Cal running back Jahvid Best is coming off a fantastic sophomore season and is perhaps the top running back Heisman candidate for 2009.  He is the nation’s leading returning rusher after blazing his way to 1,580 yards and 15 touchdowns while averaging a phenomenal 8.14 yards per carry (he missed a game or two due to injury).  He was an amazing track athlete in high school with career bests of 10.31 in the 100 meters and 20.65 in the 200 meters and he has been able to carry over his speed onto the gridiron.  He’s a humble, low-key guy who is very team-oriented, a rare thing nowadays.  I sat down with him at Pac-10 media day and conducted the following Q&A session:

First off, you had some injuries last year that caused you to miss a couple games.  What are you doing now to get more durable and are you worried that it could affect your speed and explosiveness?

I’ve been trying to get bigger.  But I’ve been really cautious about putting on weight.  I’ve been very careful about it.  I feel like I’ve put on the right weight.  I was 180 pounds when I ran a 10.31 in high school.  I’m 200 pounds now and I feel faster, definitely more explosive.  

What do you think you have to do to win the Heisman?

As far as I’m concerned, the people that win the Heisman are on a winning team, so I figure my role is to do the best I can to help my team win.  The more we win, the more Heisman attention I’ll get. 

What about stats?  What kind of season do you have to have?

I just need to have a season similar to last season.  I feel that would be good enough, but to add a Pac-10 championship would help more.  I never really have a yardage goal.  The last seven or eight years we’ve had a 1,000-yard rusher at Cal, so I do want to keep that tradition going. 

Your backup, Shane Vereen, is a pretty capable runner, too.  How does his presence help you?

I’m blessed to have a back like Shane Vereen behind me.  I do something and that gets him going and then he comes in and does something special and that gets me going.  I feed off of him and he feeds off of me.  When we’re in there together, it’s just great.  We’re great friends after practice, too.

Whose style do you try to emulate as a running back?

I try to emulate Reggie (Bush) a lot, but that was mostly when I was in high school.  I used to watch film of him in high school and tried to do what he does.  I think my game is pretty similar to his.  He was an idol of mine when I was growing up. 

Given that, was there any thought of following in his footsteps at USC?

I’m from the Bay Area and didn’t really want to leave.  That’s why I chose Cal, because it was so close to home.  I’m a family oriented person, so this way my family can see all the home games. 

You had a huge high school career and were one of the fastest players in the country coming out.  Yet, your recruitment process was mostly a mystery to those who following recruiting.  Why was that?

I kind of liked to keep a low profile.   I only took two official visits, Cal and Oregon.  I took some unofficials to USC a couple times.  But I didn’t do the whole big recruiting thing, I kept it simple.  And I was so busy running track anyway in the spring, so that was my main focus. 

What other current college backs do you enjoy watching?

DeMarco Murray of Oklahoma.  I like that kid.  Joe McKnight, when we’re watching games at the hotel, I look at him. Noel Devine of West Virginia.

I put out an annual list of the fastest players in college football.  I have you sixth heading into the season.  How would you match up speed-wise with guys like Jeff Demps, Trindon Holliday and C.J. Spiller?

I feel like my quickness is up to par with the best of them.  I think I could still run a 10.3 if I were running right now.  If I had concentrated on track, I’m sure I would’ve gotten a lot faster. 

How do you feel about all the media attention you are getting?  If Cal has a big year, how is the team prepared to handle it?

I’ll be able to handle it.  The better we do, the more attention we get.   The attention is good for the Pac-10 conference and Cal.  It depends on how we take it.  If we think we’ve ‘arrived’ as a team, that could be bad for us, but if we take it with a grain of salt, that’ll be good for us.

Do any other running backs give you advice?  What do they tell you to work on?

Marshawn (Lynch) is always up there and he’s always telling me to keep doing what I’m doing and to keep working hard.  Justin Forsett came back into town and he gave me some words of wisdom.  The biggest thing I need to work on is pass blocking and running more physical.  There are times where I try to make a big play out of something. That’s my style, but there was really nothing there.  That’s when I need to use a physical style of running just to get those extra couple yards instead of forcing it. 

Being a home run hitter, defenses key on you a lot.  What defenses posed the biggest challenges for you last season?

Oregon, Maryland and USC probably were the toughest.  As far as the level of talent and speed, USC’s guys were slightly more talented, but they were just so good at executing and controlling their gaps.  That was what set them apart.  It was frustrating, but I have to give them credit for keeping me in check.  They controlled the line of scrimmage. 

Say it’s game 12 and you are one of the main Heisman candidates with a chance to win it.  And then you break a big touchdown run to break the game open.  Think you might pull a Desmond Howard and make a Heisman statememt?

