Spring football is over. Real football is still far, far away.
To help bridge the gap, weβre going to check in on Arizonaβs competition in the Pac-12. Over the next few weeks, weβll run some of the best comments from the leagueβs coaches after their recent participation in a conference call to wrap up spring ball.
Weβre calling it βPac-12 After Spring,β an homage to #Pac12AfterDark (and a distant runner-up to βSpring Exit Interviews,β which colleague Doug Haller of The Arizona Republic already coined).
Todayβs Q&A is with Cal coach Sonny Dykes, who got a lot of questions about quarterbacks and quarterbacking.
(on QBs struggling to transition from the βAir Raidβ offense to the NFL)
βThe thing Iβve always found is, footballβs football. I can remember a number of years ago, when we started running this stuff in the late β90s at Kentucky. The thing was (then), βThis is not going to work in the SEC.β It worked pretty well. We had Tim Couch. He was the first pick in the draft. We won some games at Kentucky. Hal (Mumme) took them to a New Yearβs Day bowl game.
βWe went into the Big 12 at Texas Tech in 2000, and the first thing everybody said was, βYou canβt win in the Big 12 unless you run the football and play smash-mouth football.β And then when I left in 2006, every team was a spread team.
βIf you look at the New England Patriots, theyβre probably the closest thing to a spread team. I would say them or the Indianapolis Colts when Peyton Manning was there. Those teams seemed to do pretty well. They spread the ball out and had quarterbacks that could operate a system and an offense.β
(on new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital)
βJakeβs a young guy whoβs really had a great track record of developing quarterbacks. You go back and look at the guys heβs had a chance to work with β Brandon Weeden, Case Keenum, the guy at West Virginia (Geno Smith), Johnny Manziel. All of the guys heβs had have been pretty good ones and been pretty productive guys and have played at a high level. I think that gives him credibility, instantly, to (Cal's) quarterbacks and our offense.
βHeβs a great communicator. β¦ Heβs on the same page as all the coaches. Heβs organized. Heβs methodical in his approach. So he fits in perfect.
βWe come from the same system. Kliff Kingsbury was our quarterback at Texas Tech in 2001, 2002, 2003. Kliff got into coaching, and Jake kind of learned from Kliff. Itβs been one of those things where we think the same way. We have the same beliefs. Itβs been fun to see how heβs taken it and tweaked it a little bit, kind of how I took it and tweaked it when I was a coordinator. Itβs been a great situation. Iβve been really pleased. I think our players are excited.
βItβs going to look a little bit different at times. To the average person itβs going to look pretty much the same. But thereβs certainly some differences in the way itβs administered. The quarterback has to do a little more the way weβre doing it now. He has a little more control of the offense than maybe he did in the past.β
(on Calβs skill set on offense)
βSomething thatβs different about this group, weβve got a really good catch-and-run group of receivers. We were really blessed to have good receivers here, but they were more down-the-field guys. These guys can catch the ball in space and create things and make plays. With Melquise Stovall and Greyson Bankhead, those guys give us a little different element than weβve had. They give us that ability to break a tackle or slip a tackle and make some big plays.
βThe biggest difference in our offense right now is just our size, our strength and our depth on our offensive line. Thatβs been something weβve had to rebuild, and itβs taken us some time to get there. I think the strength of our teamβs probably going to be our offensive line. That certainly hasnβt been the case leading up to this. That gives us some capabilities to run the ball, and run it when people know weβre going to run it, which is important. Knock some people off the ball. Thatβs our hope. I donβt think weβre there yet, but I think we can certainly get there.
βAnd once we decide who the quarterback is going to beβ β likely between Chase Forrest and Ross Bowers β βweβre going to have to make adjustments and figure out how to put them in situations where they can be successful.β
UPDATE: Former Texas Tech QB Davis Webb announced this week that he's transferring to Cal
Part 1: Arizona State coach Todd Graham
