Longshore throws for 2 TDs in scrimmage

After four weeks of practices and a final scrimmage on Saturday, the reporters huddled around California head coach Jeff Tedford trying to get his read on who might be the leading candidate to be the starting quarterback this fall.

Although Nate Longshore had the strongest performance on Saturday and was the most consistent quarterback throughout the spring, Joe Ayoob has shown improvement from last season, Steve Levy remains a strong sentimental favorite after leading the Golden Bears to a Big Game and a bowl victory, and Kyle Reed at times looks like he might have the highest upside of all of them, repeated attempts to nudge Tedford into naming a favorite have been in vain. And indeed, Saturday proved to be no different.

"All of these guys have done a real good job," said Tedford afterwards. "We'll see what happens in the fall. In the summertime, they'll come in and do there work and there are so many things that can happen."

Longshore paced all signal callers, going 6-of-9 for 113 yards and two touchdowns and was neither sacked nor forced to scramble.  He's embraced the challenge of learning a new offense.  After almost every practice this spring, Longshore stays behind to work on his throwing and has almost always been the last player to leave the practice field.

"I fell like I'm finally getting a grasp of what we're trying to do, " said Longshore. "I'm not where I need to be, but I've got some time in the offseason to work on my agility."

One concern about the Golden Bears putting in the spread option offense is how well such an offense would suit Longshore.  Under offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar, Northwestern's Brett Basanez ran for 423 yards and 7 touchdowns. Longshore hasn't run much out of the spread option during the spring.

"The coaches don't want me to run a lot out of that formation," Longshore said. "We've got an outstanding line and the best running backs anywhere, so I don't feel like I need to run a lot. But I also need to try to take advantage of what's there."

Longshore plans on using the summer to work on his speed and quickness.

"I need to get my muscle memory and explosiveness back," said Longshore, "But I know I'll put in the work so I'm not worried about it."

Saturday's scrimmage consisted of alternating sequences of 11-on-11s and special teams work.  The estimated crowd of 4,000 saw the Bears mix their traditional offense with the new spread option. Longshore, Levy and Reed all had their opportunities to run the offense. Ayoob, who injured an ankle during the previous Saturday's practice, participated as a holder, but was held out of quarterbacking duties as a precautionary measure.

California's offense started with a bang as Longshore led the first-team offense against the second-team defense.  On the first play, Longshore threw a middle screen to wide receiver DeSean Jackson who used his speed and elusiveness to outrun the defense for a 70-yard touchdown.  Later in the scrimmage, Jackson returned a punt for a 57-yard touchdown.  Although Tim Mixon has, with good reason, entrenched himself as the team's top punt returner, a challenge for the coaching staff will be to find more ways to take advantage of Jackson's gamebreaking ability.

The following possession, the Bears marched down the field in a 10-play, 70-yard drive, with the final three plays featuring Marshawn Lynch on runs of 3, 10, and finally a 3-yard touchdown run.  On his 10-yard run, Lynch ran around the right end and bulldozed defensive back Marcus Ezeff.

Yet after the initial two drives, the defense stopped up and dominated play for most of the afternoon.  While the first two possessions under Longshore netted 140 yards, the following 14 possessions under Longshore, Levy, and Reed netted 146 yards. Part of this had to do with the increased involvement of the first-team defense.

During the course of the afternoon, the Bears had sacks from Desmond Bishop, Brandon Mebane, John Allen,  an 85-yard interception return for a touchdown by Mixon, a tackle for a loss by Worrell Williams on a third-and-short and had unlucky to not have interceptions from Bishop, Jessie Brooks, and Donte Hughes.  While tailbacks Lynch and Justin Forsett combined for 99 yards on 20 carries, the defense did a good job of containing them and not allowing any long runs through the secondary.  The defense also had strong efforts from Nuu Tafisi, who narrowly missed a sack of Levy and Syd'Quan Thompson who looked good in pass coverage.

California will have one of the best linebacking corps in the Pac-10 this season with Bishop, Williams, Mickey Pimentel, Justin Moye, Zach Follett, Michael Felder, and Greg Van Hoesen.  Bishop, who's a candidate to have a breakout year this season, besides having the sack, had several good tackles. On a screen pass from Reed to Will Taufoou, Bishop fought through a  crowd of three blockers to single-handedly tackle Taufoou; something that almost nobody's been able to do this spring.

California's special teams continued to be something of an adventure. Taylor Kunzi had two punts blocked for touchdowns, one by Kenny Frank that was returned by Van Hoesen, the other by Virdell Larkins which was returned by Jared Vanderbeek. Steve Levy earned a round of applause for his two punts of 43 and 40 yards that had good hang time, with one resulting in a fair catch and the other resulting in a return for a loss.  Although kickoffs were erratic first, Jordan Kay was able to get consistently good distance later in practice after kicking one out of bounds early.  Tom Schneider made his only field goal attempt of 39 yards. kay made a 44- and 22-yarder while missing a 40-yarder.   Lavelle Hawkins had a pair of good kick returns for a total of 64 yards. Jackson's 57-yard touchdown led the punt returners.

Centers Alex Mack and Mark Gray successfully avoided the snapping issues that had become an increasing problem during recent weeks.  There no snaps that resulted in fumbles, and no snaps that were either abnormally high or low.  This also played a factor in Kyle Reed having his best day of the spring in terms of cleanly handling snaps.

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