Sept. 4, 2010

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes |  Photo Gallery 

CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH Jeff Tedford

General comments:

"After having a hard camp, being able to cut it loose I was happy with the effort. There are still things we need to improve on; we were a little sloppy on offense. For the most part the kids played hard. They played with a lot of intensity; there wasn't a lot of giddy stuff going on. They were having fun doing what they were doing. They came into today with a very businesslike approach. I could tell yesterday at the hotel, even at practice, they were a little bit too tight. But it was just a lot of focus, they were anxious to get on the field and play."

On WR Keenan Allen:
"He's a joy to be around. You saw today that he is a very good football player; I think he is a better person than that even. He is always bright eyed and has a great attitude. He made a big impact today, but he is the type of guy that if he catches two balls in the game he is happy if we win the game. Besides being a great player he is a great person and great to be around. After the penalty (unsportsmanlike conduct) he came up and said `Coach, I'm sorry for that.' He has a lot of confidence in his ability, but he is very low key about it and he loves playing the game.

"He made some big plays today. The one that he cut back across the field, he was actually supposed to throw the ball, and he pulled it down and made something out of nothing. He can do just about anything; he is a great athlete. He has great size and the speed to go with it. He is a strong runner for being that big. In the open field he can make people miss and that is a great combination. Even the one he laid out for he almost caught; that was amazing effort for that ball. He can make people miss in the open field. He is not going to come down with any arm tackles. He is 210 pounds and has very strong legs and excellent hands. Having him with Marv (WR Marvin Jones) is nice, you have two 6'3" guys who can run, it makes us pretty solid there."

On QB Kevin Riley:
"The ball got knocked out of his (QB Kevin Riley) hand by a guard as the guard was pulling. He needs to protect the ball better there. The false start was on him actually; there were a lot of things going on in the play and he forgot the snap count, which is easy to do. I thought he played well, but there is room for improvement. There was a little lack of concentration. It was good to get the cobwebs off of him with a full stadium. He did a nice job; threw some nice balls and made some good decisions. He didn't turn the ball over as far as in the passing game."

On new defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast:
"The defense played well. They stopped the run really well and pressured the passing. They didn't give up any big plays on defense, in the passing game or run game. (The style of defense) is not dramatically different; we have had some of the same stuff in our package before. I don't think we were too exotic on defense by any means. They played hard, and that is the key. I was pleased with the way we tackled; in the first game you have to tackle. I was pleased with the way they ran to the ball and played tackling."

On Tedford becoming Cal's all-time modern wins leader with 68, passing Pappy Waldorf, who had 67 with the Bears:
"It is an honor, no doubt about it. You hear so many stories about Pappy Waldorf. I have huge respect for Pappy's Boys and the tradition they set for Cal Football. It is a lot of hard work by everybody since day one that we've been here. The coaches, the players, everybody like that. It is an honor because of the company you keep."

On playing backup players:
"It is always nice to (get your starting players out). When you are able to get a lead like that you want to be able to create some depth, and to create depth they have to play in the game. A lot of guys played, all the running backs played, all offensive linemen played, a lot of the defense played. It is nice to reward them for their hard work through camp."

CALIFORNIA PLAYERS

Mike Mohamed, LB

On practicing against Keenan Allen:
"He was doing everything he did today. We've seen it in camp. To us, it's no surprise. He's a great player. We expect to see a lot more of that this year."

On the new defense:
"It's hard to tell this early in the season, but I thought we gelled real nicely. There was a lot of good communication out there, and everybody was on point. We had a lot of three-and-outs and held them to a limited number of yards. I thought we did well."

Kevin Riley, QB
On Keenan Allen:
"He's just a natural with the ball in his hands. He has great vision on the field. You've just got to give him a chance to make a play, and he will."

On Keenan playing in his first collegiate game:
"That's something you think about. He's never played in an actual college game in his life. Like Coach Tedford said, he named him to the starting lineup after a week. It was something you could just see. You could just tell he was going to be good. He proved it today, but it's only going to get harder after this."

On the offense:
"We had our good moments and our bad moments. I would have liked to have been a little more consistent on a couple drives. Besides that fumble, we drove down the field and had a couple solid 7-or-8 play drives. We've just got to continue working."

Shane Vereen, RB
On his touchdown reception:
"It was a play we had been practicing all week. We've always had it in our playbook, and we saw the opportunity for it today. They actually gave us a little bit of a different look than what we were expecting, but the offensive line gave us some time to sit back there and wait for it to open up."

Keenan Allen, WR
On his first collegiate touch:
"I was a little bit nervous. I knew it was coming to me because the defensive back was off a little bit. I just tried to make a play with it and get as much as I could."

