Happy Tuesday Cougs, and welcome to another 2011 spring fish wrap. Up today is opponent number nine on the WSU schedule, the Berkeley Bears. Can Cal bounce back after a non-bowl season last year? How do they look coming out of spring ball? Let’s sneak a peek, shall we?
2010 can only be described as a disappointment among the Berkeley faithful. The Bears had their first losing season since a 1-10 disaster in 2001, but from that point forward it had been nothing but wins and bowl games. Then 2010 happened, and a late season fade where they lost their last three games dropped them from the postseason. But it isn’t like this was the first time under Jeff Tedford where they, you know, kinda/sorta fell apart down the stretch? This is a program that has been ranked in the top 25 at some point in four of the last five years, yet they have not actually finished the season ranked in the top 25 since 2006.
The amazing thing to me anyway was their dramatic difference at home compared to the road last year. Cal did drop three home games last year, the most since they went 4-3 at home in 2002. And they did get their doors blown off vs. Stanford in the Big Game, a 48-14 laugher in which Andrew Luck and the Cardinal offense simply manhandled the Bear D. But their other two losses at home were close ones, with the 15-13 loss to Oregon and a goal-line stand loss to UW, 16-13, where Washington scored a TD with no time left. Otherwise they were great in front of the home faithful, with blowout wins over Colorado (52-7), UCLA (35-7) and ASU (50-17) among others! But the road was a whole different deal. Cal’s lone road win? At Pullman. Other than that, they dropped the rest, including big ones at Nevada (52-31), SC (48-14) and Oregon St (35-7).
Where did it all go wrong? One doesn’t have to look much further than the QB position to see how that spot in the lineup can make – or break – your season.
Kevin Riley looked like he might be rolling towards his best season yet at Cal, as the much-maligned senior had the Bears pointed in the right direction. They had won two of their last three coming into the Oregon State game in week 8, including a blowout over ASU, and the Bears sat there at 4-3 with a real hope of postseason play yet again. But Riley went down with a knee injury early in the game, the Bears were blown out, and the slide began. Cal would go on to lose three of their last four, and the offense would struggle mightily down the stretch. The 20 points they would score at WSU would be the most they would put up in a game over the last four, as they would score 14 points or less in each of their last three games (13 each vs. Oregon and UW, 14 vs. Stanford in a blowout loss).
We used to poke a little fun at Riley, as our own Sutra coined him “King Mediocre”. And Riley took some heat over his time at Cal, in particular for some rough performances in losses where he seemed to just disappear, and not really able to win the biggest games on the Cal schedule. But after seeing what was coming out of the bullpen for Cal, was Riley REALLY that bad? After all, the guy did throw for over 6,000 yards in his career, and had an impressive TD (51) to INT (21) ratio. He ranks among Cal’s all-time leaders in several categories, including touchdown passes (No. 5), total offense (6,136, No. 6), passer efficiency (131.6, No. 7), passing yardage (No. 8), 300-yard passing games (2, No. 9-T) and 250-yard passing games (7, No. 10). And he finished with a 19-12 career record in 31 starts, which isn’t too shabby. Not exactly Tim Lincecum, CY Young-type numbers, but more like a #3 starter? Dependable guy who won’t dazzle you with big-time stats, but simply gets the job done in workmanlike fashion seems to fit the Riley profile. Maybe we can just call him “King Above Average”?
But Riley and his story, it’s all in the past now. Cal has flipped the program forward at the position, and this spring saw a wide open battle royale for the QB spot, as Zach Maynard, Allan Bridgford, and Brock Mansion went after it this spring (note – Beau Sweeney, the fourth QB who actually played a little bit last year, has now left the program). And while we still have the rest of the summer plus fall camp to sort it all out, it appears that Maynard is going to take the reins as he comes out of spring as the leader.
LAST TIME vs. WSU: Cal would win their lone road game of the 2010 season, as even though they trailed at the half, the Bears would take the lead in the third quarter and hold on for a 20-13 win. Cal dominated on the ground, rushing for 212 yards as QB Brock Mansion struggled through a 12-for-24, 171 yard performance in his first-ever start at Cal. But the Cal D would step up and shut down the Coug offense, holding Jeff Tuel to a season low 9 completions and just 92 yards passing as WSU would total 194 yards on the day.
