Quick hits after a day with the Raiders

I dropped by Raiders headquarters for a few interviews Thursday, and yes, coach Lane Kiffin still had his job. These days, you can never be too sure. Kiffin even made it though an entire post-practice interview without anyone asking about his job status and reports that Al Davis is just waiting for the right moment to fire him. Even Kiffin seemed surprised and amused by that development.

Kiffin acts as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. Then again, he’s actually in a no-lose situation. If Davis fires him, then he’ll escape this silver and black craziness and be in line for some ridiculously high-paying college coaching job. Or at the worst, an NFL coordinator’s position. And if Davis holds off on the ax, then Kiffin will continue being one of just 32 NFL coaches and will be lauded by many for publicly standing up to his boss.

A few more notes and thoughts after my day with the Raiders:

*File this under adding injury to insult.

It wasn’t bad enough that Raiders rookie running back Darren McFadden was caught from behind by a safety of all people - not even a cornerback - Sunday at Kansas City and had to settle for a 50-yard run instead of what looked to be a sure 75-yard touchdown.

But it was when Bernard Pollard caught him and dragged him down that McFadden injured his right big toe, he said Thursday after practice.

“I guess he fell on the back of my heel and kind of jammed the foot into the ground,” McFadden said.

Turf toe is the official diagnosis. And if you don’t think a big toe injury is a big deal, think again. A few years ago, former Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson battled turf toe for an entire season in Oakland. He barely practiced. Although some would say that even when he was healthy, Woodson took the Allen Iverson approach to practice.

Asked if his toe was a little painful, McFadden said, “Little ain’t the word for it. Sunday and Monday, man, it was killing me.”

McFadden was in a protective boot Wednesday. But he returned to practice Thursday with a metal plate in his right shoe to keep his big toe from bending too far.

“It’s going to take getting used to running on it,” McFadden said of the plate. “I felt like I was running flat-footed on it. I’ll take these next couple days, try to get used to it and be good to go Sunday.”

*On Monday night, McFadden watched his former Arkansas teammate, Felix Jones, return a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown in Dallas’ victory over Philadelphia. Jones was a rocket in cleats. No one came close to catching him.

So did McFadden catch any good-natured heat from his ex-mate for getting caught from behind?

“No, he didn’t say anything to me about it,” McFadden said. “I was watching it. … I was happy for him. He’s a great guy. I loved playing with him in college. He’s still a best friend of mine.”

McFadden had plenty of highlights in his own breakout game, rushing for 164 yards. At Arkansas, he and Jones formed one of the most explosive backfields in college football.

“It’s great to see, to come from the same college. Everybody back home, I’m sure was watching both games. It’s just a great thing to see.”

*As a former New York Giant, Raiders strong safety Gabril Wilson was well prepared for the turmoil that surrounds his new team.

Last year Wilson and the Giants dealt with a multitude of controversies during a Super Bowl season. There were barbs from by ex-Giants running back Tiki Barber, uncertainty over coach Tom Coughlin’s job and just the general over-the-top media hype surrounding a Super Bowl run in New York.

“You know what? Guys just have to get closer together,” Wilson said. “That stuff in New York made us get even tighter as a locker room. We have to do the same thing over here. Honestly, I don’t even know what’s going on outside of this locker room. We’ve got to just stick together and come closer as a team. We did that last week with all the circus.”

Wilson sat at his locker in a room that had just a handful of media members. Not exactly New York-esque.

“This is nothing,” Wilson said. “This is nothing right here. Imagine about 10 different personalities and about 20 more media people around. This is nothing compared to New York.”

*The Raiders beat Kansas City 23-8 last week with JaMarcus Russell throwing just 17 passes and completing six of those for 55 yards. Russell threw a number of passes away intentionally to avoid making big mistakes. He spent most of the day handing off to Raider running backs who combined to gain 300 yards.

Russell admitted that he’d like to throw more often.

