Anger Rules!
There’s been a lot written about Saturday in Berkeley, so a full report would be redundant. Instead, lets look back to my post on Friday’s practice which nobody read (what, you guys aren’t refreshing our blog at 1AM?) for some insight:
Best is still wearing the red jersey, but you owe it to yourself to come out and watch Bryan Anger punt. He hit a low flying plane today.
I. Told. You. So. Riley may have received the loudest applause (has anyone else noticed he’s become a bit of a fan favorite?), but nobody got oohs and aahs until Anger got ahold of one. I remember watching Best last spring; seeing him turn the corner and destroy pursuers’ angles made me into a believer, instantly. Anger is this year’s Best (I know, he’s a redshirt freshman, but we had Larson last year and he was pretty good in his own right). Until you saw Best in person, and until you see Anger punt, you can’t appreciate how good they are.
We have the best long-snapper in the country (Sundberg), the best guner in the country (Best), and while his consistency isn’t there yet, Anger has one of the biggest legs I’ve ever seen. I hope we don’t get to see them too often during the season, but this punting unit is going to be awesome! I know this is kind of like being excited about your double play combination up the middle when your offense is averaging 3 runs again (having a fun season, Giants fans?), but they’re just that good.
A few final notes on the scrimmage:
- Mansion continues to struggle. He looks like a freshman quarterback using the entire play book for the first time (he ran the scout team offense in the fall). We know he can make all of the throws, but he looks a little overwhelmed right now. Mansion did hit Ross in stride on a little crossing route over the middle, and Ross showed a nice burst getting upfield for a 25 yard gain.
- Riley had a pretty nice game but on an early 4th down, he threw it behind Calvin, who dropped it.
- Slocum had a nice game with 2 TDs and a number of solid runs. I thought he again showed nice patience and vision. Meanwhile, for a skinny guy who should be going to prom in a month, Covaughn is a tough runner. Maybe he does end up playing this year after all.
- Syd had two nice punt returns, including a TD that got called back for clipping away from the play. He was very comfortable finding seems and looked fluid shaking defenders. He might be the most valuable player on the team (if not, Mack?), so I wonder if Tedford will hesitate to make him the punt returner and leave him susceptible to taking big hits. We’ll see what Best and Vereen can do once they get healthy, but Syd looks like a natural.
GO BEARS.
The number of touchbacks this year better be a record of some sort, or I’m going to be sorely disappointed.
Comment by Avinash — April 15, 2008 @ 1:49 am
Anger will definitely be fun to watch for the next four years. Also, Jahvid wasn’t in spring training last year. Remember he played as a true freshman this past fall.
Comment by Scott M — April 15, 2008 @ 5:32 am
My apologies, you are right about Best, he didn’t enroll early like Covaughn. Nice catch.
I also didn’t write much about the defense (Jon & Kate plus 8 marathon, what can I say?), but how about that pass rush?? I almost wrote about Owusu (number 95) following Friday’s practice but Jordan had the stronger afternoon (barely!) so I decide to sit on it. Damn, I would have looked smart.
Comment by CBKWit — April 15, 2008 @ 8:21 am
Glad there’s some positive signs. Never too early for good news. Go Bears!
Comment by CJ — April 15, 2008 @ 8:42 am
Why have I not heard about this on your site? Am I missing something or does the Nate Lovefest run that deep?
From Calfootballfan.com
[Kevin] Riley- did not get to show off his arm too much . . . but when he threw, was very crisp and accurate with zip. He would’ve been perfect if Calvin didn’t drop 2 of his passes (that may be Calvin’s weakness). He had great protection, but he did run for 6 yards when under pressure once. Riley’s best pass was a 20 yard TD strike to Calvin deep in the endzone towards the end of practice. That got the biggest pop from the crowd today. Basically, he looked very accurate and was not afraid to thread the needle.
Comment by johno — April 15, 2008 @ 10:20 am
PERFECT. YOU HEAR THAT?
