2010 Position by Position Breakdown: Tailbacks

The starting tailback for the California Golden Bears this year will be Shane Vereen. This is perhaps the most stable position on the team. Vereen is just the latest of talented backs under Coach Tedford's watch that have included Joe Igber, J.J. Arrington, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, and Jahvid Best. Much like Jahvid Best, Vereen has a homerun feel to his game and is a threat to score on any play. In fact, Vereen was second to only Jahvid Best in the California state high school track championships in the 100 meter dash as a senior at Valencia High School. Last season, as backup to Jahvid Best, Vereen ran for 952 yrds om just 183 carries, averaging 5.2 yrds per carry with 12 touchdowns. However, Vereen only started the final four games of the season counting the bowl game against Utah in which during that time Vereen ran for 566 yrds on only 108 carries while again averaging 5.2 yrds per carry.  As i mentioned before, Ted Miller failed to mention Vereen in his Top 25 Pac-10 players countdown but if you were to project out Vereen's stats if he started the whole year in 2009 instead of only the last 4 games Vereen's stats would have looked like this: 1839 yrds rushing with 19 touchdowns. I would also have to guess that his receiving numbers would improve too where last season he caught 25 passes for 244 yrds for 2 tds while averaging 9.8 yrds a reception. If we were to project that Vereen averages 4 receptions per game if he starts full time, he would have 510 receiving yrds on 52 catches.  In otherwords, based on the projections on his 2009 numbers, Vereen should have a monster season in 2010 as a full time starter. The good part about Vereen's game is that he runs with a much lower center of gravity than Jahvid Best did, so when Vereen runs between the tackles he falls forward instead of backwards when he gets hit. Like Best, Vereen can also run on the outside. Maybe the difference between Vereen and Best is that Vereen will break one for 50 yrds and get tackled at the 2 yrd line and Best would score. That is really the difference between Best and Vereen in terms of home run ability.  The running back corps as a whole will suffer with Jahvid leaving to the NFL, but I believe Cal may have a more consistent back in Vereen. The backup to Vereen is where things get a little bit tricky. Tedford likes to spell his starting running back in order to keep his starter fresher, which means that the backup running is extremely important to the offense.  There is a whole stable of candidates that are going to be able to contribute. I actutally think that Tedford may elect to go with backup by commitee to Vereen because I dont think any of the backups necessarily stand out.  Theres last year's 3rd string running back in Covaughn Deboskie-Johnson who last season ran for 211 yrds on 31 attempts averaging 6.8 yrds per carry. Deboskie-Johnson is more of a one cut and go type of back. He is good between the tackles and has decent speed to break one, if the defense breaks down.  However, he is not the homerun threat of Vereen. I would say that Deboskie-Johnson is similar to former Cal running back Joe Echema.  The next back that will compete for the backup running back position is Isi Sofele.  Sofele is electric and can break one at any time. He most definitely has a home run feel to his game. However, this issue with Sofele is that he is more of a scatback because of size (5'7, 170 lbs) and hasn't shown that he is much of a threat between the tackles.  However, Sofele had a really good spring and will get more carries in 2010.  The wildcard of the group of backs competing for the backup role is redshirt freshman Dasarte Yarnway. Yarnway was highly touted out of high school and could give Cal a real bruiser at running back.  He is big 6'1, 222 lbs and could possibly be the yin, to Vereen's yang.  I would like to see Yarnway used to punish the defense in short yardage situations and give Cal the ability to go over the top on 2nd and short and 3rd and short with the play action because the defense will have to stack the box in order to bring Yarnway down. Also, incoming  freshman Trajuan Briggs looked good but it unlikely that he will get any playing time. Look for Briggs to redshirt but look for Briggs in the future as he is already being compared to former Cal running back Marshawn Lynch.  From the video that I have watched of Briggs he actually reminds me more of Jaquizz Rodgers instead of Lynch.  I dont think he quite has the power of Lynch, but Briggs is a little quicker and is a more fluid runner.