Rice Bowl Preview: Cameron revels in shot at leading Fujitsu to national crown

Fujitsu Frontiers quarterback Colby Cameron can hardly contain his excitement about playing in the upcoming Rice Bowl, and for good reason.

Two years ago, when Fujitsu won their first and only national championship by beating the Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters, Cameron could only watch from the sidelines. A separated shoulder suffered midway through the Japan X Bowl victory over the IBM BigBlue forced him to sit out the Rice Bowl.

Now Cameron is back and, in a twist of fate, will get his shot at Kwansei Gakuin after all, as the Fighters will be Fujitsu’s opponent in this season’s game on Jan. 3 at Tokyo Dome.

“It’s just exciting,” says Cameron, who led Fujitsu to a 16-3 victory over the Obic Seagulls in the Japan X Bowl to cap an undefeated season. “People keep telling me, you’re the first American quarterback to ever play in the Rice Bowl, which is fun in itself.

“But it’s cool to be part of, they say this is the 70th Rice Bowl. And so for me, it’s just exciting to be part of something that has been around for so long. Obviously, I was there last time but didn’t participate, so this time it’s fun to be with my teammates.”

This season’s game marks the 34th time that the game will pit the corporate and collegiate champions against each other for national supremacy. The X-League teams have dominated for more than a decade, winning the past seven games and 11 of the last 12 games, albeit few of them have been routs. Overall, the X-League leads 21-12.

With that kind of one-sided record, it is often difficult for the X-League teams to come down from the high of winning the Japan X Bowl to face a team that, on paper at least, should be their inferior. But Cameron says his team will be primed and ready.

“I think for us, it’s just another chance to play football,” he says. “I try to tell the guys, not everyone has the chance to do this. And we’re the only two teams left in Japan to be playing football at this time. So you kind of try to put it into perspective where they’re grounded and they can focus on being happy to practice and be out here with the guys.”

Unfortunately, one person who won’t be at the game with Cameron, at least off the field, will be older brother Jordan, a tight end for the Miami Dolphins. Jordan made the trip to the Japan for the 2015 game, which the two watched together on the sidelines, but does not plan to come out this time.

Backup QB Keiya Hiramoto filled in for Cameron in 2015 and led the Frontiers to a 33-24 victory in which Kwansei Gakuin took a 24-23 lead into the fourth quarter. Fujitsu was also missing defensive end Austin Flynn due to injury.

That defeat was the last of four straight by Kwansei Gakuin, which will be making its record 11th Rice Bowl appearance. The Fighters won their lone title in 2002.

Kwansei Gakuin’s long-time head coach Hideaki Toriuchi says there are differences between the current squad and the one from two years ago—in both a positive and negative way.

“The defense is better than two years ago,” he says. “Offense, two years ago was better. But this offense has potential. Also, two years ago, I thought too much about unnecessary things. I should have just done as usual. This time, I’ll look at the video and figure out when to use the special plays.”

The Fighters defense, which did not give up more than seven points in any of seven Kansai league victories, is led by captain and linebacker Akio Yamagishi, the Chuck Mills Award recipient as the collegiate player of the year. He returned an interception nine yards for a touchdown in the 31-14 victory over Waseda University in the Koshien Bowl for the national college title.

“Their defense is really solid,” Cameron says. “They just have really good players across the board, and they play a really good scheme. They’re not doing all these complicated things, but they’re good at what they do. I think that’s kind of what good defenses are made of. They’re simple, but they have good talent.”

That defense will try have to find a way to stop Cameron and a well-balanced offense that also features bruising running backs Gino Gordon, the MVP of the 2015 Rice Bowl, and Keita Takanohashi.

But just covering Fujitsu’s talented wide receivers such as Teruaki Clark Nakamura and Junpei Yoshimoto will not be enough to neutralize Cameron, who this season has shown an increased tendency to take the ball and scramble for big gains. In the win over Obic, the former Louisiana Tech star ran for 56 yards while passing for 116 in earning the MVP award.

“His quarterback scramble is the hardest thing for the defense to stop,” Toriuchi says. “We have to come up with a something. It’s going to be difficult. We have to try to keep the game from getting one-sided and still be in it in the fourth quarter.”

In the 2015 Japan X Bowl, Cameron threw three interceptions as the Frontiers were dethroned when Panasonic Impulse rallied to a 24-21 win. This season, he had just a total of four interceptions in nine games, including two in the season-opening win over IBM.

“For me, it’s just football, and trying to just do whatever we can to win,” Cameron says. “Obviously as a quarterback, you like to throw the ball. But you just want to make plays for your team.”

Asked if his scrambles were a response to avoid interceptions by not forcing his passes, he replied: “Maybe not the thought process, I think it was more based off the defenses they gave us. We have good players and you have to cover them. And if you don’t, we’ll throw it, but if you bail out then we’ll try to have different weapons to try and move the ball. I think that’s kind of been this year’s strategy.”

One thing Fujitsu will have to contend with is a longer clock. While all X-League games have 12-minute quarters, the Rice Bowl’s will be 15 minutes in duration. That might seem to be an advantage for the collegians, who have far more time to practice and build up endurance, but Cameron points out there is another aspect to consider.

“I’m not sure, because I don’t think anyone ever ran a tempo offense against them in college,” says Cameron, referring to the no-huddle offense that Fujitsu uses. “I’ve watched films and teams don’t do it. I think that’s why for them, I think conditioning, you might be able to play 15 minutes, but you’re still only playing 40, 50 plays. I think for us, we’ll be used to it. Our practice and how we train will help us with the 15-minute quarters.”

In fact, Cameron looks forward to the extra time.

“Excited, yeah, now we have 12 more minutes to score,” he says. “We’re playing like basically a whole other overtime. But I think everyone is excited to play more football. Twelve minutes or 15 minutes, we’re always going to try to put as many points on the board as we can.”

Fujitsu’s formidable defense, which held Obic to just 175 yards and forced two turnovers in the Japan X Bowl, will have to contend with senior quarterback Mitsuhiro Izu, the Koshien Bowl MVP who is in his second year as the starter. The running game depends mainly on powerful 2014 Koshien Bowl MVP Seiji  Hashimoto and speedy Ryosuke Nonogaki.

And rest assured, Toriuchi will have trick plays to pull out of his sleeve, which has become a traditional part of the collegians’ reportoire in the Rice Bowl.

“Offensively, I watched a little [film], and it’s fun to watch—just like a video game or something,” Cameron says. “There’s trick plays everywhere. I think they like to enjoy the Rice Bowl just as much as everyone else, you can see by how they play.”

And this year, healthy and ready to go, he’ll get to be in on the fun as well.

—Ken Marantz for the X-League