California quarterback returns from injury to power the Bears

By Brooks Hatch
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Nate Longshore took the long road to the starting quarterback’s job at California.

Two years ago, the 6-foot-5, 233-pounder from Canyon Country, Calif., redshirted as the third-stringer behind Aaron Rogers and Reggie Robertson.

Last season he won the starting job, only to see his entire fall go up in smoke when he broke his left ankle in the second quarter of the opener against Sacramento State.

This year Longshore earned the starting job again and has grabbed it by the throat. After a sub-par performance in a loss at Tennessee in the opener, he’s been spectacular in lopsided victories against Minnesota, Portland State and Arizona State.

Longshore will get his first career start against Oregon State when the 20th-ranked Bears (3-1, 1-0) face the Beavers (2-1, 0-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Reser Stadium in OSU’s Pacific-10 Conference opener. A crowd of at least 40,000 is expected and that will make for a more hostile atmosphere than he’s experienced in his last three games, all at home.

“The fans up there are football-savvy,” Longshore said Tuesday. “They understand that on third-and-3 or third-and-4 they have to get loud.”

Longshore and the Bears all struggled in their only other road game, a 35-18 loss to Tennessee before 106,009 fans at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville on Sept. 2. However, coach Jeff Tedford said he’s been “better and better” in three consecutive starts in Berkeley, and he earned Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performances against Minnesota and ASU.

“He sees the field better, he throwing on time, he’s extremely accurate and he’s putting the ball in places where people can catch it,” Tedford said. “He still needs to continue to improve, but he’s doing a nice job.

“Last year we were anticipating the same thing. Unfortunately, he got hurt but he’s always showed promise and a lot of potential.”

Cal’s offensive numbers and efficiency have risen in harmony with Longshore’s maturation. He’s 55 of 80 (.688) for 795 yards and 10 touchdowns in his last three games; an astronomical 188.48 pass-efficiency rating over that span has bumped his season rating to 166.92, ninth-best in the country.

Longshore said he’s at ease because he’s finally playing in games after what amounted to a three-year layoff from game competition, and because his offensive line is protecting him better than against Tennessee, when he was sacked twice and was hurried frequently.

“We just needed a little more time to get together,” he said, alluding to the entire offense, not just he and the offensive line. “It was a tough first week in a tough environment.”

He felt no such anxiety against ASU in the decaying confines of Memorial Stadium. Longshore was 18 of 26 for 270 yards and four first-half touchdowns on plays covering 9, 31, 23 and 8 yards, giving the Bears an insurmountable 42-14 halftime lead.

Longshore had never been injured playing football before being KO’ed by the Hornets. He’d been impressive to that point, completing 8 of 11 passes for 131 yards and a TD to DeSean Jackson, but he didn’t play again until spring practice.

“It was tough,” he said. “I cheered for the team and wanted things to go well, but it was a tough time to work through.

“But I knew I’d get better and get another go-round at the job.”