James Montgomery has left the building

Cal football's heir apparent at the tailback position asked for and received his release in order to transfer to another school. According to the often dubious reporting of a University of Washington fan site, Montgomery left the Bears with a few parting shots about how Cal was never his first choice out of high school, that we didn't have the type of football tradition he wanted and that in general he never felt comfortable in Berkeley.

Regardless of the accuracy of those statements, what you have is a Sophomore running back who was seemingly on the verge of inheriting one of the more coveted roles in Pac 10 football. Under Jeff Tedford, Cal's running game has become a staple of the offense and the men running the rock for the Bears have achieved at a minimum local stardom and more often than not tremendous opportunities in the NFL. From Adiminobe Echemandu to JJ Arrington to Marshawn Lynch to Justin Forsett, the legacy here is nothing to sneeze about. Add to the equation that the Cal staff believes next years offensive line will be the deepest and most talented in the Tedford era and you begin to scratch your head about what Monty was thinking in bailing out on the eve of Spring Practice.

While the team now has less depth and virtually no returning experience at the position going into the Spring, the answer may be good news for Bear faithful. Montgomery is a bit of a tweener back. In high school, he used his superior quickness and speed to become a Sacramento prep legend. His exploits led to offers from USC, UW and a host of others. Since coming to Berkeley, Montgomery has put on 15-20 pounds of muscle but in doing so may have given up some of his vaunted quickness and speed. The result is that at 5'9" and 205lbs, he lacks the size and strength to be a punishing power back while at the same time is unable to demonstrate the burst and ability to make defenders miss. In watching Montgomery last Spring, I personally thought he was a future star. He was a one cut and go, north south type runner who had very good quickness. However, this Fall as Forsett's principal backup, he seemed to lack the vision and burst required to excel at this level.

It's not impossible to imagine that Montgomery realized that despite his experience and prep credentials that he might exit next Fall not only not starting but buried on the depth chart. Montgomery recently had minor surgery on his knee and hand and was reportedly worried about his ability to perform at a high level in the Spring. When Jeff Tedford moved back the start date of Spring practice, he specifically called out giving time for both Montgomery and fellow TB Shane Vereen as a principal reason to do so underlying that the competition at tailback would be one of areas the staff plans to focus on. The only conclusion I can draw is that Monty looked at the competitive set and felt his knees shake. Best showed that he is far from a track star playing football with a couple of eye popping runs against CSU and Tenn. He also showed off his toughness with stellar special teams play. Vereen had a fabulous Fall camp last year and starred on the Scout team throughout the season. Only a shade slower than Best, Vereen might be quicker and more elusive in the open field. While Best has fought a late season hip injury and Vereen some hamstring problems, the staff is confident both will be 100% soon. Meanwhile, Prep AA TB Covaughn DeBoskie enrolled early at Cal and will play in the Spring. Deboskie is bigger (5'11" and 200lbs) and brings great pass catching skills to the table. Finally, Cal's lone big back, Tracy Slocum has finally gotten healthy and Tedford recently remarked that he looked very impressive in pre Spring workouts.

Tough to lose Montgomery but his reason for departing might be simply that Cal has four studs at his position. If a talented player like Montgomery is scared of the competition, you can't help but feel good about what remains.