Opening with eyes on quarterbacks
Cal: Nevada’s Strong grew up fan of Bears, now will try to beat them
Cal defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon started studying his season-opening opponent this spring.
By last week, he was noticing gray whiskers developing in his beard.
That’s the kind of stress the Nevada offense applies with the idea that a handful of next-level skill players and Carson Strong, one of the best quarterbacks in the nation, are heading to Berkeley for a fascinating matchup Saturday night.
“They’re a hell of a team on offense,” Sirmon said. “The quarterback is very talented with his arm. He makes throws all over the field. … This is a very, very talented offensive team. I’m not watching the other side of the ball, but these are real dudes now.”
Strong was the Mountain West’s first underclassman to win Offensive Player of the Year honors after throwing for
2,858 yards and 27 touchdowns to four interceptions and leading Nevada to a 7-2 record as a sophomore last season.
This year, he’s on the watch list for the Manning, Maxwell, Davey O’Brien and Johnny Unitas awards.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback is projected to be a first-round pick, and in a recent Sports Illustrated mock draft, he was tabbed No. 1 overall. Actually, the first quarterback off the board likely will be Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, but Strong could make a case if he comes close to repeating his 70.1 completion percentage.
“There’s a reason they’re picked to win their conference, and there’s a reason people are talking about that quarterback in the NFL draft,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. “He throws the ball short, intermediate and long. He’s really got all of those throws in his arsenal. But when you look at the completion percentage under 15 yards, I mean, it is exceptionally high. …
“They have some really
good skill on offense, but he makes it go. There’s no doubt.”
Nevada, which has traveled to at least eight practice fields during training camp and was displaced to Stanford for two weeks because of the wildfires near Reno, runs a pass-happy offense with principles from the Air Raid created by Mike Leach and Hal Mumme.
Mumme’s son, Matt, is the Wolf Pack’s offensive coordinator, and he has plenty of options when spreading the
ball. Receiver Romeo Doubs had 1,002 receiving yards last year, tight end Cole Turner caught nine touchdown passes, and receiver Elijah Cooks appears to be back into a shape similar to his 900-yard 2019 campaign.
A football video junkie who handles volumes of information with ease, Strong keeps his receivers happy by making the right reads and delivering the ball with accuracy.
Even though Strong grew up a Cal fan, traveling from his hometown of Vacaville to Berkeley for games and camps, the Bears didn’t recruit him after he missed his senior season at Will C. Wood High because of a knee injury.
Asked whether he was disappointed after he listed Aaron Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, DeSean Jackson and Keenan Allen as his childhood favorites, Strong said: “I’m happy to be here at Nevada. This is the perfect fit for me. Everything happens for a reason. I love my coaches here. I wouldn’t want to play for any other head coach than Coach (Jay) Norvell, so I’m happy to be here.”
Wilcox walked the line, too: “You’d love to recruit everybody from Northern California, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We knew about him, but things happen in recruiting each and every year. He’s had a heck of a career, and we know he’s going to be a great challenge for our defense.”
Cal returns almost intact from a team that seemed to have an amazing trajectory before essentially wasting last season by going 1-3 in a coronavirus-plagued disaster.
In 2019, the Bears placed second in the Pac-12 North, their best finish since the conference realigned in 2011. They qualified for a bowl for the third time in five years and in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2003 to ’09.
With 2020 at the fore of memories, however, Cal was picked this season to finish third in the six-team division and didn’t receive a single vote in the AP Top 25 preseason poll. The Bears’ best player, outside linebacker Cameron Goode, was not among the first- or second-team selections in the all-conference predictions.
“I feel like I’m still slept on,” Goode said. “I want to wake up a lot of people and win some games.”
A couple of sacks of Strong would go a long way toward accomplishing those goals and bringing the color back to Sirmon’s beard.