Cal Football Spring Practice Day 5 - First Scrimmage of Spring

MEMORIAL STADIUM - The full pads finally came on for a sunny Saturday morning at Memorial as the Bears had their first scrimmage of the spring in session five of spring ball today. The scrimmage featured referees and offered more gamelike situation throughout much of the practice where an estimated 90 plays were run with mainly first and second team players, with some occasional mixing and matching.

Both sides of the ball had their moments. The defense definitely had the early advantage as the offense struggled a bit to find their rhythm. Some of the early standout plays for the defense included JC transfer safety Matt Littlejohn with a breakup of a Sam Jackson throw after a nice break on the ball, a DE Ethan Saunders sack on Jackson, a DT Stanley McKenzie TFL and a line of scrimmage stop in the early action as well as another one later. The offense would’ve made a big play of their own early with Jackson hitting WR Monroe Young down the sideline for a beautiful would-be TD but the play was called back on an offensive penalty.

Running back Ashton Stredick, who’s been taking third string snaps with transfer RB Justin Williams-Thomas out with a lower body injury for the spring, had a big day, including the first nice run of the day with a 10-yard burst up the middle. Later he had one of the longest runs of the day with a burst off tackle and down the sidelines for 50 yards before redshirt frosh corner Julian Womack got the angle on the speedy back and prevented a touchdown. The Berkeley product showed up on a number of plays throughout the scrimmage on D. Stredick also had a 10-yard TD scamper later in the practice as well.

Running back Byron Cardwell had one of the best RB performances of the spring on Wednesday but today was not his best day. Cardwell was involved in an early turnover when QB Sam Jackson ran an option sweep around the end and put the ball right in Cardwell’s bread basket but the redshirt soph RB didn’t appear to be ready for the handoff and it fell straight to the ground only to be picked up for OLB Myles Jernigan for a scoop and score TD. Cardwell also was stripped by MLB Nate Rutchena after a 10-yard gain and followed a nice 25-yard gain with an unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the play as Littlejohn got a little pesky in wrapping up Cardwell and not letting him go when the play was whistled dead. The Oregon transfer was clearly unhappy with the miscues and will likely come back with a vengeance for next Monday’s practice.

Jackson had a mixed day, throwing a pick-six to safety Craig Woodson, who got a nice jump on a sideline pass but he also continued to show higher upside than backup Fernando Mendoza, who had another solid day himself.

The speedy Jackson continued to make plays with his feet and complete passes under pressure with creative throws around the pass rush with a variety of arm angles than didn’t impact his velocity or accuracy. Besides the 60-yard TD that got called back early, Jackson also hit WR Mavin Anderson for a pretty back shoulder pass and catch down the sideline and showed a beautiful spin move to evade a sure sack by a blitzing Woodson who was left grasping at air just a big backfield tackle seemed imminent. Jackson also hit Anderson for a 25-yard gain as the redshirt soph receiver continues to be a standout on O all spring.

More highlights on defense included several nice pursuit plays by new portal transfer linebackers Davide Reese and Sergio Allen, who are showing up more every day as they continue to get acclimated, taking reps with both the 1’s and 2’s. Cornerback Kaelin Moore had his best practice of the spring playing tight in coverage and adding a knockdown or two of his own while playing with a similar swagger to fellow DB portal transfer Nohl Williams, who has made a very strong case to start. ILB Kaleb Elarms-Orr has continued to shine each practice and today had a coverage sack on Mendoza and always seemed to be around the ball. DB Dejuan Butler had a nice breakup of a well-thrown Mendoza ball 40 yards downfield. Mendoza also had the pass of the day on a perfect 35-yard back shoulder pass to receiver Trond Grizzell, who had an impressive stretching catch down the sideline with his big catch radius and long arms. Running back Jadyn Ott had the longest run of the day with a 60-yard TD burst, as well.

The freshman All-American running back rushed for an estimated 139 yards and two touchdowns on runs of 43 and eight yards on 19 carries over the day on 11x11 sessions.

"Jaydn looks as fast or faster than he did in the fall,"  Justin Wilcox said. "He looked really good."

"It's been fun, I can't complain," Ott said. "This is what I love to do and coach Spav has made it a lot more enjoyable this year, even just from only five practices this spring. I'm enjoying myself, and I'm sure that everybody else on the offense is. Maybe not the defense, though.”

The soph RB has looked good all spring and is confident not only about what kind of season he expect to have but also about what the offense can accomplish as a unit.

"A bunch of explosive plays, and we'll be touching the paint a whole lot of times," Ott said when asked about his expectations in 2023.

Overall, head coach Justin Wilcox sees some things he likes along with several areas they’ll look to continue to improve upon this spring. 

“Our conditioning needs to continue to improve,” Wilcox noted. “The mechanics of game situations in a scrimmage with officials, understanding the consequence for a lack of focus or a poor technique and how that impacts a play or creates a penalty. The ball was on the ground too many times -unforced- so we’ve got to be cleaner with our ball-handling decision-making. 

“Defensively, I think the biggest area that showed up where we can improve is some of the open field work. We were not live to the ground so it is difficult sometimes but getting ourselves in good position in the open field to make tackles can improve. They’ll be a lot of  things, too. Guys are competing really hard. 

The offensive line continues to be a work in progress, sometimes failing to open up holes on runs while at other times providing solid blocking to spring all three running backs and both QBs for several runs for first downs or longer rushing plays. The continue to do better putting a body on each defender and whiffing far less than in prior spring and falls but have yet to establish the type of continuity the staff would like to see to more confidently and consistently move the ball on O.

The defensive backfield is deep and should be able to play man coverage much of the time this season, which will likely lead to more turnovers than they were able to generate last season playing a generally softer zone with so many defensive linemen out and a lot of youth in the backfield.

The Bears will be back in action Monday morning at 8:45 for session 6 of spring ball at Memorial.

Kicker Michael Luckhurst shined on his two opportunities today, hitting field goals cleanly through the middle of the uprights with significant distance to spare from 35 and 45 yards out.

The Bears had a number of recruits, families and coaches on hand for today’s scrimmage, taking in the Bears’ first day in full pads, including 4 star Arbor View-Las Vegas ('23 signee Zurich Ashford's teammate) 2024 WR David Washington‍, 3 star 2024 Utah MLB Bo Tate, 2024 Utah QB Carson Su’esu’e, who has offers from Tennesse, Pitt, Utah an ASU, 2024 3 star Homestead-Cupertino TE Wyatt Hook, 2024 El Cerrito RB Micah Avery, 2025 3 star De La Salle ATH Robert Santiago, 2025 3 star Pittsburg DE Juju Walls, 2025 Bishop Alemany OT Maki Stewart, 2026 Mater Dei ATH CJ Lavender,2026 Loyola CB Brandon Lockhart and 2026 St. John Bosco ATH Madden Williams who has early offers from ASU and Georgia Tech so far.

Also in the house today was former Antioch and Alabama and current Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Najee Harris taking in today’s action.

Related:

Cal Football Spring Practice Day 4

Cal Football Spring Practice Day 3