“Deep down inside, yes,” Russell said. “But the team player part of me says whatever it takes to win. If I have to go out there and hand off 100 times in a game and we win, I’ll hand off (100) times. No matter what it is to win that game, I’m going to be that team player and go out there and help out.”

At some point – probably as soon as Sunday against Buffalo – the Raiders are going to need Russell to do more than just hand off in order to win. They’ll need him to chip in with a few key passes downfield.

We’ll find out if he’s ready.

We have questions, A's reliever Brad Ziegler has answers

Baseball doesn’t have an award for the feel-good story of the year, but if it did, A’s reliever Brad Ziegler would have a hammerlock on the honor.

I mean, just try to come up with a better baseball story than his.

Four years ago he nearly died in a Modesto hospital after being drilled in the head by a wicked line drive off the bat of current Giants outfielder Fred Lewis in a minor league game.

Two years ago Ziegler ditched his conventional delivery and starter’s job to become a reliever with a side-winding delivery that’s just north of submarine.

Last January Ziegler was hit in the head again, this time in a mishap while playing catch.

Then this season he started in Triple-A Sacramento, morphed into a record-setting big-league reliever and became the A’s closer.

Ziegler threw 39 consecutive scoreless innings to open his career. That set a modern (since 1900) Major League record to start a career, the American League mark for consecutive scoreless innings by a rookie and the A’s overall record. He even got to send his cleats to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

There’s more. He entered Tuesday night’s game against the Angels with a 0.50 ERA, the lowest single-season ERA in baseball history among pitchers with at least 50 innings. He had not allowed a home run all season through 54 innings. He was a perfect nine for nine in save opportunities.

“To come up and have a year like that and end up finishing the season as a closer is quite remarkable,” A’s manager Bob Geren said. “He has such good late movement on the ball that induces a lot of swings-and-misses and ground balls.

“The big thing he does is throw strikes. He comes right after the hitters. The ninth inning hasn’t fazed him a bit.”

To make the story even better, Ziegler is loving and appreciating every minute of his surreal ride.

I caught up to Ziegler before Tuesday night’s game for a few questions and answers:

Q: Have things calmed down a little since the scoreless streak ended?

A: “They have calmed down. At the same time, all the good things that have happened, I can deal with anything like that that comes with it because there are so many other benefits to this game. Having that extra media attention, I didn’t want to look at it as a detriment to the season at all. It’s just something that’s just part of being in this lifestyle.”

Q: Did you enjoy the ride, the whole Hall of Fame thing, sending your cleats to Cooperstown?

A: “It’s been crazy. I would have never thought when I came up as a middle reliever that a middle reliever could garner that much attention. It was exciting. I think about it every day, how important my team was when I went through the streak. Just the way they acted around me and encouraged me the whole time. There was never anybody wishing that I would give up a run just so I wouldn’t have the attention. They were all very supportive. They’d give me a hard time about it, but they’d do it in such a way that made me know that they were happy for me.”

Q: It must seem surreal, your story. Getting hit and almost dying and then changing your delivery. Do you sometimes shake your head and say, ‘How did this happen?’

A: “I do. But you know, I never looked at the other things as true setbacks. They were just things that I had to do along the way, not even necessarily bumps in the road, just part of what it took me to get here. I feel like God has a plan for my life, and I don’t understand why I had to go through some of the things that I did, but to get to this point I feel like he’s allowed me to have a little relief and fulfillment for the hard work that I put in to this point.”

Q: And the hard things you went through, getting hit?

A: “That’s definitely one of the impact moments of my career. Obviously impact can be used in multiple ways. At the same time, it changed my life. When I left the hospital I felt like I’d been given another chance. Because my life could have easily been taken away from me that night. I just felt like from that point on I wanted to know that whenever I walked away from this game that I gave it everything I had and I didn’t just take what was given to me and not work for extra stuff. It just kind of renewed my commitment to baseball, but also to my friends, my family, to loved ones. That was the first time I’d really had any realization it could end at any time.”

