In his 16 years as a Cal assistant coach, Ron Gould developed numerous running backs who played in the NFL, including Marshawn Lynch, J.J. Arrington, Justin Forsett and Shane Vereen.
After serving as head coach at UC Davis for four years, he joined the Stanford staff this year, giving his stable another prized steed, Bryce Love.
“He’s just as talented as those guys,” Gould said. “In a lot of ways, he’s more talented. He’s ultra-competitive, like those guys were.”
Gould hopes the nearly four weeks of rest Love will have had before Thursday night’s Alamo Bowl against TCU will enable him to finally shake off the ankle sprain that hampered him the last half of the season.
Love hasn’t practiced since his injury against Oregon on Oct. 14. He missed the Oregon State game and has been hobbled in all the other games but not without fine results. Rushing for 922 yards and a 7.8 average with six touchdowns and runs of 52, 57 and 52 would be a fine season for most backs. That’s what Love did after he got hurt.
Gould says that of the tailbacks he has had, “The guy I compare him to the most is Jahvid Best, the same speed. They can get to full speed in a couple of steps — very explosive. The thing that separates Bryce is he runs through a lot of tackles. He’s 195 pounds — how does he do this?”
Love says he has learned a lot from Gould in his one season with him, and much of it is “beyond the game of football. He’s big on teaching us life lessons. Every week he’ll come in with a different quote.
“He talks about being a good player versus being a great player. Obviously, he talks about it in terms of football, but when you carry the same mind-set, once you pay attention to the details in this, you can apply it to other things.”
Forsett, who played nine years in the NFL and made the Pro Bowl with the Ravens in 2014, backs up Love’s summation of Gould.
“He cares more about the man than the player,” Forsett said. He wants his players to think and act like NFL tailbacks, he said. “He stresses taking responsibility for being a professional.”
Forsett says Gould prepared him for the pros in every way.
“The biggest transition for a running back to the pros is pass protection,” he said. “That’s something he stressed from Day 1. ‘You’ve got to protect the quarterback.’ That’s why most of us excel when we make the transition to the pros. He’s super repetitive. At times it can be annoying, but he hammered it into us.”
Love is not yet a proficient pass protector, and that’s something he could develop if he stays another year with Gould at Stanford. Love insists he won’t make up his mind about whether to turn pro until after the bowl game. The deadline to declare is Jan. 15.
Gould, 52, who grew up in Arizona, was a defensive back at Wichita State and Oregon. He was a graduate assistant at Oregon and made stops at Portland State and Boise State before landing at Cal in 1997 under Tom Holmoe. Joe Igber was Gould’s first workhorse back with the Bears.
When Jeff Tedford took over the program in 2002, he retained Gould, who helped recruit and develop, in order, Adimchinobe Echemandu, Arrington, Lynch, Forsett, Best, Vereen, Isi Sofele and C.J. Anderson.
Lynch (2007) and Best (2010) were first-round draft picks, and Arrington (2005) and Vereen (2011) were second-rounders. Anderson was a Super Bowl champion with the Broncos. Vereen, who was drafted by the Patriots and won a Super Bowl with New England, is in his third year with the Giants.
“Shane was one of the more talented guys I’ve ever coached,” Gould said. “He can catch. He can block. He was a complete guy.”
He has fond memories of all his backs but he reserves a special bouquet for Forsett: “If I had a daughter, he’d be the one I’d want her to date.”
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald
Alamo Bowl
Who: No 15 Stanford (9-4) vs. No. 13 TCU (10-3)
Where: San Antonio
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
TV/Radio: ESPN/680
Ron Gould’s running backs
Some of the coach’s top backs from his time at Cal:
|
Running back (years at Cal) |
Cal Yds* |
TD** |
NFL Yds* |
TD** |
|
Marshawn Lynch (2004-06) |
3,230 |
35 |
9,807 |
90 |
|
Justin Forsett (2004-07) |
3,220 |
27 |
3,890 |
20 |
|
Joe Igber (1999-2002) |
3,124 |
23 |
— |
— |
|
Shane Vereen (2008-10) |
2,834 |
35 |
1,475 |
19 |
|
Jahvid Best (2007-09) |
2,668 |
35 |
945 |
9 |
|
J.J. Arrington (2003-04) |
2,625 |
23 |
654 |
5 |
|
Isi Sofele (2009-12) |
2,499 |
17 |
— |
— |
|
A. Echemandu (1999-2003) |
1,434 |
18 |
110 |
0 |
|
C.J. Anderson (2011-12) |
1,135 |
14 |
2,902 |
23 |
* — rushing yards; ** — touchdowns from scrimmage