Ayoob said.
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