SonOfCalVa;842299477 said:

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Watched the videos ... nice emphasis on tackling technique and practice.
The new D coaches are moving in, not caring about who did what last season, still learning the players' names but working on moving what they've been told in meetings onto the field.
Interesting that Piatt, WR last year, now S, was called out for his play. Good to see players are being put into a position to get on the field.

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Why should we worry about tackling technique? All we need is to move fast in between plays.

Bobodeluxe;842299469 said:

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There was much less emphasis on speed of play, more concentration on coaching up very young players who will have to contribute.

Shocking how little talent there is in the upper classes.

The o line looks more mature, but not very athletic. Silk purse? No.

:gobears:

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Good technique is very important but speed of play, at least on offense, is what Sonny and Tony hang their hats on. If they are backing off on this in year 2 (and it's not clear yet if they are) I'm worried. It would be like Tedford backing off on the balanced, pro style offense and installing the spread. Uh....never mind.

NJCalFan;842299465 said:

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I guess the rain in practice is a good thing as it is a nice experience for Goff to have to play through. I cannot erase the images of his fumbles in Oregon. Whenever someone hits the hype button on Goff, I get immediately nauseous as those fumble-throws (is there a term for that?) come vividly back.

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jared has moved on from it ... gloves were on and was putting the ball where the wr could get it in "drills"

BoaltBear;842299480 said:

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After the ridiculously positive reports out of Spring ball last year, I'm adopting an X-Files approach to this Spring's reports: Trust No One.

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My 1-11 prediction was pretty close to the mark. Only clueless clown shoes were expecting a bowl with Tedford's " loaded" classes, well, because Cal.

Remember all the hype on BI leading up to the game at Tennessee?

:rollinglaugh:

^ thank you for reminding us about how awesome you are

please continue to grace us w/ your presence.

82gradDLSdad;842299502 said:

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Good technique is very important but speed of play, at least on offense, is what Sonny and Tony hang their hats on. If they are backing off on this in year 2 (and it's not clear yet if they are) I'm worried. It would be like Tedford backing off on the balanced, pro style offense and installing the spread. Uh....never mind.

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Not backing off, just emphasizing better patterns, form. Six inches of separation didn't give goff much of a window last year.

As I mentioned, also, the coaches did insist on very quick unit changes.

:bluecarrot:

Davidson;842299525 said:

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^ thank you for reminding us about how awesome you are

please continue to grace us w/ your presence.

---

Enjoy you size 18's.

:rollinglaugh:

In serious mode, I was very disappointed in last year's performance. I expected losses because the horses weren't there, but I did expect more effort team wide. There is a deep talent and attitude hole in Strawberry Canyon. I hope this coaching crew can repair some of the dysfunction that is Cal Football.

heartofthebear;842299463 said:

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Thanks for the soggy report.
Care to elaborate on "different energy"? Is that a good thing? I remember reports last spring were very posititve as well.
Any particular individuals besides BT that stood out? I know it's just the first practice so I doubt much happened to open eyes.

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Trevor Davis and Lawler were mentioned on Twitter quite a bit. The emergence of those two and the relative weakness of the inside receivers is probably why Treggs is moving inside.

JerseyBear;842299373 said:

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Dodgers will rule for the foreseeable future.

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Yeah, for overspending.

Secret Agent Ned, do your stuff!

Saturday when the pads are on we will have a better sense of who wants it...

there was confusion in who was who due to jersey numbers being off

J hunter : while watching tate with the DL ( big young man getting body type reminds me of young sapp ) and just happends kaufman runs that miami jimiy johnson 4-3 defense expect more blitzing
trevor davis is ready to be another number 1 wr how many do we have harp trigga davis now plus lawler
at first look on defense i saw an active #number3 (thinking to myself who got kams number ) cameron the other kam lol .. funny how they play similar imo

Darious allensworth lights on and ready

seems lil bit of more of cohesion on def staff

jeffery copaich (sp) running well ( getting little to get through the hole)pad level was good ball high and tight

100% healthy lasco will be hard to bring down


i like the new coaches style attitude ... the way they explained certain drills to them not in a demonizing manner but a simple lets go to work

this part i could be wrong but it seemed like defense is working preparing for the no huddles offense ... starters hear a whistle/word and the subs are on field immediately more or less work the confusion out now truly play fast on both sides of the ball

now if the OL jells and gets some injury luck ( not the C out rest of season type stuff thus allow a few running lanes and little bit of extra time for goff somebody will be open )

SonOfCalVa;842299477 said:

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Watched the videos ... nice emphasis on tackling technique and practice.
The new D coaches are moving in, not caring about who did what last season, still learning the players' names but working on moving what they've been told in meetings onto the field.
Interesting that Piatt, WR last year, now S, was called out for his play. Good to see players are being put into a position to get on the field.

