Jericho Johnson

Getting going on a cloudy day where the sun is just starting to take a peak. Looks like it will be partly cloudy with a chance of footballs for the scrimmage.Asking attendees not to take video recordings for obvious reasons. Pretty well attended with a large contingent of both Caliber and Grid Club donors. BIs own Mike Pawlawski, fellow Cal HOFer Troy Auzzene and a handful of other former player were here today as well. Ricky Fletcher is sitting this one out but seems to be moving pretty well. I'd guess another week or so and he should be back ready to roll. Isaiah Crosby also out today but looks fine (likely precautionary). A third potential secondary starter, Marquis Groves-Killebrew won't play either. Nate Burrell being held out though there's optimism he'll be back for UCLA. NBs Jasiah Wagoner also sitting out, looks like a couple of weeks, Cameron Sidney sat out in what appeared to be cautionary. Joshua Pierce and Justin Beadles will also skip the proceedings impacting the defense. DayDay Aupiu has something that looks a bit more significant. In short, the defense was short handed.Offensively, Ian Strong was in a non contact gold jersey (like the QBs). Ashten Emory sitting out as well. I'm torn between two headline summaries of the days proceedings:- Dynamic, exciting football from a talented roster, this team looks ready to win 11+ games OR- Sloppy, mistake filled session harbingers doom for the 2026 BearsA close call . . .The positives:JKS and the 1st team offense were highly productive. A lot of chunk plays through the air, a strong running attack, a diverse set of weapons at WR and TE and very solid pass protectionThe projected OL starters were together save for the very puzzling move of Tyson Ruffins to the 2nd team at RG. Staff tells me they will continue to mix things up to help evaluate players, in this case that being RS Freshman Ben Howard, who acquitted himself quite well todayJaron threw the ball really well. He missed one sure fire TD to Chase Hendricks but credit the defense for getting very good pressure on Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele. Otherwise, he was near perfect, with a throw away and a couple of drops the only other incompletions. JKS made a great pre snap blitz read and got the ball out quickly to Adam Mohammed on a swing play who rumbled for nearly 50 yards before Daniel Harris tracked him down.JKS hit a crosser to King on the same drive before letting the run game finish things offMohammed showed off his power breaking two tackles on a nice 8 yard run and then scored the TD untouched after going off script on another inside gap run, only to bounce it outside where he outran everyoneFreshman Jonathan McKinley started with the 1's and played really well. Several big hits and he showed off his versatility by playing at OLB and garnering a sack. He's huge and fast and clearly the staff likes what they have in himAJ Tuitele was another standout at ILB, he also started with the 1's and flashed elite speed running down EJ Caminong All the QBs played well including EJ Caminong who was outstanding (like he was last Fall) with consistently good pre snap reads, getting the ball out quickly and accurate. He doesn't have a great arm but he can move an offenseJericho Johnson had deep penetration on the first snap of the scrimmage and played stoutly throughout the day. The DL and OLBs despite missing a lot of bodies, seemed to get better against the run as the afternoon wore on. Some impressive blitz packages and probably 4-5 sacks on the day with only one of those coming against the 1st team OL (which was a coverage sack)TE room looks elite. Nice catches and blocking from Mini, Thomas and Purcell. Mini caught a great TD from Caminong who made a great read and throw between two defendersSome big hits out there on D. Tristan Dunn, Tristan Jernigan, Kingston Lopa, Michael Hurst Jr and Jonathan McKinley all laid some wood todayJKS had several big throws, including a 50 yarder to Jordan King during the 2 minute drill after getting great protection. An absolute laser that hit him in stride 45 yards down the field. His vision and accuracy were very special today. Punter Angus Davies was booming punts - High and long. No chance for returnsLots of competitive fire and the amount of player verbal communication is at another levelCarter Vargas looked great. He had two runs that really stood out, one where he broke a McKinley tackle on a play that looked it would be for no gain, only to see him get 5 yards. Another 15 yarder where he broke some ankles and showed off great burst. League had a couple of solid runs and catches as did Victor Santino Emmanuel Okoye flashed with a great run stuff as he held the edge and a great pass rush where he forced the earlier mentioned incompletion on what would have been a TD throw to Hendricks by JKSHendricks and King had stand out days at WR. Got open and caught everythingQuaron Adams and Niles Davis flashed their speed on KO returns and Adams had a great swing pass and long TD run after the catch. He's a blurTrue Freshman Jaxon Pyatt and Nemyah Telona both made big plays, Pyatt with a TFL on a screen and Telona with a sackOdera Okaka had a really nice scrimmage. Chased down a scrambling JKS before he could run for a first down and later had a sack.Trevor Rogers had a mixed day production wise but boy did he get behind the D consistentlyNo one appeared to get hurt!!The Sloppiness:The first 20 Offensive snaps included four false starts on the OL. After that they were perfect, but not a great startThere were a couple of PI calls and an offsides on the Defense as wellThe PK was not great. Three missed FG attempts and only one of the KOs got to the end zone. I still think Chase Meyer wins the job but he needs to be more consistentTough to assess the defense with so many players out. Pass rush was inconsistent and not as effective from 1st team as would be ideal. Run Defense was mixed, and struggled earlyTackling was not bad for a first scrimmage but work to be done there before UCLAToo many drops from the WRs - Grayes, Perry and Rogers all had bad ones and Rogers needs to be stronger on contested opportunities. As good as the QBs were today and they were good, I'd love to see the ball get out quicker with more anticipatory throws. One example was Brousseau waiting too long to get the ball to Rogers on a corner route where he was open. Vargas fumbled without contact. I'm not sure he wasn't down but that stopped an almost sure fire scoring drive from the 1st teamOther notes:Mohammed and Vargas were the first KO returners, Hendricks was the first Punt returner; Adams, League, Davis, and Perry all got looks as returners as wellPlay calling from Sommerville felt really smart. There was an elegant effortlessness to the offense. Cal's D looks like it will be more varied and aggressive. A good mix of man and zone.The scrimmage was well run and I suspect they got 15%+ more snaps in than any scrimmage I've seen the last 5 fall campsThe staff is excited about all the film they have and how much value that will provide them going into next weekI think we'll see the mixing and matching of the depth chart start to settle down as a real depth chart will start to emerge by the middle of next week.