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A tale of two young QBs, a tale of two Offensive Coordinators



This is a tale of two young quarterbacks, redshirt-soph Brandon McIlwain of Cal and true freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson of UCLA. These youngsters have been scripted/guided this year by their offensive coordinators, Beau Baldwin of Cal and the Bruins' Chip Kelly.

Cal's offensive coordinator Baldwin likes to run an offense were the QB is the focal point of both running and passing -- entering the UCLA game his #1 rusher (McIlwain) and his #3 rusher (Garbers, a redshirt frosh) were both QBs. This can be a volatile high-risk gamble when you don't have very experienced QBs.

In the Oregon game in Week 5, McIlwain (2 INTs, 3 fumbles) and Garbers (2 INTs, 1 fumble) combined for four interceptions and three fumbles, one lost. That made for a QB turnover or fumble in 10% of Cal's offensive plays against the Ducks. These results may have made most offensive coordinators go back to the drawing board, but not Baldwin. Beau inexplicably handed McIlwain the keys to the Cal offense in Week 6 vs. Arizona, actually more than just the keys - against Arizona McIlwain threw 43 passes and had 20 rushing attempts.

The UCLA coaching staff only had to watch film of Cal self destructing against Arizona to quickly decide a strategy to beat the Bears. In the Cal-Arizona game, Cal had 25 first downs to only 13 for Ariz, and Cal gained 476 yards of total offense to Arizona's feeble 265 yards as usually mobile QB Khahil Tate hobbled around on an injured wheel. Still, Arizona won 24-17 because Cal gift wrapped 4 turnovers vs. Ariz., with McILwain (3 INTs, 1 lost fumble) handing out the gifts.

Now for a tale of two teams, Saturday's Cal vs. UCLA game was fairly even offensively, except for two things:
- #1 - The final score, 37 - 7
- #2 - Turnovers -- Cal 5, UCLA ZERO

First downs - each team had 20
Penalties - about even
Total yards - UCLA 348, Cal 310 (without 5 turnovers Cal would have dominated)
Passing - UCLA had 15 attempts for an avg of 10.8 yards, Cal 40 pass attempts for a 7.8 avg
Running - UCLA 55 running plays for 3.8 avg, Cal 33 runs for a 4.0 avg

One huge difference: UCLA offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, for the first time this year, cautiously limited the passing of his true freshman QB to 15 attempts.

On the other side of the ball, Cal O.C. Baldwin let his mistake prone, young QB McIlwain throw 40 times and run with the ball 8 times -- not a very wise strategy by Baldwin to have McIlwain handle the ball on 48 passing and running plays because it resulted in (a very predictable) four turnovers by McIlwain alone!!!

It was, on the other hand, a very wise strategy by UCLA to limit their frosh QB to only 15 pass attempts and 9 rushing attempts. UCLA went so "run heavy" that even walk-on redshirt freshman running back Cole Kinder had six running attempts. With UCLA's total of 55 rushing attempts they safely kept their frosh QB from "doing harm." All UCLA had to do to win the game was to run a conservative offense, and then sit back and watch Cal self destruct with multiple turnovers -- it worked to perfection -- it produced a 37 -7 victory, even though the offensive stats of both teams were even. Thank you Beau Baldwin, and your offense that is GUARANTEED to produce MULTIPLE turnovers, for allowing Chip and the Bruins to finally notch a win this year.

And, thank you Chip for finally realizing that your young QB isn't quite Marcus Mariota just yet, and keeping his pass attempts to 15 in this game.

And, thank you Coach Azzinaro. UCLA's running game was helped by the fact that UCLA's defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro was Cal's defensive line coach in 2017. Helping UCLA run 55 times, Azzinaro knew all the weaknesses of Cal's defensive line.

This week versus Arizona in the Rose Bowl may require a different strategy, but it will again be a tale of two young QBs. Arizona is playing their third string QB sophomore Rhett Rodriguez. Young Rhett, the son of former Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, will be making his first career start.

Go Bruins, only five more wins to go bowling!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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