2010 OFFENSIVE STATS
RUSHING OFFENSE: 158.9 YPG, 6th in the Pac-10/52nd in the country
PASSING OFFENSE: 175.1 YPG, 9th in the Pac-10/94th in the country
SCORING OFFENSE: 25.8 PPG, 6th in the Pac-10/73rd in the country
TOTAL OFFENSE: 334 YPG, 7th in the Pac-10/90th in the country
2011 RETURNING STARTERS – OFFENSE: 7 starters are back on offense.
TOP RETURNING OFFENSIVE PLAYER: Some good talent has moved on, including Riley and RB Shane Vereen, who had over 1,000 yards rushing and was even the #4 receiver on the team in receiving yards. And true sophomore-to-be Keenan Allen is an absolute superstar in the making, a combination of size and big-play ability who has Pac-12 defensive coaches awake at night over the fear of what he might do once he gets more experience. But at this point, you have to go with senior WR Marvin Jones as the top returning offensive player for 2011.
Jones had an excellent junior year in 2010, leading the team in catches (50) and yards (765), while coming in second in TD catches with 4 (Allen led the team with 5). Jones was 2nd team All-Pac-10 last year, and has excellent size at 6-2, 200 and a flair for the spectacular. Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boy0tkwcv-A&w=425&h=272]
No matter who wins the QB battle for the upcoming season, he’s going to have the luxury of throwing to some excellent talent at the wide receiver position. But there is no doubt that having the senior Jones back for 2011 is going to help ease that transition!
2010 DEFENSIVE STATS
RUSHING DEFENSE: 132.1 ypg, 5th in the Pac-10/35th in the nation
PASSING DEFENSE: 187.0 ypg, #1 in the Pac-10/21st in the nation
SCORING DEFENSE: 22.6 ppg, #3 in the Pac-10/40th in the nation
TOTAL DEFENSE: 319.1 ypg, #1 in the Pac-10/18th in the nation
2011 RETURNING STARTERS – DEFENSE: Cal brings back five starters from last year’s D.
TOP RETURNING DEFENSIVE PLAYER: While senior inside linebacker DJ Holt is back, and is the leading tackler coming back from 2010? The choice here is to go with the other inside linebacker in Cal’s 3-4 D, and that’s Mychal Kendricks.
Kendricks was 4th on the team in tackles, but led the Bears in sacks (8.5) and tackles for loss (6.5) in 2010, garnering 2nd team All-Pac-10 honors last year. He’s strong at 6-0, 241, and can really pack a punch on some monster hits (check out the UCLA plant into the turf last year!):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up57r7JLMmY&w=425&h=272]
Kendricks should be on a lot of preseason ballots for All-Pac-10 honors, and with just three of the starting front seven coming back from last year, will be counted on early to help lead the defense in ’11.
TOP POST-SPRING QUESTIONS:
1) THE QB, DUH. For the first time in three seasons, Cal has a real question at QB. With Riley’s departure, Tedford threw open the gates and let the QB’s on the roster battle it out this spring for the right to sit atop the depth chart. And when spring ball was wrapped up, Tedford declared Zach Maynard, the junior transfer from Buffalo, as his post-spring starter.
The 6-3 lefty QB looked pretty good this spring, holding off the other contenders like Allan Bridgford and Brock Mansion among others for the starting gig. Maynard was the starting QB at Buffalo in 2009 and led them to a bowl game under head coach Turner Gill. Maynard threw for 2,701 yards and 18 TD’s, while adding 300 yards on the ground as a true dual threat at the position in ’09. Once Gill bolted for Kansas, Maynard decided he should hit the road too, and left for the west coast (note – the exciting WR Keenan Allen is Maynard’s half brother, so the family connection certainly helped lead Maynard west!). While they still have fall camp to sort it all out, all the reports were promising that Maynard is THE guy to take Cal’s offense into a new era.
2) WILL THE D BE AS GOOD IN ’11? This is a tough one. Cal has had a pretty good run on D the last two years, in fact they have been in the upper half of the conference the last two seasons in rushing defense. And of course, they were the #1 rated defense in the conference last season, as Cameron Jordan led a fierce defensive front seven that gave opposing offenses fits. After all, they did hold Oregon to season lows in yards(317) and points (15, and one offensive TD overall). But some good players have moved on, including Jordan, linebacker and leading tackler Mike Mohammed, and some hits in the secondary in Chris Conte and Darian Hagan. Three of the starters on D last year were selected in the NFL draft (Jordan in the first round, Conte in third round, Mohammad in the sixth round), so there are some big shoes to fill.
