Patrick Laird took the handoff, bounced off a North Carolina defender, dove into the end zone and flipped the ball to an official. Then, he approached Section KK, in the southwest corner of California Memorial Stadium.
Laird looked down, put his hands together, then apart, as if to open a book. He then looked up, acknowledging the hundreds of kids he inspired to open books this summer.
College football is unscripted, but the first touchdown of Cal's season -- who would score it, where it would be scored -- had seemingly been penned to page months earlier.