Notes From The Margin – Emerald Bowl Edition
December 27th, 2008 by Jason Roberts
In what essentially amounts to a home game for the California Bears, Jeff Tedford’s team travels to San Francisco to take on a struggling Miami Hurricanes. in Saturday night’s Emerald Bowl The Bears, featuring the fifth-best running back in the nation in Jahvid Best, will look to take advantage of a UM defense that coughed up nearly 700 yards rushing in the last two games of its regular season. Tedford (as usual) leaves questions about who will start under center, with senior Nate Longshore and sophomore Kevin Riley engaged in yet another chapter of the ongoing saga that is the Cal quarterback position, yet expect the running attack to be the featured weapon for the Bears versus the Hurricanes. Miami, in the meantime, is looking to build on a season that saw its fair share of ups-and-downs for a once proud program deseperate to turn things around under head coach Randy Shannon. The Hurricanes have plenty of youth and athleticism, but have yet to achieve a full degree of fluidity on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
In a review of the days leading up to Saturday’s Emerald Bowl, NFTM attempts to sort out the controversy behind Tedford’s move to open up the quarterback position to competition between Longshore and Riley, uncovers the additional battle already brewing for the starting role under center heading into 2009, identifies a few award-winning Bears that could have a major impact on the outcome of the matchup with the Hurricanes, a troubling string of suspensions handed out by the coaching staff for the University of Miami, rumors surrounding freshman quarterback Robert Marve, and the numbers that matter most when it comes to the UM defense preparing to square off against the Cal backfield.
Leave it to Jeff Tedford to stir the quarterback controversy pot yet again . . .
The San Francisco Chronicle hosts an article discussing head coach for the California Bears, Jeff Tedford, and his use of the infamous phrase “quarterback competition” yet again in pre-Emerald Bowl press conferences. Yes, though Kevin Riley for the last month of the Bears’ regular season schedule served as California’s starter under center, Tedford seems to have found it relevant to mention in meetings with the press that he believes Riley is “still young” and subsequently, Cal has a quarterback controversy to address prior to taking the field against Miami this coming Saturday. So who will start? Will it be the sophomore in Riley, who completed 50.7 percent of his passes for a total of 1,360 yards, 14 touchdowns and six interceptions, or his senior counterpart, Nate Longshore, who has 930 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 58 percent of his pass attempts? At this point, there seems, and maddeningly so, no exact answer. Tedford has even gone so far as to suggest that Riley and Longshore “both may see action in the game.” Ultimately,“ he added, “We’ll evaluate the situation as we go and see how it plays out.”
Speaking of quarterback competitions . . .
As suggested in an article published in a recent edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, Kevin Riley may very well have to get used to the concept of competing for the starting job as the California Bears quarterback, even after the Emerald Bowl has been played and Nate Longshore has departed the program. The reason comes in the form of a redshirt freshman by the name of Brock Mansion, a 6’5”, 229 pound youngster who thus far in his career at Berkeley is three-of-six in mop-up duty as a passer, but is highly regarded for his ability to make plays with both a strong arm and quick feet. “He has a bright future and will compete for [the quarterback] position,” head coach Jeff Tedford told reporters in a pre-game press conference associated with the Emerald Bowl. “He’s big, athletic and has a nice arm. He’s smart and a good leader. He has a lot of really fine qualities and has made a lot of progress in understanding the offense.” Mansion, of course, notes the article, is looking forward to the opportunity to challenge Riley, with the freshman commenting on the subject, “Having the chance to compete will bring out the best in both of us and is the best situation for this team. The more we’re competing and fighting, the more skills we’re establishing.” Does Riley feel the same way? He seems much more nonchalant, stating only that battling for the starting quarterback role is “nothing new” and “just something you cope with.”
The Return of the Mack . . .
Those watching Saturday’s Emerald Bowl game may want to check out the California sideline for a glimpse of Alex Mack, senior center for the Bears. The reason? Mack was, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, recently named the winner of the Morris Trophy as the Pac-10’s best offensive linemen for the season for a second consecutive year. Such an honor makes him only the third player ever to receive the award in back-to-back seasons, and finds Mack joining the company of USC’s Roy Foster (1980-81) and the University of Washington’s Lincoln Kennedy (1991-92) as repeat Morris Trophy winners.
Learning to be controlled by Anger . . .
In reading the San Francisco Chronicle on Christmas Day, one learns that in asking several players on the California Bears football team who they think the most valuable player the 2008 regular season, was, an unusual answer emerges – a redshirt freshman punter by the name of Bryan Anger. The #14 punter in the country, Anger averaged 43.7 yards a kick on the year and is, according to senior linebacker Worrell Williams, “one of our most important players.” The native of Camarillo, California was named a Freshman All-American by the Sporting News and was also the lone freshman to be named a semifinalist for the 2008 Ray Guy Award. Subsequently, Anger is, according to Jeff Tedford, “a guy who has been instrumental in creating field position for us,” a function epitomized both by a single-game school record performance earlier this season against the Stanford Cardinal in which Anger averaged an outstanding 60.2 yards a kick as well as earning himself a Pac-10 leading punt versus the Arizona State Sun Devils which traveled an amazing distance of 72 yards.
In a wake of suspensions . . .