The good news is that they do have Clancy Pendergast back as the d-coordinator, who came in after several years in the NFL and turned the 3-4 attack into the Pac-10’s top defense last year. In just one year under Pendergast, the Cal D improved in total defense (379 to 319), passing yards allowed (267 to 187), completion percentage allowed (63.7 to 56.1%), and sacks (31 to 34). Even though some good ones have moved on, five of the top eight tacklers return from last year overall. While they probably won’t be as good overall as last year’s D, still, they should be an upper division finisher on D in 2011.
3) HOW’S THE SCHEDULE? They have an exact split of 6 home, 6 road games, but of course none will be played in Memorial Stadium as Cal finally rolls through their stadium renovation. They play one game at Candlestick Park, and the rest are at AT&T Park for the 2011 season. The first month doesn’t look too bad, as they open with Fresno State at Candlestick Park, then go to Colorado (note this game is officially a non-conference game, even though Colorado is a new member of the conference!). They host Presbyterian(the Blue Hose?), and then close out the month with a road game at UW. They do have some tough road games though, including at Oregon, at Stanford in the Big Game, and at ASU to finish the year. Overall, they have five conference road games, so even without a true non-conference heavyweight, things look tough for Cal in ’11.
POST SPRING BALL RAMBLINGS, DOT-DOT-DOT STYLE.….While WSU hasn’t beaten Cal in some time (try 2002), at least last year was pretty close. After being outscored by a combined total of 115-20 in 2008 and 2009, the Cougs only lost by seven points last year! Hey, it’s progress, right? Anyway, WSU has now dropped six in a row to Cal. Interestingly enough, last year’s game in Pullman was the first time in the Paul Wulff era where WSU led a BCS team at halftime!…..After going 4-3 at home last year, Cal is now 43-14 at home under Jeff Tedford. The last time Cal had a losing record at home was 2001, when they were a miserable 0-6 on their way to a 1-10 season. Even with a losing season last year, Cal is still 72-42 under Tedford overall….Tedford’s been producing some decent NFL talent in his time at Cal. Four players were picked in April, and Cal has now had 42 players selected in the last 12 years. Cal has had three straight years of first round draft picks (Jordan in ’11, Tyson Alualu and Jahvid Best in ’10, Alex Mack in ’09) and overall the school has had EIGHT first round draft picks in the Tedford regime!…..Cal continues to recruit well under Tedford. They signed the #15 class in the nation this year according to Scout.com, up from the 27th ranked class from 2010. Tedford has had some excellent classes in his tenure, including the 9th ranked class in ’05 (DeSean Jackson, Syd’Quan Thompson, Anthony Felder, etc) and the 12th ranked class in the country in ’07 (Jahvid Best, Shane Vereen, Cameron Jordan)…..One hope for the offense is the return of Jim Michalczik, the highly regarded offensive line coach (and Coug alum!) who briefly left for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders from ’09-’10 before returning to Tedford and Cal this spring. Michalczik ran the offensive line from 2002-2008, where Cal produced some outstanding offensive numbers, including a run from 2003-2007 where Cal averaged at least 400 yards per game in total offense. Michalzcik has also seen 10 offensive linemen he coached who moved on to the NFL, so getting him back in the fold could be a huge boost towards improving Cal’s sputtering offense…..We get excited around these parts in regards to Marquess Wilson’s fantastic frosh season last year. But Keenan Allen looks like one of the top sophomore WR’s in the country coming back in 2011, as he had 46 catches for 490 yards and a team-high 5 TD catches. Allen is multi-dimensional too, as he had 136 rushing yards and a TD on the ground. Allen also returning kicks, averaging 22.6 yards per return. Coming out of high school, the All-American was one of the highest rated safeties in the country as well, and had 145 tackles and 8 INT’s as a senior…..Some of the best stops on the web for all-things Cal include CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com; San Jose Mercury News Cal section; BearTalkBlog.com; ExcuseMeForMyVoice.com, a Cal sports blog; BearsWithFangs.com, another Cal sports blog; CalSportsDigest.com, part of the Scout.com network; BearInsider.com, part of the ESPN Blog network; and finally, BearTerritory.net, part of the Rivals.com network.
All for now. Enjoy your Tuesday, and as always, GO COUGS!
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