Q: Getting back out there, did it take a while to adjust again to throwing and having people hitting line drives back at you?

A: “It really didn’t. It was four or five starts into the season before I had a ball zip by me. It was at Visalia. I remember the play. I just remember thinking, ‘I think I could have caught that if it was closer to me.’ That type of thing. The odds of that happening again, being in such a vital spot on my body, to being hit so hard that I can’t even knock it down or anything, the odds of that happening again aren’t good. And hopefully now that I’ve shown I can be effective, especially getting ground balls, hopefully the line drives will be at a minimum.”

Q: Then a kid got in your way and deflected a ball that hit you in the head?

A: “Yeah. That was in January. That was just kind of a fluke thing and me just kind of not paying attention and being a little lackadaisical. I don’t blame the kid at all. He was being a kid. Most kids don’t think about what could happen if this goes wrong. And it was my fault for allowing the situation to get to the point that it did.”

Q: What did the kid do?

A: “I was playing catch with another big-leaguer, just warming up. The other kid was just standing next to me. The throw was kind of in between us, and he just kind of reached over to catch it. I reached over and he deflected it right off my forehead.”

Q: Did it take much convincing to get you to change your delivery? That’s pretty radical to go from a traditional delivery to go basically submarine.

A: “It didn’t’ take a lot of convincing from the A’s. They pitched it to me and then they let me have a few days to think about it. I didn’t want to at first, but I talked to my family, I talked to my agent and we just felt like at that point it was the right thing for me to do. If that was my best route, my best chance to get there, then I needed to give it 100 percent because the A’s were sure willing to give it 100 percent.”

Q: Was it (A’s bullpen coach) Ron Romanick who came to you first?

A: “Yeah.”

Q: How long did it take to adjust?

A: “I’m still adjusting. I’m still learning things. Romanick, after Sunday when Marlon Byrd hit that ball off the center-field wall on me, Romanick came up to me and said he saw something in my delivery that he thought I might have to tweak a little bit. Yes, that was a drastic changeover in a short period of time, but through my whole career I’ve been making adjustments. You can’t be the same pitcher every time out or pretty soon people will figure you out.”

Q: Coming from that arm angle, you’re something these batters don’t see very often, right?

A: “Yeah. And the less they see, the better. If I’m out there every game, every night, then I’m going to be figured out pretty quick.”

Q: But you’re in a closer’s role now. That’s what those closers do, isn’t it?

A: “Yeah. I have no problem with that because that means the more I’m out there the more we’re having chances of winning games. And I love winning. We had that stretch right at the beginning of the second half, and it was not fun. But to bounce back the way we have and have the young guys come up and really help us here the last few games, it’s exciting. The future’s exciting. No matter what role I have, that doesn’t change my job. My job is to get outs.”

Q: How have you felt being in that closer’s role? How much have you done it before?

A: “I did it at the end of last year in Triple-A in the playoffs, and then this season in Triple-A I had like eight saves before I got called up. A little experience. We have some crowds in Sacramento that are as big as the crowds here. I love it. At the same time, I love just pitching in a close game, period. Whether we’re losing, it’s 2-1 and we’re losing or a tie game or we’re winning, seventh, eighth, ninth innings. Any pitcher will tell you, they love those situations. They want to have the ball in their hand.”

Q: What’s your repertoire, coming from that angle?

A: “Fastball, slider, change-up.”

Q: What’s the movement on those pitches?

A: “The fastball moves down and in on a righty. The changeup has the same movement, just slower. The slider moves hard away from the righty. It’s flat. It’s a flat movement. If I throw it really well it might even rise a little bit. I’m a little more side-armed than like Chad Bradford where he’s really trying to get underneath it. I’m more on the side of the ball and so mine’s going to move more flat.”

Q: Do you call yourself a submariner or a side-armer?

A: “It’s a little lower than (sidearm). I think of Chad Bradford as submarine, and I’m not even close to that.”

After further review ...

