By Rusty Simmons
One makes the crowd gasp in wonder. The other has the coaches gasping in alarm. Punter Bryan Anger and kicker Giorgio Tavecchio have clearly different styles and have traveled distinctly contrasting roads. Somehow, the varied tales of the legs converged in Berkeley, and the freshmen are making huge impacts for No. 25 Cal. Anger is the 6-foot-4, 196-pounder who was recruited by dozens of Division I football programs during an All-America career at Camarillo High (Ventura County). His practice punts make teammates halt drills and spectators lose their breath as the ball rockets toward the clouds. Tavecchio is the 5-8, 165-pounder who got more interest from college soccer clubs than from football coaches while attending Campolindo High in Moraga. His first collegiate kick had coach Jeff Tedford and special teams coordinator Pete Alamar flailing their arms in windmill motions as the play clock counted down. Though he kicked in three of the Bears' five games with a sprained right kicking leg, Anger is No. 9 in the nation, averaging 45.1 yards a punt. Tavecchio appeared to shore up a seasonlong problem on kickoffs last game, when he knocked four of five kicks inside the 8-yard line and Arizona State averaged 20.0 yards a return.
Before his junior year of high school, Anger started place-kicking lessons with Chris Sailer, a two-time All-American at UCLA. Near the end of the first lesson, Anger decided to punt a few balls. "He watched a couple, tweaked a couple of things and then made a statement that changed my life," Anger said. Sailer "said, 'OK, you need to stop kicking. Punting is your future.' " The life-changing prediction was fulfilled almost immediately. By the midpoint of his junior season, Anger was rushing home to see what schools had sent letters, which coaches had called and what reporters wanted to discuss his abundance of scholarship offers.
"It was kind of hectic at times, but it was fun," Anger said. "The recruiting process just swept me away."
Now, it's Anger doing the mind-boggling. During spring practice, Anger was kicking the ball so far that Alamar threw him out of the drill in exchange for a Jugs machine so the punt returners actually had a chance to field punts. Most recently, Anger pinned Arizona State inside its own 10-yard line three times, including a 72-yarder. "You hear the oohs and ahhs, and, even our players in practice, they're amazed," Tedford said. "We showed tape of that 72-yarder the other day, and the whole team was kind of electric with this 'wow-type' thing." Anger, a quiet and ultra-modest guy, is 0.2 yards a punt off Cal's season-best mark, which was set by Scott Tabor in 1987. Anger has kicked 24 balls of at least 50 yards, pinned 10 inside an opponent's 20-yard line and already has a Pac-10 Player of the Week award. "I don't think there's any doubt that he'll be an All-America punter," Tedford said. "There's no question in my mind that he's as good a punter as I've ever been around." Tavecchio was born in Milan, Italy, still speaks with an accent and is referred to affectionately as "Salami." He verbally committed to play soccer at UC Davis, changing his mind a month later when he got his one-and-only walk-on offer to play football at Cal.
"It's funny because if you're not a guy who's on the kicking-camp circuit, you don't necessarily get noticed," Alamar said. "Giorgio was an elite-level soccer player and a football player, so he wasn't going to all the camps and the combines." None of that has curtailed Tavecchio's confidence. He arrived at Cal practice three days before the season-opener against Michigan State and managed to win the job. A tight end, who has nearly 10 inches and 100 pounds on Tavecchio, jokingly tried to boot the kicker from a meeting for being a "non-football player." Tavecchio didn't back down, shouting, "What of it?" while standing in designer jeans and fancy dress shoes. "When they joke with you, that means you're part of the team," Tavecchio said. "I had no idea I was going to compete to play right away, but I'm doing everything I can to be my best for the team and I think they've accepted me." Tavecchio understands that the jokes will continue until he proves to be consistent. He also realizes that Anger, a scholarship player who led his high school in receiving as a senior, will never have to put up with the same types of quips. "Hey, I know my place," Tavecchio said. "One day, I'm going to be on couch and watching TV with my wife and kids. I'll say, 'I played with Bryan Anger,' and they probably won't believe it."
Briefly: After Jahvid Best's second consecutive night of full participation in practice, Tedford said Wednesday he "believes" the sophomore will play against Arizona. ... Receiver Michael Calvin injured his knee, and Tedford said the initial report was that the freshman won't play Saturday. ... Defensive end Tyson Alualu missed practice with a leg infection, but is expected to play.
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