---

different energy like " ok its time to show what we got" (player,coaches)
piatt is 6'3 wow did not know

BoaltBear;842299480 said:

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After the ridiculously positive reports out of Spring ball last year, I'm adopting an X-Files approach to this Spring's reports: Trust No One.

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well i did not report much of anything last year ( nam had it covered)
but last spring and fall i was like " we will see " i feel about good depth

dajo9;842299493 said:

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Why should we worry about tackling technique? All we need is to move fast in between plays.

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ha ha

heartofthebear;842299463 said:

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Thanks for the soggy report.
Care to elaborate on "different energy"? Is that a good thing? I remember reports last spring were very posititve as well.
Any particular individuals besides BT that stood out? I know it's just the first practice so I doubt much happened to open eyes.

---

different as in " play to potential " last year they played like scubs lost and and not having any funny

SonOfCalVa;842299467 said:

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In Oso, WA, the river flowed backwards ... time to say buh bye.

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So does the Chicago river.

concernedparent;842299543 said:

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Trevor Davis and Lawler were mentioned on Twitter quite a bit. The emergence of those two and the relative weakness of the inside receivers is probably why Treggs is moving inside.

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I thought we had ended up moving Harper inside? Isn't Treggs one of if not our faster WRs? I would think we'd want him outside to stretch the field. I know his route running is crisp though so he'll be a threat anywhere.

Think Sonny said they should have moved treggs inside instead of harper.

Harper is a better deep threat and treggs seems better suited inside, imo

grandmastapoop;842299457 said:

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If someone called me a Dodger fan, I'd be suing them for defamation.

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Along with your other frivolous lawsuits? I kid my man!!!

FiatSlug;842299554 said:

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Yeah, for overspending.

Secret Agent Ned, do your stuff!

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Don't care -- it's not my money. When Giants spend money on Zito and Lincecum, it's fine. When the Dodgers do it, it's overspending. It's all relative gents.

BoaltBear;842299480 said:

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After the ridiculously positive reports out of Spring ball last year, I'm adopting an X-Files approach to this Spring's reports: Trust No One.

---

I went to all the practices last Spring, wrote about them here quite a bit, and while I tried to be upbeat and optimistic, I don't remember things being so positive.

Major issues discussed:
1. Injuries, much of the defense, but especially: Bigelow (who we thought would be the focus of our offense) and Lasco were not participating. The other RBs looked small/slow.
2. The OL was not able to protect.
3. The DBs were inexperienced, looked very suspect, were getting beat repeatedly and yelled at quite a bit.
4. Board favorites at QB were not winning the QB competition. Kline was not making good/quick decisions or completing short passes and Bridgford looked horrible, worse than the walk-ons. There was the possibility a skinny true freshman, that everyone wanted to redshirt, would win the competition and start at QB which most on this board dreaded.

concernedparent;842299543 said:

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Trevor Davis and Lawler were mentioned on Twitter quite a bit. The emergence of those two and the relative weakness of the inside receivers is probably why Treggs is moving inside.

---

Honestly, I think this is some of the best news about our offense going forward. People bag on the run game, but our downfield passing game was really, truly awful last year, and the lack of a run only had a little bit to do with it. After all, Mike Leach doesn't even run the ball but he scores points with this offense.

I really wanted to see Treggs inside. I'm going to talk about this more in a post soon, but our offense has four WR positions. X is the left outside receiver, H is the left inside receiver, Y is the right inside receiver, and Z is the right outside receiver. I don't like to pigeon-hole guys based on their physical stats since there are guys of all body-types that find ways to be successful doing all sorts of things, but since it obviously didn't work last year lets just look at the most successful Air Raid receivers and their positions.

