Cal Football: Ex-Golden Bears Ray Davison, Steve Williams Set for XFL 2020 Reboot

The XFL makes its return this weekend, and two former Cal players are part of the eight-team spring football league.

Cornerback Steve Williams, who played for the Bears from 2010 through ’12, will suit up for the Seattle Dragons for their opener against the DC Defenders on Saturday at 11 a.m. The game will be aired on ABC.

Linebacker Raymond “Ray Ray” Davison, who spent four years with the Bears through the 2017 season, plays for the Dallas Renegades, who debut Sunday at home against the St. Louis Battlehawks. The game kicks off at 2 p.m.on ESPN.

Unlike the ill-fated Alliance of American Football, which collapsed almost immediately last year due to financial and leadership instability, the XFL hopes TV and an experienced management group gives it the potential to stick around.

The AAF was viewed as something of an NFL developmental league. The XFL is standing on its own. The league’s owner is WWE mogul Vince McMahon and the commissioner is Oliver Luck, the father of Andrew Luck and former president of NFL Europe.

Athlon Sports is projecting the Dallas Renegades to be the XFL’s best team, although that may be mostly due to the franchise hiring former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops as its coach/general manager. Stoops won a national title with the Sooners in 2000 and has hired Hal Mumme, one of the originators of the spread offense, as his offensive coordinator.

Davison, 24, played outside linebacker for Cal, accumulating 174 tackles and two interceptions during his four seasons. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Kansas City Chiefs in May of 2017 but never played in the NFL

Athlon has less confidence in the Seattle team Williams will represent, picking the Dragons as the XFL’s worst team. Some of that is based on the concern that Seattle doesn’t have a quarterback anywhere near as good as former Seahawks star Jim Zorn, the team’s coach and GM. And that’s a problem, after all, because Zorn is 66.

Williams, 28, totaled 151 tackles and six interceptions in three seasons at Cal, earning honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors as a junior in 2012 before departing for the pros. The Chargers drafted him in the fifth round the following spring, and Williams played 32 games for the franchise into the 2016 season.

The original XFL opened its doors in 2001 and last just one season. The league was jointly run by the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE) and NBC. Strong early TV ratings plummeted and NBC pulled out after the first season, dooming the league.

The new XFL is similar in that the league owns all eight teams. But McMahon has pledged to field a product that does not lean on wrestling-inspired promotion, and instead offers fans a fast-paced football game.

The 10-week regular-season schedule runs through Sunday, April 12. The top two teams each from the West and East Divisions will then face off, with the division winners meeting in the championship game on Sunday, April 26.

The West will include Dallas, Seattle, the Houston Roughnecks and Los Angeles Wildcats. East division teams include the DC Defenders, New York Guardians, St. Louis Battlehawks and Tampa Bay Vipers.

There are a handful of significant rule differences from the traditional college or NFL game. Here are the main differences:

— Kickoffs: The kicker delivers the ball from his own 30, with the rest of his coverage team lining up at the receiving team’s 35-yard line, just 5 yards from the receiving team at its own 30. The intention is to open up the kick return game and minimize big hits because players don’t have the same running start at each other.

— Extra points: There will be no PAT kicks. Teams will line up at the 2, 5 or 10 — their choice — and are rewarded with 1, 2 or 3 points, respectively, for successful conversions.

— Punting: Any punt that goes out of bounds inside the 35-yard line will be placed a the 35.

— Pass reception: Receivers need only get one foot inbounds for a successful catch, the same as in the college game. In the NFL, both feet must come down inbounds.

— Double forward pass: Illegal in all other American football, double forward passes will be allowed in the XFL, as long as both passes originate behind the line of scrimmage.

— Overtime: In the case of a tie, each team will get five rounds of trying to score 2 points from opponent’s 5-yard line. If the score is still tied after five rounds, they will continue the process in a sudden-death format.