On the end-around touchdown:
"It was supposed to be a pass. The person I was supposed to throw it to was covered, so I just looked for a run. I saw a bunch of people going to the right, so I cut it back and found my blockers and got behind them."

On playing in his first collegiate game:
"I've been waiting for this day for a long time. The fans were great. They're really dedicated."

UC DAVIS HEAD COACH BOB BIGGS

General Comments:

"I didn't expect the outcome of the score to be what it was, to be perfectly honest with you. It's one of those funny games. I've been in games where I've been real disappointed with how we played and games were I felt we gave points away and put the ball on the ground. But, it wasn't that kind of game. They were better. They were much more physical. I don't mean there wasn't effort on our part. They just moved us around. They controlled the O-line and the D-line and made it very difficult, obviously, offensively for us to do anything. We had very few first downs. We couldn't mount any kind of attack. Defensively at times, I thought we played well. To Cal's credit, I thought they called off the horse a little bit, and that's a credit to Cal. Jeff Tedford is a classy guy. We just didn't match up very well. That's the bottom line. We played a lot of players. A lot of young players will gain some experience from this."

On the Aggie offense:
"I didn't think we got open very well at wide receiver. Even when [quarterback Randy Wright] did throw the ball, very seldom was there not a defender around. Our left guard was missing and our right guard was hurt. It just looked like we were getting some pressure. I thought Wright showed good composure. I thought he delivered the ball well. He hung in there, he took some big hits. That's part of the initiation at this level of football. You're going to get knocked down, you've got to get back up and do it all over again. He'll learn from it. Certainly, our lack of being of able to move the ball wasn't because he didn't put the ball in play. They had defenders there. Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due and Cal was better than we were. It'll be interesting to see how Cal does this year."

On Cal's overall performance:
"They do run the ball really well. Their O-line was very physical. Obviously their running backs have great vision and seem very patient and found holes. We missed some tackles. That's one area I was a little disappointed. We didn't tackle very well but part of that is due to the fact that they're pretty good running backs."

On positives in UCD's performance:
"Even down 35-0, they got the quick touchdown in the third quarter, we kept fighting. We really did. We got a lot of work on our kickoff return and on our punt return team. Those were two areas I had to change, and I'm not being facetious. There are always positives."

On Cal's Keenan Allen:
"He's a talented player. That's to Cal's credit. They're playing him as a freshman and you don't start at Cal as a freshman if you're not very good."

On the speed of the game:
"I didn't think the speed was the big issue, I really didn't. I thought in the open field, they showed their athleticism. But I thought it was more about their strength. We just couldn't move anybody. Josh Reese made a couple of great three-yard runs. When you're talking about great three-yard runs, there's not much else there. They got pretty good push on our o-line too."

UC DAVIS PLAYERS

Randy Wright, QB

On playing a team like Cal in his first game:
"I was just looking at the crowd. I wasn't looking at Cal. Like I said, it was just a game. Don't make it bigger than it is. It's just football. I don't think so. We were just going out there and playing. It was frustrating at times, but I don't think rattled would be the right world. We'll see what film shows us. We can take advantage of these opportunities. Not many people can say that they've played Cal in their first game. I'll have some great memories."

"We watch film tomorrow... then practice the rest of the week. We should rebound pretty well. Hopefully we'll play better against Portland State. You obviously don't come in thinking that you're going to lose. We thought we had a chance to win, but we didn't play well. Our real season starts now, just like coach said."

On his morale during the game:
"If we're not moving, then I'm not doing very well. But they're [the coaches] all supportive, they realize I'm young and they said keep your head up a few times."

On differences seen with a program like Cal:
"The speed and size. You can't duplicate that in practice. You get out there, and it's fast. It was hard trying to catch people and see where they were going."

Danny Hart, FS
On California's speed and strength:
"Can't really see what the speed is like. We only had three days or less to prepare. Cal did a better job tacking people. Speed was definitely something that we were worried about coming into the game. We knew that they had some guys on the edge, and obviously the running backs who are fast. But that was obviously something we were prepared for and expecting. I think strength might have been more of an adjustment than actual speed. A lot of times we'd get contact with guys but they'd move 2 or 3 yards more downfield. They were looks that we were expecting, but we missed some tackles. We didn't see anything that we didn't prepare for except for a couple of formations that didn't hurt us too much."

On moving forward:
"This game's in the past now. So were going to take what we can learn from it and come out next week and just keep going and try to get a victory next week. We watch the film Sunday, and then we'll be done talking about it ... We've played in some large stadiums. Obviously this is a little bigger, but I think guys were more excited rather than "wow". I wouldn't necessarily think that that was a factor."