Patient Cal QB prepares to start in bowl game
By Dave Newhouse, STAFF WRITER
BERKELEY — Joe Kapp and Mike Pawlawski recognize the spit in Steve Levy's eye, the fire in his soul and that steadfast patience in his team-comes-first character. Kapp and Pawlawski recognize those qualities, because they were cut out of the same competitive cloth as Levy — tough, gritty Cal quarterbacks who began their college football careers far down the depth chart. Then, through perseverance, all three become leaders and winners. And bowl-game starters. Levy's wait had more detours, however, — he played fullback last year. Plus it took him much longer to start — four years. And he has just one win, 27-3 over Stanford last month, albeit in his only start at Cal. "It's been an emotional roller coaster," said Levy. "I was always afraid that I wouldn't experience the brotherhood of the huddle. That was the biggest thing at Stanford, not proving people wrong." Levy started the 108th Big Game only because Joe Ayoob, Levy's good friend, was regressing rather than progressing at quarterback. And Cal had lost four of five games before Levy confidently righted a listing ship. "It was just a change of pace, to try something new," Bears linebacker Ryan Foltz said of the quarterback change. "It got everyone a little fired up." Now the Golden Bears (7-4, 4-4 Pac-10) will face BYU (6-5, 5-3 Mountain West) in the Dec. 22 Las Vegas Bowl. Not even a bowl start will unsettle Levy; nothing seems to ruffle him. "I never get nervous before games. I get excited," said Levy, a redshirt junior from Cornwall, N.Y. "Playing in front of 75,000, you can't play nervous or you won't play well." Levy threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson six minutes into the Big Game. He then passed efficiently and ran effectively in sparking Cal to its fourth consecutive victory over Stanford. "He was nervous during the week," said Bears center Marvin Philip, "but when the game came, he was calm and cool in the huddle."
Pawlawski directed Cal to Copper Bowl and Citrus Bowl victories in the early 1990s. Kapp led Cal to its last Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1959. They appreciated Levy's come-through effort Nov. 19, because they know about the difficulty it took to be in that position. "It's classy," said Pawlawski. "Think of guys who, if they don't start, they transfer. Steve stuck it out, and hewinds up a Big Game hero. He deserved it. He's a great team guy. I'd love to be his teammate." "You know what I like?" Kapp said. "Everything (Levy) did was positive and strong. The reaction to his teammate (Ayoob): 'If it's you, I'm there. If it's me, thank goodness.' (Levy's) solid. Then when he got his chance (at Stanford), that was very strong." Levy's only problem, it seems, is he has had to prove himself over and over again at every level. "His whole thing his whole life is that he's too small," said Walt Nichols, Levy's pee-wee coach in New Windsor, N.Y. "His brain and his attitude grew faster than his body. If he was 6-4, he'd have started for Cal (most of) this season. He's 6-0, 6-1, but look at Doug Flutie." Levy is actually 6 feet, a half inch and 215 pounds. And he looks up to Flutie and another shorter-size Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Eric Crouch, as his two role models. "I had to deal with this same thing in high school," said Levy. "I had all the ability in the world, but people don't think I can see over the line." Levy had to convince Greg Toal, his coach at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey, that he wasn't strictly a linebacker. Once that hurdle was cleared, Levy helped Don Bosco become a nationally ranked prep power. "You can't break Steve's spirit," Toal said. "He's a great competitor, he hates to lose, he makes everyone around him better. We were a pretty average program before Steve and some other iron men went both ways. They were the catalyst, and Steve definitely was the leader." Levy was North New Jersey Player of the Year in 2001. He was voted the state's Jewish Athlete of the Year. But his family is Catholic, so he had to decline the honor. Levy then was part of Jeff Tedford's first recruiting class at Cal, a connection formed by former Cal special-teams coach Dave Ungerer, who is from the East and had been tipped off about Levy by a Rutgers coach "But maybe coach Tedford saw something in me that he saw in himself (as a Fresno State quarterback)," Levy speculated. "I was always fighting the size barrier, always having to prove something," said Tedford, who was 5-113/4, 178 pounds at Fresno. "But I didn't look (at Levy) like that. We watched his tape, and he was a tough kid who played linebacker, and who had skill."
Tedford said during fall camp Levy certainly had the ability to win a game for Cal. Tedford now needs Levy to win a bowl game, when the coach wasn't expecting to use him much at all this season. A bigger question now is where would Cal be without Levy? "Perseverance is a part of life, and a part of sport," said Tedford. "Michael Jordan didn't make his high-school basketball team. I'm not saying Steve is Michael Jordan, but he is a strong competitor." When Levy came to Cal in 2002, Kyle Boller was the quarterback. So Levy redshirted. Then he had shoulder surgery in '03, when Aaron Rodgers arrived. Levy switched to fullback in '04 to see more action. He returned to quarterback this year as a backup to Nate Longshore and Ayoob. Longshore broke his leg in the opener against Sacramento State. That day, Levy followed Ayoob's 0-for-10 debut with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Noah Smith. But Ayoob was entrenched as No. 1, and Levy waited patiently, and painfully for his opportunity. "I am a team guy, but I got depressed and down on myself," he said. "I was letting myself believe that I couldn't do it. College gets to you sometime, and being away from home is a big deal. I missed that. I tried to figure it out by myself, and I found myself lost." He ended his funk only after many conversations with his parents, Mark and Angela Levy, with his brothers, Mark Jr., 24, and Eric, 18, a redshirt freshman nose tackle at Maryland, and with Jessica Kreusch, a USF student who has been Steve's girlfriend since high school. "As parents, we've always tried to keep his spirits up," said Mark Levy Sr., a landscape architect. "My wife talks to him every day. She is the only one in the family who didn't want him to change positions (from quarterback to fullback in 2004). "Steve wants to be a leader. That's who he is. At Don Bosco, he played an entire season with two broken thumbs and Lime's disease. The Stanford game was like his senior year, where the bigger the game, the better he played. I knew he would do well. He's always had poise." Angela Levy instructed her three sons as little kids to never stop believing in themselves, because if they did, then nobody else would believe in them. Steve, she noted, has a strong sense of self-belief. "We encouraged him that some day his turn would come," she said. "He's a very special boy — a special man0 — with a magnet on his back. People want to be around him." "He's like a son to me," said Nichols. Steve Levy was asked if there is a moral to his story. "Good things happen to people who wait," he replied. "Good things happen to good people." Though Levy will start the Las Vegas Bowl, 2006 promises nothing. Longshore and Ayoob are expected back, redshirt freshman Kyle Reed becomes active, and heralded Oregon prep Kevin Riley arrives. Does Levy hold onto No. 1, or is he a one-hit wonder? "Right now, the future is the bowl game," he said. "Next year is a whole different ballgame. I've tried not to think about it, but I've thought about it. Spring ball is going to be interesting. I just want a chance to compete. I can't wait for the challenge." You could almost see Kapp and Pawlawski at his shoulder when he said that.
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