Pac-10: Longshore returns to lead Cal to win

California fans booed him when the 2007 season collapsed under his leadership, applauded when he was replaced during fall camp and jeered him when he played poorly as a reserve in the opener.

Golden Bears senior quarterback Nate Longshore, however, has more resiliency than those persistent Memorial Stadium tree-sitters, people who were probably criticizing this guy nonstop, too, before getting hauled away from their high-up vantage point among old-growth branches.

Longshore surprised everyone in the Bay Area when he reclaimed his starting job Saturday afternoon against Arizona State and led his team to a 24-14 victory. The decision to play him again and bench sophomore quarterback Kevin Riley was a late-week call by Cal coach Jeff Tedford, and a bold one considering that Riley had directed the team to three victories in four outings.

“I wanted to change it up a little bit and see if we could create a spark,” said Tedford, concerned that his team had been a chronic slow starter.

Longshore, a first-teamer for three seasons before giving way to Riley, did exactly what was asked. He led the Golden Bears to a David Seawright field goal on the opening drive, threw the first of his three touchdown passes on the second series and had Cal (4-1, 2-0 Pac-10) on top 17-0 before the Sun Devils (2-3, 1-1 Pac-10) could get untracked in the second quarter. He completed 17 of 28 passes for 198 yards against Arizona State, getting intercepting just once. He now has 46 career TDs, breaking a tie with Aaron Rodgers currently of the Green Bay Packers.

He took the brunt of the fan backlash when the 2007 Golden Bears rose to No. 2 in the national polls and then dropped six of their final eight games. He changed his jersey number from 9 to 6, so determined was he to distance himself from that disaster. He was further ostracized when he threw two ill-advised interceptions against Michigan State as a sub in the season opener while Riley played solidly in the 38-31 victory.

Longshore also earned his second chance because he handled his demotion in an honorable fashion, choosing to support Riley and his teammates in his absence instead of sulking and he stayed upbeat and prepared for anything. Loyalty was rewarded.

“Everybody wants to contribute and nobody wants to just watch, but I really care for my teammates and everything we’ve been through together,” Longshore said. “For me to bring them down because of my personal situation would be silly.”
 
Said Cal offensive guard Noris Malele, “I was glad to see him back out there again.”

Pleased with the results, Tedford expects Longshore to start again at Arizona on Oct. 18 after an upcoming bye week. While the veteran quarterback re-established himself as the No. 1 guy at his position, Cal went a long way to positioning itself as the second-best team behind favored USC in a Pac-10 race filled with highly inconsistent and beatable teams. Arizona State, last year’s runner-up and projected as the same this season, lost for the third consecutive outing.

Scoreboard:

Arizona 48, Washington 14
California 24, Arizona State 14
Notre Dame 28, Stanford 21
UCLA 28, Washington State 3
USC 44, Oregon 10
Utah 31, Oregon State 28

Team of the Week: USC

After losing at Oregon State the week before, the Trojans (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) took out their frustrations on Oregon (4-2, 2-1 Pac-10), spotting the Ducks a 10-3 lead and then embarrassing them with 41 unanswered points as the Los Angeles Coliseum. Junior quarterback Mark Sanchez provided 332 passing yards and three touchdown passes before leaving with a knee injury that isn’t believed to be serious and didn’t keep him from returning. The USC defense was masterful, even with top linebacker Rey Maualuga injured and in street clothes, limiting the Ducks to a pair of touchdowns after the visitors had averaged 47 points per game coming in.

“These guys came out and played like crazy,” Trojans coach Pete Carroll said. “This was a big moment for us.”

Disappointment of the Week: Oregon State

Riding the momentum of their momentous upset of USC, the Beavers (2-3, 1-1 Pac-10) did everything right for 57-plus minutes at unbeaten Utah. They led most of the way. They quieted the crowd. They made room for a third consecutive 100-yard rushing effort by freshman Jacquizz Rodgers. They punched across an insurance touchdown with 2:18 remaining for a 28-20 advantage. Then they absolutely folded, coughing up 11 points to the Utes down the stretch, including Louie Sakoda’s game-winning field goal from 37 yards out as time expired.