Outside: Michael Crabtree 6'3" 222 lbs., Dez Bryant 6'2" 215 lbs., Justin Blackmon 6'1 207 lbs, Stedman Bailey 5'10" 193 lbs.

Inside: Danny Amendola 5'11" 181 lbs., Tavon Austin 5'9" 174 lbs., Wes Welker 5'9" 185 lbs.

The main wrinkle on these tendencies is that if you have a true TE type, he can play Y. These are guys like Rob Gronkowskie and Jace Amaro. We went for that type last year playing Rodgers at Y.

Our line-up was:
X: Treggs
H: Just about everyone, but most notably Bouza, Powe, and Bigelow
Y: Rodgers
Z: Harper

Last year it was obvious that Treggs, Harper, and Rodgers were our best receivers, so they had to be on the field. Rodgers was physically a proto-typical TE-style Y, so we were left with two great inside receiver types (especially Treggs, Harper's a tweener) to fill the X, H, and Z spots. We messed around with personnel at those three spots a considerable amount. In the second quarter of the season we moved Harper to H. That was the only time H was a productive position for us, but of course then Z's productivity fell off. To remedy that we moved Harper back to Z and put Bigelow at H to try and get that speed there, but he wasn't up to it. The best thing for our offense might be to have a tall, physical, reasonably fast Z (Lawler? Davis?), Harper at X, Treggs at H, and then whoever our next best is at Y, whether he's a TE-type or more of a traditional inside guy. All I know is that the lack of physicality at X and Z killed us in a lot of games last year, and it goes far beyond blocking.

DLSbear;842299555 said:

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Saturday when the pads are on we will have a better sense of who wants it...

---

Yes, but expect limited hitting. The numbers are not there.

:nono:

berk18;842299604 said:

---

Honestly, I think this is some of the best news about our offense going forward. People bag on the run game, but our downfield passing game was really, truly awful last year, and the lack of a run only had a little bit to do with it. After all, Mike Leach doesn't even run the ball but he scores points with this offense.

I really wanted to see Treggs inside. I'm going to talk about this more in a post soon, but our offense has four WR positions. X is the left outside receiver, H is the left inside receiver, Y is the right inside receiver, and Z is the right outside receiver. I don't like to pigeon-hole guys based on their physical stats since there are guys of all body-types that find ways to be successful doing all sorts of things, but since it obviously didn't work last year lets just look at the most successful Air Raid receivers and their positions.

Outside: Michael Crabtree 6'3" 222 lbs., Dez Bryant 6'2" 215 lbs., Justin Blackmon 6'1 207 lbs, Stedman Bailey 5'10" 193 lbs.

Inside: Danny Amendola 5'11" 181 lbs., Tavon Austin 5'9" 174 lbs., Wes Welker 5'9" 185 lbs.

The main wrinkle on these tendencies is that if you have a true TE type, he can play Y. These are guys like Rob Gronkowskie and Jace Amaro. We went for that type last year playing Rodgers at Y.

Last year it was obvious that Treggs, Harper, and Rodgers were our best receivers, so they had to be on the field. Rodgers was physically a proto-typical TE-style Y, so we were left with two great inside receiver types (Harper and Treggs) to fill the X, H, and Z spots. We messed around with personnel at those three spots a considerable amount. In the second quarter of the season we moved Harper to H. That was the only time H was a productive position for us, but of course then Z's productivity fell off. To remedy that we moved Harper back to Z and put Bigelow at H to try and get that speed there, but he wasn't up to it. The best thing for our offense would be to have a big, physical receiver at Z, Harper at X, Treggs at H, and then whoever our next best is at Y, whether he's a TE-type or a slot-receiver type.

---

The very best thing would be decent offensive line play. Otherwise, pretty much.

calumnus;842299603 said:

---

I went to all the practices last Spring, wrote about them here quite a bit, and while I tried to be upbeat and optimistic, I don't remember things being so positive.

