Bowl Blitz: Holiday Bowl Provides Cal-Texas Game Sorely Missed in 2004

The 2011 Holiday Bowl is a match-up seven years in the making.

The 2004 campaign ended in – get this – Bowl Championship Series controversy. Pac-10 runner-up Cal and its Big 12 equivalent Texas ended the regular season sporting identical 10-1 records. Each had lost to a team playing in the Orange Bowl for the BCS Championship (though Cal had given top ranked USC a more competitive effort than UT did Oklahoma). There was one BCS bowl at-large bid to be had, as Utah was rolling to one of the two berths.

Mack Brown went on a campaign trail so aggressive, it would make David Axelrod proud. UT received the Rose Bowl berth, and the Vince Young legend began to take shape in a classic vs. Michigan. Cal, on the other hand, played a lackluster Holiday Bowl and lost to Texas Tech – think Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

A separate title game was added to the BCS because of the 2004 season, but that did Cal no good. There is no telling how different the Golden Bears would be today had they played in the Rose Bowl. Any speculation on the matter is as meaningless as comparing those Cal and Texas teams to the current incarnations.

Aside from the names and head coaches attached, and the fact that the teams once again have mirroring records, there’s virtually nothing akin to the 2004 season for Texas or Cal. Both went 7-5 this season amid mass coaching changes. Each has high expectations for 2012, but in the interim is trying to use the Holiday Bowl as a launching pad from an otherwise pedestrian campaign.

Aaron Rodgers and Vince Young won’t be lining up behind center in San Diego Wednesday night; quite the contrary. The Golden Bears and Longhorns have both had quarterback problems, though Cal’s pale in comparison to Texas’s.

The quarterback controversy that welcomed new offensive Bryan Harsin to Austin was evident even before Will Muschamp left for the Florida job. Garrett Gilbert struggled taking over for Colt McCoy in 2010, and in spring ball Case McCoy and David Ash proved more suited to Harsin’s vision.

Gilbert left the program this fall, but neither Ash nor McCoy has exactly flourished. Ash has thrown eight interceptions to just three touchdowns and completed only 56 percent of his attempts. The undersized McCoy has been more accurate, but is sack-prone and lacks the mobility his older brother so famously thrived using.

The lack of a passing game has resulted in Harsin calling 220 more running plays than throwing. The result is four ball carriers with over 300 yards: DJ Monroe (326), Fozzy Whittaker (386), Joe Bergeron (454) and Malcolm Brown (707). Whittaker is injured, a boon to Cal’s already lofty rushing defense.

DJ Holt, Mychal Hendricks and Trevor Guyton have combined for 33.5 tackles for loss to lead the nation’s 5th best defense in that category. The Longhorn front has been susceptible to giving up losses, evidenced in 69 such occurrences.

Cal encountered a similar quarterback revolving door last season to what UT is experiencing now, losing upperclassman Kevin Riley to injury but getting no production from Brock Mansion. The Golden Bears lacked an offensive identity with Andy Ludwig as its offensive coordinator, so when he departed for San Diego State Tedford harked back to an era when Cal had one.

Jim Michalczik’s return to the staff revived the passing facet of Cal’s offense missing since the mid-2000s – for better or worse. Buffalo transfer Zach Maynard was Cal’s starter throughout the season, but certainly faced his ups and downs.

Originally touted as a dual ability style QB, Maynard was much more of a traditional Cal snap taker with a pass-first mentality. He threw 373 times. And while Maynard’s 76 rushes were second most on the Golden Bear roster, it’s fewer times than he carried in his 2009 campaign at UB.

Maynard’s accuracy has been as shaky as a Bay Area tremor at times. He’s thrown 11 interceptions to just 17 touchdowns, and completed just over 57 percent of his attempts. Were it not for his brother Keenan Allen lining up in the receiving corps, Maynard’s go of it would be even more arduous.

But, Maynard does have Allen, and Allen is one of the best pass catchers in the nation. Allen is the latest in a long line of talented receivers to line up opposite the UT secondary this season.

Against other top flight wideouts, the Longhorns surrendered 166 and 122 yards to Kendall Wright and Ryan Broyles, as well as at least one touchdown to Wright, Broyles, Kenny Stills and Justin Blackmon.

UT defensive coordinator Manny Diaz can be expected to have something dialed up that will frustrate Maynard and force him into the bad decisions that have vexed the quarterback this season. The key for Tedford and Michalczik is calling a game that keeps Maynard out of such predicaments.

That entails establishing the two-headed running attack of CJ Anderson and Isi Sofele early.

Cal finished the regular season strong, putting up its conference high against Arizona State with Sofele going to work early.
Now, no one is going to confuse ASU’s rush defense with Texas’s 11th ranked nationall unit, but Tedford-coached offenses have long fed the passing game by establishing the rush.

A UT front seven including versatile linebacker Emmanuel Acho, hard pursuing end Alex Okafor, and his opposite side end, young-and-talented Jackson Jeffcoat, held opponents to just 1244 yards on the ground all season. Sofele mustered more than that just on his own.

This should prove to be a grind-it-out, low tempo affair akin to last season’s 19-7 Washington defeat of Nebraska. Since hanging 52 on Texas Tech’s hapless defense, UT has scores of 5, 13, 27 and 24. While Cal is coming off its best offensive performance, the Golden Bears are very much up-and-down.

Conversely, both defenses are stout. That leaves this one up to special teams. The unit that can secure the best field position should secure the win.