Defense delivers and Davis dazzles

By Rusty Simmons

Maybe James Looney is prophetic.

On Tuesday, he said the Cal defense was on the verge of doing something special.

On Saturday, he was the guts of the unit that stopped Utah on six straight plays from inside Cal’s 11-yard line. Fittingly, Looney made the game-saving tackle on Zack Moss at the 3-yard line as time expired in Cal’s 28-23 victory.

“We had been putting pieces together at times, but we hadn’t put it all together,” Looney said. “We finally put it together and got the win.”

Quarterback search: The 49ers had six evaluators, including general manager Trent Baalke, at the Cal-Utah game, and you’ve got to believe they were taking a good look at quarterback Davis Webb.

The graduate transfer from Texas Tech looks right home in Cal’s “Bear Raid” offense and went into Saturday’s game leading the nation in passing yards (1,837) and passing touchdowns (18).

Webb completed 22 of 35 passes for 306 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception, against Utah.

No punt intended: Utah is 9-for-10 on fourth-down conversions this season, including 4-of-5 against Cal. The Utes used two fourth-down conversions on a 95-yard, secondquarter touchdown drive.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said his decisions to go for it on fourth downs are mostly a “gut feel,” but he also takes into account the way his front five have controlled the line of scrimmage in the game, field position, score and time.

He’s even employed an analytics team to help. Seaborg Award: Cal’s legendary rugby coach Jack Clark, who has led the Bears to 27 national championships, was presented with the Glenn T. Seaborg Award during the first half of Saturday’s game.

The honor, named after a Nobel Prize-winning chemist and former UC Berkeley chancellor, is presented annually to a former Cal football player for his career accomplishments. Clark was a starting offensive tackle in 1976-77.