Major issues discussed:
1. Injuries, much of the defense, but especially: Bigelow (who we thought would be the focus of our offense) and Lasco were not participating. The other RBs looked small/slow.
2. The OL was not able to protect.
3. The DBs were inexperienced, looked very suspect, were getting beat repeatedly and yelled at quite a bit.
4. Board favorites at QB were not winning the QB competition. Kline was not making good/quick decisions or completing short passes and Bridgford looked horrible, worse than the walk-ons. There was the possibility a skinny true freshman, that everyone wanted to redshirt, would win the competition and start at QB which most on this board dreaded.

---

Good summary. Recall that LB went quickly from a strength to a weakness to the point there couldn't be a "spring game" as there weren't enough LBs and they had to be kept healthy.

Bobodeluxe;842299519 said:

---

My 1-11 prediction was pretty close to the mark. Only clueless clown shoes were expecting a bowl with Tedford's " loaded" classes, well, because Cal.

Remember all the hype on BI leading up to the game at Tennessee?

:rollinglaugh:

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Believe the hype - that team finished 10-3 and pounded a current SEC team in a bowl game

Bobodeluxe;842299607 said:

---

The very best thing would be decent offensive line play. Otherwise, pretty much.

---

That'd be a big plus, but the WR issues and the OL issues feed each other a lot. We gave up 2.75 sacks a game but were #5 in the country in passes attempted. The 2.75 a game are the memorable plays, especially because they usually come on important 3rd downs, but we threw a lot of incomplete passes on 1st and 2nd down when there wasn't much pressure. We also got sacked on plays where our WR's were getting ridden out of bounds or beat up so much at the LOS that they couldn't get the right route distribution. Oregon and UCLA are the best examples from early in the season. We played against dominant front-sevens in Ohio State and USC, but the offense looked better against them than it did against others. We could play against teams that played off-coverage while we struggled with teams that pressed. That factored into our success much more than the talent of their DL vs. the talent of our OL.

berk18;842299604 said:

---

Honestly, I think this is some of the best news about our offense going forward. People bag on the run game, but our downfield passing game was really, truly awful last year, and the lack of a run only had a little bit to do with it. After all, Mike Leach doesn't even run the ball but he scores points with this offense.

I really wanted to see Treggs inside. I'm going to talk about this more in a post soon, but our offense has four WR positions. X is the left outside receiver, H is the left inside receiver, Y is the right inside receiver, and Z is the right outside receiver. I don't like to pigeon-hole guys based on their physical stats since there are guys of all body-types that find ways to be successful doing all sorts of things, but since it obviously didn't work last year lets just look at the most successful Air Raid receivers and their positions.

Outside: Michael Crabtree 6'3" 222 lbs., Dez Bryant 6'2" 215 lbs., Justin Blackmon 6'1 207 lbs, Stedman Bailey 5'10" 193 lbs.

Inside: Danny Amendola 5'11" 181 lbs., Tavon Austin 5'9" 174 lbs., Wes Welker 5'9" 185 lbs.

The main wrinkle on these tendencies is that if you have a true TE type, he can play Y. These are guys like Rob Gronkowskie and Jace Amaro. We went for that type last year playing Rodgers at Y.

Our line-up was:
X: Treggs
H: Just about everyone, but most notably Bouza, Powe, and Bigelow
Y: Rodgers
Z: Harper

Last year it was obvious that Treggs, Harper, and Rodgers were our best receivers, so they had to be on the field. Rodgers was physically a proto-typical TE-style Y, so we were left with two great inside receiver types (especially Treggs, Harper's a tweener) to fill the X, H, and Z spots. We messed around with personnel at those three spots a considerable amount. In the second quarter of the season we moved Harper to H. That was the only time H was a productive position for us, but of course then Z's productivity fell off. To remedy that we moved Harper back to Z and put Bigelow at H to try and get that speed there, but he wasn't up to it. The best thing for our offense might be to have a tall, physical, reasonably fast Z (Lawler? Davis?), Harper at X, Treggs at H, and then whoever our next best is at Y, whether he's a TE-type or more of a traditional inside guy. All I know is that the lack of physicality at X and Z killed us in a lot of games last year, and it goes far beyond blocking.

---

I'm expecting to see Austin and Hudson competing for the Y. Both have the size and the hands. Austin was tough over the middle: catching everything, taking hits, bouncing off.

I'm most intrigued by Trevor Davis. This guy going going to be the guy at Hawaii after an injury derailed a season...and then he transferred to us.

All last year, we heard about how good he was...

