Cal quarterback Nate Longshore keeps things loose in the huddle, but his keen decision-making and accurate passing haven't been much fun for opposing defenses
KEN GOE
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Nate Longshore, triggerman for California's explosive offense, is all business in the pocket. The huddle is another story. Two weeks ago at Oregon State, Longshore missed his block on an attempted reverse. Before calling the next play, the quarterback looked around the huddle and told his teammates he fanned so badly, he looked like a matador. As Cal tailback Justin Forsett remembered it, Longshore said: "I just 'ole'd' that guy. That's going to look real bad on film." Forsett said every player in a Cal uniform was grinning. "He's always saying something funny," Forsett said. "It keeps us relaxed. We all have a good time out there. That's the type of leadership he has."
Longshore leads by example, too. He passed for 341 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-13 victory over the Beavers. The 10th-ranked Golden Bears have scored more than 40 points in each of the past five games, all victories. Longshore, a 6-foot-5 sophomore who had played less than a half of college football before Cal's 2006 season opener at Tennessee, leads the Pacific-10 Conference in passing efficiency. Heading into Saturday's game at Washington State, Longshore has 17 touchdown passes. Nobody else in the Pac-10 has thrown more than 11. "It's easy to see going into the game that he has good control of the game plan," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "He knows where he is going with the football. He is making good decisions on where to throw it and when to throw it away, and he's throwing the ball with authority."
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