Cal Football: Arizona State Bringing Familiar Faces Back to Berkeley on Saturday
Four players who spent last season on the Cal roster are part of the Arizona State team that will visit Memorial Stadium for a noon kickoff on Saturday.
Two of them won’t play due to injuries but you have to wonder if the Bears wish they still had placekicker Dario Longhetto on their roster.
Longhetto spent four seasons with Bears and hit 26 of 36 field goals and 71 of 73 PAT tries during his career. His best season was 2021, when he converted 11 of 14 field goals and made all 31 of his extra points.
Cal has struggled at the position this year, with sophomore Michael Luckhurst making just three of nine field goal attempts and 11 of 14 PATs. When he missed twice on three extra points in Saturday’s 59-32 loss at Washington, Luckurst was replaced by freshman Mateen Bhaghani, who converted his one PAT.
Longhetto, a graduate student from Newbury Park, is 3-for-3 on field goals and 6-for-6 on PATs for the 1-3 Sun Devils.
He transferred to ASU along with veteran Cal long snapper Slater Zellers, who now handles those duties for the Sun Devils. A graduate student from Scottsdale, Ariz., Zellers played 38 games for Cal.
DeCarlos Brooks tries to escape Oklahoma State defender.
Photo by Rob Schumacher, USA Today
Two other ex-Bears may not suit up Saturday.
— Running back DeCarlos Brooks is questionable after missing the past two games with an undisclosed injury. He was listed at No. 2 on the Sun Devils’ opening-game depth chart and rushed for a career-best 63 yards in a win over FCS Southern Utah.
He gained 27 more yards a week later vs. Oklahoma State but has not played since. A 5-foot-9, 210-pounder from Chandler, Ariz., returned home after three seasons at Cal. He rushed for 346 yards with one touchdown for the Bears and had 43 yards at Notre Dame last year, but probably didn’t see a place for himself with Jaydn Ott expected to be the Bears’ primary ball carrier.
— Offensive lineman Ben Coleman may have been the most valuable of the four Cal transfers to ASU, but the 6-foot-3, 330-pound graduate student suffered what was described as a serious lower-leg injury just before the start of spring ball in Tempe and may miss the entire season.
He had been projected as the Sun Devils’ starting left guard.
Coleman played 25 games at Cal, with 16 starts at left guard or left tackle. He started 11 games in 2022 after earning honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors in 2021.
Coleman has one year of eligibility remaining so he could play for ASU in 2024.
Beau Baldwin works with quarterback Drew Pyne.
Photo by Patrick Breen, USA Today
ASU’s coaching staff also has a Cal flavor, with Beau Baldwin serving as first-year head coach Kenny Dillingham’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and Charlie Ragle in the role of assistant head coach and special teams coordinator.
Baldwin was Justin Wilcox’s first offensive coordinator, working at Cal from 2017 through ’19. The Bears struggled on that side of the ball in those years, finishing near the bottom in the Pac-12 in key offensive categories.
He moved on to become head coach at Cal Poly the past three seasons, where he was 4-21. He previously was head coach at Eastern Washington, where he won five Big Sky titles and the 2010 FCS national championship.
Baldwin began the season with highly touted freshman Jaden Rashada of Pittsburg High School in the East Bay as his starting quarterback. Rashada threw for 236 yards and a pair of touchdowns in ASU’s opening win over Southern Utah but he has missed the past two games with injury and is not expected back for at least another couple weeks.
In the meantime, Baldwin has shuffled in three different QBs as the Devils continue to battle in the injury bug. Expected to start against the Bears is Notre Dame transfer Drew Pyne, who passed for 221 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s 42-28 loss to USC, but was sacked eight times.
A year ago, Pyne completed 17 of 23 passes for 150 yards with a pair of touchdowns in Notre Dame’s 24-17 win over Cal at South Bend, Ind.
Ragle was part of Wilcox’s original Cal coaching staff, working with special teams in Berkeley for five seasons. He departed to become head coach at Idaho State last season, but the Bobcats went 1-10, their only victory coming at the expense Baldwin and Cal Poly.
Ragle resigned after the season to accept Dillingham’s offer to join the ASU staff.
DeWayne Walker, who was defensive backs coach at Cal in 1996 and ’97, is a defensive analyst for the Sun Devils.
Cover photo of ASU placekicker Dario Longhetto by Rob Schumacher, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
