As most of you know, the Hurricanes will face the Golden Bears in the Emrald Bowl on December 27th in San Francisco. So far, practice is going well. Robert Marve, Jermaine McKenzie, and Shawnbrey McNeal are all in practice despite transfer rumors surrounding Marve and McKenzie and all but a foregone conclusion that McNeal back to his home state of Texas bound for TCU. Jacory Harris is still recovering from an injury that he suffered late in the final game of the season against the Wolfpack. Harris says that he will be ready to go and that the arm only bothers him when he tries to throw the deep ball.
However, not a lot has been said about the game itself. No one really knows much about these Golden Bears. Last night, I began to look at Cal's offense and defense a little bit and it was immediately obvious that we are going to have our hands full trying to stop or at least contain Cal running back, Jahvid Best. Nate Longshore, to me, is an average quarterback but I believe that he has also underachieved and could really surprise a lot of people at any given moment. He has a lot of weapons around him but if you can get some pressure on Longshore, he'll make the mistakes that we need to win this game.
It's important to keep their offense off the field and our defense off the field. We seen the defense wear down late in the year. The rookies seem to hit that Freshman wall and even Anthony Reddick stated that he was worn down late in the season. Keep in mind that Anthony Reddick has also had two many knee surgeries and has to ice both knees after every game just to make it to next week. Late in the season, that guy was out there on sheer guts alone.
There's one thing about this game that no one is talking about and that is the fact that the game is played in AT&T Park, a baseball stadium that is home to the San Francisco Giants. The stadium isn't built for a football game at all. Both teams must share on sideline. The fact that both teams must share one sideline really hurts the Hurricanes in my opinion. Because the teams must share one sideline, defenses will not be able to roatate fresh legs in the game when the action is deep in one end zone and the team is on the sideline near the oppositie end zone. Sending plays though becomes tougher for both teams but I've watched this defense all season long IN PERSON look discombobulated on the field, not knowing where to be and not knowing their assignments. I've seen players run too and from the sidelines withtheir arms out looking for some guidance. Often, Sean Spence has been that guidance and I am thankful for that.
This also becomes a problem for the defense in the fact that the Cal offense is much more experienced than our young immature offense. Cal is able to go no huddle and make that transition a little more smoothly than we are. But the one sideline disadvantage will work both ways. Cal will also struggle to send guys in on defense. Miami will go no huddle when attacking deep in Cal territory and anyone who has watched the 'Canes consistently this season knows that Jacory Harris is much more effective in the no huddle than Robert Marve. However, Marve hasn't seen near as much time in the no huddle as Jacory has. Don't forget the late touchdown drive that Jacory lead against Virginia as he tossed the tying touchdown to LaRon Byrd. Much of that drive was no huddle. And I'll brag a little here, I was in the back of that endzone as LaRon Byrd became open and hauled that pass in and it was a surreal site. The closest Marve has come to equaling that drive was the opening drive against the Tarheels when Marve and the 'Canes marched right down the field and scored.
This is a very legitimate concern going into this game and it'll be interesting to see how Randy Shannon and Bill Young handle this disadvantage. I just hope that Randy isn't forced to burn timeouts early in the first and third quarters as a result. That would really hurt the defense even more.
Thoughts?
However, not a lot has been said about the game itself. No one really knows much about these Golden Bears. Last night, I began to look at Cal's offense and defense a little bit and it was immediately obvious that we are going to have our hands full trying to stop or at least contain Cal running back, Jahvid Best. Nate Longshore, to me, is an average quarterback but I believe that he has also underachieved and could really surprise a lot of people at any given moment. He has a lot of weapons around him but if you can get some pressure on Longshore, he'll make the mistakes that we need to win this game.
It's important to keep their offense off the field and our defense off the field. We seen the defense wear down late in the year. The rookies seem to hit that Freshman wall and even Anthony Reddick stated that he was worn down late in the season. Keep in mind that Anthony Reddick has also had two many knee surgeries and has to ice both knees after every game just to make it to next week. Late in the season, that guy was out there on sheer guts alone.
There's one thing about this game that no one is talking about and that is the fact that the game is played in AT&T Park, a baseball stadium that is home to the San Francisco Giants. The stadium isn't built for a football game at all. Both teams must share on sideline. The fact that both teams must share one sideline really hurts the Hurricanes in my opinion. Because the teams must share one sideline, defenses will not be able to roatate fresh legs in the game when the action is deep in one end zone and the team is on the sideline near the oppositie end zone. Sending plays though becomes tougher for both teams but I've watched this defense all season long IN PERSON look discombobulated on the field, not knowing where to be and not knowing their assignments. I've seen players run too and from the sidelines withtheir arms out looking for some guidance. Often, Sean Spence has been that guidance and I am thankful for that.
This also becomes a problem for the defense in the fact that the Cal offense is much more experienced than our young immature offense. Cal is able to go no huddle and make that transition a little more smoothly than we are. But the one sideline disadvantage will work both ways. Cal will also struggle to send guys in on defense. Miami will go no huddle when attacking deep in Cal territory and anyone who has watched the 'Canes consistently this season knows that Jacory Harris is much more effective in the no huddle than Robert Marve. However, Marve hasn't seen near as much time in the no huddle as Jacory has. Don't forget the late touchdown drive that Jacory lead against Virginia as he tossed the tying touchdown to LaRon Byrd. Much of that drive was no huddle. And I'll brag a little here, I was in the back of that endzone as LaRon Byrd became open and hauled that pass in and it was a surreal site. The closest Marve has come to equaling that drive was the opening drive against the Tarheels when Marve and the 'Canes marched right down the field and scored.
This is a very legitimate concern going into this game and it'll be interesting to see how Randy Shannon and Bill Young handle this disadvantage. I just hope that Randy isn't forced to burn timeouts early in the first and third quarters as a result. That would really hurt the defense even more.
Thoughts?
