Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch’s off-field transgressions have garnered him the wrong kind of headlines once again, after he had started to reestablish his reputation for on-the-field Beast Mode’ing. And at Cal, Lynch was indeed a beast.
Any action he might miss, Pete Carroll won’t have fellow Golden Bear alum Justin Forsett to turn to. Forsett signed with the Houston Texans last month. Forsett’s had ups and downs of a productive nature since becoming a pro, but for Jeff Tedford was a vital component in the offense.
There’s no coincidence that when Forsett and Lynch shared the backfield in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the Golden Bears were a combined 18-7. The 2006 campaign was Cal’s last with a double digit win total. Isi Sofele and CJ Anderson are a potent pair, and cornerstone for what could be a return to the upper echelon of the West Coast.
Sofele’s small stature hasn’t kept him from producing big numbers. In 2011, he was the conference’s fifth leading rusher at 1322, and third best among returners. Only Stanford’s Stepfan Taylor and John White rushed for more.
But among the conference’s eight best backs last season, only USC’s Curtis McNeal had fewer than Sofele’s 10 touchdowns. Taylor scored as many. The key difference between McNeal/Taylor and Sofele was their prominence in their respective offenses, with Taylor and McNeal sharing the field with All-America quarterbacks. However, Rodney Stewart of Colorado scored more touchdowns than Sofele despite playing in the conference’s lowest scoring offense.
Sofele’s scoring opportunities were often split with short yardage powerhouse Anderson, who crossed the goal line eight times. Still, 18 touchdowns between their nearly 1700 yards needs to increase to pull Cal out of the conference’s lower third for points per game. Further, the production of the running game has proven the most viable recipe for success in Tedford’s tenure.
Cal’s 2004 season marked the pinnacle of the Tedford era — and make no mistake, it is an outstanding era. While Cal has had a recent stretch of underachievement, the Golden Bears have failed to secure a winning record just once in the last decade. When he took over, the program had languished through a decade of dwelling in the then Pac-10 Conference basement.
But returning to that apex Cal reached in the mid-2000s is the goal. The 2004 season is celebrated for the play of Aaron Rodgers, who before roasting NFL secondaries and celebrating touchdowns with wrestling belt gestures was excelling in the Pac: 24 touchdown passes to eight interceptions, better than 66 percent completions, 2566 yards. He was consistent, but not a one-man show by any means.
Cal’s offense also featured the two-pronged rushing attack of Lynch and JJ Arrington. Freshman Lynch went for over 600 yards rushing, another 147 receiving and scored 10 total touchdowns. Arrington was among the nation’s best backs, eclipsing 2000 yards at a hair below 7 yards per carry. The result was a 36.8 point per game average, seventh most prolific in college football and the sixth most productive rushing offense. Three of the teams finishing ahead of Cal ran almost rush-exclusive option offenses. A fourth had Vince Young as its quarterback.
The Lynch-Forsett combination in 2006 was similarly prolific to the Lynch-Arrington combination, though missed that element Rodgers provided in 2004 hence the slight dip in win percentage (the ’06 team went 9-3 in the regular season to the ’04 team’s 10-1).
Tedford’s praises for Zach Maynard in spring practices are promising indicators of a more consistent passing attack to complement the rushing game. Both elements should find any improvement Maynard exhibits mutually beneficial, forcing defenses to spread out.