Michigan State Helmet Stickers and Play of the Game

As we begin to wrap up our thoughts on Cal’s season opening victory over Michigan State on Saturday, and look ahead towards Saturday’s conference opener with Washington State, BearswithFangs would like to take a moment to recognize the star performances of Saturday’s game.

Offensive Player of the Game: Jahvid Best
Best had a workhorse performance on Saturday, nearly matching the number of carries he had all of last season. Best got it done in nearly every facet of the game. The “Jet” had 111 yards rushing on 24 carries, including a 2 yard run in which he simply outran Spartan defenders on his way to the pylon. He also had 63 yards receiving on 5 catches, and returned 4 kickoffs for 103 yards. Best came into the game amidst major durability questions and concerns on whether he could be an every down back, and certainly responded with his 289 all-purpose yards. As Lee Corso would say, that’s worth a “Yo.”

Honorable Mentions:
Kevin Riley: 17-24, 202 yards, 2 TDs.
Cameron Morrah: 5 rec, 93 yards, 1 TD.
Sean Young: 4 rec, 81 yards.
Shane Vereen: 9 carries, 101 yards, 1 TD, 4 rec, 16 yards.

Defensive Player of the Game: Syd'Quan Thompson
This one was arguable tougher as there were a number of solid performances for the defense on Saturday. The newly jacked up Anthony Felder led the team in tackles with Zack Follett and Marcus Ezeff not far behind. Although it didn’t show up in the stat books, Tyson Alualu was constantly being called upon by the announcers and was solid in creating pressure and havoc on the line.

Still, you have to like what Syd’Quan did in the opener. Squid has developed into one of the most polished defensive backs in the conference and essentially shut down his side of the field. Thompson was impressive in his open field tackling, and deflected passes left and right. While Syd’Quan’s interception came on a wounded duck after Hoyer threw off his back foot to avoid the defensive pressure, the replays show the difficulty involved in the interception, as Syd’Quan had to acrobatically maintain his feet in bounds as the ball looked to be floating out of bounds. Syd’Quan is off to a good start.

Honorable Mentions:
Anthony Felder: 12 tackles, 1 TFL
Marcus Ezeff: 9 tackles, 2 pass break ups



Play of the Game
Got to go with Shane Vereen’s 81 yard TD run late in the game. Not only was it executed properly (with Will Tau’fo’ou crushing a MSU defender to open up a block), but it was the longest and most explosive play of the game, and proved to be the winning score. It was also nominated as a Pontiac Game Changing Performance for the week. You can check out a fan’s video of his run below.