...now so far this year, we're hearing the same.

This is a pretty loaded WR corps man

SonOfCalVa;842299627 said:

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I'm expecting to see Austin and Hudson competing for the Y. Both have the size and the hands. Austin was tough over the middle: catching everything, taking hits, bouncing off.

---

Nice, I hadn't thought much about Austin, but a big, quick Y opens up a lot of things that were missing last year. Were you able to catch practice, or are you thinking about his HS highlights? Is there any chance he could be a Z, too?

Namster reported that Vachel Samuels is back on the team, and got a pick off Hinder. That is a great development esp. for corner depth.

WR crazy loaded. OL needs to give Goff time and open some creases so running game is just good enough to keep D honest

berk18;842299637 said:

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Nice, I hadn't thought much about Austin, but a big, quick Y opens up a lot of things that were missing last year. Were you able to catch practice, or are you thinking about his HS highlights? Is there any chance he could be a Z, too?

---

Actually, post-season videos, playing against decent competition.
He ran nice routes, getting open or making his own openings.
Very soft hands even when going up for balls and getting hit.
He was listed at around 6'3, 205 but after a year of S&C, is probably a bit to much bigger. I hope he learned a lot during his blue-shirt year.

Hudson isn't much smaller than Rodgers and he has probably gained weight and strength instead of going on a crash diet as Rodgers had to.
Losing Wark to baseball won't hurt.

berk18;842299604 said:

---

Honestly, I think this is some of the best news about our offense going forward. People bag on the run game, but our downfield passing game was really, truly awful last year, and the lack of a run only had a little bit to do with it. After all, Mike Leach doesn't even run the ball but he scores points with this offense.

I really wanted to see Treggs inside. I'm going to talk about this more in a post soon, but our offense has four WR positions. X is the left outside receiver, H is the left inside receiver, Y is the right inside receiver, and Z is the right outside receiver. I don't like to pigeon-hole guys based on their physical stats since there are guys of all body-types that find ways to be successful doing all sorts of things, but since it obviously didn't work last year lets just look at the most successful Air Raid receivers and their positions.

Outside: Michael Crabtree 6'3" 222 lbs., Dez Bryant 6'2" 215 lbs., Justin Blackmon 6'1 207 lbs, Stedman Bailey 5'10" 193 lbs.

Inside: Danny Amendola 5'11" 181 lbs., Tavon Austin 5'9" 174 lbs., Wes Welker 5'9" 185 lbs.

The main wrinkle on these tendencies is that if you have a true TE type, he can play Y. These are guys like Rob Gronkowskie and Jace Amaro. We went for that type last year playing Rodgers at Y.

Our line-up was:
X: Treggs
H: Just about everyone, but most notably Bouza, Powe, and Bigelow
Y: Rodgers
Z: Harper

Last year it was obvious that Treggs, Harper, and Rodgers were our best receivers, so they had to be on the field. Rodgers was physically a proto-typical TE-style Y, so we were left with two great inside receiver types (especially Treggs, Harper's a tweener) to fill the X, H, and Z spots. We messed around with personnel at those three spots a considerable amount. In the second quarter of the season we moved Harper to H. That was the only time H was a productive position for us, but of course then Z's productivity fell off. To remedy that we moved Harper back to Z and put Bigelow at H to try and get that speed there, but he wasn't up to it. The best thing for our offense might be to have a tall, physical, reasonably fast Z (Lawler? Davis?), Harper at X, Treggs at H, and then whoever our next best is at Y, whether he's a TE-type or more of a traditional inside guy. All I know is that the lack of physicality at X and Z killed us in a lot of games last year, and it goes far beyond blocking.

---

The downfield passing was pretty good the first 3 or 4 games. It was not until people realized they only needed a 3 or 4 man rush to get pressure or to stop our run game completely that we stopped taking so many shots downfield... and when we did Goff overthrew almost all of them (shades of the Northwestern pick maybe).

What makes Harper a tweener and Treggs a straight inside receiver? To me, Harper looks like a YAC guy you run screens or quick hits with. Treggs has more speed and theoretically could be lined up everywhere ala Brandin Cooks.

Hope it is not booth............

CB's Isaac Lapite and Adrian Lee - both Seniors - are off the squad for Spring Ball.