Monday morning quarterback meets stream of consciousness:

*If Woody Hayes was your football hero and you loved watching Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma Sooners destroy teams on the ground, then you’ve got to love the run-run-run and run some more Raiders. They rushed for 300 yards in a 23-8 victory over Kansas City with rookie Darren McFadden gaining 164 yards on 21 carries.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, running will only carry you so far in the NFL. This just in: The NFL is a passing league. And the Raiders aren’t going anywhere unless quarterback JaMarcus Russell joins the party. He completed just 6 of 17 passes for 55 yards Sunday. That was against a young Chiefs defense that often had a pair of rookie cornerbacks on the field.

*The more I watch 49ers quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan, the more I like him. He was borderline brilliant in the 49ers’ 33-30 overtime victory against Seattle, throwing for 321 yards and a touchdown. It’s not just that he passed for 321 yards and became the first 49er to break the 300-yard barrier since Tim Rattay in October 2004. It’s also the way he handled the pressure – of the moment and from Seattle’s pass rush.

O’Sullivan produced some huge plays down the fourth-quarter stretch and in overtime. His 33-yard pass to Isaac Bruce in overtime was a gem. Bruce, lined up right, adjusted his route from a post to a streak and got a step behind cornerback Josh Wilson. O’Sullivan adjusted right along with Bruce. He threw a pass that hit Bruce in stride, giving the 49ers a first down at Seattle’s 44. From there, O’Sullivan marched the 49ers into range for Joe Nedney’s game-winner.

*Offensive coordinator Mike Martz had better find a way to keep O’Sullivan from taking so many sacks or this Cinderella story will have a painful ending. O’Sullivan was sacked eight times Sunday. That can’t continue.

*If – or I guess I should say when -- Al Davis fires Lane Kiffin, he’ll undoubtedly go back to what’s worked best in the past and hire a new coach from within. That’s the only viable option after an in-season whacking. It’s actually the Raiders’ best option at any time of the year.

It’s often too great of a culture shock for outsiders to become part of Al’s world. New coaches from the outside may think they know what they’re getting into, but they never truly do. If they rebel, Al tries to crush them (see Kiffin and Mike Shanahan). If they don’t, then their players view them as powerless puppets. Jon Gruden, an outsider coach, seemed to make it work for a while before he couldn’t take it anymore and forced Davis to “trade” him to Tampa Bay.

*So who are the in-house candidates to replace Kiffin if he gets axed? Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is an obvious possibility, especially after the way he defended Davis in an 18-minute, expletive-filled press conference last week. But Davis almost always hires his head coaches from the offensive side of the ball.

Wide receivers coach James Lofton, offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and running backs coach Tom Rathman are the most viable candidates on offense, although I wouldn’t rule out anybody. There could be a quality control coach that Davis has his eye on.

So of those three, which would it be? Only Al knows. Davis interviewed Lofton twice in the past for the job and rejected him both times. That’s a red flag. Knapp would be the most traditional pick, an offensive coordinator being elevated to the top job. Too conventional for Davis.

That leaves Rathman. At 45, he’s still relatively young. Check. He played for the Raiders at the end of his career after eight seasons with the 49ers. Check. His players love him. Check He’d be an out-of-the-box choice, something Davis loves to make. Check

In my book, Rathman would also be the right choice.

*Entering the season, most of the 49ers’ concerns centered on their offense, particularly the quarterback spot. Not now. It’s the defense that’s having the most problems. In a Week 1 loss to Arizona, the 49ers’ defense couldn’t get the Cardinals off the field in the second half.

Then on Sunday in a victory over Seattle, the 49ers gave up 30 points to an offense that was missing its top five receivers. The 49ers had just one sack and rarely pressured Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. Seattle rolled up 351 net yards on offense. Imagine what the Seahawks would have done if wide receivers Deion Branch, Bobby Engram and Nate Burleson had been in the lineup.

Raiders' football circus worthy of the big top

When your football team is more interesting and entertaining off the field than on, you’ve got serious problems.

