Cal Football Spring Practice Day 13: Update on Chris Brown Injury

Running back Chris Brown, who was injured in the Spring Game on Saturday, is expected to be capable of full-go activity soon. The soon to be sophomore, who sustained what appeared to be an injury to his left ankle, will not participate in any more football activity during the last three spring practices, including Monday. However, he is expected to join his teammates in their offseason weight-training soon, leading to the belief that he will be ready for Fall Camp. “He should be fine in a few weeks,” a Cal spokesman said.

Brown is not only Cal’s most experienced running back, but he is also, at 6-0, 235, the biggest. Monday’s drills featured a considerable amount of 3rd-down, short yardage work, something Brown would be heavily involved in. However, offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said that Brown’s absence would not limit the types of plays the Bears will employ in those situations.

“It doesn’t for me,” he said. “I don’t look at it that way. I am not concerned, I want every one of those backs to be every down backs. And yes, Chris Brown gives you something just in terms of size alone in those situations. But those other backs, they can be great short yardage backs, too, by just being skinny in a hole or powering through things. There are different ways to get that yard or yard and half when you need it. They all need the reps at it. It doesn’t limit us, I’ll call the same stuff. And those other backs may get there in a different way, but at the end of the day we have got to go get a yard no matter who it is.”

Beau Baldwin:

Overall Baldwin liked the Bears approach on Monday, given that it followed on the heels of the Spring Game.

“These are some of the toughest practices,” Baldwin said. “I’ve been on both sides. You’re finished (spring practice) with the Spring Game. I’ve been part of this, too. where you come back (after the Spring Game). This is the first time for us here at Cal. How are they going to come back on a Monday after the Spring Game? But they came back ready to work, and it didn’t feel like we had just played the Spring Game, it felt like we were still preparing, which is what it has to be. You only get 44 practices between this and Fall Camp so every one is really valuable,”

Chase Garbers and Devon Modster took virtually all the snaps at quarterback during the offense vs. defense team drills.

Baldwin said that was attributable to the fact that neither QB -- obviously to the top two contenders for the starting job -- did much throwing on Saturday.

“We ran the ball so much that Chase had ten (pass) attempts and Devon had seven on Saturday,” Baldwin said. “So we are still able to see each practice even though everyone looks at the stats if the spring game. We’re still able to see how many throws they get for a week or over the course of the spring. So today I wanted to make sure in a lot of those drills we are where we are throwing the ball a little bit more, that I got see them. I will see Jack (Newman) and Robby (Rowell) before the end of spring.”

Garbers showed some nifty maneuvering with his feet. On one of the early plays, he ducked under a pass rush (though it might have been a sack in full contact) sprinted out to the left and flipped a nice pass to Makai Polk.

Jeremiah Hawkins continued his fine spring and caught a bomb (about 40 yards, everything is an estimate in the spring) from Modster.

On the defensive side, Traveon Beck had an interception and Camryn Bynum did not bite on a really good fake handoff by Garbers (your Bear Insider correspondent was totally fooled), stood his ground and broke up the pass.

Drill highlights: