http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2013/3/26/4144052/spring-practice-recap

In case you're interested, this one takes a look at what we (or more accurately, me) saw out of the RBs, OL, and LBs. Part II coming Thursday.

Another well-written, humorous summary, with just enough speculation to carry impatient people through the next few months. Great job.

Sorry for broken link, sent this from my phone y'all

BlueAndGold;842105864 said:

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http://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/2013/3/26/4144052/spring-practice-recap

In case you're interested, this one takes a look at what we (or more accurately, me) saw out of the RBs, OL, and LBs. Part II coming Thursday.

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But most accurately, "I"

Nice. Thanks.

Great writeup, thanks.

Sounds like our biggest issue is the OL. Glad to hear Cochran doing well. Hopefully a few guys develop over the next few months.

grandmastapoop;842105872 said:

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But most accurately, "I"

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:headbang :p

The oline will predict our success, as they do every year. They looked absolutely awful in the spring game, like even worse than last year and the year before. You can't win football games with a bad oline no matter what kind of offensive system you run. The talent at QB is much better than we have had in a while, but they were all running for their lives every play so it is tough to try to figure out who is best. At least they are all very athletic. I hate to say it but I think our record will be about the same as last year or maybe slightly better, but we should see some good improvement by the end of the season. Hopefully the big dogs click during the season and give us some hope.

Seems like the previous regime forgot to recruit lineman the last few years. That is my layman's opinion...

TiredBear;842106113 said:

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Seems like the previous regime forgot to recruit lineman the last few years. That is my layman's opinion...

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That's not entirely true. Heck, both Cochran and Tagaloa ARE from the previous regime.

TiredBear;842106113 said:

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Seems like the previous regime forgot to recruit lineman the last few years. That is my layman's opinion...

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here's who we got and when

2009
OT 30 Charles Siddoway 6-6/305/5.30
OT 65 Charles Ragland 6-8/285/5.10
OG 32 Brian Schwenke 6-3/255/4.85
C 2 Mark Brazinski 6-4/290/5.20
2010
OT 20 Alex Crosthwaite 6-5/303/5.20
OT 87 Geoffrey Gibson 6-4.5/315
C 18 Chris Adcock 6-3/282/4.92
2011
OT JC Matt Williams 6-7/290/5.00
OG 12 Jordan Rigsbee 6-5/285
2012
OT 34 Christian Okafor 6-6/300
OT 39 Freddie Tagaloa 6-8/300
OT 54 Steven Moore 6-7/265
C 7 Matt Cochran 6-4/340

I stand shamefully corrected. I appologize for my utter ignorance. So, what went wrong?

TiredBear ... you were spot-on ... how much experience is there among the ones remaining?
Sidoway and Ragland, did they ever play at all?
Schwenke is gone, after playing Center

Brazinski, not doing too well
Crosthwaite, no real experience but might start
Gibson, no real experience but competing
Adcock, injured a lot
Williams, spot-player, competing
Rigsbee, started but inconsistent performance
Okafur, off blueshirt
Tagaloa, spot-player as FR
Moore, off blueshirt
Cochran, off blueshirt

in other words, for most, this is the first real chance to play and experience level is low to non-existent.

^ Thank you. That means a lot to me personally. As far as the previous regime goes, I feel that far too often they simply failed to develop talent, and that includes Gould. Too much emphasis put on playing the yes men and favorites. It disgusted me, to the point that I became violently ill. Sonny better hold true to PLAYING the best players! Not sitting them (because thy didn't kiss as*) until they graduate or transfer. I got off work early and felt like venting my years of pent up anger towards the previous regime. I am sorry if I am upsetting anyone. Unlike the previous regime, I care and appreciate the fans feelings.

Go Bears!

I agree with please let the best play. No assumptions. No preconceived. Pick the best guys and put 'em in. Period. Hard for us to say we're good when the best we have are languishing on the sidelines, if true.

TiredBear;842106142 said:

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^ Thank you. That means a lot to me personally. As far as the previous regime goes, I feel that far too often they simply failed to develop talent, and that includes Gould. Too much emphasis put on playing the yes men and favorites. It disgusted me, to the point that I became violently ill. Sonny better hold true to PLAYING the best players! Not sitting them (because thy didn't kiss as*) until they graduate or transfer. I got off work early and felt like venting my years of pent up anger towards the previous regime. I am sorry if I am upsetting anyone. Unlike the previous regime, I care and appreciate the fans feelings.

Go Bears!

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You really got violently ill?

grandmastapoop;842106306 said:

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You really got violently ill?

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Yes, I did. It was awful.

grandmastapoop;842106306 said:

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You really got violently ill?

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Dude ... you have to admit that there were quite a few games the past few years that any Cal Alum paying attention should have gotten violently ill. Glad that TiredBear took one for the team, so to speak...

txwharfrat;842106326 said:

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Dude ... you have to admit that there were quite a few games the past few years that any Cal Alum paying attention should have gotten violently ill. Glad that TiredBear took one for the team, so to speak...

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For us on the East Coast, games are on internet or TV at times ranging from late to very late. At Mem, I always stayed through the end of every game, if just to hear the post-game concert ... but, losing sleep to watch most games last season into the wee hours ... hell no ... shook my head, muttered a few crude curses at the HC and shut down ...

For those who were in the stands until the end of every game ... congrats (and I suspect most who stayed worked around pig farms at some point, so they were used to ugly odors).

Ah, new day, fresh air, Sonny and warm ... looking forward to fall practice.

