Santa Clarita Signal: Longshore Healing from the Sidelines

10/9/2005

Andrew Barlam Signal Staff Writer

PASADENA — As UCLA’s Maurice Drew ran out the clock and into the end zone, putting the game away Saturday in a 47-40 Bruin win over Cal, Bear quarterbacks Joe Ayoob and Nate Longshore chatted on the sideline. The Canyon High graduate Longshore, out for the season with a fractured left fibula, did most of the talking, while his replacement, Ayoob, having  thrown an interception moments earlier that put the Bruins in position to  run out the clock, did most of the head nodding and listening.  “I told him that it’s not the end of the world,” Longshore said. “I told him they’re a really good football team and you’re a good football player and it could happen to anyone. You’re going to come out better next time.” It was a conversation Longshore couldn’t have imagined having back when the season started. The redshirt freshman battled Ayoob throughout the Golden Bears’ training camp to put himself in a position to be the one throwing late in those games, all the blame or glory going to him. “Always,” Longshore grinned of his desire to be out on the field at the end. “You want to be out here in a game like this, with a crowd like this, in this kind of a big UCLA atmosphere. That’s what you dream about.”

But visiting the home of the team he used to root for as a kid didn’t work out the way he had dreamed.  Longshore’s new look, with crutches nuzzled under each arm and a walking boot on his left foot, prevented that.  “I’ve never really been in this position before because this is my first real football injury where I couldn’t keep going through it,” Longshore said. “My senior year (at Canyon High), I had some hamstring problems, but nothing that ever kept me out. This one I can’t just tape up and play, which is a tough thing to get used to.”   After Saturday’s setback, Cal (5-1, 2-1) likely wishes that magic tape did indeed exist.  In a game in which two of its tailbacks rushed for over 100 yards each, it still wasn’t enough.

The Golden Bears settled for four field goals, all coming after reaching the red zone. “We need to score touchdowns when we get down there,” said Cal head coach Jeff Tedford. “When you get into those situations, you need to make plays and find a way to get it in and we didn’t do that today.”  With Cal down 41-40 with 1:35 to play, it was up to Longshore’s replacement to make that play. What the Golden Bears got instead was a  holding penalty and an Ayoob interception into the arms of UCLA’s Trey Brown, allowing the Bruins (5-0, 2-0) to run out the game clock and score one final time. “That’s a tough situation to be in for anyone,” Longshore said. “They know that you’re going to pass, so they take away the deep and make you pass short, so you assume that the guy isn’t going to be there on that.”  But in the game’s defining moment, Ayoob assumed wrong and UCLA came away with it. Ayoob finished the game 18-of-35 passing for 215 yards, two touchdowns and the pick.  Despite the setback, his teammates, knowing Longshore is out for the year, are behind him.

“Joe’s learning the offense right now and with Jeff Tedford’s offense it’s a very hard thing to do,” said Cal receiver DeSean Jackson. “But he came in with big intentions. In camp, we didn’t have a starter, we just had two guys battling, so we feel good about having him in there now. Joe and me are real cool right now.”  Longshore having won the job in preseason, has only gotten to attempt 11 passes thus far. On the second play of his sixth drive of the season, he was knocked out for the remainder.  “I think about maybe if I had moved just a little to the left or a little to the right,” Longshore said. “But looking back, it’s easy to say things like that. I can’t worry about what I can’t control, so I don’t think about it now.”   The next day, Longshore had his first-ever surgical operation to repair the problem.  “My ligaments were all messed up,” Longshore said. “They put in screws to connect the fibula and the tibia to prevent the bones from spreading out and stop more tearing from happening, but you know injuries happen.”  His rehab has gone slowly, consisting mostly of massages to reduce swelling, but is on schedule.  The hope is that he can somehow return in time should Cal reach a bowl game at season’s end.   “Nate is wonderful out there,” Jackson said. “He’s down there hobbling around throwing the ball and helping everybody out and being a good teammate. When he comes back, it’ll be great. We’ll have two quarterbacks.” In the meantime, Longshore has continued to attend meetings and be involved in game plans.  During practices, he works with the quarterbacks, teaching the younger guys the nuances. And though he stayed out of his replacement’s way during the game, keeping to himself on the sidelines and not making any waves, he was there to provide an extra bit of encouragement as the final seconds ticked off. “He told me that I played my heart out,” Ayoob said of the late chat between teammates. “He told me I have nothing to be upset about in this game and that he’s behind me all the way, and that means a lot to me.”