“I honestly don’t know what happened,” Oregon State defensive end Slade Norris said. “We were stopping the ball on defense. We were playing a great game. We needed to make plays and we didn’t do that.”

Player of the Week: Rob Gronkowski, Arizona, TE

The player the Wildcats have christened as “Big Country,” all 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds of him, was way too much land mass for Washington to handle. Gronkowski caught three touchdown passes in Arizona’s 48-14 romp, scoring from 37, 9 and 8 yards out. The first score came on a specially designed screen play for him. He finished with five catches for 109 yards. The sophomore tight end, a native New Yorker and quite possibly the nation’s best at his position, has five touchdown receptions in his two outings since bouncing back from mononucleosis and being cleared to play again.

“We need to find more ways to get him the ball,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said in all seriousness.

Freshman of the Week: Shane Vereen, California TB

The redshirt freshman replacement for the injured Jahvid Best (dislocated elbow) filled in nicely with 93 yards rushing on a career-best 27 carries and a career-high five receptions for 51 yards against Arizona State. Best, a sophomore who was injured against Colorado State the previous week, stood on the sideline wearing his jersey and street clothes and watched appreciably while Vereen made his first career start a resounding success.

Trojans flex some muscle

The most shocking thing coming out of USC’s upset loss to Oregon State was the manner in which the Trojans linemen were shoved around. That didn’t happen against Oregon. All week long in practice in unseasonably hot weather, the guys in the trenches were reminded about their soft performance in Corvallis, Ore., and goaded to do better against the Ducks at home. Mission accomplished.

The Trojans blockers provided enough protection and open holes to run up 598 yards of total offense and their peers on the defensive side walled together to shut down an Oregon offense that had been averaging 308 yards rushing per game, limiting the Ducks to just 60. Huge tailback LeGarrette Blount felt the brunt of this inspired effort, gaining zero yards in nine carries.

“We knew what we’d done wrong,” USC sophomore center Kristofer O’Dowd said.

“I think SC answered the wake-up call,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti observed.

Carpenter cut down

Arizona State senior quarterback Rudy Carpenter took a beating in Berkeley, Calif., one that left him on crutches and wearing a protective boot on his left foot after the 24-14 loss to California and questionable for the next game against USC. He had to be feeling considerable pain in the fourth quarter when he took a staggering blind-side hit from Golden Bears linebacker Zack Follett, one that was a full year in coming and not without extra motivation.

Follett later detailed how Carpenter had taunted him during last season’s 31-20 Arizona State victory over Cal in Tempe, Ariz., leaving the defensive leader angry and vengeful.

“He was calling me by my first name, like we’re best friends or something,” Follett relayed.

Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan said he watched the violent play in amazement, sharing his awe with an Arizona State player with the following comment, “I told the offensive lineman, ‘You’re quarterback just died.’ ”

In the interview room, Golden Bears coach Jeff Tedford told Follett, “You got him,” to which the satisfied defender replied, “I got him.”

Bruins ring the Bell

Rick Neuheisel’s UCLA team (2-3, 1-1 Pac-10) won for the first time in a month, since its season-opening upset of Tennessee, but didn’t exactly steamroll a far weaker Washington State club in a 28-3 decision as other conference entries have (Oregon and California each scored 63 points or higher against the Cougars). The Bruins still can’t run the ball. They collected just 100 yards against a Cougars team (1-5, 0-3 Pac-10) previously serving up 269 rushing yards per game.

