Cal Football

Cal 2018 Football Position Analysis - The Offensive Line

February 12, 2018
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Cal 2018 Post Recruiting Class Position Group Analysis

With recruiting season over and spring practice about to begin, the 2018 Spring football roster has been released.  Based on conversations with the staff, outside football experts and in depth film review, Bear Insider will present a position-by-position analysis over the next few weeks

Spring Football Roster

Offensive Line:

Projected Starting Lineup:

RT:  Jake Curhan, 6-6, 330 – RS Sophomore

RG:  Valentino Daltoso, 6-5, 310 – RS Sophomore

C:  Addison Ooms, 6-4, 295 – RS Senior

LG:  Michael Saffell, 6-2, 290 – Sophomore

LT:  Patrick Mekari, 6-4, 320 – Senior

Top Reserves:

Kamryn Bennett, 6-3, 300 – RS Senior

Ryan Gibson, 6-2, 290 – RS Junior

Gentle Williams, 6-3, 295 – RS Sophomore

Will Craig, 6-5, 270 - Freshman

Matthew Cindric, 6-4, 270 – Freshman

This will almost certainly be the foundation for what is expected to be a much-improved offense in 2018.

Discussion from...

Cal 2018 Football Position Analysis - The Offensive Line

NYCGOBEARS
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9:04a, 2/12/18
Cool article. I look forward to the series.
SanseiBear
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9:21a, 2/12/18
What happened to Semisi Uluave? Still injured?
KoreAmBear
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In reply to SanseiBear • 10:12a, 2/12/18
SanseiBear said:
What happened to Semisi Uluave? Still injured?
Yah exact question I had. That's a disappointment if he can't get some meaningful minutes this season. He was a pretty elite recruit and such a victory to get him at the time.
BearGreg
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10:48a, 2/12/18
Staff
Semisi is still on the team. Staff is working to help him find his inner nasty.
hanky1
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11:08a, 2/12/18
Our two starting tackles are pretty good - it's the guys in the middle that more concern me.
bross
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11:55a, 2/12/18
Staff
The future is extremely bright for the o-line. Will continue to improve in the coming years.
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/benrosssports
Rushinbear
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In reply to hanky1 • 11:58a, 2/12/18
hanky1 said:
Our two starting tackles are pretty good - it's the guys in the middle that more concern me.
Ooms has been well regarded. Add a final year and he's a man. Means a lot for an OL.

Daltoso was wanted by the coach. He must have promise, esp with a year's experience.

Saffell beat out a couple of older guys who were well regarded coming in, themselves.

Age and experience mean more in the OL than for any other group. With some new guys pushing them, I'm thinking we'll be ok.
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MoragaBear
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In reply to bross • 12:00p, 2/12/18
Staff
bross said:
The future is extremely bright for the o-line. Will continue to improve in the coming years.
Bennett played a lot last season and was at his best when he played OG rather than having to fill in at OT.

I fully expect Cindrich to be in the 2 deeps next year, too, and he brings at least as much as Saffell did as a true frosh, IMO. They can pay Craig inside or outside and I expect him to be in the rotation next year, too. He's a big talent upgrade.
bearingup
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12:04p, 2/12/18
Also wonder whether Poutasi and one of the other true frosh (tackles) might supplant a couple of the names on this list, including Bennett, Williams and Gibson.
dajo9
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12:27p, 2/12/18
Write-up seems optimistic. The foundation is there for the future but I expect a middling OLine in 2018.
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going4roses
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12:41p, 2/12/18
We have depth at OL now no doubt about it.

hanky1
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In reply to Rushinbear • 12:41p, 2/12/18
Rushinbear said:
hanky1 said:
Our two starting tackles are pretty good - it's the guys in the middle that more concern me.
Ooms has been well regarded. Add a final year and he's a man. Means a lot for an OL.

Daltoso was wanted by the coach. He must have promise, esp with a year's experience.

Saffell beat out a couple of older guys who were well regarded coming in, themselves.

Age and experience mean more in the OL than for any other group. With some new guys pushing them, I'm thinking we'll be ok.


I hope you're right. My recollection from last year is that the middle of the line got pushed back a lot. I couldn't tell if it was from lack of strength or poor technique. The tackles had some bad moments but from what I saw there moments were mostly from blown assignments which is easier to fix w experience
Big C
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In reply to NYCGOBEARS • 1:02p, 2/12/18
Wow, Mekari The Younger is going to be a senior already? I guess his older brother red-shirted and he didn't, right?
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MoragaBear
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1:08p, 2/12/18
Staff
Mekari didn't redshirt. He came in 2015 and played in 6 games as a true freshman.
heartofthebear
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10:34p, 2/12/18
One of the biggest mistakes we make, especially after signing day, is to write in our true freshmen into the 2 deep. It's one thing if they are JC transfers and/or plan on early enrollment for spring practices, but guys entering in the fall and getting playing time about 1 month later is not likely. It will occur with 5 star guys at skill positions but OL takes chemistry, development and time.

I would base our assessment of our OL mainly on our returning guys and that is not nearly as impressive. But that doesn't mean it isn't good enough to get the job done this year, especially when you consider that we have great coaching at that position and that those same guys did surprisingly well last year.
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calumnus
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In reply to heartofthebear • 11:19p, 2/12/18
heartofthebear said:
One of the biggest mistakes we make, especially after signing day, is to write in our true freshmen into the 2 deep. It's one thing if they are JC transfers and/or plan on early enrollment for spring practices, but guys entering in the fall and getting playing time about 1 month later is not likely. It will occur with 5 star guys at skill positions but OL takes chemistry, development and time.

I would base our assessment of our OL mainly on our returning guys and that is not nearly as impressive. But that doesn't mean it isn't good enough to get the job done this year, especially when you consider that we have great coaching at that position and that those same guys did surprisingly well last year.


Yesone reason you need to recruit a lot of OL and why this OL heavy class is good for the future but lacks the "flash" that excites the fan base.
calumnus
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In reply to KoreAmBear • 12:08a, 2/13/18
KoreAmBear said:
SanseiBear said:
What happened to Semisi Uluave? Still injured?
Yah exact question I had. That's a disappointment if he can't get some meaningful minutes this season. He was a pretty elite recruit and such a victory to get him at the time.


Yep, when Cal beats out all of Stanford, USC, UCLA, UW, UO etc for an elite recruit, you sure hope he is going to at least play for us.



82gradDLSdad
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8:20a, 2/13/18
I don't remember why but I had the binoculars on Saffell one game last year and was really impressed with him especially as a true freshman. I think the starters in the middle will be good.
Same game I focused on Uluave when he got in at the end. Not impressive. He's huge though.
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dajo9
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8:46a, 2/13/18
Deruyter did a great job assisting Daenerys Targaryen but can we be confident he isn't spying for our adversaries and that his greyscale is fully healed?
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