California Golden Bears' Mack and Follett having 'senior' moments this week

January 20, 8:13 PMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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Cal has two representatives from their 9-4 2008 squad that are attending the Under Armour Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama this week.  Center Alex Mack and linebacker/defensive end Zack Follett are displaying their football wares this week in front of hundreds of NFL personell and scouts in the hopes that they will increase their value for the 2009 NFL Draft.

Right now, the biggest news is Mack.  Today, he was clearly the best offensive lineman on the North squad and the only lineman that could hold his own against future first-round selection, defensive tackle BJ Raji from Boston College.

Going into this week, Mack was listed as the third best center in the 2009 draft class by NFL Network's Mike Mayock, behind Oregon's Max Unger and Louisville's Eric Wood.  Just to shed more light on the accomplishment of today, BJ Raji is Mayock's top-rated defensive tackle, and to most scouts and prognosticators, the top-rated lineman from both sides of the ball as well.

ESPN's and Scouts INC.'s Todd McShay had Mack rated a little higher than Mayock - second best for centers, behind Unger again.  Scouts INC. has projected, for now, Raji as the 14th best draft prospect and Unger as the 32nd in their Top-32 list.

So even if you're Allen Iverson, you can see that practice is important for both players this week.  (Practice?!?  We're talking about practice!?)  Yes, A.I., practice.  In case you don't get the reference, here you go:

Watching Mack go up against North defenders was pretty impressive.  He and Unger are rotating between center and guard.  As a guard, neither player seemed very comfortable.  Unger was beaten pretty good a couple of times while at left guard and while playing center he struggled against Ravi.  Mack looked very similar to Unger while manning the right guard spot.  He was beaten badly on a spin move by Missouri's defensive tackle, Evander "Ziggy" Hood.  Mack didn't let that affect him as he came right back and played the guard spot well.  He wasn't great there, but he looked as though he could probably get the job done.  At center, it was a completely different story.  Nobody got by the 299 pound lineman and compared to the other centers, he looked as though he was playing at an entirely different level.

Here's how Scout.com saw the move that Alex Mack was beaten on:

Hood had a tremendous burst off the line and showed a variety of moves inside, which included an insane spin move against California center Alex Mack.

In other words, Mack probably isn't going to be looked down upon for his only faux pas.  "Insane" isn't a normal adverb associated with beating a poor lineman.

Another Scout.com publication, Orange and Brown, says the following about Mack:

Often the interior offensive linemen are overlooked slightly throughout the draft process and this week can showcase their abilities. In the case of an Alex Mack, it would not be a surprise to see him rise quickly back into first round conversation.

I missed seeing the linebackers today, but I'll catch them tomorrow.  So far, Follett has garnered much attention.  He's rated as the eigth best linebacker in the draft by Scouts INC., for now.  He's not listed on Mayock's top-five list as of now, but the caveat of the list is that it is always changing.

Follett is being asked to handle the 'Mike' position.  That is the middle linebacker spot on defense, which for the Cincinnati Bengals is a 4-3 alignment.  As you probably know, the Bears switched from the 4-3 to the 3-4 this season.  When the Bears played a 4-3, Follett was normally on the outside, so this is a new experience at this level.  He was listed as the ninth-best inside linebacker coming out of high school by ESPN.com's Tom Lemming.  Being in the middle requires Follett to play over the ball, which also means that he'll have to do something else he never did at Cal - face Alex Mack.

I was blessed. I always stayed on the outside and never had to face Mack. That was good news for me.
- Follett about going up against Mack

I'll be updating more on the Senior Bowl on Wednesday afternoon after the North finishes their practice.

More Cal Football

Jeff Tedford has remained busy since the end of the season.  Along with all of the recruits he has received verbals from, the main focus has turned to one of the top recruits in the country.  Devon Kennard has already been promised to be Follett's replacement and Jonathan Okanes of Bear Talk, is reporting that Tedford visited 6'3" near-consensus top defensive end coming out of high school on Monday night.

The recruiting trail has heated up for the Bears as they are now beginning to assemble a top-30 class.  With a recruit as high as Kennard, it should easily vault them into the top-20 by signing day.  Kennard, from Arizona, is considering Texas, USC, and Cal at the moment, but has offers from Arizona State, Miami, Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, and UCLA as well.

Players are apparently not the only people Tedford has been trying to recruit.  Brian Dohn of the Los Angeles Daily News reported on Saturday that Tedford's attempt to fill the vacancy left by the departure of offensive line coach, Jim Michalczik, was unsuccessful.  Bruins' offensive line coach, Bob Palcic declined to fill a similar role with the Bears.  Tom Cable is still available for now.

The NFL released the names of the underclassmen who were granted special eligibility for the 2009 draft.  Unfortunately for Bears Backers, Cameron Morrah's name was on the list.

An interesting list by ESPN.com's Pac-10 blogger, Ted Miller, has Washington returning the most starters in 2009, followed by Cal.  That list was composed prior to the Morrah announcement and also before Mark Sanchez of USC left.  Generally speaking, this bodes well for Cal's chances next year.

I'm definitely not the only one saying it.  The Bears are ranked in the top-20 in nearly every preseason poll now being published.  Right now, the Cal Bears website is proudly reporting it.

Last, and maybe least, ESPN is doing a neat little college football prestige ranking.  The rankings are based off a point system that they've created starting from 1936.  Why 1936?  That's when the AP started ranking the top college football teams in the country.  Here are some of the things a program has to do to get points:

• National Title - 25 points
• Berth in a major Bowl: Rose, Orange, and Sugar since 1936; Cotton since 1940; Fiesta since 1986 - 10 points
• Major Bowl Win - 10 points
• Final AP Top 5 finish - 10 points
• Much more

So where does Cal rank?  44th with a score of 260 points.  They haven't finished the top 15 as of yet, but so far Washington (#17, 634 points), UCLA (#16, 738 points), and Arizona State (#28, 408 points) are ranked higher than Cal in the Pac-10.  Stanford is 45th with a score of 242, and the only Pac-10 team that hasn't been listed is of course, USC.  The lowest Pac-10 team is Washington State, ranked in a tie for 77th with Central Michigan with 65 points.