On the plus side, Bruins tailback Kahlil Bell carried the ball 21 times, picking up 43 yards and scoring twice on short runs. Bell wasn’t overly concerned about the numbers, pointing out that Washington State usually jammed the line with eight or nine guys and his team got needed yards whenever and wherever it could. The fact that Bell is playing at all is encouraging. One of the league’s leading rushers the year before, he is eight months removed from a knee injury suffered against the Cougars that required surgery and has since bounced back after suffering a high-ankle sprain in the opener against Tennessee.

“I know there is nobody that works harder then me,” the senior tailback said.

Huskies get sack, bottom falls out

It took 17 quarters, but Washington defensive end Daniel Te’o-Nesheim broke through in the first quarter against Arizona (4-1, 2-0 Pac-10) and registered his team’s first sack of the season. The Huskies were the last major-college team to get one. That was the good news coming out of Tucson, Ariz., for these guys, with Te’o-Nesheim actually finishing with three sacks.

The increasingly bad report is this: Washington (0-5, 0-3 Pac-10) is off to its worst start in 39 years and it’s only a matter of time before fourth-year coach Ty Willingham is relieved of his duties. Newly appointed athletic director Scott Woodward met with reporters after the game and said a midseason change was unlikely, though he didn’t rule anything out. The Huskies and North Texas are the only BCS teams without a victory this season.

Willingham was further criticized for burning the redshirt seasons of two more freshmen, using tailback Terrance Dailey and wide receiver Cody Bruns in a lost cause. Washington has now utilized a school-record 12 true freshmen this season.

“If it’s going to be a debate, we’ll let them debate it,” the embattled Huskies coach said of his decision to use Dailey and Bruns. “I made the decision to put them in.”

No flag-waving by Cardinal

Stanford couldn’t overcome a 28-7 deficit, couldn’t supply adequate pass defense to prevent a 347-yard, three-touchdown outing by Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Jimmy Clausen and most of all couldn’t contain its emotions in South Bend, Ind.

The Cardinal (3-3, 2-1 Pac-10) had words with their hosts at midfield before the game and got into a pushing and shoving match at the end. In between, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh screamed at officials, threw his hat and drew a sideline warning.

Harbaugh was incensed over a couple of calls, particularly a second-quarter punt fumbled by Notre Dame’s Armando Allen and recovered by his team on the Fighting Irish 37, only to be overruled by an interference penalty that wasn’t evident on the TV replay. “It’s hard to imagine people don’t know more about football any better than that,” the Cardinal coach said afterward.

Making matters worse was the fact it was a Pac-10 officiating crew that called the game.

Short Yardage

Arizona’s 34-point win over Washington was its largest margin in the 30-year series between the teams. … Shortly before traveling to Notre Dame, Stanford announced it had lost starting junior wide receiver Richard Sherman possibly for the rest of the season with a knee injury. … USC quarterback Mark Sanchez received a scare when he hurt his left knee on a third-quarter sack and had to leave the game; the guy pulling him down was Oregon defensive end Nick Reed, Sanchez’s former teammate at Mission Viejo High School in the Los Angeles area. … In relief of Sanchez, Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain completed 5 of 8 passes for 111 yards, including a 59-yard touchdown pass to David Ausberry. … Trojans tailback Allen Bradford was not in uniform for the Oregon game, said to be out with a hip injury but also publicly not happy about his lack of playing time. … UCLA redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Forcier made his college debut against Washington State, running the Bruins’ final series, the first time anyone other than starter Kevin Craft has taken snaps this season. … Ronnie Fouch, Washington redshirt freshman quarterback, made his first collegiate start in place of the injured Jake Locker, and completed 12 of 28 passes for 181 yards and a score against Arizona. … Locker, who has a broken thumb that will sideline him six to eight weeks, was part of the 64-man travel team, though not in uniform, because of his leadership capabilities. … Cal cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson had four pass break-ups against Arizona State. … Sun Devils tailback Keegan Herring, in his first significant playing time while dealing with a season-long hamstring injury, rushed 14 times for 37 yards against the Golden Bears.

Del.icio.us | Digg it | Athlon Sports RSS Feeds