T he scoreboard still was lit up Sunday at dusk, more than 24 hours after the game, when the California football team concluded a short practice at Memorial Stadium. The score gleamed bright against the darkening sky: Cal 26, Oregon 16. Cal quarterback Kevin Riley wore sweats and a stocking cap, showing no obvious sign of the first-quarter concussion Saturday that knocked him out of action. "With that win, we've got ourselves in a good situation with a couple of big games coming up," Riley said, referring to the Golden Bears' trips to No. 7 USC this week and to Oregon State next week. It figures to be a very interesting stretch for Riley, part of Cal's two-headed quarterback position. The sophomore from Beaverton has started six of the Bears' eight games this season. But senior Nate Longshore came on after Riley's concussion to lead Cal past Oregon.
It's anybody's guess which one gets the start Saturday in the Los Angeles Coliseum against a USC team that has given up one touchdown in the past four games. Riley would need the doctors' OK. Even with it, coach Jeff Tedford probably won't name a starter until Saturday. Tedford picked Riley to open the season, turned to Longshore in the fifth game, then went back to Riley against Oregon. Both quarterbacks have been getting snaps in practice in recent weeks with the first-string offense. "I would definitely like to be the guy," Riley said. "But it's a team thing. Coach is playing the guy he thinks gives the team the best chance to win. If he chooses me, I'll get excited and ready to play. If he doesn't, I know I'll still prepare to be ready to play."
USC (7-1, 5-1) leads the Pacific-10 Conference. But at the moment, the Trojans don't control their destiny in the battle for the Rose Bowl. OSU's victory over the Trojans gives the Beavers the Rose Bowl tiebreaker.
If the Trojans lose to Cal, they not only fall out of the Rose Bowl picture, but can kiss their long-shot national title hopes goodbye as well. Either Cal (6-2, 4-1) or OSU (5-3, 4-1) can clinch a Rose Bowl berth by running the table, and the Bears haven't been to Pasadena on New Year's Day since winning the Pac-10 title in 1958.
The stakes are enormous, and there are nervous Cal fans who would like Tedford to commit to one quarterback.
"I'm not a big two-quarterback system guy," Tedford said. "You want to have a guy be the guy. That would be preferable. But we're in a situation where we have two good ones, both very competitive, and we may need both of them this year to be successful." Tedford wants a marriage of Riley's mobility and Longshore's knowledge. If he can't get it in one package, he will use both players. In the meantime, he asked Riley to raise his completion percentage. "It was important to really talk about how he could improve that -- with footwork and mechanics -- and that is what he has worked on," Tedford said. "He has done a really good job of that." It's probably why Riley got the call against the Ducks. He had a shaky first series, throwing a soft pass that linebacker Spencer Paysinger intercepted. On Cal's next possession, Riley drove the Bears 71 yards to score on a perfectly thrown 22-yard dart to Jeremy Ross. Riley had Cal moving again when he scrambled for 12 yards on a first-and-15 play before running headfirst into a hard, legal hit by UO safety T.J. Ward that left the quarterback wobbly.
As Riley concedes, it might have been a good time to slide. "With people crashing in on me, I have to realize when it's best to go down," Riley said. "It was a first-down play. Second and three wouldn't have been a bad thing." Riley wanted to see that game through. "A lot of family friends and my friends' parents growing up are Oregon fans," he said. "I felt I was starting to get in rhythm. I was feeling good. I thought it was going to be a big game, to be honest. The ball was coming out of my hand well. I thought it was going to be a coming-out party against a home-state team." Actually, the coming-out party probably came last year against Oregon State, when Riley made his first college start. He played well before an ill-advised scramble deep in OSU territory on the game's last play left Cal without time to summon the field-goal unit in a 31-28 loss. The rematch is less than two weeks away. If the Bears survive USC, it could be wild in Corvallis. "Another chance at Oregon State," Riley said. "That's going to be pretty cool playing back home for the first time." Especially if the Rose Bowl is within reach.
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