:gobears:

SonOfCalVa;842106118 said:

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here's who we got and when

2009
OT 30 Charles Siddoway 6-6/305/5.30
OT 65 Charles Ragland 6-8/285/5.10
OG 32 Brian Schwenke 6-3/255/4.85
C 2 Mark Brazinski 6-4/290/5.20
2010
OT 20 Alex Crosthwaite 6-5/303/5.20
OT 87 Geoffrey Gibson 6-4.5/315
C 18 Chris Adcock 6-3/282/4.92
2011
OT JC Matt Williams 6-7/290/5.00
OG 12 Jordan Rigsbee 6-5/285
2012
OT 34 Christian Okafor 6-6/300
OT 39 Freddie Tagaloa 6-8/300
OT 54 Steven Moore 6-7/265
C 7 Matt Cochran 6-4/340

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Getting 3 offensive linemen in a year and following it up the next year with 2???????
That is a really poor job on that staff's part!!! Then factor in how hard it is to predict offensive line success from high school to college, and injuries.....:headbang

SonOfCalVa;842106118 said:

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here's who we got and when

2009
OT 30 Charles Siddoway 6-6/305/5.30
OT 65 Charles Ragland 6-8/285/5.10
OG 32 Brian Schwenke 6-3/255/4.85
C 2 Mark Brazinski 6-4/290/5.20
2010
OT 20 Alex Crosthwaite 6-5/303/5.20
OT 87 Geoffrey Gibson 6-4.5/315
C 18 Chris Adcock 6-3/282/4.92
2011
OT JC Matt Williams 6-7/290/5.00
OG 12 Jordan Rigsbee 6-5/285
2012
OT 34 Christian Okafor 6-6/300
OT 39 Freddie Tagaloa 6-8/300
OT 54 Steven Moore 6-7/265
C 7 Matt Cochran 6-4/340

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I think it is even worse if you include 2008:
OT 21 Tyler Rigsbee 6-5/260
C 12 Dominic Galas 6-2/275
C NR Matt Rios 6-1/220
OT JC Donovan Edwards 6-4/270

Again, every year we had a few top prospects, but the issue is numbers. 5 starting OL are 20-25% of your starting team and should be at least 20-25% of your recruits (they are needed for special teams too). OL is tough to project. They are often injured. That means 5 per year, not 4 and certainly not 3 or 2!

TiredBear;842106113 said:

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Seems like the previous regime forgot to recruit lineman the last few years. That is my layman's opinion...

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There were also 2 predispositions about recruiting (and coaching) OL, shared, I might add, by a good many other HCs:

1. It only takes 1 or 2 Alex Macks to lead the coaches to believe that any ol' OL recruit can be coached and built up into a super star OL. We even had a couple of walk-ons who ended up starting and playing well. So, why put so many of your recruiting resources into trying for the highest rated ones?

2. The skill players are the ones that make the difference, anyway. Who would you rather have, Anthony Munoz or Desean Jackson?

You might get away with this strategy for one year, but let it lull you into a false sense of security and before you know it, you've strung 2 or 3 years of weak OL classes together.

That's the way the last few years (before this) looked to me.

calumnus;842106404 said:

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I think it is even worse if you include 2008:
OT 21 Tyler Rigsbee 6-5/260
C 12 Dominic Galas 6-2/275
C NR Matt Rios 6-1/220
OT JC Donovan Edwards 6-4/270

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Rios was a long snapper.

Rushinbear;842106412 said:

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There were also 2 predispositions about recruiting (and coaching) OL, shared, I might add, by a good many other HCs:

1. It only takes 1 or 2 Alex Macks to lead the coaches to believe that any ol' OL recruit can be coached and built up into a super star OL. We even had a couple of walk-ons who ended up starting and playing well. So, why put so many of your recruiting resources into trying for the highest rated ones?

2. The skill players are the ones that make the difference, anyway. Who would you rather have, Anthony Munoz or Desean Jackson?

You might get away with this strategy for one year, but let it lull you into a false sense of security and before you know it, you've strung 2 or 3 years of weak OL classes together.

That's the way the last few years (before this) looked to me.

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Even worse. It takes only one Aaron Rodgers for a coach to believe he can turn a Zack Maynard into a star QB.

GivemTheAxe;842106465 said:

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Even worse. It takes only one Aaron Rodgers for a coach to believe he can turn a Zack Maynard into a star QB.

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not made.

:tedford

The reasoning on the "2 year" was that the following year had more higher rated O-Linemen so Cal was kind of saving the numbers for that; I'm paraphrasing Moraga's post recruiting comments there, but okay, we are still talking about 5 over 2 years, and that's an issue no doubt. Maybe 2010 was a big miss, maybe that should have been at least 4?

But the key on the "2 year" is that Williams not only didn't contribute right away (which is really the key for JC transfers) he didn't contribute much after a blueshirt year. And he was most likely recruited because of the other big problem in this scenario-losing Siddoway AND Ragland. Think about that for a second: they would potentially be 5th year seniors this year.

When does summer camp and fall practice start? Are coaches involved in summer camp?

CalGaoTe;842106834 said:

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When does summer camp and fall practice start? Are coaches involved in summer camp?

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I don't think there are dates established yet. I am sure the team will get a firm schedule when they get back from Spring Break this weekend. Summer workouts generally align with the summer school schedule - sometime after Memorial Day. Given the first game is the 31st of August, I would expect practice to start the week of the 5th of August.