I’m fine with the Nate love, but seriously you have to give some credit where credit is due sometimes.
Comment by johno — April 15, 2008 @ 10:21 am
My favorite Riley throw of the afternoon was when the offense was backed up deep towards the north endzone. He threw it over one defender and squeezed it to Cunningham (I believe), who was blanketed by a DB (he never gets separation but man, he catches everything!). It was a tough throw with little margin for error that would have been picked if it had not been perfect.
I actually missed the TD to Calvin because Twist was talking my ear off (about, you guessed it, how awesome Nate is…actually, everyone who knows Twists knows it was a rambling unrelated tangent).
I actually prefer Riley to Nate, mostly because Riley has shown me things that Nate can’t do. I don’t think Nate has been remotely as bad as people like to believe. However, I have expected a lot of Riley this spring, and save Saturday, he has been pretty average.
Comment by CBKWit — April 15, 2008 @ 10:44 am
Sometimes I use “how awesome Nate is” as my rambling unrelated tangent!
Comment by TwistNHook — April 15, 2008 @ 11:19 am
Avinash - Anger is the punter and his job is pin teams as far back and as close to their own endzone as possible, not punt the ball into the endzone.
As beautiful and refreshing as Riley’s passes are, the fact is a number of his throws are high risk and that should tell everybody something.
Also, in this clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1mk_j6fyBQ
Did Riley make the right throw? It was a hell of a throw. No doubt about that, but wasn’t there an easier and less risky one he could have made here?
Comment by MysteryFriend — April 15, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
Johno - Calfootballfan.com is not a reputable source, quoting observations made by fans on Bear Insider and passing it off like it’s fact. CBK mentioned in this blog entry that “Riley had a pretty nice game but on an early 4th down, he threw it behind Calvin, who dropped it” and the other website says “(Riley) would’ve been perfect if Calvin didn’t drop 2 of his passes (that may be Calvin’s weakness).” The eyes see what they want to see and people believe what they want to believe.
Comment by MysteryFriend — April 15, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
Johno, I don’t think any of us here at the CGB are purposely withholding information for the purpose of downplaying Riley and pumping up Longshore. Johno, I know you prefer Riley as the QB but please do not mistake my defense of Longshore as “Nate love.” I have not been battling the Longshore criticism because I have a crush on him or I am a friend with him. Although he is rather dreamy! And boy did we have a fun time getting ice cream last week.
Often, Longshore has been the target of much misguided criticism. That is why I have been defending Longshore. I have no problem with reasonable criticism of Longshore but a lot of the criticism that Longshore received last year was far from reasonable. I don’t think I need to go into details but many of our offense’s problems last year were *not solely* because of Longshore. In fact, many of those other problems were factors that directly as well as indirectly lead to his INTs. People need to realize this. Many people who criticized Longshore don’t. I am merely attempting to help people see a fuller context to Longshore’s seeming failures. I am trying to help people have a greater understanding of football and what goes on on the field. So please, put aside your bias for Riley, and please stop mistaking my defense of Longshore as “Nate Love.” We both root for the same team, in the end.
Comment by HydroTech — April 15, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
Seams, CBK, seams.
Ooh ooh, can we get a reprise of the b&w photo of the dueling QBs again this year? Who can forget the awesomeness of the Ayoob and Longshore shirtless shot?!
Comment by BearBallCarrier — April 15, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
Nobody can, BearBallCarrier, nobody can. No matter how hard we try. It’s burned into our memory.
Comment by TwistNHook — April 15, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Yeah, I can’t decide if I prefer Longshore or Riley until I see them side by side, in black and white, sans shirts, muscles gleaming in the soft light…
Comment by kittwin — April 15, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
fair enough. I appreciate the candor.
Comment by johno — April 16, 2008 @ 9:52 am
Intelligent, vigorous discussion is awesome!
RILEY SUCKS!
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