Welcome to Raiders boss Al Davis’ wacky three-ring-circus of a world, the one he shares with coach Lane Kiffin and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

I keep waiting for the elephants, clowns and Flying Wallendas to arrive and for the big top to go up at team headquarters in Alameda.

I mean, can you believe what’s happened so far just this week? And we still have a few days to go, including Sunday’s road game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let’s review.

On Monday night, the Raiders had their pants pulled down by the Denver Broncos and coach Mike Shanahan in an embarrassing 41-14 season-opening loss on national TV.

To make matters worse, cornerback DeAngelo Hall, one of Davis’ big-money acquisitions, was torched by rookie wide receiver Eddie Royal. And strong safety Gibril Wilson, another expensive addition, got roasted, too.

That was nothing. Because on Wednesday, Kiffin dropped this little bomb while talking to reporters. Asked about the lack of blitzing against Denver, Kiffin said he had no real say over the defensive calls. Then he basically threw Ryan AND Davis under the bus together.

“We talk about it early in the week,” Kiffin said of the defensive plan. “Rob and the owner are in communication. For the most part, I let Rob do his thing over there. He has a belief in certain things, and he has a conversation with the owner about that.”

Then there was this nugget:

“I’m not going to get really into if I was the defensive coordinator what I would do because that really doesn’t matter,” Kiffin said. “I’m the head coach, I oversee everything and I control what I can control. Do I have the exact belief we do on defense? No, but it’s hard to have the exact belief that we do. So it is what it is.”

Kiffin, of course, wanted to get rid of Ryan after last season and hire a new defensive coordinator, but Davis vetoed that move. And in the past, Kiffin has made it clear he favors the “Tampa 2” defense – the one his father, Monte, runs as Bucs defensive coordinator – over the predominantly man-to-man scheme that Davis prefers.

That leads us to Ryan’s 18-minute, expletive-filled meeting with he press Thursday. If you want the complete transcript, you can find it on Jerry McDonald’s blog, “Inside the Oakland Raiders.” Minus the profanity, of course. http://www.ibabuzz.com/raidersblog/2008/09/11/ryan-fires-back/

In a nutshell, Ryan took full responsibility for the defensive scheme and said Davis has no part in the weekly game-planning.

“I put the game plan in,” Ryan said. “I run the defense, and it’s all on me. The meeting with the owner, during the week -- I meet with Mr. Davis in the offseason, guys. That thing is just (BS) and I want to make sure you got it right. I meet with the owner in the offseason. He’s the boss, he’s the man that hired me, and that’s been well-documented. I don’t meet with him on game plans or come up with all this. Hell, it’s amazing when things like this come out when we have a bad week.”


These “things’ came out of Kiffin’s mouth. That’s what makes this story so juicy. He’s the one who mentioned Ryan’s chats with “the owner.”

You have to wonder if Ryan’s rant was a command performance, if Davis ordered him to publicly dispute Kiffin’s story. We barely hear from the guy since he came to the Raiders in 2004 then he goes off for 18 minutes? During that spiel, he made sure to point out that “the three worst plays we had last week, we were in” the Tampa 2. Strange. Very strange.


You know this is all going to end ugly. Kiffin sounds like a man who’s trying to talk his way into getting fired so he can escape Davis and get paid the rest of his contract. He’s been firing barbs at Davis for months now, questioning his free-agent signings and personnel decisions. Now he has talked publicly about Davis’ involvement with the defense in the wake of an utter defensive disaster against Denver.

When was the last time you heard a Raiders coach refer to his boss as “the owner” instead of “Mr. Davis”? I can’t remember that happening. That only points to the rift between Kiffin and Davis and Kiffin’s increasing brazenness.


There has been growing speculation that Davis will fire Kiffin in Week 5 when the Raiders have a bye.

I’m not sure Kiffin will last that long. Of course you never know with Davis. He might just decide out of spite to keep Kiffin chained to the Raiders for the rest of the season.

