Cal Football Countdown: 71 Days, Jake Curhan Spotlight

The beat marches on for the Cal Football Countdown, as we're 71 days away from Cal's opener against UC Davis. With that, today features a look at Cal's number 71, the pride of Redwood High School, right tackle Jake Curhan.

(A note: I, Trace Travers, went to Redwood High School, where the football program hasn't produced too many Division 1 talents, so seeing Curhan succeed is a point of pride)

As a recruit:

- 3-star (5.6), rated as the 54th best offensive tackle in the 2016 class, and the 84th best player in the state of California

- Recruited by former WR coach Jacob Peeler and former OL coach Brandon Jones

- Enrolled early in January of 2016

At Cal

Curhan came in during the last year of the Sonny Dykes era, enrolling early in order to develop a little quicker. That served him well, as he moved up to working with the second string offensive line by the end of the 2016 season, behind then senior Steven Moore.

Then the coaching change happened, and Curhan soon found himself in the starting lineup at right tackle. That's where he's been ever since. Curhan started all 25 games over 2017 and 2018, and notably was named offensive player of the game during the Ole Miss game in 2017 by Justin Wilcox

"It was funny," Curhan said in September 2019,of being named offensive player of the game, "some of us get in the meeting room early just to be safe, and (Wilcox) came up to me, 'how do you phonetically say your last name, is it like curran or cur-han,' I was like 'well it's cur-han.' He was like, 'do you really care?' I was like, 'not really.' So I was like, that's an interesting question, not really sure why he asked me that, then a couple minutes into the meeting, he was announcing it, and sure enough, it was really awesome."

Curhan even ran down TCU's Jawaun Johnson in the Cheez-It Bowl after an interception.

Curhan's now a redshirt junior, a staple at right tackle at 6'6" and 327 lbs, and and is tagged for a leadership role in 2019. He returns the most reps from 2018 (he was only beaten out by Addison Ooms, playing 896 to Ooms' 925) and should benefit from being in his third year under Steve Greatwood.

Best Game in 2018:

Per PFF, his performance against USC was regarded as his best. Despite a holding call that nullified an 84 yard Chase Garbers run, Curhan graded out as the top Cal offensive player, not allowing a single pressure and grading highest on the team as a run blocker.

What Needs Work Going into 2019:

Curhan has a couple areas to improve in year 3. First one is penalties, as he led the offense in penalties with 7 in 2018. Second area is mobility, something he's improved at from year to year anyway. Curhan allowed 22 pressures in 2018 (tied for the most allowed with Ooms), and he'll need to continue to cut down on those.

Why He's Important:

- Leadership, he's the only offensive player returning to have started every game the past two years. He's also been a mentor to some of the Bears' young linemen with similar body types in Jasper Friis and Brandon Mello

- Continuity, as he's one of the Bears best run blockers and he's becoming more mobile.

Curhan's going to be counted on quite a bit this year as a part of an offensive line that has a good amount of continuity. Along with Valentino Daltoso and Mike Saffell, Curhan should help give the Bears a strong right side of the offensive line.