Hornets football coach Steve Mooshagian got to see both a quarterback of his past and the quarterbacks of his future during Sacramento State’s 41-3 loss to No. 19-ranked California on Saturday in Berkeley.

Jeff Tedford, Mooshagian’s quarterback when the two played together in college, was on hand as Cal’s head coach. But the quarterbacks Mooshagian really wanted to see were Brad Tredway and Chris Hurd.

Mooshagian started Tredway, a junior out of Selma and last season’s backup to four-year starter Ryan Leadingham. Tredway struggled against the strong Golden Bears’ defense in the early going. In three first quarter drives, Tredway could not lead the Hornets to a single first down.

In the second quarter, Mooshagian turned to Hurd, a transfer from Texas-El Paso. Playing in his first game with Sac State, Hurd led the Hornets twice inside Cal territory and he barely missed on throws that could have resulted in the tying touchdown.

On his first drive, Hurd overthrew Philip Perry on a deep post pattern and the incompletion resulted in a punt. After the Hornets got the ball back, Hurd led them inside the Cal 10-yard line and on a key third down play he missed an open Bobby Mooshagian in the end zone. The incompletion to Mooshagian resulted in a Juan Gamboa 26-yard field goal that cut the score to 7-3 with just over two minutes left to play in the first half.

In the second half, the Hornets wore down and neither quarterback could direct the offense to points as Cal began to poor it on the smaller Sac State team. The Cal defense held the Hornets offense to only five first downs in the second half.

“We’ll have to find out what each one of them does really well,” Mooshagian said of his quarterback situation. “Some things will look one way on the field and another way when we look at the tape of the game.

“We will just go in with the same strategy in the upcoming game and if one guy gets hot we will probably stick with him for awhile.”

Hurd finished the game 9 of 17 for 82 yards playing in the second and third quarters; Tredway finished 7 of 20 for 39 yards playing one half.

“I think some of Chris’ miscues were just being rusty,” Mooshagian said. “Playing different guys hurts the timing with them and the receivers and it’s just going to take us a little time.”After playing his first game with the Hornets, Hurd came away with very high hopes for the offense this season.

“Overall we should just continue to get better as the weeks go on,” the quarterback said. “The O-Line protected very well today, the backs and receivers played well today too, I will just have to do a better job with my reads and get used to playing alongside these guys. I’ve only been in this offense for more than a week so it’s going to take a little bit of time, but I think we should be one heck of a team in the Big Sky this season.”Hornets’ defense impressesMarshawn Lynch had his moments. But in a game against a Division 1-AA opponent, Heisman Trophy candidates are expected to come away with more than just moments.

“They had a good game plan,” said Lynch, who had 147 yards and a touchdown. “They were blitzing to where we were running, we just had to make a few adjustments.”Bears’ QB injuredCal starting quarterback Nathan Longshore broke his fibula when Hornet defensive end Jacob Houston fell into him after a play.

Mitch McLaughlin can be reached at [email protected]