Suddenly, Bears are in trouble at quarterback

By Mark Kreidler -- Sacramento Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 4, 2005
BERKELEY - I don't want to say the Cal Bears have officially reached the post-Aaron Rodgers portion of the competition, but in just a few hours of football action against a hyper-energized Sacramento State team Saturday, Jeff Tedford's 19th-ranked home lads:
(a) Saw their starter at quarterback likely lost for the season with a broken fibula.
(b) Saw their most heralded understudy at quarterback take such a header in his Division I debut that he had to be pulled after 10 straight incompletions.
(c) Saw the most inspired quarterback work of the day turned in by Sac State's backup.
(d) Won by 38 points in a game that, judging by Tedford's comments afterward, felt closer to a loss because of the uncertainty and overall slipshod play behind center.
Other than that? Welcome to your shiny, happy future. You want it with one red-hot poker or two?
"Sloppiest game I've ever seen offensively," Tedford said in the wake of Cal's 41-3 victory. And, really, it was almost worse than that.
It was almost worse because Aaron Rodgers doesn't live here anymore, and Rodgers constitutes Tedford's finest hour on the college stage. It isn't always so easy to deliver that encore.
Plucked out of Butte College to succeed Kyle Boller, another passer whom Tedford had around just long enough to develop into a high NFL draft pick, Rodgers was a gem. He worked hand in glove with Tedford. He threw great passes, made solid decisions. Cal got spoiled with him, and it wasn't until the Holiday Bowl, in a desultory loss to Texas Tech last December, that the fun really stopped.
Rodgers also essentially didn't get hurt for two straight seasons at Strawberry Canyon, which made what happened to Nate Longshore in the second quarter Saturday all the more startling.
Longshore may not have been having the day of Tedford's life, but at the point of his injury in the second quarter he had made himself a perfectly fine case as Rodgers' successor, if not precisely his heir. The redshirt freshman had completed 8 of 11 passes during a mostly ragged first half, getting picked off once - nothing magical, but certainly good enough, considering what was to follow.
But at the end of a second-quarter play in which he delivered a nice 44-yard strike to receiver Sam DeSa, Longshore took the brunt of Jacob Houston's 240 pounds down around the area of his left ankle, where Houston's momentum had taken him. That was it for Longshore: broken fibula; surgery likely today.
So how's that Plan B lookin', coach?
This was a day for remembering exactly how far Cal has come in how short a time, because, for whole chunks of Saturday's game, the Bears (five fumbles, two lost, to go with two interceptions) eerily resembled the losing bumblers of old. Sac State coach Steve Mooshagian had his team ready, and the Hornets actually were the more active and inspired on the field until they rattled in the third quarter.
Shoot, it was only 10-3 at halftime. If Mooshagian could've quit right there, he'd have taken it and flown back to Sacramento without a plane.
But Cal's trouble right now runs deeper than how long it took to put away a Division I-AA opponent. Longshore's backup, Joe Ayoob, arrived on campus with a sterling reputation after his star turn at City College of San Francisco, but Tedford had Ayoob out of the game midway through the third quarter after the quarterback missed on 10 straight pass attempts, many of them wildly high and several to wide-open receivers.
"I've never played a game like that in football," Ayoob said; and it may be a while before he gets a chance to fix that. Tedford noted that Ayoob has been erratic in practices, too, adding, "There's no such thing as just a 'game' player."
Next on the list? That would be Steve Levy, a fourth-year junior who was playing running back at this time a year ago and had never thrown a college pass before Saturday. Suddenly run into the game by a frustrated Tedford, Levy tossed an interception on his first attempt, later connected on a sweet 46-yard scoring strike and wound up 2 for 7 for 52 yards.
Ladies and gentlemen, your likely Cal starter.
Now Tedford has to dip into his bag of tricks, and you have to know how much he didn't want to do that. Redshirt freshman Bryan Van Meter could be thrown into the stew, but the coach's real prize is former Oakland McClymonds High School star Kyle Reed, a blue-chip prospect and a true freshman.
"We may have to get him into the mix now, at least running our offense (in practice)," Tedford said of Reed. In truth, he wasn't planning to use Reed this year. Things change.
They change, and you couldn't help but notice at one point Saturday that the best quarterback work was being turned in by Chris Hurd, a Texas-El Paso transfer who became eligible for Sac State just last week and guided them to their only points against Cal.
Hurd looked strong-armed, fairly mobile and full of presence. Sounds familiar, but ask around: Aaron Rodgers doesn't work these parts anymore.