READ MORE: Cal Summer Reading Challenge

Last year, Patrick Laird started his own summer reading challenge, an effort to prevent summer learning loss, by having kids read in exchange for tickets to Cal's season opener against North Carolina.

This year the mantle has been passed down, as Cal's Mike Saffell has taken the leadership role with the program, much like he has with the offense, and the loquacious Saffell noted that he'd talked a lot with the now-Miami Dolphin Laird in taking over the program.

"I showed interest when he was doing it last year, thought it was an incredible program," Saffell told the media after the first day of Fall Camp, "me and him also have a passion for reading as we've been here and as we've talked about it, it was something I wanted to take over as I saw a huge need for it, especially in this community. In the East Bay, there's kids that don't have the access that me and Patrick had, with unbelievable parents who led us to read and got us that passion early. It's something in my college career that has been beneficial in everything I've done, being a leader on the football field, being a leader in the classroom, reading has been a big part of that. I want to pass that on to younger kids, because I won't have this platform forever, being a Cal football player. When I get a job and I'm a salesman, nobody wants to hear a salesman telling you to read. So you've got to take advantage of the platform, and that's why I've jumped on it. We're trying to make it bigger and better, and next year we've got some great plans for it, it will continue."

Saffell, along with fellow offensive lineman and teammate (and Berkeley native) Henry Bazakas, has gone around to various schools in the area. They went to speak with RB Marcel Dancy's Oakland Dynamites Pop Warner team. And they're getting enthusiasm from the students they're reaching.

"It's awesome, I think they're a little less excited when you tell them you're an O-lineman," Saffell joked, "they're like, 'what do you play?' O-line. 'What's that?' It's an easier sell when you're a running back, and everyone knows who you are, you're number 28. Once you get in the 50s, it's like 'I don't really know this guy.' You just have to get in there, tell a couple jokes, they're like 'ok, this guy's funny.' Those kids, they're enthusiastic about anything that's Cal football. We'll get in there and say:

'hey we're from Cal Football,'

'YEAH!'

'Who likes to read?'

'YEAH'

"You know, they don't even know, so they're all super excited, and we're just getting that enthusiam towards the reading challenge, getting them enthusiastic about reading. That's the big thing about this challenge, is making reading cool."

Saffell, on the Wuerffel Trophy watchlist (for exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement), is approaching the reading challenge with the same enthusiasm that he approaches offensive line play, which should lead to another section full of well-read children when Cal takes on UC Davis on August 31st.