Gorney's takeaways: Pac-12 Media Days Wednesday

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – The opening day of Pac-12 Football Media Days is in the books. Here are some takeaways from the event and some interesting notes along the way,

MORE: Big Ten media days day one takeaways | Big Ten day two takeaways

It could have been a resounding defense of his quarterback Jake Browning, who’s not a physical specimen like many other Pac-12 quarterbacks, or it could have been a jolt of truth thrown into a conversation that always breaks down to height, arm strength and the minutiae of breaking down quarterbacks.

Washington coach Chris Petersen cares little about physical traits. So much more goes into evaluating quarterbacks, and those are the things Petersen seems to worry about most.

The question was asked of Petersen when he recruited Browning from Folsom, Calif., which runs a breakneck, fast-paced spread offense, whether that mattered at all in evaluations – the lack of reading defenses, of progressions, of even huddling.

It did not. And neither did the fact that Browning was lean in high school and listed now at a respectable – but still somewhat undersized - 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds.

“For the most part, we always look at the skill set,” Petersen said. “It’s the first thing that gets us in the door and then most importantly after that it’s the mentality of the quarterback position. The physical parts of the quarterback position are completely overrated, so we felt really good about certainly how he threw the ball, but we were more excited about how he thought about the game and processed the game.

“Height and arm strength and foot speed, it’s overrated. It’s important, but it’s overrated. That’s what everybody gets so excited about, but the best of the best are accurate throwers, great decision-makers and awesome in the pocket, tight spaces.”

Maybe Petersen is onto something. After all, Browning was the quarterback that led the Huskies to the College Football Playoff last season.

First-year Cal coach Justin Wilcox said he’s going to make the Bay Area a top priority in recruiting, and there’s already evidence to suggest he’s serious about it.

All eight of Cal’s commits are from California, with half of them living less than an hour away from Berkeley.

“It is a challenging school,” Wilcox said. “It’s the No. 1 public school in the country and we welcome (that). We look at it as an opportunity in recruiting. Not every single player out there we will reruit because they wouldn’t fit the profile of the player at Cal and what’s best for our team and our program. We feel like there are a lot of guys who fit into that mold in the Bay Area, in the West and nationally and guys who will be eager to take advantage of that opportunity.

“It’s more difficult to get into than some places. That’s the reality of it, and that’s OK. We welcome that.”

Getting top local players is the focus. But Wilcox, who needs a lot of help on both sides of the ball to become a conference contender, is not going to limit Cal’s recruiting efforts. He points to former five-star WR Demetris Robertson as a perfect example why the Golden Bears will start local, but think national, too.

“We are going to recruit the Bay Area hard,” Wilcox said. “We’re going to recruit Northern California and move out from there. We’ll primarily be a West Coast recruiting team, but for example one of our most talented and best players is Demetris Robertson from Georgia.

“He came to Cal because of the opportunity academically, what it could afford him for his future on and off the field. We will still go national because Cal still does have a national brand and we don’t want to miss out on those opportunities, but we’ll start in the Bay Area and work out from there.”

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen was not at media day – the Bruins decided instead to bring offensive lineman Scott Quessenberry as one player representative – but there’s no question there will be significant national attention on the former five-star this season, especially with USC’s Sam Darnold across town.

Rosen and Darnold are both expected to be top picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. They’re crosstown rivals. And, personality-wise, they couldn’t be more different.

But UCLA coach Jim Mora said the focus is really on what the Bruins can control, and that’s Rosen, a revamped offense under new offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch (the third in three seasons) and coming back after an awful 4-8 season. There’s a lot of work to do, and the last thing on anyone’s mind in Westwood is an interesting media story of Rosen and Darnold.

“We just focus on ourselves and we acknowledge that Sam is a great player,” Mora said. “It’s fun to have two great quarterbacks in the same city, in the same conference. But what’s important to us is being the best we can be because that’s what we control. We can’t control Sam. I know this: He’s fun to watch, he’s not fun to compete against because he’s tough to get down, and he’s a heck of a competitor.”

UCLA visits USC on Nov. 18. NFL execs will surely be watching.

Lots of positions are unsettled at Oregon State, but running back is loaded – and got even better this offseason when former five-star Thomas Tyner came out of medical retirement to play for the Beavers.

Running back Ryan Nall is the man in Corvallis, but even he admits Tyner will be a welcome addition to Oregon State’s offense.

“Coming out of high school he was a five-star, played at Oregon right away and helped them get to the national championship,” Nall said. “He has a lot to offer. I see that still. It’s going to take some time to get used to getting back in the groove, but once he does he’s going to be special.”

With a big question mark surrounding the quarterback spot, the run game will have to be effective if the Beavers have any prayer in a loaded Pac-12 North.

Coach Gary Andersen, who’s 6-18 in two seasons, will rely on Nall, but Tyner, the second-best RB nationally and the top-rated prospect in Oregon in the 2013 class, is too skilled to keep on the sidelines.

“Everywhere we’ve been and we’ve had very successful running games, we’ve had three really good backs,” Andersen said. “We’ve had the ability to have three or four really good backs. It will be interesting to see where he fits. He’s done a tremendous job of his work ethic, his toughness, he’s been there before.

“He’s been at the highest level, and he’s competed in some extremely big football games. All that stuff is good for our team and he doesn’t carry himself with any, ‘I’ve been there before, I’ve arrived and I’m better than you.’ The thing for Thomas, the best part about it, is he’s going to end this football thing on his terms, not on anybody else’s terms, and that’s what I like most about it.”

Colorado’s success and run to the Pac-12 championship game last season surprised a lot of people. Those inside the program, not so much.

“That’s the thing, people see what we did last year but they don’t understand this has been here for a while,” running back Phillip Lindsay said. “It just takes time when you have to rebuild a program for it to get where you want to go. Finally, you guys got to see a finished touch of coach (Mike MacIntyre’s) first recruiting class and how we stuck together.

“We built that foundation up. Now we have to keep rocking and rolling with it, and we have to continue to do what we do best and that’s work hard and believe in each other.”

Respect has hardly returned to the Buffaloes. After winning the Pac-12 South last season and returning a ton of starters on offense, the preseason media poll has Colorado picked fourth in its own division behind USC, Utah and UCLA. That’s not exactly R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

For MacIntyre, that doesn’t matter much. A return trip to the conference championship – with a drastically different result after losing 41-10 last season to Washington – is far more important.

“We’re still a team people don’t believe in,” MacIntyre said. “We would like for people to believe in us. The only way to do that is to put back-to-back-to-back things together.

“What we want to do is be in the Pac-12 championship game and not get our brains beat in like we did last year against Washington. We would like to finish it better.”

Arizona finished a woeful 3-9 last season with only one conference victory, a 56-35 feel-good thrashing of Arizona State in the season finale. (Its only other wins were against Grambling and Hawaii.) So sixth-year coach Rich Rodriguez is looking to start anew.

He’s doing a complete program reboot.

“When you have a terrible year I don’t think you should bury your head in the sand and pretend it wasn’t there,” Rodriguez said. “You have to evaluate yourself, your staff, your program, everything you’re doing, so you don’t do it again. We’ve done that. I’ve had bad years before, but last year there were a lot of reasons why, you have to address every reason why and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

There are still major concerns. Quarterback is still unsettled – does anyone have complete faith in Brandon Dawkins’ or Khalil Tate’s passing ability yet? Receivers are unproven. The defensive line is far from proven. Bluntly, Arizona is just not as skilled as other teams.

And in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, the Wildcats are picked to finish last in the South. Rodriguez has to push the restart button… but is there enough patience to not push it on him?