You’ll never see me strike a Heisman pose.

I’ll have my interview with Jahvid Best, plus Taylor Mays and Jim Harbaugh on Friday.

Everyone says the SEC is the best conference, but don’t tell that to Pete Carroll, who thinks very highly of the Pac-10:

“Our conference is so challenging to us.  Year-in and year-out, our toughest games come from in conference.  I can’t imagine any conference better than the Pac-10.  I think it’s the best in the country.  We see it week-in and week-out in the coaching, the players and the style of play, which is cutting edge.”

If anyone in the country can ask ‘what if?’, it’s Carroll.  He was 19 seconds from a third-straight national title in 2005 and then dropped games to lesser teams like UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford since then that have kept USC out of at least two more national title games.  That has led Carroll to be a staunch proponent of a playoff system.

“(If I were in charge of the NCAA) we would have an awesome playoff system,” he said.  “I’d find a way to create a system we can all get excited about while still maintaining the bowl games that make the sport so special.”

Moving on to the coming season, there’s a lot of curiosity over who will be the next USC quarterback.  But hold the phones on all that talk over incoming phenom Matt Barkley.

“The quarterback situation is clear now,” said Carroll. “Aaron Corp is the guy.  He completed over 70 percent of his passes and only threw one interception all spring.”

If the quarterback spot has been in question, that has not been the case at safety, where returning All-American Taylor Mays is poised for a run at the Thorpe Award.

“He is the epitome of maximizing one’s experience at USC,” said Carroll. “He could have gone to the NFL, but he wanted to graduate and have a great senior year.  There’s never been a guy bigger, faster or stronger playing his position.”

Understatement of the day from Jahvid Best:

“I like to think I’m one of the fastest players in the Pac-10″.

Uh, yeah.

Jeff Tedford on Best and his Heisman campaign:

“Jahvid is a team-above-self guy all the way.  He knows the team is No. 1.  He is so sincere about that, I don’t have any problems with keeping the Heisman stuff hush-hush.  But that’s not our goal as a team and it’s not Jahvid’s No. 1 goal.  Our team has a great deal of respect for him.”

Jeff Tedford’s expectations of Kevin Riley: 

“Consistency.  If we are going to achieve our goals, we must be consistent in the passing game.  Kevin has matured a lot.  He’s taking the first snap at camp next week.  He has worked hard to become more efficient and consistent.”

Something tells me he’s not totally sold on Riley.  It’s almost as if he’s hoping that Brock Mansion or Bo Sweeney can seize the mantle at quarterback. 

What’s the deal with Tedford’s new-found confusion at quarterback?  After producing an amazing string of quarterback successes at both Oregon and Cal over the last 10 years (Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller, Aaron Rodgers), he’s been mired in mediocrity with guys like Joe Ayoob, Nate Longshore and Riley.  Can he get the magic back?

Jim Harbaugh personifies Stanford’s–and the Pac-10′s–new-found toughness.  He credited this toughness for the league going 5-0 in bowl games.

Said the rather-intense Harbaugh (who was probably a Viking in a past life):

“Our guys don’t quit.  They never give up.  You cannot kill them.  You can’t demoralize them, they won’t go away.  Now we have to be relentless.  We must be the hunter.  Eventually, we want to kill you.  We need to make that next step to get up there with teams like USC.”

Indeed.

He called Cardinal tailback Toby Gerhart ‘a man’ and a ‘rare kind of athlete’ and sees an NFL future for him (unless, of course, he plays baseball).

Personally, I think Stanford is going to be a surprise team and I can see them doing much better than their projected sixth-place finish.

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said he hopes to see early dividends from the addition of freshmen speedsters Randall Carroll and Damien Thigpen.

He lauded the conference for its offensive creativity and pointed out that it doesn’t only apply to the passing game (as has traditionally been the case in the league), but to the running game also, citing Oregon’s powerful ground attack.

Sounds like he expects big things from redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Prince, who is ‘wise beyond his years.’ 

He’ll need to be, as he’ll be playing in front of 110,000 at Neyland Stadium in week two.

Bruins linebacker Reggie Carter said he can’t wait to hear Rocky Top 4,000 times and that he hopes to show that the Pac-10 is a tough conference.

New Husky coach Steve Sarkisian gave a spirited speech to the assembled media.  He certainly has the gift of gab, which comes in handy when inheriting a team that went 0-12.

He noted that quarterback Jack Locker has made a big improvement in his fundamentals since he arrived, highlighted by a 16-for-18 passing performance in the Washington spring game.

Sarkisian promised there will be natural similarities schematically with USC on both sides of the ball, though he feels the program will eventually develop its own style.