By Jonathan Okanes
It was not long ago - only a couple of months - when redshirt freshman Kevin Riley won the job as Cal's No. 2 quarterback. He beat out Kyle Reed, who then transferred to San Jose State, to become the heir apparent to junior Nate Longshore. The idea was for Riley to spend a couple of seasons developing into the starter, but that plan hit a slight snag when Longshore suffered a sprained ankle at Oregon on Sept. 29. Suddenly, Riley was thrust into the starting lineup for the No. 2 team in the nation. His teammates weren't worried. "From the minute I met him, I knew he was going to be a leader," said tight end Garry Graffort, a close friend of Riley's. "He was born to do this. He's got that composure. You can see when you look at somebody if they're able to do this. Kevin is going to be one of the great quarterbacks at Cal." Riley left an impression in his first career start Saturday against Oregon State, for better or worse. After a shaky beginning, he threw for 294 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another, and he led the Bears on two impressive drives late in the fourth quarter as they attempted to erase a 10-point deficit.
The lingering memory always will be the final play, when Riley tried to run for a winning touchdown with no timeouts remaining rather than throw the ball away to stop the clock. He was tackled at the 10-yard line, and the Bears had no time to get their field-goal unit set up, leaving Cal stunned in a 31-28 loss. But Riley was the primary reason the Bears were in position to tie the score. He threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Lavelle Hawkins with 2:31 remaining, then took over at his own 6-yard line with just 1:27 left and drove the Bears to the Oregon State 12 before the final play. "I love the way he competed on Saturday," quarterbacks coach Kevin Daft said. "I know a lot of people are going to remember that last play, but he played a great game as a redshirt freshman in his first start. I couldn't ask for anything more. He grew up a lot."
Riley may have begun the game tentatively, but by the end he was a presence in the huddle, and the Bears rallied behind him. "It was fun, a lot of fun," Riley said. "That's what football is about, being in tough situations and trying to make the best of it. You can either crumble or try and beat it. I think everybody on the team was having a good time. I was loving it out there, just playing ball again." Riley came to Cal as a prized recruit from Portland, Ore., but with no guarantee when he would see the field. Reed also was a top recruit, and this year the Bears added highly regarded freshman Brock Mansion to their stable of quarterbacks. "I knew there were good quarterbacks here, but being who I am, I thought I would be starting as a redshirt freshman," Riley said. "Going into any type of situation, I'm thinking I'm the best quarterback there, no matter what. I came in thinking I was going to play this year." Longshore will return to the lineup when healthy enough, perhaps as soon as Saturday against UCLA. Coach Jeff Tedford will make that determination just before kickoff. If Longshore isn't ready, Cal feels comfortable knowing Riley is ready to step in.
"He's a guy who other players want to follow," Daft said. "They respect him and they respect what he went through. I think he's a guy that a lot of players are going to look up to. You could always see signs that he was going to be a good quarterback. He finally got his chance last Saturday and played well."
• Cal center Alex Mack has been named one of the 12 semifinalists for the Rotary Lombardi Award, given to the country's top lineman or defensive player lining up within 5 yards of the football.
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