Santa Clarita Valley Signal: Cal QB Position Up for Grabs

By Andrew Barlam Signal Staff Writer
Quarterback Joe Ayoob was given a golden opportunity to swipe away Canyon High graduate Nate Longshore's job in 2005. The prestigious title of starting signal-caller for the University of California Berkeley football team was his for the taking. Less than two quarters into Cal's season opener against Sacramento State, fate handed him a one-year audition. He was handed the keys to the Golden Bears offense when Longshore - having beaten him out for the starting position less than a week earlier in a close race - suffered a season-ending broken left leg. This was Ayoob's time to shine, his chance, with neither having any previous Division I playing experience, to establish himself as Cal's long-term answer. Based on the way he proceeded to perform in his nine starts for the team, though, conventional wisdom says he may have ruined that chance.
The quarterback didn't even make it through the rest of the Sacramento State game, throwing incomplete passes on his first 10 attempts before head coach Jeff Tedford gave him the hook. He went just 5-4 as a starter, taking the brunt of the blame for a team that went a disappointing 4-4 in Pac-10 conference play. Longshore is now 100 percent healthy and ready to take back his position now as the team's Sept. 2 opener against Tennessee approaches. After earning rave reviews from the coaching staff for his spring performance, it was widely assumed he'd be given back what he had once earned. Now it's just a matter of convincing the guy who actually has the power to decide who starts and who rides the pine to actually give that job back to him.
Tedford gave one big "not so fast" Thursday at the Pac-10 media day in Los Angeles to the notion that the controls will be handed back without a fight. "He gives us great confidence," Tedford said of Longshore's return to health, "but there's still going to be a great competition there between him, Joe, (senior) Steve (Levy) and (redshirt freshman) Kyle (Reed). Nate will take the first snap of our first practice, but everyone is going to have an equal chance at this."
Tedford spoke glowingly of the 6-foot-5, 230-pound former Cowboy, but his praises were all qualified with big ifs - as in, if he is indeed named the team's starter.
"He's a big, strong kid that can make all the throws on the field. He can throw the deep ball very well, has touch on his short balls, has a lot of zip on his intermediate balls," Tedford said of the redshirt sophomore. "I feel with his knowledge of the game and his physical tools, he has a lot of potential to be great. "He's going to be a great leader for the team if he does win the job for us there, but Joe also believes he can be a starting quarterback and he'll compete for it."
Working against Longshore is the fact he has lost the one big advantage he had going for him over his competitors heading into last year's camp. In 2005, as the team was trying to replace starter Aaron Rodgers - who left school early to become a first-round pick in the NFL draft and senior backup Reggie Robertson - Longshore, despite never having played a snap for the Bears, was the only quarterback in the battle who had already been a part of the Cal system.
Now he's Cal's third most experienced signal-caller, having not even played one full half, while Ayoob started nine games and Levy started the final two. Standing on crutches on the sidelines while the others played, he did, though, prove himself to his coaches in other areas. "Nate was great. Nate stayed focused mentally on the game plans, was really supportive of the other guys and stayed focused on the team aspect," Tedford said. "You get hurt that early, it'd be really easy just to turn it off and say I'll wait until next year, but he didn't. He did a great job of staying involved in the team."
Ayoob, though, has impressed Tedford with the way he has also bounced back and stayed positive after a potentially confidence-shattering 2005. With a renewed focus and an improved work ethic that has seen him put on 20 pounds of muscle, the senior is still very much alive in the team's race. "His persona has been built around his swagger being an athlete and things like that, that gives him his self esteem and his confidence so I'm really happy obviously for football reasons, but more importantly for him as a person that he's learned to overcome some adversity and get back on his feet," Tedford said.
For whomever Tedford does choose as his quarterback, it figures to be a very important season, with Cal currently projected as the No. 2 team in the Pac-10. With USC, the projected No. 1 team, expected to be less invincible than in years past because of former Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and others having been swallowed up by the NFL draft, the Golden Bears could be in a position to make a run if they get strong play out of their signal-caller. Daymeion Hughes, a senior starting cornerback for the Golden Bears, is calling that starting quarterback position the team's only question mark heading into the season.
"You have to get that position set going into the season. You have to decide on who's going to run the offense and I really like Nate," Hughes said. "He's a strong player and he's got the experience and he's already a leader. He's the guy that pretty much guides everybody. The offensive guys all really look up to him." He's earned everyone's respect - now, one year after his bitter debut - it's just a matter of showing Tedford that he deserves another chance at starting.