The Seattle Post provides readers with just the latest in a string of suspensions hounding the University of Miami football program over the past week, announcing on Christmas Day that long-snapper for the Hurricanes, Chris Ivory, has been suspended for Saturday’s Emerald Bowl and will be replaced by Jake Byrne, one of two backup quarterbacks having traveled to the host-city of San Francisco. As such, Ivory joins the likes of tight ends Richard Gordon and Tervaris Johnson, linebacker Jordan Futch, and freshman starting quarterback Robert Marve as players that won’t be participating in the Hurricanes’ bowl game as a result of violating team rules. The loss of Marve could prove the most significant for Miami, with the first-year starter under center having compiled 1293 yards on 116-of-213 passing, nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 11 games this season. In his place, fellow freshman Jacory Harris, who saw nearly an equal amount of playing time this year, will get his first post-season start and comes into to this weekend’s contest having gone 93-of-153 passing for 1,001 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Rumor control and additional thoughts on Jacory Harris . . .
The Miami Herald finds irony in the fact that freshman quarterback Robert Marve missed the first game of the 2008 football season and will, in similar fashion, be absent from the field once more in the University of Miami’s last contest of the year this weekend against the California Bears. Citing “a violation of team rules” many believe stems from a lack of time spent by Marve in the classroom, head coach Randy Shannon noted he was disappointed in the freshman’s latest suspension, but that the team would “just move on” and accept that its starting quarterback “won’t be at the bowl.” Marve’s father, Eugene, in the meantime, did his best to do damage control back in the state of Florida, telling reporters his son was “hurt” by Shannon’s ruling but rumors running rampant that the freshman was threatening to transfer as a result of his being shelved in the Hurricanes’ post-season appearance were completely false. “He hasn’t left for good,” the Tampa native’s father exclaimed to members of the local media in response to questions about Marve departing from the university for the Christmas holiday. “He’s coming back to Miami,” he concluded. “We’re trying to take this and turn a negative into a positive over time.”
One would think that the absence of Marve would put an undo amount of pressure on fellow freshman and quarterback Jacory Harris; but, according to a separate article published by the Miami Herald, nothing could be further from the truth. “I tend to not let [the pressure] get to me,” Harris told the paper last Friday. “I don’t think there’s any pressure [going] into this game. I’m just going to have a good game and have fun. . . . It’s a business trip and we’re going to take care of business.”
Junior walk-on Matt Perrelli and senior Jake Byrne will serve as Harris’ backups, the same article reveals Shannon as stating in conjunction with Harris’ being named starter come Saturday.
A positive addition for the Hurricanes . . .
The Florida Sun-Sentinel tells readers Christmas Day that while the Miami Hurricanes are learning to deal with the loss of five players suspended from this weekend’s game against California for various violations of team rules, the team received the positive news that wide receiver Travis Benjamin will be available to play Saturday after once being considered doubtful because of a high ankle sprain. The freshman from Belle Glade, Florida missed the Hurricanes’ season finale against North Carolina State because of the injury, and though described by head coach Randy Shannon as “still a little slow right now” and not “100 percent,” will see playing time against Jeff Tedford’s Bears. On the season, Benjamin caught 16 receptions for 276 yards and three touchdowns, with a season-high four receptions for 72 yards coming October 25th in a matchup against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
One man’s opinions on what’s hurt the Hurricanes’ defense the most this season . . .
According to an interview conducted by Scout.com with the Miami Herald’s Manny Navarro, the one thing which has hurt the Miami Hurricanes defense the most this season isn’t the “few top-tier running backs in the ACC” like Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer, but instead “quarterbacks who can create confusion with their own running ability.” Navarro explains that teams such as Florida State, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech “torched” Miami “because the option killed them”; and though he’s not sure how the Hurricanes plan to defend against the quickness of Cal running backs Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen, “if the Bears’ quarterbacks aren’t part of the running game, that plays in Miami’s favor.” Navarro argues that Miami held Virginia Tech in check partially do to the fact that “their quarterbacks were coming off injuries and couldn’t really run themselves” and could do the same against California, especially against the less-mobile Nate Longshore.
Numbers that matter . . .
Manny Navarro can say what he wants to about talented running backs not to being the major concern for the Miami Hurricanes defense heading into Saturday’s game against the Cal Bears, but numbers presented by the Palm Beach Post on December 24th tell an entirely different story. According to the article, the Hurricanes’ know, as explains head coach Randy Shannon, that stopping the nation’s fifth-best running back, Jahvid Best, is “going to be the key to the game” and will “determine who wins or losses.” Averaging 126.7 yards a contest and maintaining a school-record eight yards a carry, Best doesn’t make for a good matchup against a defensive unit for Miami that in its final two regular season games against Georgia Tech and North Carolina State allowed a jaw-dropping 691 total yards rushing. The problem only seems to be magnified in realizing that Best saved his “best” for thelast two games of Cals’ regular 2008 schedule, compiling 201 yards and two touchdowns in the Big Game against Stanford and producing the fourth-best performance in the history of the Pac-10 the following week versus Washington (19 carries going for 311 yards and four touchdowns). Still, all hope might not be lost; according to Bob Davie of ESPN Radio, California has “a run-the-ball-right-at-you style of offense . . . . the kind of scheme Miami’s geared to stop. At least they know where Cal is going to be and Miami has good enough players, that if the element of deception is not there, [the Hurricanes are] going to be fine.”
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