Cal stunned by Best injury, Beavers

BERKELEY — California tailback Jahvid Best slammed to the ground after a terrifying fall into the end zone and the Golden Bears never recovered from losing their star.

Seam Canfield threw for 342 yards and two TDs and ran for one Saturday as Oregon State beat No. 23 Cal 31-14.

The Bears (6-3, 3-3 Pac-10), who had won three straight to get back in the Top 25 for the first time following a four-week absence, tried to regroup after watching Best land on his head in the end zone following a leaping touchdown over a defender. They looked out of sync and lost their fifth straight at home to the Beavers. Oregon State (6-3, 4-2) became bowl eligible.

Best briefly lost consciousness and was being given oxygen as he was carted off the field on a gurney and taken to an emergency room. He had movement in all of his extremities, which coach Jeff Tedford quickly told his players. Tedford said results of an initial exam came out normal.

"It's very sobering when that happens," Tedford said. "When it happened, it was unbelievably scary. He was out of it pretty good."

Best vaulted into the air to clear Oregon State safety Cameron Collins, who appeared to bump him and send him even higher. Best's feet were at least 5 feet from the ground. When he came down, his helmet popped off on impact.

"He went airborne into the end zone and I tried to tackle him," Collins said. "I believe he came down wrong. It's really unfortunate. ... As a team we took a knee and said a quick prayer for him. As a competitor, you never want to see something like that happen."

Best missed practice Tuesday and Wednesday with a slight concussion sustained in the team's 23-21 win at Arizona State last Saturday, but participated in full during Thursday's workout. The concussion wasn't diagnosed right away.

The latest injury — with 6:07 before halftime — silenced Memorial Stadium, where fans chanted "Jahvid! Jahvid!" before everything went quiet to see what happened with the 20-year-old junior.

"I was standing right there. You knew right when he landed it was something," Cal quarterback Kevin Riley said. "His eyes were blank and he was trying to breathe."

Best's teammates went down on their knees and waited, then moved to the end zone as trainers and doctors took him away on a stretcher. "It's always an eerie thing in a game when it's so quiet and somebody gets hurt like that," Riley said. "It's just scary."

The game was delayed 13 minutes. Some of Oregon State's players who were on the field at the time knelt and huddled in support. Beavers coach Mike Riley kept his team on task.

Canfield completed 29 of 39 passes with nine to Jacquizz Rodgers and six each to James Rodgers and Joe Halahuni. It was the third straight game Cal gave up more than 300 yards in the air.