By Kurt Kragthorpe
He plays middle linebacker, the position made famous by Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary, guys who loved nothing more than to have an offense line up and try to run the football right at them. Thursday night in the Las Vegas Bowl, Brigham Young's Cameron Jensen will get his wish. Whether or not he will be glad he wished for it is another issue, but California's conventional offense sure seems like a welcome change from the spread/option/wishbone/pass-like-crazy offenses Jensen and the Cougars have contended with in the Mountain West Conference. Cal runs. And runs. And runs. The Golden Bears usually employ a fullback - who does that anymore? - and alternate tailbacks Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett, who have combined for more than 2,000 yards this season. "It's a unique challenge, but it's one that when you play linebacker, you look forward to," Jensen said. "We take pride in stopping the run; we've done well the whole year." That's partly because the Cougars' inexperienced, injury-plagued secondary has been so vulnerable that teams have not bothered to hand off too much. But Cal is down to its third quarterback, because of an injury and ineffectiveness, and is not about to change its personality for the bowl game. So the Bears will challenge BYU's aggressive, 3-3-5 defense that's designed to stop the run with extra bodies committed toward the line of scrimmage. "We throw a lot of numbers in there, blitzing a lot with people getting a head start toward the line," Jensen said. "Hopefully, it'll cause a lot of confusion." With their defensive scheme, the Cougars could hardly have asked for a better style of offense to be facing. Then again, Cal just might be too big and strong for an average Mountain West defense. New Mexico plays the same 3-3-5 scheme as BYU, and the Lobos were steamrolled by Oregon State in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl. So even if Wyoming upset the Pac-10's UCLA last December, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe - Cal's former coach - worries about the Cougar defense being able to stand up to the Bears' offensive line. "The 10th-place team in the Pac-10 might not be a great team, but they'll be physical, they'll be athletic, they'll have great speed," Holmoe said. "If you're in the upper echelon of that conference, you're darn good." Cal is. The Bears rush for 234 yards a game, behind all-conference center Marvin Philip and tackle Ryan O'Callaghan. They ran for 330 yards against UCLA, 274 against Washington State, 213 against Oregon and 256 against Stanford.
The style of offense is vastly different, yet BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall compares Cal's personnel to Notre Dame's. So BYU's defensive assignment is both frightening and frighteningly simple. If Cal has trouble running the football, then the game's on - because BYU's offense can score against the Bears. But if the Bears are biting off big chunks of yardage play after play, then this whole bowl thing may not turn into such a good idea for the Cougars. Cal's Jeff Tedford is known as a quarterback guru, having coached Trent Dilfer at Fresno State, Joey Harrington at Oregon and Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers in Berkeley. Steve Levy, Cal's current QB, will remind nobody of any of those guys. But he's handing off beautifully, and the Cougars will see a steady flow of Lynch and Forsett on Thursday. Jensen can't wait. "It's hard for me to have any fun down here," he said after Tuesday's practice at a local high school. "All I can think about it playing Cal. I don't enjoy going out and having fun. It's a business trip." Cal's running game will keep Jensen in business Thursday. How much fun he will have is to be determined.
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