Still clearing out the deadwood?

concernedparent;842299677 said:

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The downfield passing was pretty good the first 3 or 4 games. It was not until people realized they only needed a 3 or 4 man rush to get pressure or to stop our run game completely that we stopped taking so many shots downfield... and when we did Goff overthrew almost all of them (shades of the Northwestern pick maybe).

What makes Harper a tweener and Treggs a straight inside receiver? To me, Harper looks like a YAC guy you run screens or quick hits with. Treggs has more speed and theoretically could be lined up everywhere ala Brandin Cooks.

---

Sorry, my definitions are probably a little different. By downfield passing I'm specifically referring to plays with a deeper drop, where the concept being worked is 10+ yards downfield. These are plays like Y-Cross, 4-verts, and a hodge-podge of other things we run. Our completion percentage on these plays was abysmal, even early. We caught Northwestern on two post-wheel combo's but didn't do much otherwise. Our down-field completions against Ohio State came on fluke plays or off of tipped INT's. We do have some deep routes built into quick game concepts, and some of our success early on came throwing those routes. The pick against Northwestern actually came on Y-stick, where the go-route is usually just supposed to be a clear-out route. By my count we had 17 10+ yard gains against NU. Seven of those were on downfield passes, and only four went for 20+ yards. That was our high-water mark.

Tweener might be the wrong word for Harper since people mean it negatively a lot. I think Harper's our best pure football player and can do what needs to be done at both positions. Part of what I'm thinking with Treggs is that we like to use him in ways that require him to be off the line (those shovel passes against USC come to mind), and I think he's better in mis-matches on safeties and LB's than he is one-on-one with strong, physical CB's. I do think he's shifty and his speed makes him a huge asset in the screen game, but he really can't block for the bubble to H, effectively removing that from our play-book. If we had a more physical X and moved Treggs inside, the X could block for Treggs on bubble screens, and the new X would have a better shot at breaking tackles on those quick screens we like to run to X and Z.

At the end of the day, there's a reason that Harper had a higher YPC and more TD's than Treggs.

concernedparent;842299677 said:

---

Treggs has more speed and theoretically could be lined up everywhere ala Brandin Cooks.

---

Also, in our offense X and Z are usually split ends (on the line of scrimmage), so they'll usually have to stay on their side of formation (unless we go unbalanced). H and Y are the guys that really get moved around to create mismatches.

berk18;842299708 said:

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Sorry, my definitions are probably a little different. By downfield passing I'm specifically referring to plays with a deeper drop, where the concept being worked is 10+ yards downfield. These are plays like Y-Cross, 4-verts, and a hodge-podge of other things we run. Our completion percentage on these plays was abysmal, even early. We caught Northwestern on two post-wheel combo's but didn't do much otherwise. Our down-field completions against Ohio State came on fluke plays or off of tipped INT's. We do have some deep routes built into quick game concepts, and some of our success early on came throwing those routes. The pick against Northwestern actually came on Y-stick, where the go-route is usually supposed to be a clear-out route. By my count we had 17 10+ yard gains against NU. Seven of those were on downfield passes, and only four went for 20+ yards. That was our high-water mark.

Tweener might be the wrong word for Harper since people mean it negatively a lot. I think Harper's our best pure football player and can do what needs to be done at both positions. Part of what I'm thinking with Treggs is that we like to use him in ways that require him to be off the line (those shovel passes against USC come to mind), and I think he's better in mis-matches on safeties and LB's than he is one-on-one with strong, physical CB's. I do think he's shifty and his speed makes him a huge asset in the screen game, but he really can't block for the bubble to H, effectively removing that from our play-book. If we had a more physical X and moved Treggs inside, the X could block for Treggs on bubble screens, and the new X would have a better shot at breaking tackles on those quick screens we like to run to X and Z.

At the end of the day, there's a reason that Harper had a higher YPC and more TD's than Treggs.

---

Thanks for the insight.

dinan3;842299705 said:

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Hope it is not booth............

CB's Isaac Lapite and Adrian Lee - both Seniors - are off the squad for Spring Ball.

Still clearing out the deadwood?

---

Wasn't Lapite a walk-on? Are walk-ons leaving the team now also considered clearing out deadwood?