Ray Ratto
his is Nate Longshore's season, encapsulated. Start of the fourth quarter Saturday, Cal beating Washington State 13-6. Longshore throws two quick incompletions and hears considerable boos from the Memorial Stadium crowd. Then on 3rd-and-10, a lineman false starts, and the discontent no longer can fit in the overhead bin. On the third-down replay, Longshore hits Lavelle Hawkins smartly for a 19-yard completion, extending a drive that eventually dies on a Justin Forsett fumble but wins the crowd back to Longshore's side, albeit temporarily. Ultimately, Cal wins 20-17, ending a three-game losing streak, putting the Bears back in the AP Top 25 (through still far from a BCS ranking) and mollifying the fan base. Longshore's numbers (26-of-39, 213 yards, no scores, one pick) are OK, but neither they nor his perpetually touchy ankle are sufficient to calm the growing group of fans that has been pulling for backup Kevin Riley. Longshore has committed the unpardonable sin of being the starting quarterback during a season of unmet expectations, and he will be regarded with some suspicion through Saturday's game against USC, and through to the end of the year.
Of course, if Cal beats the Trojans, almost all will be forgotten and forgiven, as they were for Jim Harbaugh when Stanford beat USC last month. Longshore will, of course, have to be among several Golden Bears who play a brilliant game for this to happen, but he has played brilliantly before. This is not an impossible dream - unlikely, but not impossible. Stanford's dream was impossible, and we all saw how that unfolded. Saturday aside, the quarterback controversy that rages bright in Oakland has not yet touched Berkeley, because head coach Jeff Tedford won't allow it. He reiterated Tuesday that Longshore will start against USC barring some dramatic medical setback, and that "he's well enough to do what he'd normally do." This, of course, will discomfit greatly the newer Cal fans, who went hook, line and anvil for the 5-0 start and the No. 2 rating and have fumed about the three subsequent losses that took their heroes from the BCS title game in New Orleans to the Emerald Bowl across the bridge. More to the point, the fan base has become factionalized on quarterbacking lines. There is now a Riley group, three weeks old, that thinks Longshore is neither healthy enough, mobile enough nor Riley enough. Tedford, though, is devoted to Longshore, as he was devoted to Joe Ayoob two years earlier. He wants to avoid a quarterback controversy because he likes his headaches to be manageable, sure, but he also knows that going to Riley implies that he cannot go back to Longshore, and in any event, he is unwilling to blame Cal's stumbles on the quarterback alone, even though that is the first and most obvious avenue of blame delegation for Bay Area football fans.
The truth is Cal was, under ideal conditions, a 10-win team, and with any run of injuries or what is known among older Old Blues as "Cal luck," an eight-win team. The Bears started quickly, and as the other favorites stumbled, the small warning signs (difficulties at Colorado State, against Arizona at home) went unnoticed and the euphoria spread. Then Oregon State happened. Remembered most for Riley's benighted run for the end zone, it was also the first clear sign that the Bears didn't have the line play or defense to hang with the biggest of the big. Then came the UCLA error-fest, and then Arizona State in Tempe, a cold team traveling to play a hot team with the predictable result. Longshore did not save the Ursines from themselves, nor did he meet the level of play he showed against Tennessee in Week 1. His season is now at least marginally worse than last year's, but he is hardly alone. Thus, Tedford stands fast beside his quarterback, because it is how he is wired, and the ankle is the only thing that will change his mind. "I think (the injury) is something that probably is going to stick with him," Tedford said Tuesday. "It's very difficult to let something completely heal like that. Maybe in a couple of weeks from now when we get a bye, maybe he'll be able to recover a little bit, (but) I don't see him recovering much in the next couple of weeks. I would say that if he continues to look like he does in pre-game, he will continue to start. ... "If he stays the way he was this past week, then he would be the starter, obviously." Yes, "obviously." The controversy Tedford is stridently avoiding is not yet upon us (figure next spring and summer if you're making plans), and if he has any luck, he can put it off that long - no matter how many fans are spoiling for a fight now.
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