For now, this wacky football show will go on. Send in the clowns.

Quakes' Huckerby shaking things up during MLS playoff push

I’ll never profess to be a soccer expert. I grew up before the youth soccer explosion hit the U.S., at a time when an occasional Cosmos game on TV was the extent of most Americans' exposure to the sport. Since then I’ve grown to enjoy and appreciate the World Cup, especially when the U.S. has a team in the fight, and the game, in general.

But Pele, I’m not.

That said, even I -- Mr. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Tennis and Golf – could tell that midfielder Darren Huckerby absolutely dominated the action Saturday night when the surging San Jose Earthquakes beat D.C. United 2-1.

That’s how much he stood out at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Huckerby was seemingly everywhere at once, a human dynamo playing the game at a different speed and level than the opposition. He scored only one goal to go with an assist. But if his shot had been on target, he could easily have scored three or even four times.

It’s not supposed to be that easy to get behind an opposing defense, is it? How was Huckerby able to do it?

“I’m a good player,” Huckerby said with a laugh after Saturday night’s game. “We’ve worked on certain things and we’ve got good movement and we’re doing OK.”

Almost everything works when you have a player with Huckerby’s skill set, attacking style and resume: he’s a former English soccer star who played for Norwich City and turned down an offer to play in the Premier League because, in part, he’d always wanted to come to the U.S. So far I said his visit to America has gone well.

The Earthquakes signed Huckerby on July 14 after acquiring his rights from Toronto FC. Landing him was just part the team’s July makeover that has sparked its dormant offense and ignited its playoff run. They also signed midfielder Francisco Lima, acquired forward Scott Sealy from Kansas City and traded with FC Dallas for forward Arturo Alvarez.

The Quakes have won four straight home games and own an eight-game unbeaten streak. They’ve gone from the Western Conference cellar to smack in the middle of the MLS playoff race approaching Saturday’s night’s collision with the conference-leading and reigning MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo – the franchise that used to call San Jose home -- at Buck Shaw.

Huckerby has led the charge. In his seven games, he’s had a role in eight of the team’s 12 goals. He’s scored four times and added four assists.

“I’m enjoying it,” Huckerby said after the victory. “This is a great bunch of lads. At the minute, things are going well. We just want to keep it going.”

A questioner asked Huckerby if he was surprised how easy MLS has been for him.

“It’s not easy,” Huckerby countered. “We’re working hard. The team’s working hard and the lads are putting it on the line every game. We’re attacking more as a team. We’re more of a unit now. We are a team. There’s no one or two individuals. We’re a team.”

True. But Huckerby is a team leader when it comes to making sure the Quakes keep attacking and scoring. San Jose scored 11 goals in its first 16 games. In their past seven games with Huckerby, the Quakes have scored 12 goals.

Huckerby acknowledged that he should have added even more goals to his team’s total against United.

“It’s about winning,” Huckerby said. “It would have been worse if we hadn’t won the games. I had a lot of chances, but we’re creating chances.”

When they face Houston in back-to-back, home-and-away games, the Earthquakes won’t be able to waste those scoring chances, goalkeeper Joe Cannon warned. He was happy that the Earthquakes earned three points Saturday, but he was upset that they let the shutout get away and didn’t bury D.C. United when they had multiple chances.

“I tell you what,” Cannon said. “If we come out like we did tonight against a Houston team that’s on all cylinders, it’s not going to be pretty. I think this week we’re all going to have to get back to our blue-collar ways, put in a little bit more time at the office. … You saw the game tonight. Hucks, he probably could have had more goals tonight than he’s had in his entire career here.

“It was that kind of night, though. Thankfully we didn’t miss chances and (have) it come back to haunt us. Hopefully he’s just saving some for the next series against Houston.”

Cal fullback learns to appreciate his 'undercover job'

Before he walked on at Cal in 2004, Will Ta’ufo’ou didn’t have a true appreciation for the dirty, painful and often overlooked job that fullbacks do.

