Hayes Works at Elite 11 Football Camp - Rebel QB Hones Skills at UC-Berkeley

The camp was held May 23 on the hallowed ground of Memorial Stadium, where quarterback John Elway played his last game and courageous Cal quarterback Joe Roth, played college football while battling cancer in the mid 1970s.

Hayes, the lone representative from Tennessee, said the experience was an invaluable one.

"I think the camp helped me in a lot of ways," he said. "Things like avoiding the pass rush and throwing on the run, we did stuff like that."

The camp started with a partner throw, essentially to get loose. Then the quarterbacks broke off into different instructional stations.

"They broke us up into groups and we worked with groups for about an hour," Hayes said. "The instructional part was good."

There were some receivers there from area schools who volunteered to be targets for the campers. Hayes said the coaches were knowledgeable about technique.

"We worked on our drops (the number of steps a quarterback makes after taking the snap), avoiding the rush, stepping up in the pocket and rolling out."

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"The coaches were good and they all had a good feel for the game," said Hayes.

The Rebels, 9-3 last year and participants in the second round of the Class 2A state playoffs, were a pass-oriented team in 2003. Hayes has been the starting quarterback for the Rebels since Week 10 of the 2002 season and guided the Rebs, as a freshman, to the Class 2A semifinals.

In his career, Hayes is 223-439 passing with 26 touchdowns, 25 interceptions and 3,322 total yards. He holds numerous season and career passing marks already at MHS, where he'll be a junior next fall.

"We worked certain situations and we were shown new views to the game," Hayes said. "I think it's going to help me this season."

The Rebels begin passing league this week and are already knee deep in pre-season conditioning.

As for the famous play during what is known as "Big Game" for California and Stanford fans, it occurred in 1982. John Elway had just led Stanford down the field for one of his patented last-second finishes. After getting dumped and facing a fourth-and-17 situation on his own 13, Elway guided the Cardinal to field goal range where Mark Harmon booted a 35-yard kick with eight seconds to play. Sanford led 20-19.

Then chaos ensued. Stanford was penalized for excessive demonstration after the score and Cal received the squib kick about 15 yards closer than it ordinarily would have. The Bears took the kick, pitched and fumbled it around and then, after five laterals, Richard Rogers ended the 52-yard play by dashing through Stanford flag girls and tuba players for the 25-20 California victory. The loss ended Stanford's hopes for a bowl game and the Bears captured the "Golden Ax" for the first time in seven years.