SAN FRANCISCO--What does a guy have to do to get himself recognized these days?

During his opening statement at Bay Area Media Day on Monday, Stanford football coach Jim Harbaugh took a minute to commend San Jose State quarterback Kyle Reed, telling Reed that he remembered recruiting him out of high school and asking, "McClymonds High School, right?" All of which was a nice gesture, except that Harbaugh was actually talking to Jahvid Best, apparently mistaking the Cal tailback for Reed.

It might have been a bit of gamesmanship from Harbaugh -- "Was he serious?" Bears coach Jeff Tedford asked later on, laughing -- especially considering the theme of the questions that Best and Bears coach Jeff Tedford spent a good part of the session answering: Best's shot at a Heisman Trophy.

Even with the Spartans there, the morning felt much like a localized version of last week's Pac-10 Media Day, particularly with new conference commissioner Larry Scott giving a short statement before the coaches. Among the local media Best -- widely considered to be the top Heisman contender on the West Coast -- was on a lot of minds.

"I think it's great for the university, I think it's great for the program," Tedford said. "I think everybody can take a great sense of pride in something like that, where someone is considered to be one of the better players in the country and they're from your university."

But Tedford stressed that while individual recognition is nice, with players reporting to fall camp on Thursday and the first practice session scheduled for Friday, focus on the whole remains paramount.

"It comes down to team success, and I don't think there's any doubt that Jahvid appreciates that and the team appreciates that," Tedford said. "I think, being a team-above-self guy like Jahvid is, that he's sincere about that. The team has a great deal of respect for him and he has a great deal of respect for his team, and if you know Jahvid at all, you know that that's legit."

Best ran for 1,580 yards and the Pac-10 rushing title in 2008, scoring 15 touchdowns and averaging 8.1 yards per carry. He did so despite dislocating his left elbow against Colorado State and being bothered by irritation of an extra bone in his left foot that was bruised midway through the season, according to the Cal Athletics Web site. Both injuries required surgery in January, but Best missed only one game during the regular season.

The now-junior said that he has never watched the Heisman ceremony on TV and, when asked if he could name last year's winner, answered, "One of those quarterbacks."

As for his own chances at the trophy this year, Best said that he thinks it's "realistic, but I definitely think it's going to be challenging."

"I think it's going to take a tremendous year out of the team," he said. "I feel like we'll probably have to go undefeated to have a legitimate shot, and (the other candidates) would have to mess up in a big game or something like that. That's how I think my chances are."

Historically, the Pac-10 -- and the West Coast, for that matter -- has received little Heisman recognition for all teams not named USC. The last non-Trojan Pac-10 player to win the award was Jim Plunkett of Stanford in 1970. A Cal player has never won the Trophy. Since 2002, all the winners have played for either USC, Oklahoma, Florida or Ohio State. Best's chances, then, can only increase with team success.

"I think we do have the responsibility as a university to give Jahvid every chance -- and give our team every chance -- to make sure people know who he is," Tedford said.

Harbaugh included.

"Conference of Champions"

Scott, who replaced Tom Hansen as Pac-10 Commissioner on July 1, continued Monday to push for a new image for the conference.

"This is the premier football conference in the country," said Scott, who served as Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association prior to taking over for Hansen.

Scott, who said that he is in the process of moving to California from St. Petersburg, Fla., "the heart of Gator country," spoke repeatedly of a "disconnect" between the national perception and the reality of Pac-10 football. He cited the fact that the conference has a winning record against all FBS conferences since 2000, the Pac-10's 5-0 bowl record last year and the difficulty of the conference's round-robin schedule during the regular season.

"No one's doing it tougher," he said.

Harbaugh got in on the fun as well while talking about his team's nonconference scheduling.

"At Stanford we don't play any patsies, and neither does the Pac-10 conference," he said. "We believe that's the way college football should be. Some of the other conferences kind of like to schedule some questionable games, it seems. Maybe some of their fans just like to go to the tailgate parties and that's enough."

Syd'Quan Speaks (Softly)

With virtually everybody returning from a secondary group that was the silent star of the Cal defense in 2008, senior cornerback Syd'Quan Thompson has a whole stable of reasons to be confident.

"Anybody that we throw in the fire we think can pretty much win downs and games," he said on Monday.

Thompson, a preseason All-American, and junior Darian Hagan are locks for the starting cornerback slots, and they're backed up by Chris Conte -- who has had his own shots at the starting job over the past two seasons -- and young talent from the likes of Josh Hill and Marc Anthony. Marcus Ezeff and Brett Johnson, both of whom started in 2008, return at safety.

Bolstered by this unit, which intercepted 24 passes last year, the Bears' defense is going to be "real good," Thompson said.

"We lost three good linebackers (in Zack Follett, Anthony Felder and Worrell Williams), but I don't think we took a step back going through the whole offseason, spring and summer workouts," he said. "I think the defense is going to be pretty solid. We've got a veteran D-line and a veteran secondary surrounding the linebackers."

Furthermore, unlike this time last year, the Bears are not in the midst of learning an entirely new defensive scheme as they did with the 3-4.

"There's so much stuff you can do with the 3-4 and last year we were kind of limited to running plays that we were learning," Thompson said.

"Everybody had a whole season to get comfortable with it. Now we're just clicking, adding plays in there and running with it."

FB's and LB's

Aside from All-American center Alex Mack, Cal's biggest loss on offense this past season was fullback Will Ta'ufo'ou -- a starter for two seasons and the lead blocker for the 1,500-yard rushing seasons of Justin Forsett and Best in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Filling his shoes -- or more importantly, his gap -- will fall on a player with little game experience, but it's not clear yet who it will be. Senior Brian Holley and sophomores Will Kapp and John Tyndall all appear to be competing for the starting job heading into fall camp. Tedford said that Holley will take the first snaps in camp, but that he thinks Kapp "has a real strong chance to compete for that spot."

Asked why, Tedford said:

"He's really competitive, has a great feel for the game. He's really athletic. He can come out of the backfield and catch a ball really well. His athleticism has a lot to do with how he's able to insert into the gaps."

Listed at 5-foot-10 and 216 pounds, Kapp is about 20 pounds lighter than both Holley and Tyndall.

"All three of those guys are capable of doing the job," Best said. "I'm looking forward to running behind all those guys."

On the other side of the ball, junior college transfers Ryan Davis, Jerome Meadows and Jarred Price are all expected to compete for playing time at linebacker, adding to the depth that the Bears still have at the position despite losing Follett, Felder and Williams.

"First and foremost, they're athletic," Thompson said. "They haven't been coached yet by our coaches -- there's a lot of learning to be done -- but as far as right now, they have the potential to come in and try and contribute to what we're doing this year."

Tags: JAHVID BEST, SYD'QUAN THOMPSON, JEFF TEDFORD, BAY AREA MEDIA DAY, CAL FOOTBALL