BY Ryan Gorcey and Gerald Nicdao
On Saturday, the Associated Press released its annual preseason poll, and for the fourth straight year, the Cal football team cracked the top 25. The Bears merited the No. 12 slot, the same as in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll. The ranking is the second highest that Cal has received in that four-year span, as last year the Bears was ranked No. 9 before its season-opening loss to Tennessee. The last time Cal was ranked four years in a row, it was part of a five year stretch from 1950 to 1954 under coach Pappy Waldorf.
Saying that senior running back Justin Forsett has a track team beneath him on the depth chart is not just a fancy metaphor. Two of the Bears’ top recruits, Shane Vereen and Jahvid Best, are not only coming off of stellar high school football careers, but were also legitimate track stars. Since their season ended in the spring, the two have had to make adjustments in their training to prepare for the rigors of college football. Best has earned the nickname “Jahvid the Jet” among his Cal teammates, and for good reason. When asked to describe Best, Tedford had one word: “Fast.” While running for Salesian High, Best won a gold medal in the 200-meter race at the 2005 U.S.A. Track and Field Junior Olympics. Vereen, nicknamed “Shane the Train” for his bruising straight-ahead style, recorded the fastest 100-yard dash time of any junior in Southern California during the 2006 track season.
“The running is a little bit different,” Vereen said of the transition from the track to the turf. “The distance in track is a lot longer than it is in football. The longest you have to run in football is 100 yards. Definitely, track helps with endurance and stuff like that.” Another key difference: 300-pound men running after them. “You know you’re going to take punishment in football, so you just prepare yourself for that,” Vereen said. “There’s really no way, besides mentally, that you can prepare yourself for that.” Best and Vereen have put on more muscle in order to deal with the pounding, and now weigh in at 182 and 191 pounds, respectively. But even with added size and strength, there is one thing that both agree on halfway through their first college camp. “It’s long,” Best laughed. “It’s been long and hard, but we were up for it and we feel like we’ve been doing a pretty good job. We just have to keep our heads up and keep going at it.”
Redshirt freshman James Montgomery suffered a minor concussion last week, but has made a full recovery. “I was doing a little pass protection, and my helmet popped off and I kept going and I got a little cut on my head to show for it,” Montgomery said of the incident. With the No. 2 running back slot still the subject of one of the tightest races in camp, Montgomery has gone full-bore since he returned to practice. “If you (hold back), another (concussion) is going to come even faster, so I tried to go a little bit harder,” he said. “When I was first coming back, I wore the yellow jersey, and was no-contact for the first couple days, but once I got back into it, they let me go full again.”
Junior fullback Will Ta’ufo’ou will be out for the next three to six weeks after spraining a knee ligament in Thursday’s practice. This means that Ta’ufo’ou will miss the team’s season-opener against Tennessee on Sept. 1. He was expected to be the team’s starting fullback.
After Sunday’s practice, Tedford held an extra meeting with the team’s freshmen and junior college transfers. Sunday marked the half-way point for the team’s fall camp. “I just wanted to tell them I appreciate all the hard work that they’ve been doing,” Tedford said. “Now they’re over the hump. Now it’s time to get fresh. They fought through the hard times. Now it’s time to get fun.” Tedford praised his most recent signing class as one of the best he’s had while with Cal. Many of them, like Best and Vereen, are competing for playing time. “I think top to bottom this group is probably the most well-rounded, deep, talented group we’ve had,” Tedford said. “It’s really encouraging to see that these guys are right there and it’s not going to be a long time before they’re ready to do it.”
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