Cal Football

Fall Camp Day 5 Report

By Jim McGill

August 10, 2022

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There was a lot of action on 7s and 11s today, more frequently the latter in day five of fall practice today at Memorial.

Starting QB Jack Plummer continues to play very well, despite a rare INT mid-practice on an errant throw intercepted by Collin Gamble playing nickel. Gamble also had a diving deflection on another play in a strong day of practice.

“Five days into camp, we’ve improved,” said running backs coach Aristotle Thompson. “It’s good to see added O-line depth out there. It’s good to see wide receivers making plays. We’re making progressive steps. Our mindset is making deposits of good plays. It was a good day for the defense. It’s a good day for the offense to study game film to learn what the defense did to us today.”

“I’ve been very impressed with Damien Moore and what he’s doing,” said Thompson. “He’s changed his physique and we’ve started to see that play out. We’ve seen some good stuff that Jadyn Ott has done. He’s a young guy who will continue to grow. He hasn’t played a snap of college football yet so he’s got some work to do but he’s taking progressive steps every day.”

Thompson also was asked about the other running backs in the room.

“Ashton Hayes -good to have the young buck in here,” said Thompson. “But he’s got to get in the book and spend time on the tape. He’s got to learn and understand the way we play football here at the University of California. DeCarlos Brooks has been really good coming back off his injury last year so it’s good to see him get back in the swing of things. Chris Street had some good, powerful runs today. And Ashton Stredick had some good runs today and the last couple days. So I’m not in the mindset of narrowing it down to three or four guys. I’m continuing to develop my entire room along with my fullbacks, Beau Tagaloa and Champion Johnson.

“You’ve got a good balance of speed and power in some guys. You’ve got Hayes, Stredick and Ott. They're just pure fast. Some of the fastest guys on the team. Then you have guys with a little more power behind them like Chris Street, Damien Moore, and DeCarlos Brooks.”

Some more highlights involving Plummer included 55-yard TDs to Mavin Anderson and Mason Starling in back-to-back plays in 7-on-7s, a 10-yard completion to Jeremiah Hunter in tough coverage by Lu Hearns, back-to-back 10-yard completions to tight ends Jermaine Terry and Keleki Latu, and two more to Anderson for 40 and 10. Plummer also saw a well-place deep ball broken up on a nice play by safety Craig Woodson, who had a nice day playing with the 1’s at safety after coming back from last season’s injury this fall.

Millner continues to look to develop his accuracy and consistency. Some of his highlights included 10-yard completions to J. Michael Sturdivant and Anderson, a completion to backup receiver Chris Rogers for 15, a swing pass in rhythm to running back Jaydn Ott, who picked up 15 with a nice spin move to shake his defender, a pair of 15-yard completions to Anderson and Monroe Young and a 10-yard gain on a QB keeper.

Third team QB Zach Johnson might be looking over his shoulder with the impressive play of frosh QB Fernando Mendoza (more on him later). The third year QB needs work on his accuracy and consistency and continues to be the leader so far in INTs. The redshirt soph did hit receiver Grant Daley for 15 in one of his highlights on the day and also took a would-be sack by Ray Woodie and Xavier Carlton.

Mendoza had an impressive run during a developmental period, meant to get some of the younger players more run, completing three straight nice looking passes, including 10 and 20-yard completions to frosh PWO wide receiver Jordan King, who’s looked impressive all camp and a 30-yarder to PWO CCSF transfer receiver Kenden Robinson. He also had a ball batted away by redshirt frosh OLB Patrick Hisatake.

Redshirt frosh PWO QB Tyler Jensen had a bit of a rough day, with a ball tipped and almost intercepted by PWO safety Mayze Bryant as well as an errant swing pass to an open receiver but he did come back with a nice 30-yard completion to King in traffic.

Other highlights included an 8-yard and 10-yard run by RB Damien Moore, an 8-yard run off tackle by PWO frosh RB Ashton Stredick, an 8-yard run by RB Chris Street and an Ashton Hayes sighting, getting one of the last plays of the day, with the frosh RB showing blazing speed around the edge, picking up 15.

Other defensive highlights included a 10-yard coverage sack by safety Dejuan Butler, a forced fumble after a reception by Woodie, a pass defended on a deep ball by PWO corner Evan McLurkin, who likely would’ve been beaten deep by Sturdivant if the ball got their sooner, a Moore run stuffed at the line of scrimmage by OLB Odua Isabor, who’s been very active all camp and MLB Femi Oladejo, who also had a sack and another sack by NT Ricky Correia.

The offensive line continues to mix and match, with the constants so far being center Matt Cindric, left tackle Ben Coleman and right tackle Brayden Rohme taking all first team reps throughout camp, with Ender Aguilar taking the majority of first team reps at right guard and Everett Johnson taking the majority of the first team reps at left guard. Today, Johnson took second team reps at left tackle and Driscoll took first team reps at left guard. Portal transfer linemen Spencer Lovell and TJ Session continued to get work with the second team at right guard and right tackle respectively. Frosh Sioape Vatikani continued to be a fixture at second team left guard and has the look of a rotation player so far.

Standouts on defense on 1-on-1 drills today included Oladejo, Ethan Saunders, Brett Johnson, Akili Calhoun and Woodson. Offensive linemen Coleman and Cindric continued to be stellar and Driscoll had a nice couple reps, as well.

The Bears will be back in action for session six tomorrow morning at Memorial.