SO, NATURALLY, when Cal's offense lined up for its first snap of Saturday's game against Washington, it ran a play called, "Drop Back, Throw The Blasted Ball As Far As You Can, And If You Don't Pop A Vein In Your Forehead In The Attempt, You're Off Scholarship, Mister." Or should be, if it isn't. Never mind that Cal's starting quarterback, Joe Ayoob, was riding an 0-for-10 streak richly earned in his first Division I game. Forget the team's comprehensive turnover in skill position players since the end of last season, or the conventional wisdom that where Saturday's Pac-10 Conference opener was concerned, the best offense was a safe offense. Coach Jeff Tedford certainly did. "We came into the game with everybody saying, 'You've got to get him a safe pass to start off,'" Tedford said. "We said, 'Forget that, we're going deep.' Joe was all for it."
The ball was intercepted, of course. Washington took over and scored a 56-yard touchdown on its first play, called, "Let's Show Cal What A Forward Pass Is All About." Or should be, if it isn't. Thus, 20 seconds into the game, Cal trailed 7-0 and Ayoob's incompletion streak was at 11 (on its way to 13). "It went as bad as it could in the beginning," Ayoob said. "But we didn't let it faze us." Apparently not. Final score: Cal 56, Washington 17. As for the quarterback who couldn't shoot straight, Ayoob finished 17-of-27 for 271 yards and four touchdowns. It was a telling afternoon, revealing Ayoob's character and confirming Tedford's. After his 0-for-10 stink bomb against Sacramento State on Sept. 3, Ayoob presented a stoic public face. Privately he wondered what his teammates thought of him. That doubt didn't dampen his competitive fire. When Tedford presented him with a bold, aggressive game plan for the Washington game, Ayoob bought in.
There was still the matter of that elusive first completion. It came on Cal's third series, a pass to Robert Jordan for 11 yards and a first down. "I kind of joked with the guys on the field," Ayoob said. "It was like, finally." Ayoob threw every kind of pass Tedford has ever drawn up. Long, short, across the middle, down the sideline, shovel, down-and-outs, in-and-ups. It was the full dinner show. Sure, there were moments that reminded you Ayoob is a junior college transfer still learning his way at Cal, as when he stumbled coming out from center, and dropped the ball while trying to keep his balance.
There also were times when he moved around in the pocket to keep a play alive, as when he shook off a defender before lobbing a jump ball for Jordan that turned into a 58-yard touchdown. And there were times when he took off running for huge gains. "Those are the things we saw when we recruited Joe," Tedford said. "The sky's the limit with him." "It was just like Aaron (Rodgers) was in there," offensive tackle Ryan O'Callaghan said. "I expected (Ayoob) to do well, and he did."
Speaking of expectations, it is now abundantly clear that when trying to predict Tedford's next tactic, the money play is to err on the side of audacity. You don't get to where he is by coddling the hired help. Remember, this is the guy whose first offensive play at Cal was a lateral-pass that went 71 yards for a touchdown. So last week, as he was mulling how to best use Ayoob to torment Washington's defense, he recalled a conversation he'd had with former San Diego Chargers quarterback and current ABC football analyst Dan Fouts. Fouts told Tedford about the time he had thrown six consecutive incompletions, and was told by coach Don Coryell to "figure something out, because you've got 40 more (attempts) coming up." Point being: You can't let a little negative feedback override your time-tested methodology. "We're going to do things that are right for our players," Tedford said. "We're not going to put them in a position to fail. But we're going to run our system." "I'd rather do that than play conservatively," Ayoob said. "Let's go out and call the plays like you usually call them." Count on it, starting with the first snap of next Saturday's game against Illinois. There's no predicting what Tedford will come up with, only that Ayoob is going to like it.
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