New Staff Series: Rivalry Games

This is a continuing series from interviews with new staff members Brian Johnson, Keith Heyward, Tre Watson and Geep Chryst. Today continues with the best rivalry games the four coaches have ever been a part of.

New Staff Series: Gratitude a Theme | Chryst on Analytics | Watson's Persistence Paid Off | Heyward's OLB Switch and Lamar Jackson Story | Brian Johnson's 50 Hours of Driving to Berkeley | Why They Coach

Rivalry games are a big piece of the pageantry of college football, and all four coaches have been through their fair share, whether it's playing in them or being on the sideline coaching or otherwise. All four were asked which rivalry game stood out to them the most, either as a player, coach or otherwise.

Cal's new strength coach played for LSU after growing up in Tallahassee, Florida, and felt that his experience, playing in the Swamp against the University of Florida, was his favorite rivalry game.

"I’ve been a part of a lot of rivalry games," Johnson said, "and growing up on that side of the country, I didn’t know that there are some very huge rivalries over here in the Pac-12 as well. I think the biggest one, and it might have been a personal one to be honest, but it is a rivalry, that LSU/Florida game was always big for me. That’s the one team in the East that LSU plays every year, that’s probably the biggest for me because I’m from Florida, from Tallahassee, my father graduated from Florida State, my mother graduated from the university of Florida, and I was raised in a split household (of college teams). Being a young kid, I grew up watching Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn and all those Florida State greats, all those Florida greats and my dad walked-on at Florida State. We had season tickets, and we went whenever they played in Gainesville, and my parents grew up 30 minutes south of Gainesville.

"University of Florida is like home for me, that was the game where my grandparents, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles, that was the one game where everybody was able to watch me play in college. My first start was against the university of Florida (while at LSU). As a player, it was always emotional and as a coach as well. Every year at Florida State I coached against Florida, I coached against Florida at LSU, and at Texas A&M I coached against Florida, the last time I coached against them was in 2017, and I got the same feeling that I got back in 2004, which was my first start. We came back on a game winning drive to win on the last play against Florida in the swamp. That’s a huge rivalry from when I played at LSU, and everywhere I’ve coached, it has been a huge rivalry."

Heyward has spent all but one season on the west coast, and spent 14 football seasons being around the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry, and that's his favorite.

"As a player, it’s whatever they call the game now, they don’t call it the Civil War now, between Oregon and Oregon State" Heyward noted, "and I’ve been in that game a lot more. I’ve been there as a player and as a coach. I’d have to say that one, just because it really didn’t matter which team had the better record. That was always going to be a game decided by who played the best that day. I remember the game in 98 when Kenny Simonton ran around the corner, the game in 2000 where we won my senior year to go to the Fiesta Bowl. Those that I had at Oregon too, that’s always a good game, a tough game, and you had to be poised and keep the emotions under control."

Watson has a relatively shorter list to work with compared to Heyward or Johnson, but he had a couple answers from the past few years, facing Oregon when at Washington, and facing USC while at Oregon in 2019.

"Probably, as a player, when we played Oregon," Watson said. "I didn’t understand it until my first game against Oregon, and the alumni are like ‘beat Oregon, beat Oregon, beat Oregon.’ As a player, that was the really big one. As a coach, the most significant one was Oregon playing at USC the year we won the Rose Bowl, just because we had so many LA kids, and they wanted to go prove and show (what they could do), so we had a really good game."

The Oregon-Washington game has some of the most vitriol, at least among fans, of any rivalry game on the west coast, and Watson has seen that firsthand, though there's only been one result when he's been involved.

"It’s legitimate," Watson said of the vitriol, "and it’s funny,"as a player I didn’t beat Oregon, but as a coach I haven’t lost to Washington either. It’s a really good rivalry, it’s good for the kids and good for the fans."

Chryst doesn't necessarily have the college experience, having coached in the NFL for nearly 30 years, but he's been peripherally around the college game thanks to his brother and two sons. One game he remembers clearly was the 2016 Big Game, where his son Keller was the starter for Stanford in a 45-31 win for the Cardinal

"The first thing that comes to my mind, because I’m at Cal and Keller played at Stanford, I remember the (Big) game played in 2016 at Memorial Stadium that was incredibly rainy" Chryst noted. "Cal did a lot of good things offensively, Chad Hansen scored on the first play, on a 70 yard slant. Those games when you’re the favorite, those are hard games to play, because every team says going in ‘we expect to win,’ and fans would say ‘Cal’s not doing anything,’ but Cal did a lot of things. I remember Stanford answered, of course they had Christian McCaffrey, but Keller pulled and had a disconnect (broken play) for a touchdown, then Cal scored. It was a lot closer for the majority of the game, but I remember Keller had a drive before the half, it only led to a field goal but it tilted the game, it was 17-14, and then they came out to start the second half, Christian McCaffrey had a 90 yard touchdown run, and all of a sudden it was a two possession game. In terms of rivalry games you remember, because I was sitting in the stands getting absolutely drenched, I was thinking ‘both of these teams are playing a high level game, as wet as the conditions are.’ Davis Webb probably threw for 300 yards, and that was the scheme."

Chryst did note a couple that his brother coached in standing out as well, along with a couple others.

"I do remember visiting my brother Paul, before he was the head coach at Wisconsin," Chryst said, "he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon State for Mike Riley, and Oregon State rarely beats Oregon, but they beat them in the Civil War when Derek Anderson was the quarterback and it meant a lot because it was a home game at Oregon State and because they rarely beat the Ducks. You may want to say it’s Michigan-Ohio State or the Army-Navy game with the pregame pageantry of that and what they go off to face after as they go to serve our country, there’s something really poignant to that. I always start with what I’ve witnessed personally and what my personal investments are in. I think Wisconsin-Minnesota, I grew up as a Badger fan, and two years ago, when Minnesota, if they beat Wisconsin, they go to the Rose Bowl, that was a helluva thing for the Gophers to do. It started to snow and was bitterly cold and Wisconsin had a great game. Jack Coan hit Quintez Cephus for a big touchdown. Those were trophy games, you have Paul Bunyan’s Axe, and the Stanford Axe, there’s something emotional about trophy games as well."