Ta’ufo’ou (pronounced tau-FOE-oh) was a running back and linebacker at St. Francis High School where he was the West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year as a senior. He played football in the spotlight, hearing instant positive feedback from fans whenever he broke loose for a long run.

Now he does most of his work in the relative shadows, launching his body at defensive linemen or linebackers then watching Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen run to glory.

“For us fullbacks, we’re like an undercover job,” Ta’ufo’ou said Tuesday during Cal’s weekly media luncheon. “We do everything for our teammates. We do it for our self-pride.

“I think I’ve learned to have a different appreciation for what I do. Before, I didn’t really understand the position of fullback, coming from high school where I got the ball a lot more. And now I look at blocking like that one block could be what springs the run. It’s a great feeling to see Jahvid behind me and he sprints right past me on the left side or the right side.”

Ta’ufo’ou just might have some of his cover blown if Best and Vereen keep breaking long runs and putting up huge rushing numbers.

Best has already rushed for 328 yards and is averaging 155.5 yards per game, tops in the Pac-10. He had touchdown runs of 80 and 86 yards last week against Washington State. Vereen broke an 81-yard touchdown run in Cal’s season-opening win over Michigan State and is averaging 10.1 yards per carry.

Best and Vereen give Ta’ufo’ou plenty of credit for the role he plays in their success. Even the most casual football fans at Memorial Stadium might start zeroing in on the 5-foot-11, 253-pound Ta’ufo’ou because he’s the player Best and Vereen usually follow into the fray.

“He’s the one that either makes the play probably go or it doesn’t,” Cal quarterback Kevin Riley said. “He has the (isolation) block with either a lineman or a ’backer. He takes them on and they’re going full speed at each other. He’s doing his job.

“He’s getting in the way, making them take a different route. He’s unbelievable. He’s a stud. Pass blocking-wise, too. You know when he’s back there you don’t have to worry about someone coming free to hit you.”

With the widespread use of the spread offense in college football, the position of fullback has become an endangered species for many teams. But not at Cal, which runs a more traditional attack that demands a fullback, especially in the running game.

“There’s no question that in our game the fullback plays a huge role,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “And Will is so smart and has such a great feel for what he does. And then once he gets there he’s very physical. … Will is instrumental at the point of attack.”

Ta’ufo’ou has carried only one time this season, gaining a lone yard, and 13 times in his career for 55 yards. But he caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Riley against Michigan State, the first touchdown of his career.

“I think there are a few more plays where I’ve been in the flat,” said Ta’ufo’ou, a redshirt senior. “I think for me it’s exciting. I think it’s just new tools for the offense. It’s always fun to run the ball.”

It’s also fun for Ta’ufo’ou to play relatively pain-free after last season’s injury hat trick. He suffered three major injuries – two sprained knee ligaments and a high ankle sprain. One injury happened early in the season, one in the middle and one toward the end.

“I think that was one of the harder things I’ve been through,” he said. “I felt like I could never catch a break.”

Despite the injuries and pain, Ta’ufo’ou missed only two games.

There’s no question that Tedford appreciates Ta’ufo’ou’s toughness and the dirty work he does for Cal. That doesn’t mean he’s going to start calling his number.

“We were talking about handing him the ball and how many yards he gained in high school and all that,” Tedford said. “But that was about 40 pounds ago. He carried the ball a lot in high school and did a nice job.

“He was a walk-on and earned a scholarship. Obviously he’s become more physical. He’s a great blocker and catches the ball, too. And he understands his role here, understands he’s a blocker.”

And now Ta’ufo’ou even appreciates the role.

Mining for some positives in an ugly 49ers season-opener

OK, let’s get the obligatory tear-them-a-new-one part of the story out of the way first.

The 49ers stunk it up in their season-opener Sunday at Monster Park. They lost 23-13 to the Arizona Cardinals, a team they beat twice last year. They turned to ball over five times and didn’t force a single turnover.

Quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan threw an interception and lost two fumbles. Takeo Spikes muffed a pooch kick in the third quarter, a mistake that wound up costing the 49ers seven points. Wide receiver Isaac Bruce was invisible. Defensive end Ray McDonald committed a killer but somewhat questionable roughing-the-quarterback penalty. The defense couldn’t get off the field in the second half when Arizona ran 43 plays to the 49ers 14.

So there you have it, the highlights of the lowlights.

I’d rather spend more time on the glass-half-full story line because, frankly, it’s just too early in the season to go all-in on 49ers bashing and too disheartening to think that we’re in for yet another year of unwatchable football in San Francisco.

Here’s the hope I’m clinging to after spending another long day watching the 49ers lose then listening to them rehash the gory details: The 49ers’ offense, when it had a chance to get on the field and wasn’t giving the ball away, actually looked, well, OK, like a legitimate NFL attack.

Yeah, I know it’s not much. But think back to last season when the 49ers had an offense that was historically bad. Now think about the numbers from the first half of Sunday’s game, when new coordinator Mike Martz’s offense wasn’t stuck on the sidelines.

O’Sullivan completed 10 of 14 passes for 141 yards. Frank Gore ran for 80 yards, 41 of those on a touchdown romp. Wide receiver Bryant Johnson caught three passes for 48 yards and tight end Vernon Davis caught two for 49 yards.

Yeah the 49ers were sloppy. But in 30 minutes they produced more big plays than in a typical month last season.

Let’s put O’Sullivan’s 141 first-half yards into perspective. Last season the 49ers quarterbacks didn’t throw for that many yards for an entire game seven times.

“I think J.T. did a great job,” Davis said. “I like J.T. a lot. He’s a good quarterback. He’s very good.”

Of course O’Sullivan wasn’t taking much, if any, solace from his first-half numbers, not when he was guilty of three total turnovers, lost his first NFL start and didn’t throw a touchdown pass.

“Not good enough,” he said of his performance. “We lost. It ends with that.”

It’s clear that Gore is going to have more room to run this season. Defenses can’t crowd the line of scrimmage with seven or eight defenders and dare the 49ers to pass, the way they did last year. Dare Martz to dial up passes this year, the he’ll gladly oblige.

Gore broke loose for a 41-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He shot over right guard, cut to the middle and saw nothing but green grass in front of him instead of red and white Cardinals uniforms.

Gore must have felt as if he’d been released from running back prison. He raced into the end zone, giving the 49ers a 7-3 lead.

Davis is another 49er who found some open space, using his speed to get downfield.

With a flick of his right wrist, O’Sullivan hit Davis with a 37-yard strike over the middle early in the second quarter. Later in the drive, O’Sullivan rolled far to his right and threw all the way across the field to Davis for 12 yards.

Johnson worked the deep middle for a 31-yard grab and had a 16-yard catch, too, both in the first half.

“We did do some positive things out there, which is promising,” 49ers offensive tackle Joe Staley said. “At the same time, we’ve got to protect the football and we’ve got to do a better job protecting the quarterback, giving him time to make decisions downfield.”

The big plays in the first half certainly didn’t ease O’Sullivan’s pain.

“I think when we had opportunities to make big plays down the field, our guys stepped up and made plays,” O’Sullivan said. “Moving the ball is not enough. Changing field position is not enough. You’ve got to score touchdowns.”

O’Sullivan did a good job of making something out of nothing when plays broke down, dumping the ball to his outlets. But there was one pass on one haywire play in the first quarter that he shouldn’t have thrown.

While moving to his left, O’Sullivan tried to hit Arnaz Battle over the middle. Strong safety Adrian Wilson knifed in front for an interception.

“When I threw it I thought I had him,” O’Sullivan said.

He didn’t, of course. But I’m not going to dwell on O’Sullivan’s miscues this week. I’m thinking positive because the alternative is just too ugly.